Bombarded by Cucumbers

The cukes are coming in full force. They were taking over the kitchen. We had no choice but to make pickles.

Monkey Man & Mr. C were very helpful & cut most of them for me. (Anything to get to use a knife!)Bread & Butter pickles. We ended up canning 16 jars.And it looks as though there are many more to come.

Wild Kingdom

Yesterday, within a span of 15 minutes, the kiddos caught a green snake and a blue jay. Monkey Man spotted the snake first and sounded the alarm. When anyone around here finds a snake, he yells "SNAKE!" at the top of his lungs, and the rest of us come running to the scene. I try to get there first so I can make sure it's not a copperhead or any of the other poisonous reptiles that live in these parts. Once the snake gets clearance (we haven't found any poisonous ones yet), the others team together to catch it.

They put it in a bucket for a while & eventually let it go. I asked Monkey Man yesterday evening if he let it go. He said "Yes, under the back porch." (Don't tell my mother-in-law, or she'll never visit us again.)

The blue jay had become trapped in the chicken run, so Mr. C crawled in and got him

out. The poor thing was bleeding from banging into the chicken wire, trying to get out.

I hope PETA doesn't hear about Queenie

Queenie has labeled Daisy as her "best kitten." Daisy is incredibly tolerant and actually seems to enjoy being held, toted, hugged, kissed, slung over a shoulder, etc... Queenie sure enjoys Daisy.

Brotherly Love

The kittens (especially the 2 boys) are inseparable. They do everything together - eat, play and sleep. If you start petting one, the other 2 are there right away, purring in unison so loud that it sounds like a helicopter is landing on the roof.

Paul is on the left & Cooter is on the right.

I found them like this yesterday:

The girl, Daisy, was sleeping by their feet. I love sleeping cat faces, they are hilarious! Don't they just look so happy and content?

Peppers

This is the first year we've grown jalapenos. They've been surprisingly easy to grow. As we pick them, I'm sticking them in the freezer until the tomatoes start ripening. Mmmm... salsa!

Swamp Monster

Clucking in Style

Daddy Duck just finished building a lovely little chicken tractor. He can hook it up to his lawn mower/tractor and pull it around the yard. This lets the chickens have fresh grass & places to scratch up and gives us an easy way to have the soil tilled and fertilized.

A couple of months ago, Daddy Duck told everyone to get some paper and draw their ideas/plans for a chicken tractor. What he ended up building was a combination of those ideas. The ducklings helped him with a lot of the construction as well. Everyone but Queenie had a turn with the paint brush. Here, Superhero watches for any spots Monkey Man might have missed.

Here is one of our buff orpington chickens trying it out. She immediately started taking a dust bath. I love how the flap on the roof is hinged, making egg gathering really easy.

This is the inside of the coop. They have a perch and a large nesting area. I think they're gonna love it!

Home Entertainment

I love the fact that most of the time it doesn't take much to entertain this crew.

They spent yesterday afternoon building a house of scrap lumber for Queenie.

It even has a sink.

Daddy Duck got me a still-in-the-box microwave from the flea market yesterday. Our old one had died a few weeks ago, and even when it worked, we were never able to pop popcorn in it. It was hilarious to see the ducklings so captivated by the microwave popping corn!

:)

Three Little Kittens

We got new kitties! They spent the first few days hiding under the couch, but I think they are starting to feel at home now. Here they are lounging in the sun:

This one is the most outgoing. His name is Paul.
This one is Daisy. She's the most laid back and affectionate.

Lastly, is Cooter (a.k.a. Cody or Chicken, or if you pronounce things like Queenie, Tooter). Cooter has come a long way since his arrival. He was very skittish, but now will come to you and purr when being held.

Pretty pictures

Potatoes

We've started harvesting our potatoes. Daddy Duck & the kids planted potatoes in 2 locations on our property. One spot produced more than twice as many potatoes per plant as the other spot. The good potatoes were planted where a chicken coop used to sit. Daddy Duck is now making plans for more chickens:)

There's our pool in the background. Yes, the behemoth is finally set up!

