First day back to work from time off is always rough. Being able to work at home lessens the pain slightly. Almost 100 emails. Only three voicemails, thankfully. I won't bore you with the details. However, I will share a photo of my adorable assistant.
My son brought Feffer in for a visit. Feffer can be such a gentleman when he is in the house. He jumps up on the couch and usually flops for a bit.
He spent some time on my lap and helped me with my typing.
Last night we had a batch of chicks hatch out. Some have already gone off to their new home. The person who came to pick them up turned out to be someone I knew from years back. Our kids went to daycare together. It was fun chatting for a few moments. We both couldn't believe our kids are as old as they are.
My husband was holding one of the chicks and the little darling fell asleep in his hand. It was adorable.
Last night, after tucking the big girls in, my son told me that our roo was up on a roost for the night. That sounds very promising!
Today when I went out to the coop, roo was walking around, almost upright and making little sounds. So I made little "buck, buck, buck" sounds at him and he would respond.
We are still taking it day by day with him.
Shadow and Feffer aren't too thrilled to have a guest in their love nest. Especially a guest who brought his girlfriend. Yup, K2 is still over with them. Tomorrow I'll let them out and Shadow and Feffer can have their love nest back.
This type of blog post is for when I have a lot of little things I want to share, or when I feel the need to catch up.
So, grab your coffee/beverage of your choice and join me. If we were having coffee ... I'd say I didn't write yesterday because nothing really happened yesterday. We were home, for the most part, but we ran errands a few times. Not very exciting stuff. I did bake some bread.
I did a bit of knitting and cross stitching, and that's about it. Well, we did try some fishing. The wind was blowing good and the fishing wasn't all that great. Again. I think the fishing season may be short for us this year.
If we were having coffee ... I'd give you an update about Shadow and her babies. Unfortunately her babies didn't make it. We are all very bummed about this. It's a fact of life. A sucky one, unfortunately.
So ... out Shadow went. Back with Feffer. He was so excited to see me walking back to their "love nest." He was standing on his back legs, with his front paws on the wall. He practically bounced with excitement when I set her down. They raced around each other a bit before they both ran up to the phone to check it out.
I thought I'd have this adorable photo of them peering at the camera. They moved too fast.
Then Feffer started grooming Shadow's ears.
When I checked in on them today, Shadow was vigorously grooming Feffer's face. He had a look of bliss about him. So then I decided to see how the other pair were doing. You can tell they are the married couple of the farm yard.
No snuggling next to each other. Both on opposite sides of the hutch. They've been together forever.
If we were having coffee ... I'd give an update about the chicks. They are having a blast and living their best life. One of the older chicks is starting to sound like a big girl.
Since photos can't quite do it justice, I shot a quick video.
If we were having coffee ... I'd tell you how the big Brahmas are doing after the fox attack.
The girls seem to have forgotten their brush with death. Instead choosing to focus on dust baths, checking in on the roo, and putting the new girls (and baby roo) in their places.
Yes, I said roo. He's still with us. Yay! Last night we saw him drinking a bit.
"Oh! Hey - water!"
This morning we saw him eating a small bit. He's walking around the coop, making noises, and is alert. He takes frequent long rest breaks. I made sure he has easy access to food and water, so he doesn't need to lift his head too high.
Our other roo, K2, has decided he needs to pick on this guy. K2 spent most of the day outside. He will probably be sleeping on Shadow and Feffer's couch tonite.
If we were having coffee ... I'd update you on my knitting.
I have made it past the heel flap and heel turn on my sock. I'm ready zoom down the foot and get it done!
I shared this photo on my Facebook page and someone asked why I knit inside out. Usually I flip my projects inside out before I take photos of anything I'm making in the round.
I didn't always knit inside out. I'm not sure when it started. I did a quick google search to try and learn why I might be knitting this way.
Turns out that I knit with the needle farthest away from me, not the closest one. I'm guessing it comes from when I join the round and start knitting. This works for me, though.
If we were having coffee ... I'd share about the cross stitch project I decided to start sometime this past week, actually Thursday, June 11. I just went back and looked. I didn't spent a lot of time on it. I suppose I could be keeping track of the time but right now I just don't have the brain space for keeping track of time.
