Chickens By The Wood Stove

Click on photo to enlarge.

   The chickens had to stay in their coop today because it was raining all day and I didn't want to let Morgan out to watch the chickens because she would have become a muddy mess. I took this photo last week on a clear but cold day. The hens have discovered that they can come up on the porch and spend some time warming up next to the window close to the wood stove. Some of the chickens will even sit down next to the window and take a snooze. This restful scene lasts until Morgan makes an appearance and the hens run around. Though there are times I have spotted Morgan sleeping on the deck surrounded by chickens. Sometimes I wish I wore my camera on a cord around my neck so I didn't miss photo opportunities.

   Today I took the day off and just played around on the computer and thought about a lot of stuff I want to do when It stops raining in a day or two. Tom went down to be with his Mom. I didn't cook dinner because Tom was gone, Kristine had a teriyaki noodle bowl and I made myself chicken salad from left overs. Kristine said the noodle bowl was very good and she plans to pick up some more of them. It says it is an all natural Asian cuisine, no preservatives and no msg. Sounds good. Gee, and only 200 calories. Oh, well, no noodle bowl for me. I'm still on the no processed food kick. It is working and so far the migraines have pretty much gone away.

   I watched this TED talk here again (by Eizabeth Gilbert) today and found it just as meaningful if not more so than the first time I watched it months ago. There are some great TED talks, but I have never seen a speaker get a standing ovation before. I think we all have genius and this is a great way to relate to our creativity.

[3 eggs today]

Yea!

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Smiles

Propane Tanks Covered

Click on photos to enlarge.

   Yesterday I carried a lot of lumber over to the side of the motor home and piled it up near the propane tanks. My plan was to use the lumber to make a shield to protect the tanks from the sun. Also to protect my eyes from the unsightly tanks. Instead of buying something I looked around and found the scrap wood and decided to try and come up with something. Today I searched around and found the drill bit, electric drill, and screws. Things are never where I think I left them. I couldn't find the screws or the drill bit, but the electric drill was findable. I did have to go back for a pliers because I dropped a board on some screws that were only half way in and bent them and needed the pliers to wind them back out. Fun! I used three inch screws to hold the bottom two rows and two inch screws on the rest of the boards. There is room to walk between the boards and the motor home so I can get in there to move the tanks around or to attach the hose to a new tank.

   This poor motor home doesn't go anywhere. It made it up here from the Santa Cruz mountains and has been sitting here ever since. We use it as a place for guests to stay if they want. After the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake we were red tagged out of our house so this was home for over two and a half years. I must have been tired from moving all the wood around because all my photos came out blurry. This was the best of the lot. Good Morgan! I told her to stay.

   Today my experiment with the new editor is to type all the text in one large paragraph before I import any photos. I'm having a terrible time getting the photos to go where I want them. The photos either wanted to both go to the top, side or one at the top and one under the text. I either need more practice or more text. I'm going to add a paragraph break. Good thing I check to see if the photos enlarge after I post because the top photo downloaded on my computer. How weird is that! I removed it and uploaded it again and now it will enlarge when I click on it. I baked some more biscuits tonight! The wood stove wasn't as hot as last night so it took an extra 20 minutes because I kept peeking and letting the hot air out of the dutch oven.

[no eggs today]

The Australorp gave up being a broody hen!

Smiles

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Wood Stove Biscuits And Raking Leaves

Click on photo to enlarge.

The chickens came to help me rake! Well, no they didn't, they came to check out what I was doing and stayed to see what pickings I uncovered that they could eat. Kinda interesting how they got lined up in a row like that. I hope they found some good things to eat.

Then Morgan came over to check out what the chickens were doing which ticked off the chickens and they left Morgan all alone. Sometimes I wonder if Morgan thinks the chickens don't appreciate her and all she does for them. I guess not. Morgan doesn't seem at all bothered at being ditched. She is more interested in spotting squirrels.

I'm having trouble figuring out where to move the photos in relation to the text because what you see in the editor as far as spacing goes is not what you see when the post is published. I found that four lines of text justified next to the top photo will post as seen.