Growing potatoes is a lot of fun. They taste soooo good, too.

Running Away

Today I signed up for my first ever 1/2 marathon. (That's 13.2 miles, to be exact.) It is a couple of months away.

Some days I like running, and some days I don't. But I'm always glad when I have done it.

Above is my trail. It runs along the perimeter of our cleared property. I like looking at it, because it is something I made with my thousands of foot-falls. The kids call it the Mamalachian Trail.

A Very Sad Thing

Yesterday, we found our beloved kitty, Petunia (also known as "Tune"), dead on the side of the road. Apparently she had been hit during the night. It was, and still is, a very sad thing. We'd had her since we first moved into this house 5 years ago.

She was mainly Bootsie's kitty, and understandably, Bootsie was very heartbroken. Tune was a superb hunter, regularly bringing rabbits, squirrels, mice & moles to our doorstep. She was also seen chasing deer and dogs out of the yard. And then there was the night she treed a 'possum. (I am not exaggerating!)

Tune will be sorely missed by all of us. :(

Happy Birthday Queenie!

Queenie turned 3 today! Her siblings gave her the things she likes most: a lollipop, tootsie rolls & koolaid. Bootsie made a "mommy kit" for her, which was a purse that held a book, and a key on a key chain. (Poor Queenie is sick today, though. All the pictures I took of her looked so pitiful, so I settled for this one that doesn't show all of her swollen sinuses & whatnot.)
And, the pool is almost up! This thing is huge! (Notice the terrace of dirt we built to put it on. Yeah, go muscles!) All that's left is to hook up the filter, assemble the ladder [which will be another week or so, considering the 50 million bolts & pieces that are involved] and then start pumping the 6,000+ gallons of water into it.

Piano lessons

Queenie likes to make sure her babies are well rounded. Today she gave them piano lessons.


Queenie is a pretty hands-on kind of teacher.

Miscellaneous happenings...

Rain has delayed further progress on the [total backyard excavation and reconstruction], er um, pool construction. Meanwhile...

We've picked & shelled peas from the garden. If Queenie disappears, you can almost be certain she is in the pea patch, picking and eating peas. Having her around it like having a herd of deer living in your garden. Seriously, the rest of us hardly stand a chance at getting any of the peas.

The kids kept saying "save the bubble gum" while we were shelling the peas. I finally realized they were talking about the pods. They chew them up until all the sweetness is gone and then spit them out. Here, they were making pea lips.

More garden bounty... I love looking at it.

I don't think Queenie was too happy about her new hairdo. (But she will put up with anything if there's a candy reward.)And lastly, our beloved kitty, Bobby, has been missing for over a week now. He had the best personality of any cat I knew. He will be sorely missed (especially by Bootsie).

Where there's a pool, there's a way

We got a new pool last Friday. Our old one finally gave out after 4 seasons. Here's the pool we got:

We worked & worked on Saturday and leveled (sorta) a spot for it. On Sunday, we realized it wasn't a good spot. It was about a foot away from our back deck and right next to the garden. Visions of kids leaping & cannonballing off the rail into the pool and tidal waves of chlorinated water pouring over the side onto our watermelon vines danced through our heads. So, we moved it over about 15 feet.

The new spot was even more uneven than the first.

See where it says, "Ready for water in 60 minutes"? Don't believe it.

Yesterday, the kids and I dug load after load of dirt from a corner of the yard and hauled it to the spot where the pool is to be. Just a few minutes after I started digging, I broke our neighbor's shovel. But, I fixed it. I'm not sure this is how it is supposed to be fixed, but it works. Shovels don't normally have screws sticking out like this, do they?

I really want a superman shirt like the one my 5 year old wears. I hauled so much dirt yesterday, I know my muscles grew about 7 inches.

Please be level. Please be level.

It wasn't.

Back to digging again today.