Life as Usual

[Pedata]

Journal Entry Sep 2nd '05

The rooster spured me today. A puncture wound. Blood.

Mr S was right. They are cocky, evil little devils.

He snuck up behind me. I felt a strong thump right below the back of my knee. Didn't know what he'd done at first.

Now I carry the staff everywhere. He stays a few feet away.

I thought of the stew pot. For a second.

Now I have to arm myself so that a largish bird doesn't stab me with natural knives.

Mr S has moved. Mr U has moved. The meth heads are all gone from the rent house. It's hard to live in a house when the landlord keeps taking your front door down.

It was getting bad out here. Meth heads are so bold. When they're flying.

Now I am being invaded by ducks. Messy, noisy, piggy ducks. They won't go away. A mallard, a pekin, and four kids.

Nadine's husband wrote her another nasty, bizzare note. It was so bad that she took it to his doctor. He's in the looney bin now.

I got six eggs yesterday. It's been three, four, and five a day since we got Jack, the rooster. Hens like sex. Makes them happy.

Mr U's girlfriend came over a few days ago and gave me a torquoise feather for my hat.

Sherry is in Louisiana, with her volunteer group, helping with that mess.

The rooster tried to mate with a duck. Brain the size of a grape.

Thor pulled a 23 hour day. He came home looking like a zombie. Fell asleep at the computer with his hand on the mouse.

I've been getting ferilized eggs. I think they're waiting until spring to go broody. That's for the best, the little ones will be well-feathered and big before winter comes. We have to build a broody area, that's safe from the rooster. Little one's will have to live in the run for a couple of months until they have enough size to out-run or out-fly the rooster. Most rooster try to kill chicks.

Mean mean mean!

Cowboy Bebop movie tomorrow night. Good plots, good music. Must tape.

Thor is going to relatives on Sunday. Potluck family reunion. I'd like to go, but someone has to deal with the birds. It's too hot to leave them in the run. I'm sending a cake and eggs. Hope they understand, free ranging birds is a daily commitment, not a part time hobby. Gotta be here every day at certain times. Just being late one night could result in the entire flock being wiped out. Possums and raccoons and dogs, oh my.

There's two eggs in the boxes right now. Two hens still laying. Guess it's time to go check them.

[kermit]

1 (5 1/2-pound) duckling
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 onion, sliced
1 cup red currant jelly
1 tablespoon lemon juice

Season both the outside and inside of the duckling with salt and pepper. Place the onion inside the duck. Truss the bird and prick the skin. Dry thoroughly.

Place the duck breast-side up in a roasting pan and place in the center rack of a 425 degree preheated oven for 15 minutes to brown lightly. Reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees and roast for 1 additional hour to 1 hour and 25 minutes. Remove accumulated fat occasionally with a bulb baster.

The duck is done to medium rare if the juices from the fattest part of the thigh or drumstick run faintly rosy when the duck is pricked, and when the duck is lifted and drained, the last drops of juice from the vent are pale rose. The duck is well done when the juices run pale yellow.

Remove the duck from the oven, discard trussing strings, and place on a serving platter. Let sit for 10 minutes before carving.

In a saucepan, combine the red currant jelly and the lemon juice. Bring to a boil, strain, and serve with the duck.

[LIBRA]

good to hear your thought again, I missed hearing whats going on!!

[Pedata]

Averaging 35 eggs a week. Time to sit on the side of the road, with a sign, and make some money.

Ducks.

Curse words.

They are penned now. They have food, water, straw, shelter, and a wading pool.

Why am I paying taxes of which part goes to the Game and Fish commission? They are no help. They won't take unwanted waterfowl. Only possums and raccoons.
They connected me with a habitat program. They, also, will not take unwanted waterfowl, only hawks and owls. They offered to connect me with some guy who will take the ducks, at a price. I don't think so. I can do that myself.
No one can tell me any relocation laws. I don't want to be caught letting ducks loose in the wrong place, and maybe get a great big fine.

Government.
Curse words.

So, there they are. Quack honk quack. Noisy. Messy. Very messy things. Nothing will run them off. Big sticks. Jack and his spurs. Hens attacking and pulling thier feathers out. Nothing.

So, they are penned for now. No more turning my birds' water filthy in seconds and vaccuming up a pound of corn in even less seconds.