Kristine has been asking me about biscuits, so I finally broke down and decided I would make another attempt at biscuit making on the wood stove in a dutch oven. First thing I made sure to do was have a trivit for the dutch oven to sit on on on the wood stove and I put the dutch oven (with the steamer inside and a lid) on the trivit on the wood stove to heat up while I mixed up a batch of scratch biscuits. The trivit will keep the bottom of the dutch oven from getting too hot and burning the biscuits. I didn't have any shortening and substituted butter which worked out well. The biscuits tasted nice and buttery.

I had to look up a measurement conversion table on the internet because since the pan was so small I decided to halve the recipe. It took twice as long to cook the biscuits as in an oven at 450 degrees. I set the timer and checked every 10 minutes, but only peeked once after 20 minutes and then let it cook for another 10 minutes.

I was happy to find that the bottom of the biscuits cooked as flaky as the top. I used a long fire place match stick to test and see if the middle was cooked.

Kristine wanted to eat her biscuits with the homemade cranberry sauce made with our Placer County mandarin oranges.

I suppose using this editor will get easier as I work at it, but the old editor was pretty brainless and quick compared to messing around with this not knowing where the photos are going to show up or the text. I guess I will eventually learn how many lines of text I can type next to a photo and exactly where and how far apart they should be. It was a lot easier just centering the photos and typing above or below them. I think Blogger needs to work a lot more on the WYSIWYG.

[1 egg today]

I locked the broody hen out in the pen today

with the feed and water.

Smiles

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Raking In The Rain

Click on the photos to enlarge.

Today the chickens and Morgan were out looking around for interesting things while I was out raking leaves off paths. I was also busy shoveling dirt along the bottom of part of the wire fence to cover the opening that the chickens made when they scratched all the dirt away and uncovered the bottom wire. I have tree trunks laid along part of the fence to help keep critters out.

I also started a new path,

but I'll wait to finish it until after I have raked all the leaves

away from the house and cleared the paths

 I already have that are covered.

I raked this path not long ago

so it has a light covering of leaves. The area around the house is rather deep in leaves and I'll have to push the snow shovel along and scoop and push what I can out of the way before I start raking. So far, that has turned out to be the fastest and easiest method I've come up with to move the leaves. Well, there is the blower, but it is so noisy, takes a lot of electricity, and I don't get the benefit of much exercise walking around with ear muffs and goggles, blowing leaves all over the place.

It rained a little while I was raking which was rather fun since I was nice and dry under the trees. If there had been any lightning I would have quit and gone inside, but there wasn't, so I got to enjoy the rain falling around me and the trees. Morgan and the hens didn't care about the rain and kept on about their business.

I ran across an (click here) article about food rationing in Britain that had a very interesting video. I remember my mother dressing like that and the hair styles. That video brought back a lot of memories. I remember my Dad wearing hats and rolling cigarettes. I was born in 1941 and have memories of finding and playing with ration books and stamps around 1945. I think I must have got in trouble because I remember my Mom finding me and a lot of talking about buying things. We would go to the country to visit my Mom's family on the farm and that is where I first saw a chicken house full of just hatched fluffy yellow chicks. I thought the chicks were so cute, and there were so many of them! I wanted some chickens of my very own. And now I do!

[1 egg today]

I think it was from the broody Australorp.

Smiles

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More Adventures With The New Blogger Editor

Click on the photos to see an enlarged view. 

Here is a photo of an Orpington hen settled down for the night. I disturbed her looking for eggs and with the flash. She is not happy. Her bunk partner got up and left before I could take the photo.

This post is also a test of how I can use Blogger's new editor to word wrap text around photos. Not quite sure how I managed this top photo, but it is working so far. I tried justifying this paragraph. I don't know if it is harder to read text justified or not. The text looks pretty on the page when it is justified.

When the 1st photo uploaded into the photo upload box, I double clicked on it and it showed up in the upper left hand corner of the editor. I didn't pay any attention to where my cursor was, so next photo I will put the cursor at the lower right and see if the photo zooms down there.

(edit: When I double clicked on the second photo it did show up under the top photo in the editor somewhat near the cursor, but it showed up centered. Evidently the default is for the photo to show up centered? I am finding that the photos show up in the editor centered and then I have the choice to choose a position for them or drag the photo where I want.

