Wash Day

As soon as I go outside Morgan and the chickens appear. I woke up with a chest cough/cold thing. Ugh... so I didn't do much today.

I played on the computer with the new blog design feature. I guess this is ok. I kinda miss all the green. My header photo is not the right size to flow across the top. But that's ok... this way I see more eggs. I guess I want to see more eggs?

I'm way behind on posting to my Pages and keeping them up to date. I haven't looked at them for months. Maybe the new look to the blog will get me to post to the Pages.  

The stacks of kick boards don't look impressive, but I think I will have enough to finish the job.

Morgan has kept herself busy today barking at something. I prefer to think she is barking at the fox and not chasing squirrels.

Lemon chicken for dinner. Chocolate cake for dessert. I'm treating myself well. Strange with all this heat, but I want hot chocolate. 

Peek at the Past

(July 15, 2009)

[5 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Staining Wood

My new cousin, Kay (Addicted To Knitting here,) sent me a link (thanks Kay) to a blog post about a lady who has chickens that like to watch her knit. There are photos of the lady and chickens here! The chickens all look so interested in her knitting. Cute!

I finally got the last hole under the stove covered. (bowing to weak applause) It took forever to find the right size boards and then I had to cut them down to size in places. Naturally, that wasn't easy. I was even spread out on my stomach on the kitchen floor using a big hand saw and sawing away at some plywood under the counter that was in the way. Amazing.

The next step in this counter saga was staining the kick boards. The boards are on the deck bench behind the chickens. Everybody wanted in the photo.

No. Not really. The chickens wanted a treat when they heard me open the slider. Morgan wanted a treat too. I just wanted to take a photo of the boards. 

Genealogy: I'm still going to be doing more ancestor searching and learning how and where to do the searches. In the meantime, check out this page here . It would be neat if everyone had one of these in their purse, wallet, car, whatever, so they would remember to ask questions and write down the ancestors, I mean answers. I need to print one out.

Kristine's blog here ... Kristine has posted again from Phoenix and this time there is a photo of the bear she made and photos of two guide dogs. I want more photos of the guide dogs. Please! And Phoenix... where is Phoenix. 

Peek at the Past

click here (July14, 2009)

Thank you LindaG at Me (here) for forwarding on the award to my blog. And thanks for all the kind words you had to say. Readers of this blog are welcome to the award. You are all wonderful bloggers!

[6 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Molting/Moulting?

This poor little buff brahma looks like she has been plucked in the front. She has either been plucking out her feathers because she is going broody or *gasp* the dreaded molting has begun.

For some weird reason I have always spelled moulting the British way with the u, but anyway I'm talking about the time the chicken's feathers fall out. It's hot so this is a very good time of the year for a chicken to shed their feathers. It must be hot under all that fluff.

Here is a good explanation of the molting process. There are some very good photos in the article. I think I have this site on the sidebar somewhere.

Keyhole Garden: I thought this was a very neat way to build a garden. I do need some rocks if I am going to try this out. I could always convert the rock pile I have from a wanna be water feature to this really neat garden. Maybe this winter when it is cooler to work moving rocks around?

Cabinet Update: I searched around and found boards that were almost a good fit, but were too wide and finally found these two boards that I will work with and make do the job. They aren't really wide enough, but I will jury rig something together and make the whole thing work.

Years ago I watched some carpenters at work and thought I could never do that until one day I watched them fix their oops'es. Ok... I can do that. My building skills mostly deal with finding ways to get things to hang together and look like that's the way they are supposed to be when everything is finished and painted. There are so many secrets hidden under the paint and spackle.

It will be very nice to have cabinet doors again. I think? I have gotten used to not having doors to open and shut and to try and make stay shut. Maybe I won't be so glad to have them back after all. Well, it will look better with cabinet doors.

I made soft tacos with organic hand pressed corn tortillas. Mmmm. Good eating on a hot day. I put in lots of tomato, onion and lettuce with the meat and sauce. No cheese... that was my concession to the hot weather. How funny. Too hot for cheese?

Peek at the Past

(July 13, 2009)

[6 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Smith, Stanley, Meeks and Mabray Families (Oatman and Newman too)

Hen Roo is giving me the chicken eye and a "and why aren't you out here working" look.

I'm not out doing anything in the heat because I took the day off.
So there you silly chicken.

Well, I'm not working inside the house either. I did scout around for boards to use to build up an empty space where a kick board needs to be nailed. I didn't see any boards the right size. Tomorrow. I'll find one tomorrow. I hope.

So instead of working I've been searching around on the internet looking for info about my mother's people. The Smiths, Stanley, Meeks and Mabray.

Oatman, Newman:
I don't know anything much about my Dad's side of the family except they were German with the surnames of Oatman and Newman. My Dad's father immigrated from Hamburg, Germany and was born in Prussia or Russia. There must be some very interesting family history there. Relatives? I think my Dad's mom was born in the United States.

I Found A 4th Cousin:
Blogs are really pretty amazing things. I have been interested in finding out about my great grandmother Callie Clarinda Meeks Mabray.

In March of last year, after some searching I found this post and a 4th cousin here, (Hi, Kay).


I was very lucky to find Kay and only because she had mentioned some of her ancestors in a post. So when I did a search her blog showed up. Neat! Kay has shared with me some terrific stories about her family. Wish I knew some stories about my family. I lost touch with my mother's family when I was a child.