I set up a place. I need Thor to sharpen a knife. It must be very sharp. One by one, they are going in the freezer.

The last pullet mated with Jack, finally. Now all eight are laying. Twice in the last couple of weeks I've gotten seven eggs in one day.

It keeps clouding up. Rain tomorrow. Thank God. All the flora is wilting. Even the tough weeds are drooping.

Everyone loves the new biscuit recipe. Humans and avians alike. The birds fly up at me to grab them from my hands. I'm getting my fingertips so tweaked.

I kept Nadine's 3 year old the other day. Boy, did she wear me out. I'm too old for ones that small. They take constant supervision. We had fun, tho. Ice trays and blocks were the people in the bus. They went on a picnic and a Great Farting Monster (the little blue llama) threatened them.
The old good versus evil and evil wins formula.

Walking outside with that stick is feeling more natural. Keeping it between me and Jack at all times. I can tell when he's in that spurring mood. He dances sideways and gets a look. I think he's acting like a puppy, thinking it's just play to fly at me with those wicked little swords.

I researched the proccess of removing the spurs from a rooster and I just can't do it.

And I researched bees. Forget that. Too many regulations. Diseases and parasites. You have to keep paperwork on beehives.

I'll just stay with chickens. More and more chickens.

Hope all those people get out that hurricane path. Last time I checked the interstate was pretty much at a standstill.

Four eggs so far today. One went on the nest a while ago. Inbetween I had a chance to clean out the poop. They don't like me in there when they're laying. They screech at me. The screeching brings Jack running, wings out, and in total alarm. He most certainly protects them.

Time to go find something to eat.

[Pedata]

Not bad. A twenty pound bag of rice for one seventyfive. I love markdown bins.

I found that fishing pond that Mr U told me about. It is very obviously being kept up by someone. Manmade. Banks all weedfree. Oh well. Better to go without fish that get shot at. Or arrested.
Nadine's old man still wants to talk to me. We both came from psychotic families. I survived without becoming an alcoholic or going on antidepressants or running off everyone around me.

Bizarre dreams last night. Good, but bizarre. Found an old car that I once rode in. Inside was a thermos that I had left there years ago. I opened it and the coffee inside was still good and hot.
That's not the bizarre dream.
The bizarre dream is just too embarrassing.

I have been cooking all morning while it's cool.

I let the ducks go. And now, two days later, they are back. They ate all the food. Even managed to filthy up the water in a special waterer.

I will have to shoot them.

I asked Nadine if her old man would take me to the range to set the sights on my rifle. Hmmm....he's been ordered to NOT be in possession of firearms until further notice. If he is found with a firearm they said they'd send him back to Iraq.

I'll be taking care of her little one on Friday, so she can go to thier marraige counseling session.

I dreamed I was with Inuyasha.He was madly in love with me. We were going to live in the back of a pickup truck that was on a big boat. The plan was to sail to another country. He had gotten rid of his usual clothes and cut of all his hair. His dog ears were gone. He looked wierd but was so nice and funny that I couldn't resist.

I killed two possums the other night. They were after my chickens.
We also saw a owl in the oak tree right above the coop.
It flew away.

I've been warned but I didn't think it would happen, but it is. The Buffet sign in on. The wildlife is coming.
What's next? Foxes? Bears?
Eek. Bears. Claws that can slice through metal.

Are all these things showing up just so I can eat them?
I refuse to eat possum. No matter what you do with it, it is the nastiest tasty meat. Real gamey.

Thor took some eggs to work. There's a new guy. He's about 22 years old. He's offered honey and egg cartons for some of our eggs. Cool. Thor played on the computer and made some labels to put on the cartons. They came out good. They say Free Range, and then he put a picture of brown eggs on it.
And this evening I'll found out if this guy is for real or just blowing smoke.

Not that I'm cynical but so far everyone that had said they want to buy eggs has not shown up. Got me all excited then slowly my balloon lost it's air.

I've got to go candy my carrots.