This Light Brahma is coming to me because she thinks I have some food treats for her and her buddies.

There seems to be a lot of space left under the bottom of the photos. I can't get text to move over and fill the space. Would be neat if Blogger plans to add a photo caption feature that would fit under the photo and left the space there on purpose. Maybe?

I don't like the fact that there is no spell checker in the new editor. I guess if I make lots of spelling mistakes I will have to go back to the old editor.

Should I keep the new editor? I tried it out last year and went back to the old editor. Using the old editor is much more comfortable, but this editor is kinda fun and I like learning new things. I wish blogger had more word publishing tools available for bloggers that would make blogging more fun. Next I would like to play around with a different page format. I'll have to go back and take a look at the options available. I know I don't want to get a page that has text read all across the screen. They are very hard to read and no fun.

I guess I will keep using this new editor for a while and see how we get along. Word wrapping and the larger editor window are a plus for me. Also being able to upload a lot of photos instead of only five at a time is a big plus. I used to work in publishing and having all that space around the photos used to bug me. But, now there is extra space under the photos. But not as bad as all the white space at the sides of the photos.

The third photo is of rosemary and sage plants that have gone wild in the abandoned green house garden. There is some myrtle growing in there, but besides these two herbs and the myrtle there are only lots of weeds and leaves. Oh, dear... I really do need to do something with the green house and garden area. They are on my list of stuff to do. First rake leaves then the green house. Or paint? Or?

(edit: I had to go back after I posted and choose the small size for the photos because they just didn't fit or look good with the wrapped text at a larger size.)

[1 egg today]

Thank you!

Smiles

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Nite, Nite, Sleep Tight!

This post is an experiment in trying to use the new Blogger editor. I thought I was going to be able to have the text flow around the photo, but no no. So, kinda ignore the playing around I am going to be doing trying out the bells and whistles of this editor. It is supposed to work much better with Safari than the old editor.

Ok, first thing I did with the photo was to drag it from the top and place it under the text. After I post I'll check and see if it still has it's link to Picasa and will enlarge when I click on the photo.

I double clicked on the photo in the editor and the Box showed up again so I could choose what size and where I want to place the photo. Just for kicks I clicked on e-large. I do like being able to drag the edge of the editor and make the editor screen size. Ok, now I'll try out the number and bullet lists.

Edit: I went back and changed the size of the photo to large. X-large was too big! And yes, the photo enlarged after I messed around with it dragging it around.

1. Well, first, I can't make the number or bullet lists center.
2. I would like to figure out how to wrap text around photos.
3. I suppose if I had a recipe blog I would use lists.

I took this photo tonight when I checked for eggs and locked up the coop.

Left to Right

• Wyandotte
• Hen-Roo Australorp
• Light Brahma
• Australorp (hen, see the small comb)
• Wyandotte
• Wyandotte
• Wyandotte

Poor Hen-Roo! I don't think she is interested in being a hen anymore since she acts like a rooster, looks like a rooster and even sounds like a sick rooster. But she is so cute!

There is an insert jump break, but I'm not going to try that out mainly because I don't want a jump break.

I think I will save trying to figure out how to wrap text around the photo for another day. I'll do some more searching and reading here. I know I don't want to mess around with html.

[1 egg today]

At least the girls are making my breakfast.

Smiles

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Sore Throat Killers

Over the years I have found several things that helped me with a sore throat and sometimes with the cold that came along with the pain in the neck. When I was a child I remembered my Dad making what he called a hot toddy (whisky, honey, lemon juice) for me when I had a bad cold and sore throat. I remember sleeping a lot and probably the whisky made me not care so much about the sore throat. The toddy sure tasted good, felt soothing on my throat, and the lemon juice probably helped some with vitamin C? I have tried the hot toddy remedy as an adult and found that it didn't help very much at all. Maybe if I had three or four of them?

I was a kid in the 40's and 50's and don't remember going to the doctors or being given store bought medicines. I remember that sipping warm wine helped my throat feel better for a while. And I think I remember eating garlic as some kind of cure. We managed to survive all the childhood diseases (no polio or small pox thank you very much) and I only went to the doctors to have my tonsils out.

