Morgan Positive For Anaplasmosis

Here is Morgan this morning on our walk through the drizzly rain after locking up the gate.

Morgan tested positive for anaplasmosis (and she has Lyme disease) when she went for her heart worm test.

So, she has 84 pills to take... 4 a day for 21 days.

Ticks in the woods... that's for sure. We all get tick bites and have been lucky until now.

The chickens are locked up today and probably tomorrow since we are supposed to have two days of lots of rain. The ticks can play while the chickens are away.

I haven't been posting about the rain and hail and generally cold weather because it's making me sad... after three more days of rain we are supposed to have some sunny days. That would be nice.

I have been trying to remember the words to old rain rhymes that have been running around in my brain this morning:

Rain, rain go away,

Come again another day.

Little Callie wants to play.

It's raining, it's pouring,

The old man is snoring.

He fell out of bed, and bumped his head

And can't get up in the morning.

There was a rhyme about rain going to Spain, but I can't remember that one. I always liked the rhyme about not getting out of bed on rainy days. Makes sense to me. Morgan is asleep. I want to be.

Buff Orpington

This little girl is a bit slow. Maybe she is old or maybe just cold. The hens have their feathers fluffed up and their heads tucked in like turtles.

So, whatever the case, she didn't run away when I took her picture. She just stared at me.

She has her toes nailed into the cabbage pieces, so she is sure they aren't getting away. Smart chicken!

It rained and hailed yesterday and rained last night, but gave way to a sunny/cloudy cold day.

This is Fall weather... cold and wet.

I'm making spaghetti sauce... spaghetti is fun food... that ought to cheer us up. I'll have to give some noodles to the hens.

Wet June 1st - Use Cast Iron Dutch Oven To Brown Toppings

Treats for the hens this morning on the wet deck.  It rained last night and thunder storms are forecast today with more of the same  and rain for the next week+.

The sun should be out for a couple of days?




I got the quilt stuck together and ready to quilt... now to hook the other one together. That will keep me busy.

I tried out this technique of using a metal lid for browning the top of meringue or potatoes without using an oven.

I love my cast iron dutch oven. I'll have to do some more experimenting.





I think the angle of the lid in the bottom photo does a better job of shooting the hot air over the potatoes.

This is a cottage pie with mashed potatoes on top.



In the photo you can see the tops of the potato starting to brown.

Chicken Apron Thank You!

This Buff waited until her sisters finished eating and left for the woods and she could enjoy having the scratch all to herself.

She doesn't like me taking her photo... or maybe she is guarding her feed.

The blue patch in the sky was quickly covered by clouds.

I gave up raking the driveway until the weather dries out and warms up.

Maybe we are going to skip Spring and June is going to be another wet month?

Still a week more of thunder and rain forecast.

The quilt sandwich is still on the floor waiting for me to finish basting it together. I got about halfway and the cold and gloomy weather got to me and I quit to take up reading and watching videos.

I'm making a deal with myself... no more movies until I work on the quilt. sigh... it is so dark in there it is hard to see and... I have a lot of excuses. I do feel better today... not so depressed... the cold and gloom does not improve my mood at all.

I want to say thank you again to the dear generous lady who gave us all the beautiful fabrics which made it possible for me to have so much fun.

She sent me some lovely clear photos of the apron I sewed since I hadn't managed to get photos.

The apron is lined with red material and is reversible. I want to make one of
these aprons for me too.

Chicken mug rug!

Much better than my photo.

I had to add this photo of a bug that Kristine found and took a photo of last night.

I don't have a clue as to what it is, but it does have some interesting antenna.

I hope it is lost and trying to find it's way outside!
Or... it might be hiding from the chickens?

Memorial Day 2011

Rain And Then Sunshine

There was heavy rain last night after a cold gloomy Saturday, but the sun came out to play today and everything looks so green and bright. More rain later today.

The low 60's and wet weather is not my idea of a warm sunny Spring.

The chickens are having a good time scratching up the wet leaves, Morgan is curled up in her bed resting up from her trip to the vets for vaccinations. I don't like shots either.