[RockyJay]

Hey Pedata. Sorry to hear about the wound. Kermit has a good point. Cook the ducks! They are tasty. 2-way Peking duck Peking duck Peking duck! :)


Not all Roosters are bad,
Rocky the Typing Rooster
;)

[lishca]

when i was growing up we had free range chickens and a rooster that was pretty.....violent. one of the hens got grabbed by a fox and the rooster tore the heck out of the fox.

coons can pull boards off coops, if they can get their nose in, they can get the rest of them in too.

the only thing i know to do about the ducks is eat them.

hope that it all goes well for ya

[Pedata]

Hey Rocky, you incredibly talented rooster. Maybe I'll put you in the coop with the girls........


.....and on with life as usual.

I caught the small female duck. She quacked and quacked. The others ran off. The rooster came running toward me, hell bent on damaging me, but a wave of my big stick and a little yelling stopped him. He put his beak to the ground and did that funny "took took" talk like he'd found a bug. That brought the hens running to him.

I've been herding the ducks back to thier little pond down the road. I don't think anyone owns them. No one lives in the trailer that's been sitting there for years. Usually they stay away after one herding. Today they came back. Ate all the corn, muddied up all threee waterers.

She was so warm and soft. There I was holding a duck dinner in my arms and she was just so sweet and helpless. Then she pooped on me.

So, I herded them back, again. They are forcing me to exercise.

The rent house is occupied. They look poor. All sitting on the porch. I guess the landlord has not replaced or repaired the central heat and air.

OldWhat'sHerName called me the other night. Drunk as could be. Talked my head off for almost two hours. I just listened. All I can do when the other person never shuts up. She tried her usual tricks. Told me Mr S was not my friend. Niether was Mr U. Told me she loved me, we were sisters, we'd known each other for 20 years, blah blah blah. I just agreed with it all, easier to agree with a drunk than state the truth. That makes them mad.

It'll be six months or more before I hear from her again.

I had Nadine's little one on Friday. Pretty easy day. She was in a happy mood. I found a stick just her size for warding off the rooster. She turns four this month and is very excited about Halloween.

Collected five eggs today. Was examining one, lost my hold on it, tried to grab it and knocked it into my coffee cup. Cracked. Had to eat it.
I've been so clumsy lately. Knocking things over a lot.

Nadine brought me egg cartons. I gave her an eighteen pack of eggs.

That guy that Thor works with came through, sort of. Thor came home with about a quart of honey. No egg cartons. The guy said he's going to a harvest and will bring us some with the comb in it.

Nadine's marriage counseling went bad. Her old man acted like a five year old. She's so mentally exhausted.

The drought killed about a quarter of my dewberry canes. I got about 25 pounds this summer. There will still be plenty for next years jelly.

No more possums have showed up. I guess there were only those two. Something dug them up. Or they came back to life. Eek. Zombie possums.

A big bowl of chicken stock in the fridge from the breasts I stewed today. This batch looks real nice. Tomorrow, take off the fat, portion the stock and freeze. Freeze the fat. Chicken fat is the best for making ricotta cheese. It has the right mildness to it.

The long hot summer is drawing to an end. Eighties until mid week, then sixties for the highs. Yes. Oh, yes. The birds will be bouncing all over the place. So will I.

I felt the duck's chest. No meat to speak of. Bones. Poor little thing. No wonder they're coming out here. I guess I'll just keep herding them. Nadine suggested I take them some food to the pond each day. Maybe they'll stay there. Guess I'll make a bunch of those very cheap biscuits that cost about three cents a batch.
It's worth a try. We'll see what happens.

[Pedata]

I kept Tina today. She is now four. Thor says she acts like five. I'm keeping her tomorrow also. But Nadine is paying me cold hard cash this time.

The ducks are now showing up early in the morning. Waiting for me to walk them home and give them homemade biscuits.

They are eating the neighbor's catfood.

Three days - 20 eggs. I have Nadine an eighteen pack.

Sarah is grounded from my place for a week. She totally misbehaved after her day here. So Nadine got her where it hurts, because she loves coming over here. A whole week of no woods, no egg checks, no arts and crafts, no singing, no story telling.

It was so pretty today. About 75 degrees and windy. Clouds and sun. The chooks are acting nuts. One of them laid an egg on the floor. No cracks, perfectly fine. It must have caught her by suprize. Or the other hen wouldn't let her in the nest. Six nests and they all want the same one.

A while back there was three hens in one box. They looked so comical.

I'm going to fall asleep as soon as I lie down tonight. It's been a long day of little girl. After tomorrow, I'll be a zombie.