In the 1970's when I was working near a Mexican restaurant that made their own salsa, I found out that eating hot salsa when I had a sore throat made my throat numb and many times seemed to kill off the cold and sore throat or at least made it more bearable. Hot salsa (homemade works the best) for a long time has became my go to treatment when a cold or sore throat struck. And the hot salsa helped me feel better with a chest cold too.

I eat the salsa with lots of salty tortilla chips with the idea in mind that the salt will make me thirsty and I will drink more. Well, that's my excuse for eating lots of chips. Sometimes I will crave soda and so of course I give in and treat myself to colas and ginger ale. Come to think of it, I eat a lot of my favorite foods when I am sick.

Then Kristine came up with some discoveries of her own: "The vinegar works because it changes the PH balance in your throat. Most viruses and bacteria can't adapt to the sudden change fast enough to survive. A teaspoon or two of Braggs vinegar with Mother in hot water with honey taken three times a day will help enormously with a sore throat. If you can't get that type of vinegar, then dill pickle juice will do the job. Don't heat it up, just pour it straight out of the jar. I tend to use the brand name Claussens kosher dill pickles." ~ Kristine.

I suppose everyone has a favorite feel good home remedy. Everyone is different, but I know that if I hit the very, very, very beginning of a sore throat with one/some of these "cures" I have a chance of winning the battle. Whether or not they really help or not at least I feel better thinking that I'm doing something constructive. I drink a lot of cranberry juice, tea, orange juice, etc.

I do remember getting a sore throat back once when I forgot to throw away my toothbrush. The germs must hide out in the toothbrush ready to strike again.

And then there is my ultimate feel good treatment: Homemade chicken soup! Made with a whole chicken, garlic, onion, celery, carrot, and rice. Just the smell of it cooking makes me feel better (and I bet the steam from the soup humidifies the air?) Chicken soup rules!

I think I took my kids to the doctor too much, but I was so afraid they had strep throat and they did most of the time they were sick. I must have had it as a kid too, but we just had to suffer through it and managed to survive. The girls took lots of antibiotics to get rid of the strep. I wish all we needed was salsa, vinegar, a hot toddy, garlic or pickle juice to make us better.

Disclaimer: This stuff works for us sometimes or just makes me feel better. I'm not saying that anyone else should try it! Best to see a doctor if you are sick!

[1 egg today]

That's my breakfast!

Smiles

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Winter Sun

Here is a photo to prove that the snow is gone and best of all there is actually some winter sunshine trying to warm up the leaves and chickens. The hens head off to this favorite spot to spend some time warming up and then they go to the shady places under the trees.

Kristine and Tom went to town and saw the new Sherlock Holmes movie. Kristine said it wasn't bad and that she really liked that they hadn't made Watson stupid. Kristine saying the movie wasn't bad must mean it was OK, which probably means the movie was pretty good. I guess? I stayed home and slept in because I'm fighting off a cold and winning so far. I drank dill pickle juice which helped kill off the bugs in my throat. Kristine says that apple cider vinegar with the mother (bacteria) still in it works too.

Kristine wasn't able to get any mandarins today and will pick some up tomorrow so I can make some more cranberry sauce. I was brave tonight and cooked (steamed) some year old vacuum packed frozen salmon. Tom is still doing OK so I guess it was alright. Kristine and I had chicken. I had chicken because I like it and Kristine had chicken because salmon keeps her awake and she only eats it in the morning. Salmon keeps me awake too.

I messed around with my iron cookware this afternoon trying to re-season it a bit because I put some of them on the wood stove after they got wet and I wanted them dry so they didn't rust when I put them away. Well, I forgot them on the stove until I smelled smoke. Yikes! I burned the seasoning off. Well, some of it. All I had to do to the skillet was oil it, but the dutch oven and the chicken fryer wouldn't wipe clean. When I wiped them with oil the paper towel would come away black. So, I put them back on the wood stove for a bit and took them off before they got to the smoking stage and wiped them down and this time the paper towel came away clean. I know I'm supposed to put them in the oven to season, but my oven is not working.

