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October 22, 2009

Reknitted

Well, my time at home is nearly to an end, and while I've missed the farm and my in-laws and my chickens a ton, I've also knitted myself back together and am more than ready to take the reins of responsibility again.

I'm going to a Halloween party today where I'll see a whole lot of ladies that I originally brought together; am so happy they have gone on as a group, it shows I've done at least one thing right in my life. They will be surprised to see me, particularly 35 pounds lighter and a strawberry blond rather than a flaming red-head.
I've been to a day long yoga retreat, heaven on earth, and I've had one go at my new beginners Pilates DVD...hokey smokes...fun but if I keep it up I'll have abs of steel. I've missed my window of opportunity to run away to the beach but the month isn't over yet. I've made a new friend, something not to be sneezed at. And every where I've gone the world is a blaze of color.

Thursday Thankies

Big fat seedless grapes
Oracles
Bram Stoker

October 6, 2009

Finding Fun

An update is in order. Today I am supposed to be birthing, creating, or nurturing. So first thing I put my Chiquita banana sticker to good use. I'll see if my FIL notices, can read, and will laugh. His laughs these days consists of one short bark, but I take what I can get.

I haven't mentioned my 10 girls in a long time, they are about 6 months old now and each day I get between 8-10 big brown eggs, very often with double and occasionally triple yolks. I've not the heart to tell them more white less yolk is what their silly humans need, they are so proud of their output.

We've set up a system of three doors. The wooden door they know to never come out, the 2nd screen door they always can come out and go in, and the 3rd screen door they can crowd around but never go out because when I'm coming in, it always means goodies. Fresh pumpkin, zucchini, tomatoes, apples, corn, radish and carrot tops...who knew chickens could be trained or as I mentioned in an earlier post, seek and give affection. My SIL will be here for ten days in my stead this month while I'm working at home, and I'm already worrying about will she know to hug them and accept their thank you curtsy.

It is back to that 30 tree orchard today. I had the pruning 1/2 finished, turns out I started way to early and now they need pruned again. I'll begin with the espaliered apples along the fence, easiest to reach.

My rainy day project is the workshop. Up until this May, when his dementia really set in, his shop was quite tidy, he always knew where to reach for a tool. In the course of the summer it became what you see here in the 3rd image. We spent so much time here, he and I, working on farm projects, or just running our gums around the little wood stove, and now he won't even come down there. He knows he is finished with it. It has been a difficult job but someone will have to do it sometime, it might as well be me who gets it started.


The little grey board, lower left is his very last project. It is part of the latch system on chicken house door, it pulled off one day in late spring during one of our strong valley winds. He fooled with it off and on for three days, would pick up a screw and lay it down, turn the board over and consider the wrong side, and then he laid it down for good, he could no longer make his mind and hands work in unison to put in a screw. I've left it laying there, perhaps hoping for some kind of miracle, but they are thin on the ground for 91 year old men.

That's all the news that is fit to print folks, now to have my second cuppa and cruise some of my own favorite blogs.

Tuesday Thankies
Blue sky
Crisp air
Sharp pruners
Postscript: Yes the sticker got a laugh~