I've seen the new nieghbors when I walk to and back from the duck pond. They kind of stare then ignore me. Today I had Tina with me. Tiny little thing, walking with her very own little stick. The new nieghbor woman just broke out in a smile when she saw us. Waved and called hello. Then stood there with a big smile on her face. I know the drill. Come on over, you have a child, you are welcomed into the club.
I smiled, waved and called hello back. And kept walking. Fuck you, I thought. You're one of those women that want nothing to do with childless women. Now you think I have a child. Does that make me normal? Was I abnormal before? I don't need your kind.

I told Nadine about it. She doesn't understand thier attitude. She's a great friend. When we first met we both laid our cards on the table. I'm childless and have something like diabetes, and am married to a hippy. She's married to a cop and has psycho inlaws, and is on antidepressants. And the rest is history.
We're good for each other. And her kids love me.

I helped Tina crack her first egg today. We made scambled eggs. Tomorrow we'll make biscuits, then take some to the ducks.

I rocked her in the chair, read a book, sang her songs. She got drowsy and fell asleep.
She thinks it's soooooo funny when Jack crows. Every time.

Dinner was great. Salmon patties. Carrots. Saffron rice.

Tomorrow? Chicken livers? Mashed taters? Gravy? Squash?

My kitchen is a mess. I just want a glass of milk and bed.

Goodnight.....

[Pedata]

Busy, busy, busy.

Update on life as usual.

The rooster disappeared about a month ago. The hens showed up without him in the afternoon. I searched and called down the draw. Nothing.

I don't want another rooster. I'd forgetten how peaceful it was before him.

I am going to make Sarah's birthday cake. Nadine bought the decorations. She gave me some money for my trouble. Scratch cake. Easy, really. Marvelous tasty secret ingredient.

Getting 4 to 7 eggs a day. Lately they've slowed down a bit. Lockup time comes earlier. I think they're fighting in the coop. Several of the old adopted hen's tail feathers were lying on the floor a few days ago.
They hate snow. They fly over it from one bare ground patch to another.

I sold two cartons of eggs.
My birthday is coming up. Thor is going to treat me to dinner and a present.
He's going to be off for two weeks over Xmas and New Years. I'll be spoiled rotten and won't want him to go back to work. But, alas, bills must be paid.

I sat in the woods, today, with the birds. Coffee for me. A banana and corn for them. They practically climbed into my lap, going after the food. They were warm against my legs.

Someone came over the other day and brought a cloud of smoke with them. I wandered around for hours, totally incapable of doing anything requiring more than three brains cells. Built huge castles in the sky. Later laughed at the impossibility of such castles.

So much is possible in clouds.

Two big bowls of chicken stock in the fridge. They need to be portioned and frozen.
Made black bean soup. And bean & carrot soup. Portions in freezer. Very handy.

Am attempting to figure out the ingredients, more or less, in McDonalds hash browns. I think they coat them lightly with sugar. There's a creaminess, or something, in them. Must go sniff all my spices and herbs. The right ones will jump out. Sometimes. That doesn't always work.

Sarah and I made a cat toy. A wooden dowl. White yarn. And some leather strips. The leather looked like a big, scary spider. She had a blast making it land on Thor's head.

It's going to rain tonight and tomorrow.

[Pedata]

I've been up since 4am. Menopause is so fun. Wake up all night, either freezing or burning up. Pull covers on, first a sheet, later wake up again, add a blanket. Later add another blanket. Wake up again burning and sweating. Ugly disturbing moods. Mentally painful.

Apart from that life is good.

Except for the two hens disappearing. New nieghbors. Lots lately. New dogs. Running loose. Big German shepherds, a huge brown mutt, that is insane, and some mongrel that runs.

The last of my cash is going to fence.
Sorry birds, you have to live in a yard now.

The dogs are getting into people's trash. Elderly nieghbor confronted dog owners. Threatened to shoot dogs. Haven't seen a single dog since he lowered the boom on them.
My rifle is loaded and leaning in the corner of the living room.

I measured the land. It would cost $600 to go around it with six foot high chicken wire.
I have $35.

So the yard will be small. And only three feet high. I have dragged up everything I can find to attach to the bottom to keep the girls inside. The top will be a crazy mess of tangle dead branches. Enough to deter things. Eye poking branches. Stupid dogs.