I'm trying to get over a chest cold or maybe it is allergies? I made a large pot of ginger tea that I hope will help.

Update: Well, the sunny day didn't last long... it's raining again.

And Hail!

Here is Morgan sleeping off the trauma of shots and a long trip to the vets. Poor baby.

I finally figured out how to view images of my iPhoto pictures (before I choose them to post) by clicking the "show items as cover flow." That option was set up on my other account, but I just realized how to get the same result on this account.  It was such a pain to try and find the photos by looking for their numbers.

Myrtle In May

The Myrtle blooms in May around here and is alternately flattened by rain and snow and then picks its self up and stands tall for a while.

I'm experimenting here to see if this posts. Kristine can't sign into Google dashboard. Blogger is loading slow. Google having more problems?

Chickens Forest Foraging

There are chickens out there amongst the trees following me as I spent some time this morning raking the driveway clear of leaves.

Pretty funny... I'm raking leaves and they are scratching them up putting large divots all over the place. So quiet... just scratch and rustle noises. Chicken herd passing through?

Things have started to dry out a bit, but there is rain forecast for Wednesday which will make it a day to work on the quilts.

Morgan is going to the groomer... OK... she is back and I'm cold, sleepy, ....going back to bed. Only place I can get warm... alright, that's an excuse.

Kristine just came home and woke me up and let Morgan out. We spent the afternoon asleep. Not getting anything done, but we were warm. Had to put on the little heater.

Morgan's groomer trip left her at least four shades lighter... smells nice too. I tried to get a photo of her standing, but every time I pointed the camera at her she laid down. Taking her photo causes her stress? I gave her cookies after to make up for the trauma.

I will be so happy for some warm weather. Hopefully, my energy will come back. Well, back to sewing and listening to QI.

This would be a great way to start off the day. I'll have to find a cd of this song or I could always just play this video every morning. Love the children!

Early Morning Sun, Morgan and Chickens

One of the things I love best about the forest is being out in it in the early morning and watching the sunlight make its way through the tree tops to light up patches of the forest floor.

After all the rain and snow the leaf layer on the ground is still wet and the moisture has made the moss very happy.

The chickens are digging up the layers of wet leaves to get down to dirt that they can scratch through to find some tasty grub.

I've noticed that the hens especially like to scratch around the base of the trees. There must be some really good thing to find.

Two more mostly sunny days and then we are back to rain and thunder storms. I am being very lazy and not doing much of anything and I blame it on the weather. I've got lots to do and I want sun and warm days.

Morgan And The Iron Skillet

The story goes like this:

One morning Kristine heard a strange slurpy noise coming from the kitchen.

She went downstairs and and discovered Morgan licking out the inside of my small iron skillet.

I forgot to put the lid on the skillet and morgan was busy licking out the tasty bacon grease.  I usually at least put the skillet away upside down.







Kristine told Morgan to leave it, but she didn't tell me what Morgan had been up to and I didn't use the small skillet for a week.

Yikes ...rust happened. Morgan, Morgan, Morgan, tsk, tsk... My fault for not putting the skillet away with a lid.






Getting the rust off was not a problem. Add a little oil, a lot of salt and rub it all around for a bit and the rust lifts away.






The problem is that some of the black seasoning lifts away with the rust and the skillet will need to have some new seasoning layers added.

A well seasoned skillet is black, smooth, shiny and works just like a teflon coated skillet.




Here is the little skillet with a few days of cooking and a few new layers of seasoning. It will take a month or so until it is back to the way it was before the Morgan incident.

The dutch oven is cooking meat and gravy for dinner tonight.

It is still raining. No snow except in spots.

Thunder, rain tomorrow, maybe some sun so the chickens can go outside. I'm staying inside.

Snowy Breakfast

Cooking when the power is out makes for a fun time as I hunt for the long matches to light the gas cook top. In the '40's I used to have the gas stove burn my eyebrows and the hair on my arms off when I would light the oven. So, I never wanted gas and always had electric stoves until I moved up here and decided I really did need a gas cook top for when the power was down. I can always use the wood stove to cook, but the gas cook top is good to have.