I've been having fun re-reading the Pern books by Anne McCaffrey. It's been way over ten years since I read them and visiting that world was fun. I wish I had a fire lizard. But, chickens are a good second choice. At least they can fly even if they can't go between.

[0 eggs today]

The hens are on strike again.

Smiles

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Yummy!

This photo of Morgan is one that I just had to post. I caught her in the chicken pen a few months ago before I put up the fence to keep her out of the coop. I was looking through iPhoto the other day deleting photos and noticed I had this shot of her licking her lips after a snack on the chicken feed. Anyway, I dragged the photo to my Photo Drop widget and had it save to the desktop. And here it is with a push pin. LOL

I have a widget on my Mac dashboard called Photo Drop that I thought I got from Apple, but I couldn't find a link to it now when I did a search on their site. It was free when I downloaded it to my dashboard and I'm sure I got it from Apple because I am very careful what I download on this computer.

Photo Drop is easy to use, has several settings, let's you crop and resize, and is fun to play around with. I just drag the photo to the box and drop it and then click settings. This is the page clicking on the widget takes me to, but I don't see Photo Drop. Maybe they changed it or don't offer it anymore. I did find this article, and the download may still be on the web somewhere.

I made baked apples in the dutch oven and they exploded! Yep! I didn't notice that Tom loaded the stove up with wood. My fault. I'll have to watch the fire more closely. It was way too hot!

[4 eggs today]

I guess I should give the hens more ham hock skins.

Smiles

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Wait For Me

I wish everyone a Happy New Year! Last year at this time as I remember we were still worried about forest fires and we didn't hear any explosions at midnight. Last night there were several (5 or 6) loud booms that woke Kristine up. I was still up, but I didn't go out to see if the booms were accompanied by fireworks. I'm just glad everything is wet from the rain. No fires, please.

When I let the chickens out they took off for the woods with Morgan trailing behind. I walked around for a bit taking photos hoping for something I could post in the sidebar. Turns out it was the first photo I took. The hens were very happy to get cut up ham hock skin for a treat. Kristine said that some of the hens stayed on the porch next to the slider where it was dry and warm.

I tried cleaning up my blog sidebar a little bit. I started off this blog by adding blogs I read to my blog list, but quit adding any more because I have so many. Now I have folders of blogs I read book marked and the whole blog reading and commenting thing is getting out of control. I need to make a new plan. I like Tanya's blog layout. Nice and clean. Love to read her blog.

Oh, yes, I need to announce the bean ruling. The Mayo Clinic No Gas soak method really did result in 98% gas free beans. I suppose the results depend on the type of beans, how many rinsings (10+-) and soaks (I soaked the beans in water before I did the hot soak) the beans are put through. And I cooked the beans in new water after I rinsed the hot soak water away.

[1 egg today]

The sun has been hiding and turned off egg laying.

That's my take on the situation.

Smiles

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Happy New Year!

I wish everyone a very Happy New Year!

Thanks for reading and commenting on my blog.

Last year at this time I made a deal with myself to make a blog,

post a photo and some text every day for a year.

Wow! I did it!

I guess I will keep posting on the blog, but I don't think in the future I will get all upset if I miss a day posting. I originally thought the blog would be a good way for Kathleen and the grandchildren to keep track of what was going on around the old homestead, but I don't think Kathleen has time with three children, home schooling, etc., to read the blog. So, the blog became more a way for me to keep a journal of sorts of what was going on around here. I think I will keep that going.

Smiles

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Bean Pot

I had to use the stainless steel pot because there were too many beans to fit in the dutch oven. And after I added the ham hock the pot was full to the top. I learned a lot cooking the beans mainly by making mistakes. Even with my errors the beans still tasted great. Good thing! I have a lot of beans to eat.

First thing I did wrong was to cook the whole package of beans. Next time I'll just cook half and instead of one ham hock I'll cook two or three. Next time I'll make sure to either use beans that need a long cooking time or cook these mixed beans for a shorter time. The lentils and split peas pretty much cooked to mush.