Pattern is 4th of July by Tiny Modernist. If we were having coffee ... I'd blather just a tiny bit about the garden stuff. It's an itty bitty baby tomato!
My peppers were first to fruit and now I've got a few Romas growing. So exciting for us! This is one of the plants I potted back in April.
Things are growing in the main garden. My lettuce tripled in size. I'm going to have a bit more weeding done and then maybe I'll do a "proper" garden tour video. Maybe.
____
The weather was pretty nice today, despite the wind. I suppose it was a good day to end our vacation time.
Last night, about 2 a.m.,Shadow decided it was time to thump the song of her people. It seems I'm the only one who hears this. Must be the mommy senses. In any case, she kept me awake from 2 a.m. to about 3:30 a.m. It made for a bit of a tough wake up, especially when I was planning to hit the flowage for fishing early in the morning. After wrangling the boy out of bed, and getting some food in his gullet, we were on the road. It was a bit cool this morning. Temperatures were in the 50s Fahrenheit. We were also the first people on the flowage. This almost never happens.
The wild berries are flowering.
Getting everything set up and ready to go.
Off they go ...
We all went out to claim our own spots. I found a spot and had my breakfast. A peanut butter and raspberry jam sandwich.
So peaceful.
The fish weren't biting, unfortunately, so my son decided to have an adventure and kayaked to the island in the middle of the flowage.
We could hear him chattering away and breaking brush.
When it was time to head back, he had a bit of a time getting through the brush and ended up taking a dip in the drink when he was looking for the spot he parked his kayak.
A few of the snaps he sent me.
All in all, it was a good morning.
As we pulled into the driveway, my son said "Who is that? (Or what is that. I don't remember exactly) Both my husband and I glanced over into the trees at the front of the yard. We saw two animals.
This isn't good, guys.
The freaking fox (or a different one, but I'm sure it's the same freaking one) came back.
It had our big roo.
The fox saw us, knew what was coming, (which was us coming after it) and it bolted across the street and into the neighbors yard. Our roo came running towards my husband and basically collapsed in his arms. We looked him over very carefully. No blood. Lots of missing feathers. Nothing felt broken. My husband carried him back to the coop and the pen area, and set him down. Our Roo stood for a bit, obviously in shock. We had to catch the loose hens and secure them again.
We don't know what happened or how the pen once again got open. My husband made sure the bits are closed over and everything was snug.
All we know is that our boy is hurting.
Then hens stayed around him and kept him company. Our other roo, K2, stayed alert and kept a watchful eye on everything.
We will have a better idea, I suppose, tomorrow. He seems alert and he can walk. He moves his wings. He's just very still and is keeping his head down. It will be an amazing thing if he does come through and survives a fox attack. I think him having a lot of fluffy feathers, especially around his neck, was a bit of a saving grace for him.
We've been checking on him, off and on.
So ... yeah ... that put a damper on the day.
The rest of the afternoon was sort of a bust. To keep my mind off of what was going on, we all went out and hit a different lake for a few hours. My son has sunburn. My shoulders are sore from kayaking against the wind and my husband didn't have to clean fish. Again.
The rest of the my evening I've been watching tv, cross stitching, and checking in on the roo.
The temperature dropped quite a bit this evening. I think it's supposed to get down in the 40s. Yikes! It's nearly the middle of June. No more cold nights!
Today was a great day to be outside. There was lots of sun, blue skies and mild temperatures. I spent the morning knitting and watching MEtv. Then I decided it was time to head out for a walk.
Everything is so green!
Daisies in the ditch.
Naturally, I had to make a video.
So cheerful.
"Indian" weed along side of the road, too.
We went fishing during the afternoon. There were a few sprinkles.
I was trying a different spot on the lake. Wish I could say I found a hotspot.
I sat out on the deck for dinner. I just couldn't get enough of the sky.
We had a couple sun sprinkles. I took a video. The rain didn't really show up.
Update on Shadow:
She has two babies. They seem to be doing fine, and she seems to be attentive to them.
They are so wee.
Feffer seems blue without his sweetheart. I spent a little extra time with him today, snuggling.