Ran into an old friend in the store.

The girls are staying in the run and henhouse until the yard is done. They had fits the first day. Now, three days later, they're acting happy again.

Ten pound sale at one store. Loaded up on ground beef. Chicken breasts on sale elsewhere.
The collard greens were pretty today. Loaded up on them.

Taped a bunch of Japanese cartoons on a commercial-free channel. Excellent cartoons. Good for any age.

Tomorrow is a busy day. Stew the chicken. Reduce the stock. Wash, blanch, chill, portion, and freeze the collards.

I started back on my paper bead hobby. Keeps the hands busy. There's a huge pile of them now. One day I'll make a beaded curtain, but right now I just want to roll, roll, roll beads.

There are over five dozen eggs in the fridge. The count dropped after the two girls disappeared, but now it's doing not too bad. No one laid in the top nest for a while. Finally the old hen got in it and sang songs. Now someone's laying in it. Not her tho. I know her eggs. She's an americauna and her eggs are very wide and have a pinkish tint to them. She lays every week or so. Giant eggs.

The other morning I was watching the sun come up. There was fog. The cedars stood out in the fog in a postcard-like way. For a few seconds I felt as if I was looking at a place I'd never seen before. One of those wonderful awesome feelings. I think it was God saying Good Morning.

It's been a long day. I think I'll go eat a bunch of scrambled eggs, then turn out the girls run light, and go lay all over the bed with my ten pillows.

Must have many pillows.

[LIBRA]

I heard on the radio this morning a woman from the state I think you are from, gave a chicken mouth to mouth after finding it face down in a pond, I giggeled and thought for sure it was you, unitll they said it was an exotic chicken and it was her brothers and she used to be a nurse! Too funny!
She saved the bird too!

thought you may enjoy that, or maybe heard it?

Denise

[Pedata]

I heard on the radio this morning a woman from the state I think you are from, gave a chicken mouth to mouth after finding it face down in a pond, I giggeled and thought for sure it was you, unitll they said it was an exotic chicken and it was her brothers and she used to be a nurse! Too funny!
She saved the bird too!

thought you may enjoy that, or maybe heard it?

Denise
Oh, how funny!! Now I've heard it all, lol.
I am wondering how in the world she managed to deal with the beak. They're not exactly like a human mouth.
Thanks for the laugh:D

-Cass

[Pedata]

Well, I can't do it. The girls are back out enjoying thier freedom. Thor has promised to replace any that I loose. I just won't name the new ones.


The dogs are loose again. A pack of three. I beat on trees with my staff and yell at them. They go away. Fenced dogs bark like lunatics at the loose ones daring to come near thier yards. Noisy, so noisy. Yet handy. I can tell which direction the loose dogs are by thier barking.

The JWs came by. They are very brave to come into this land of the KKK. They mentioned donations. I mentioned I was cashless, but would they like some eggs? No? Now how can that be? How can anyone turn down free eggs? Free Freerange eggs from birds that eat a natural diet and get plenty of exercise.
They left me a disc that I listened to. Nothing I haven't heard before. All about the evil of the love of money.

It's warm and humid. Storms are approaching.

Freezing rain is coming in a couple of days. We may be stuck out here with no sugar or milk.

Tomorrow night the grocery stores will be choked with shoppers buying milk, bread, and diapers.

This humidity is making me ache.

There are butterflies and big red wasps today.

Hmm...the JWs have not come back for thier disc. Maybe they can't find this place again. It's been almost two weeks.

Natasha called me. She wants to come out and spend the weekend.

I am too old for slumber parties. They were fun when we were all in our 30s. We used to pack ourselves in here like sardines. Back when we were all more limber and less achey.

All good things come to an end.

Now a good thing is hot cocoa in bed and my fat cat. Sitting in the woods watching the girls.
Watching a 1929 black and white japanese letterbox version of Macbeth.
Real sweet potatoes.

I will turn 50 this year.
I like looking older. It gets me better service in stores. Strangers offer help and hold doors for me.

I don't feel the need to rush.

Sarah gave me a Xmas present. On the tag she wrote "To Grandma". It was a Grandma magnet for the fridge.

I like being a Grandma. And all without the expense of having children first.

We're getting four new pullets as soon as I seperate part of the coop for newcomers.