This may be too much information, but since Kristine (or anybody) doesn't like to eat beans because of the flatulence issue, I looked around online to see what I could find that would solve the problem. I ran across this page from the Mayo Clinic about how to cook beans. Who knew? Under Preparing Legumes there is a step called Gas Free Soak that I tried after I had already soaked the bean for a few hours. These beans got many, many washings!

I didn't add anything to the beans except water until they were already cooked on the wood stove. Pretty funny! I'm no good at controlling the cooking temperature at a simmer. The pot was either hot or at a rolling boil. But, like I said, they still taste great. But then I like them a bit overcooked. Oh, well. After the beans were cooked I added the ham hock and over cooked the beans some more. I'm so bad. I added salt after I dished the beans in the bowl, then topped them with the cut up ham hock and chopped red onion.

No cornbread, but the Pugliese bread Kristine brought home tasted wonderful with the beans. Tom asked me if the bottom of the bread was moldy because it was covered with flour. The bread is covered with flour, especially the bottom, but it has a wonderful taste and texture.

I added the rest of the onion, ham hock, and some garlic to the left over pot of beans and put them in the fridge. I read somewhere they are good for four days in the fridge. I guess I will be eating beans until they are gone. I was going to try freezing some of them, but they are too mushy to rinse. Good thing I love beans!

Kristine is in hopes this No Gas soaking works because she would like to be able to eat beans. Since I am the guinea pig, I will report back in another post.

Good thing Kristine doesn't have to work tomorrow because she thought she had a fever and I know she has a cough. She seems to time her illnesses so she is sick on her days off.

[2 eggs today]

The chickens were out for the afternoon

with Morgan and had a lettuce snack.

Smiles

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Leaves?

Yep! The leaves are finally off the trees and I can't wait to get myself together and get out there and move them around. I was curious about how the leaves let go and fell because some years there are leaves that hang on until Spring. The first article I found here told me more than I wanted to know. I liked my old idea of the leaves falling off and turning red and yellow because of frost damage. Oh, well, I suppose in years to come they will come up with new discoveries and this will change too.

The garage roof is one of the places where I will spend some time moving leaves. I really am glad that the leaves are down because some years the leaves keep falling and the roof gets another coat of leaves.

The chickens will be glad to get out tomorrow and so will Morgan. She went to the groomers today and looks so pretty and white. The sun is scheduled to shine tomorrow so my plan is for us all to get outside.

I didn't cook dinner because because there are still leftovers from Christmas and that chicken soup I made lasted until last night. Kristine doesn't like beans, but I am going to make a pot of beans and ham hocks. I'll have to make her something else. I have been thinking about the ham hocks, beans and cornbread I used to have when I was a kid and I'm giving in to the memory and making some. Hope they live up to what I remember. The recipe on the bag says to add onions and tomatoes, but I don't think I will. We used to put diced red onion on top of the beans when we served them and I don't remember ever having tomatoes or tomato sauce in the beans. Maybe next time. The beans are soaking overnight. I'm really going to do this. I think I will try cooking them in the dutch oven on the wood stove.

[0 eggs today]

Smiles

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Lost And Found

Oops! I pressed the wrong key and published before I wrote anything. There was some blue sky for a bit today so I let Morgan and the chickens out to run around. I gave the hens a head of lettuce on the porch and enjoyed watching them chow down. Morgan came inside for her snack. The chickens stuck around the porch for about an hour and then vanished. Morgan was gone too.

I went out to try and find the chickens in hopes that the reason they were out of sight didn't have anything to do with the fox. Morgan was in the back barking at something. I walked around and finally heard and then spotted a chicken, then another one and then I saw that most of them (10+) were under the trailer taking dust baths. The hens are pretty smart. They found some dry dirt under the plastic covered trailer and a warm protected place to laze about.

I tried out the Auto setting and was able to capture a good photo of the hens shaking their feathers dusting that was OK. The chickens were very happy under there where there was no wind, it was warm and dry and where Morgan didn't run through the middle of them and watch them scatter.

I am way behind making comments and even reading blogs. I do check and moderate my comments a couple of times a day, but I've been under the weather and sleeping a lot. I hope to feel better and catch up tomorrow. Thank you for your comments!

[2 eggs today]

Smiles

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