I Found My 4x Grandmother:
Three days ago I found this page about Callie Clarinda's grandmother, Lurana Smith Stanley Ransom. There is even a photo.

Webberville, Texas must have been the wild west for sure. I read that Webberville was also called Hell's Half Acre in the early days. Lots of good stories about early families at this site.

Cherokee:
Today I was looking for Lurana Smith's father. I don't know his name except for Smith. Her first child was named Buck, so I thought maybe he might have been named after his grandfather? Lurana is said to have been full blood Cherokee, so that makes her dad Cherokee. Ha! Well I tried and did find a Buck Smith here and there, but not with Lurana.

Maybe someone will be searching for a Buck Smith and find this post. Well, it could happen. I do wish my Cherokee Smith's would find me. Or my Meeks family... they might have family records.

I sure wish there were records, but at that time the Indians wanted to pass for white and many never were recorded anywhere as Indian. Now people want to prove their Indian heritage and the "real" Indians don't want them. Ha! Bet they never thought that was going to happen.

Peek at the Past

(July 12, 2009)

[4 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Heat Here, Heat There

It is hot here and I've been moving slow. I did get about half of the trim cut and nailed on the counter. Now I need to cut and nail on the kick boards. Sleeping in the day and working at night sounds like a better and better idea.

It is hotter where Kristine has landed. Check out her latest post here from Phoenix, Arizona. I'm jealous... she got to make a bear! I hope she posts a better photo of the guide dog she is sharing a room with. More posts! More posts! More Starbucks?

 The top photo is of my trusty miter saw and an overheated Morgan asking me if she please can't come in the house. Please?

The chickens heard me sawing boards on the porch and came after me yelling for corn... corn!

After I got the chickens situated happily scratching up their corn I noticed one of the potato plants did't look so good.

I dug it up to see if there was a problem  with   some kind of pest eating the stem, but there were roots. No potato, just roots. It has been about a month since I planted them. So, I guess that is normal... or something ate the potato?

Peek at the Past

(July 11, 2009)

Ah... some rain would be nice.

It is very hot!

[6 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Stuff To Do

The chickens were helping me hang out the quilts, blankets, etc. I finally got all the wash done except for the sleeping bags. That will be for another day.

My cold and sore throat finally left, but I'm still tired. Kristine too. I need my strength and energy back. I guess I will just have to start slow and work up to speed.

I haven't posted in so long that it feels strange. I think I will go back to at least some words and a photo a day.

This buff is the hen the fox tried to eat. She has decided that she liked being a house chicken and she comes by to visit us during the day. In the winter the hens like to park here near the wood stove, but it is in the 90's. She just likes to visit.

This is the project I decided to start with. I did a bit of painting and put on the drawer pulls. Tomorrow I have some trim work to cut and attach and then more painting.

I found a neat garden planning page here. I used it to plan out one of my planter boxes. Fun!

Kristine said she would pick up some herbs for me to plant in the small planted box when she gets back from the convention.

I haven't started catching up on comments and reading blogs.

Peek at the Past

(July 10, 2009)

[5 eggs today]

~:>

Smiles

Happy 4th!

Parade and visiting? No... I was going to go to the parade, but I'm still getting over my cough and cold.

I added two new videos to yesterdays post. I was glad to find them.

Enjoy the day!

Happy 4th of July!

Happy Fourth of July weekend!

I would very much like to see a return of statesmanship to our government. I remember when people in government worked for what was best for the country and not for what was best for their party.



I haven't heard of this organization before, but I agree with the idea of working together.




The Declaration is read here by many very well known actors. I don't remember ever hearing it read before.

Still Washing

Still washing stuff! I'm hanging most of it out on the clothesline to dry.

I just got some time to sit down at the computer and was hit with a wave of skunk spray wafting in through the window. Urk! Cough! It is very potent! It's like a family of skunks all sprayed at the same time. This is not, not helping my throat. Time to shut the windows!

I will post about making the scarecrow. But, isn't this a neat scary scarecrow face. Rhiannon, drew this on a pillowcase. She wanted the scarecrow to be scary to scare away the birds.

Company Is On Their Way Home

Company left this morning. Now I'm doing laundry, cleaning, and somewhere in there I need to rest and get rid of my sore throat.

I'll be posting as soon as I get caught up on things around here.

And I have almost a months worth of comments and blog reading to do.

Hard to believe that much time has gone by. The visit has been great, but the kids are looking forward to going home.

Home is best!

Little Chickens

I didn't know there were such small chickens or that they could cost so much.

Quick Post - WWII Ideas

Time for a quick post of a link to Victory Gardening and WWII ideas. I don't think I have posted it before.

I've still got the sore throat, but went out and screened soil for the planter beds anyway. I hope I won't be sorry.

Broody Hen And Kittens

Update: Tues., June 22, 2010
11 eggs today! Kathleen and I are sick. Achy, sore throat, phooey, what kind of a deal is this.
Hope we get well quick.

Here is another YouTube video. I'm taking advantage of YouTube until I can post again.

Happy Father's Day!

Wishes for all to have a Happy Day!

No time to write a post, so I will post a YouTube video someone made. Kinda neat. I'll hopefully be back posting next week.