The big hens have managed to jailbreak three days in a row. We aren't sure how they are doing it, but I seem to be the one who first spots it. The roosters are strutting around and the girls are busy looking for tidbits. We need to find a better way to secure the door, I guess.
I did some crafting today. I knit on my sock for a bit. I'm making good progress.
And, because I wanted to do something different, I went and dug out a cross stitch pattern from Tiny Modernist. It feels like a quick stitch.
Today was a day spent at home, mostly. The weather that was supposed to happen, and dump a lot of rain on us, didn't really happen. There was lots of wind last night and today, but not much for rain. I did see that parts of Michigan got slammed pretty good. This evening we drove to down and the sky was a sight to behold. Ahead of us it was large grey clouds.
To my right, it was beautiful blue skies and fluffy white clouds.
A quick video of when we drove to town. We drove through a short rainfall.
This is basically how weather was for the entire day.
Other things that happened today:
These guys went to their forever home.
The coldest day in June, so far, and some bunny decided it was time to have her babies.
Shadow definitely keeps us on our toes. She started giving birth and we brought her in. It was not a great labor and delivery for her. She had a lot of kits and five are still alive, I think. :-(. A couple we put in the incubator, to get their body temperature up. Fingers crossed. It was the first time my son was really involved with watching and taking care of things after the birth. He was a little frazzled.
I was *so* close to having my craft room back, too. I was in the midst of cleaning up in there, and getting things set back up to pre-chicks setup, when my son came in and said Shadow needed to be brought in.
Since we we at home today, I decided to make Sally's Baking Challenge for this month. Brownie Ice Cream sandwiches.
I have never made brownies from scratch before. This brownie recipe tastes amazing to me.
Currently, the ice cream sandwiches are sitting in the freezer. Tomorrow I'll cut them up and give them a try. Adventures in the kitchen!
It was a good mail day for me. My cousin sells Scentsy and I put an order in with her last month.
I took a chance on the scents. I realized most of what I currently have is all fall and winter-type scents. If I'm going to be at home for most of the summer, I need something appropriate.
All the scents are good! I'm so picky and can be sensitive to some artificial smells.
I decided to not write anything yesterday because nothing happened. Well, not much of anything. I worked, I did some garden stuff and I sweated. It got hot out. Hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit in my area. We are not ready for temperatures like that this early in the season. The poor rabbits didn't handle it well. I felt so bad for them. They all laid around and panted all day. In particular, I felt sorry for poor Shadow. She's so pregnant right now. In fact, I think she's starting to build her nest. She must be getting snappy at Feffer. He looks sad and pitiful. He runs to Shadow and she grunts at him. The chickens seemed to handle the heat fine. Even the young ones. Today was the start of my vacation week. I had a bit of a rough start this morning, due in part to waking up a bunch of times. Why? Because a batch of chicks hatched out.
You like the one who is sitting in the feeder, like a boss?
I went out into the garden early-ish this morning. Otherwise I think I would have fallen back to sleep and I didn't want to do that.
I did the first weeding of the season. I decided to do a quick video of what the main garden looks like.
I opted to not do any commentary on this one. Mostly because I wasn't sure how I'd chatter, on the fly. You get to hear the birds in the background.
Some really exciting things were discovered today.
Our first of several baby peppers!
Another little baby pepper.
This is so exciting for me. I grew that from seed!
This plant is from a "hot pepper blend" packet.
Speaking of birds ... my son was on the ball this morning, with doing morning chicken chores. Unfortunately he left the gate to the new fencing and the big girls got to spend the whole day outside.
The yard didn't get ripped up, thankfully. They seemed to have had a blast roaming the entire back yard, eating bugs and chasing each other.
Today was another day of warm weather in my area. Just standing caused you to break out into a sweat.
So what else did I decide to do? Clean my car. My poor car. It's been mostly ignored and neglected since the safer-at-home stuff started.
Yesterday I finished my first vanilla sock.
Vanilla sock
Needle size: 2.5 mm (I think). whatever my usual size is
Yarn: Patons Kroy sock yarn
Color: Green striped rag
I've already cast on the second sock and am about an inch past the ribbing.
As I look outside, the rain we've been anticipating has finally arrived. This is the leftovers of Christobal. It was originally supposed to arrive around 5 p.m. I've been watching the radar.