Green tea, organic tortilla chips, homemade salsa, and eggs cooked in bacon grease make for a good warming breakfast. I also made french toast and bacon yesterday, but didn't take photos because I was too busy cooking and eating. This photo is of my breakfast yesterday... no photos today because my internet connection is wonky and I'm trying to post while I have a connection.

 There is still lots of snow outside, but it has melted some in the driveway and the chickens are out trying to find sunny spots to warm themselves.


I took the snow/hand photo yesterday morning. We would get more snow during the day, then it would rain and snow, etc., and we still have the same amount of snow today. I wanted to post different photos than these, but I'm having trouble finding thumbs in this user account of iPhoto. I need to do some more searching around to find the correct settings.

I'm going to try and post this now... hopefully the internet connection will be better tomorrow.

Yikes! It's Snowing! The Power Was Out! It's May?

Hard to believe it is the middle of May and it's snowing and the power has been off all day and part of the night. Yesterday was warmish in the sun and the chickens were having a gay old time outside having dust baths.

This morning we woke up to no power and snow... thick snow. The snow doesn't bother me, but I really do miss not having power... no computer.





 The chickens got apple and broccoli, lay pellets and lots of scratch. They are not that happy, but like all the goodies to eat.







The power came back on just before 8:00pm and the phone came back online too. Computer access! Yea!

It would snow, clear a bit and then snow some more. Since the forecast was for rain I really don't know what is going to happen with the weather.

Well, I am glad I didn't spend a lot of money on plants and try and start my garden only to see it all die off from being frozen.

Fluffy Furry Chicken?

5 Chickens?

Sometimes, Morgan thinks she is a chicken. She loves chicken feed... scratch and lay pellets... doesn't matter what I give the chickens. If the chickens are eating it then she wants some too.  Morgan snuck in some chicken scratch while I was trying to take pictures. Hope she doesn't get a tummy ache.

Of course, there really are "furry" chickens... The Silkie Breed. Click on the link to go to a BackYard Chickens page about them with lots of information and photos.

Fire! Must have fire to heat the house.

After the fire got going, I opened all the dampers.

and set the kitchen timer for fifteen minutes

so I would remember

to close the dampers so I don't burn up the wood and the house.

I love building and making a fire in the wood stove. I suppose that feeling might tap into some primeval fire homage as I give thanks for the fire wood finally catching and holding the flames. I did a happy dance when the fire finally got going after several fizzles. I had a lot of trouble getting the fire to catch today because the fire box was cold since we haven't needed a fire for a few days. It is getting cold again. It shouldn't snow according to the weather forecast, but it might. Stranger things have happened.   

I just found this video and these could be our chickens.

Our chickens come running just like this from the forest to be first to get on the porch when I toss cabbage or other treats out for them to enjoy. I'll have to try and make a video of them this summer or at least get some photos. It all happens so fast it is hard to capture when I have 14 chickens coming at me from all directions. Must do some planning and enlist Kristine to help.

Fire is still going...
It's raining buckets!

Cutting Table

Blogger is working!

Google said something about restoring posts but I think I will just go ahead and post this photo again. I like having the table placed this way because I love being able to walk around it when I'm cutting out fabric.

I keep the table covered with the drop cloth to keep the dust off and to protect the rulers and the cutting mat. I can scoot the table against the wall to get it out of the way if I want.

I may put up some hooks to hang the rulers and I'm going to get some white table cloths with felt backing and hang them on the wall felt side out so I can stick up fabric blocks as I cut them out.

This is all going to get wet again this weekend.

Next week I am going to try and get outside and do some work even if it is raining. Well, I would like to... but I will probably just wait for some dry weather. 

I've been reading Mercedes Lackey books, watching Inspector Gently on YouTube, answering some email and doing laundry while waiting for Blogger to come back. I did miss not being able to post, and I find that I have developed a need to post. Habit? I missed not being able to read new posts by the blogs I read. Thanks to Google for this free enjoyable outlet. Glad we are all back!

I noticed that some of the comments I left on blogs have not shown up... lost? I guess I will wait awhile longer before trying to comment.