And now I will attempt to coax the girls into the run before the thunderstorms hit. Hopefully they'll go and I won't end up getting soaked.

They gave me five pretty eggs for Valentine's day :)

[LIBRA]

The JWs came by. They are very brave to come into this land of the KKK. They mentioned donations. I mentioned I was cashless, but would they like some eggs? No? Now how can that be? How can anyone turn down free eggs? Free Freerange eggs from birds that eat a natural diet and get plenty of exercise.
They left me a disc that I listened to. Nothing I haven't heard before. All about the evil of the love of money.plenty of exercise.


Oh thats sooo ironic!! LOL!!

I never understood them, how can you do that, go door to door?? I woulld never push my beliefs, people are strange.

[Pedata]

Maybe if I write it down it will seem real.

It seems so quiet without the phone ringing.

I pulled up honeysuckle today, reclaiming my old cinderblock planters that I positioned and filled with dirt years ago. I will grow snap peas up the fence along them.

Things are standing out. The wading pools Nadine bought me for the chickens. The leaf blower she gave me for baby sitting.

So many of the kids' toys are still here.

It's beautiful today. I raked sticks, twigs, and leaves out of the garden area. The chickens raked with thier great feet in the parts I had cleared.

I talked to Nadine yesterday. For three hours. Mostly she talked. Very upset. Tired of him and his tyrannical nazi controlling attitude.

We bought a tiller from Thor's boss. Five horsepower. Runs great. No more hand dug gardens for us.

The chicken manure in the compost cooked the first batch in about seven months. That stuff is so hot. Two buckets of it. The second one is not ready, but it won't take much, it's sooo potent.

She blew up at him the other night. Lost it. Screamed, cried, yelled. She said it was like standing and watching herself from a distance.

The straw that broke the camel's back.

I'm going to grow a bunch of marigolds. Maybe some zinnias.

I got a very short call from her last night. He had packed her car, given her sixteen hundred dollars, and told her to get out. She's going back to her family in Kentucky. Just her, no kids.

Am I changing tenses in the middle of paragraphs?

Probably.

It's like being in the middle of a movie and suddenly the tape stops, the room dissappears, and even the furniture vanishes.

I was out in the yard pulling up honeysuckle. It felt like I'd gone back in time to when I had so little contact with people. I had the woods and plants. Birds, critters, and wind. Sun and clouds. Rain.

I am not a psychologist. I didn't know what to tell her about her problems.

The cedar trees used to be living room sized. Now they're over twenty feet tall. Growing privacy walls.


He won't last a week with three small children.

Just the other day Nadine and I were eating bean soup and homemade bread with cheese. Her little one was running around talking about checking for eggs.

She gave me two dollars and said I could make that stretch better than she could. One dollar makes about twelve portions of soup. The other dollar- worth about ten cakes of bread.

Apart from flowers we are growing spinach, sweet potatoes, collards, and zucchini or squash. I don't know about tomatoes. I don't care for them plain. It takes many many tomatoes to make sauce.

I'll grow a couple of tomato plants for the chickens.

And so, in limbo, I shall go get more things done.

[Pedata]

There's been too much rain, I can't hoe the lower garden.

They said it was a tornado. Then they said it was wind. Whatever it was, it blew rooves of houses, tipped over trees, put trees on top of houses, shoved one house several feet off it's foundation, and blew trash all over the place.

Thor and I got missed by a few hundred feet.
Safe down in our little rainforest.

The redbuds are all covered in pale purple flowers. I saw one ground violet yesterday.

My winged creatures think crackers are some delicious concoction from food heaven.

Funny how sometimes one door does indeed shut, then later another one gently opens.

Behind this latest door, to open, was Edna. She's a hippy and doesn't even know it. Now she's in Cowtown with her fiance. They moved there because it is much more racially mixed and tolerant than here.
So she moved from Cowbutt to Cowtown.

The upper garden is planted and fenced off from the chooks.

Tomatoes-yellow squash-spinach-collards-mustard greens-marigolds.
It was planted by the enlarging moon. Two days before fullness.
Some farmers swear by that, others say it's bologna.

With slight trepidation I will say I think we've survived another winter.
When the first blackberry flower opens, then crumples. Then winter is over.

And this seems like a real good time to put on my sneakers and go walk the path in search of possibly-about-to-open blackberry buds.

