A splash of cold water

The girls are enjoying the pool but the water is still very COLD. A lot of screaming is obviously required for pool play too. And often its when they are quiet in the pool that I get worried. As long as they are making noise I know they are still breathing! Of course I am watching them pretty closely when they are in the pool but I sometimes bring a book out to read and sit in the shade to relax.

A white hen and two chicks....

Toasting marshmallows

Last night we enjoyed our third Friday night craft get together. I brought a bottle of homemade blackberry/blueberry mead (made by my friend's husband). This was perfect with the chocolate brownies and chocolate covered strawberries that other friends brought.

The cut backs in school funding and the upcoming (next Tuesday) tax override vote was discussed as we worked. None of my children have teacher assignments -- nor will they get them until sometime in August when the final cuts in teachers are made. This whole process is so frustrating. I only hope that the town votes in the override or we will suffer with cuts in the town budget and fire and police. The class sizes are already going to go up and they are losing many teachers.

We spent most of the day outside doing yard work. The weather and the temperature were perfect. I mulched the vegetable garden pathways with relatively fresh stinky chicken manure and covered this with pine needles to hide the smell a bit. Next year when this has aged a bit I will shovel this mulch onto the raised beds as fertilizer. The older girls returned from a sleep over and I gave them some outdoor chores to help with. My sister and her children will visit next weekend and we need to get a so much done before they come. We also set up our replacement pool that my husband brought home from a friend at work. They no longer used this pool so I think this is perfect solution for us this summer. I think the older girls are a bit disappointed because it is only 42 inches deep but I promised them a deeper one next year.

We ended the day with a fire in our little fire ring. We toasted marshmallows and tiny hot dogs on sticks for dinner. Then the girls played a little softball with dad. My youngest was looking out for fireflies but we didn't spot any. I was surprised when she announced that this was our summer solstice party and of course there should be fireflies. It was probably a bit too cool for them yet.

Another pretty pair...

This pair of hens and chicks were finished this week. I just thought I would get a nice picture of them before I send them off to their new home. I picked up some new material yesterday that I am so excited about using to make more hens. I can't wait to start on more.

My project in the hen house turned into longer ordeal the other day. I moved out the old shutters and barn board doors we had been saving in there for lack of a better place to put them. This enabled me to do a much better cleaning job and assessment of the damage caused by intruders to the hen house. After a long day of it I was treated to a hen crowing in the outside pen. We have been without a rooster for nearly two years now but I have often suspected that I heard a few crows from the hen house. So now I know I'm not crazy. And she is definitely a hen too!

Beauty in small things...

Our roses are just peeking out now -- nearly 2 weeks later than normal. My daughter's middle name is Rose so we have been keeping a close eye on our roses for several weeks now. All roses are hers -- claimed by her middle name of course. Today she was so excited that we had to run out and cut some flowers for a vase first thing. So much joy for such a small thing.



Here are the roses climbing along the front of the playhouse -- called "rose cottage". In a few days I will take another photo when the roses finally bloom. This will easily be the best year for our roses due to the milder winter.


We headed off to the weekly town band concert with a carload of excited children. As my daughter's friend put it -- "Band concerts are the Bomb!" During the summer this is the place everybody sees each other. This is true for all ages too. Unfortunately the rain moved in during the concert. A mass movement to hide under the trees to stay dry was followed by everyone running back into the rain once the thunder/lightening started.

Amusement

We had a lovely father's day here. The girls and I worked on breakfast in bed for dad. We made Swedish pancakes (crepes with confectioners sugar sprinkled on and rolled), espresso, a slice of grapefruit, and a dessert dish of rhubarb pudding and whipped cream. The girls picked flowers and drew up cards.

On Monday we took a trip with the Middle school band to an amusement park for the day. I had volunteered as a chaperon and brought my younger two along this year. My youngest got sick on the bus ride and I thought we had made it to the park without incident. But as we were waiting for the tickets... well I will say no more. This wasn't exactly how I was planning to start the fun at the park. But we did manage to improve upon the day once the girls enjoyed a few rides. At the end of the day I was completely exhausted and climbed into bed early. The weather was perfect but being out in the sun all day usually does me in.

Tuesday was basically a day to relax a bit. My oldest seemed to suffer "friend" withdrawal. I struggled to get her off the computer and she finally sat down to enjoy a book in the later afternoon. The younger two worked for hours on a mysterious project. That evening we were treated to a puppet show of "Cinderella". They made the puppets out of paper and Popsicle sticks. They even made up a detailed script of who would say what. We enjoyed this and asked for an encore (for tonight) so we can video tape it.

My day was basically busy doing a few little odds and ends. I moved my indoor ivy outside. This plant has strands that are probably about 15 feet long now so this was no easy task. The strands do get tangled and the leaves seem to want to hook together. This year I put it on my porch and attached the strands to run along the ceiling around the porch edges. It looks quite pretty.

I also began more work on a two more of my larger hens. They are so cute once I finish them. I will finish a few of the chicks today if I can.

My friend dropped off a HUGE load of wool this weekend for washing. I decided to do the preliminary washing outside in a plastic bin. This was a good idea because the wool was so dirty. I took one load up in the evening for a wash in my machine with hot water but ended up with a rash on my cheeks. Either I am more allergic to the hay or these sheep have been in poison ivy. In either case I am going to have to take more precautions when washing. I have my drying rack outside with wool hung on it but the drizzly rain is not helping.

Well I'm off to work on the hen house. We have lost 3 hens recently to some unknown predator so I have to determine how they are getting in. It is an older building so it is easy for predators to force themselves in after a little work.

Happy Father's Day!

Summertime.

We enjoyed a quiet morning puttering around the yard. My husband made breakfast and espresso while I watered a few gardens and planted a few new plants in some hanging baskets. The kids found the water balloons and played with them for a while. We made one last attempt to see if we could find the leak in our pool without any luck. My youngest was fascinated with the mosquito larvae that were now swimming in what should have been our pool. Yuck! I finally picked up the utility knife and sliced it up for the trash draining all the small wigglies.

Meanwhile my husband donned the bee suit and added "supers" to the hives. Supers are shallower hive boxes that the bees will fill with honey that we will collect in late summer/early fall. The queen is prevented from going into these supers by a screen called a "queen excluder". That way we don't have bee eggs or larvae in our honey frames. I am sure my husband was a bit hot in his bee suit even on a cool day like today. I love the smell of the smoker as he puffs the smoke into the hives. The hive we positioned to get the morning sun is doing much better. We talked about moving the two other hives. As my husband says you can only move them 2 feet or 2 miles. In between the bees will get confused and be unable to return to the hive. With the honey in the hives and the bees this would be quite an undertaking to move them week after week until we finally positioned them better.

One of my mother hen and chick is featured on an Etsy treasury called Nifty Neato by cutegirlcreations.



We headed out to a friend's barbecue for the afternoon. We all had a lot of fun. All the children played together and enjoyed themselves.



Our little chicks continue to do well. They enjoyed a little blanket play outside in the sun. The occasional ant running across the blanket created quite a stir as each scurried to get it first.

Here is the sleep inducing tilt of the hand guaranteed to put your chick to sleep.