....so without further ado......

[Pedata]

I got someone to haul the dead tv away. For some reason our pickup won't take them.

And so, the junk piles up. The spring cleaning. Riddance of things broken, A bike. Chairs. Etc.

No one will take the radiator.

The car is going tick tick tick quite loudly. Thor has the van going. The car is on blocks. Not valves. Not timing belt. Possible rod.

We are car poor.

The van is big and very comfortable, but it drinks gas as if it's going out of style.

The egg count is starting to pick up.

I have an electric vegetable slicer. It supposedly makes potato chips. Plain or rippled.

The collards, mustard greens, and broccoli are up. I think the marigold seeds got washed away by the rainstorms.

Aha! They have put Inuyasha on an extra day. Saturdays. Two back to back episodes. I love that cartoon. It's an Adventure Romance.

The electric-green leaves are coming out. The wild plums flowered and are now all leaf.

The redbuds are still holding on to thier flowers. Purple everywhere.

My nieghbor still hasn't burned his pile of junk. I've gotten some good wood out of it. I can't believe the stuff he burns. A three by eight sheet of plywood is now turned into a rain shelter for the girls. Painted two by two's are the posts holding up the fence around the upper garden.

I put rocks in the wading pool and let the rain fill it up. Some leaves blew in and it's starting to get just right for treefrogs to lay thier eggs in. It's right under a hickory tree, so they won't have far to go.

I wonder if the chickens will eat treefrogs? One tried to eat a turtle. Another tried to catch a small bird.

I think they had a big egg-laying fight the other day. Eggs were in the strangest places, on the shelf and floor, and there were feathers everywhere. Someone laid an egg off the highest roost. It broke on the floor and the contents were missing. Just empty shell. Someone had a good breakfast. It was a total of five eggs.

I have new pipes under my sink. Plastic. I am amazed at the difference. First, the leaks are gone! Second, they drain at an amazing rate. I feel like I'm in a new kitchen.

Lockup time approaches, must gather corn....

[Pedata]

The car is fixed and running like new. Broken piston skirt. I didn't know Thor was so mechanical.

Those JW's won't go away. I told them I was staying with my church. Well, they came back anyway. Pests. I was kind of rude. Just didn't answer the door, even with the music going making it obvious someone was home.

Speaking of the church, it's dead. Nothing left but the funeral.
I guess it wasn't really a church, just a place where the long hairs went.

Four new pullets. RIRs. Goofy and funny. The price had gone up due to the bird flu scare. Now, the law says, one must inoculate and de-parasite all birds for sale.
Ran into an old friend at the sale barn. It's been, what, fifteen years? He hasn't changed much. Living right on the bayou. I'm envious. I always wanted to live in a swamp. In a house on poles. Get a punt and a pole and travel the waterways.
There were the usual things at the barn. Turkeys and peacocks. Ducks galore. Pigeons, puppies, kittens, goats. I wanted one of each.
I love the sale barn. Can't tell the hippies from the rednecks because no one cuts their hair.

The new girls are about five and a half months old. They will be laying in another month or so.
Someone laid a fart egg. Only an inch long, all white inside.

Sherry is coming out sometime soon for lunch.

Crazy storms lately. There are small rivers running all over this hill.

Made a new and successful soup. I call it Pyroclastic Flow. It's sooo hot. And it's lava colored. It's just kidney beans, tomato sauce, tomatoes, cayenne pepper, onion, salt, cumin, curry, nutmeg, sugar, and beef boullion.
I could also call it Granny's Sinus Remedy.
Or Natural Exlax.

The water heater shut off thing is messing up. Keeps blowing fuses. Are we destined to live with no instant hot water?

There is a cat living in the water heater closet. Maybe it's pulled some wires.
It's a pretty cat, but very scared.

Thor saw a big bullfrog this morning. I had heard some singing last night.

I emailed Adult Swim and complained about the removal of Inuyasha. Coincidentally they put it back on. Thank you. I also complained about other things.

Darkness approaches, due to cloud cover, and chickens are gathering outside the door making thier primitive dinosaur screeches.

I shall go fix myself some hot cocoa and load up the basket with chickybird food (corn, cereal, banana, crackers, oyster shell) then go to the patio to enjoy thier antics.