A Good Egg!

I'm not sure which of our girls was responsible, but when I went outside this morning to feed the birds, I spotted this inside the chicken tractor:

Our very first egg!  Not exactly "extra large", but I am so proud of those girls anyway!  Hooray for chickens!

Color My World....

Outside it is rainy and gray, but here in the house things are colorful and bright:

May your day be wonderful, whatever your weather may be!

Silly Little Things

I have had more than one person tell me that they have never seen anyone get as tickled as I do over little things.  I explained to all those people that due to the financial struggles that we had for the early part of our marriage, I HAD to learn to get tickled over little things or there would have been nothing to get tickled about!  Although life is a little easier now, my ability to get tickled over silly, little things has continued.  I also seem to have the need to decorate common items and to find beauty in places where you would least expect to find it.

I have recently become a fan of the galvanized trash can.  I bought one in which to store chicken feed, another in which to store wood shaving for the chickens’ bedding, and a much smaller one in which to store my bird/squirrel feed.  They are practical and sturdy and fairly cheap, but a little ordinary for my taste.

I had hoped to perk them up by doing a little decorative painting on them.  I have always wanted to sit down and learn the “one stroke” painting method created by Donna Dewberry.   However, I have yet to really take the time to work on it.  Therefore, I just did not feel comfortable enough with my proficiency level to commit to painting something permanent.  One day the can with chicken feed will have a checkerboard design with some baby chicks, and the “bedding” can will have some painted quilt blocks on it.  One day.

However, I lucked out with my can for the bird feed.  A few years ago, Home Shopping Network carried a product called “tatouage”.  A decorative artist painted all sorts of cute things, and then her designs were used to create a dry-rub transfer that you can use to create your own mural on your wall (to learn more, click here).  I had decorated our foyer with some vines and yellow flowers, and I remembered that I actually had some of that stuff left.  Would it work on my bird feed trash can?

I cleaned the trash can first with rubbing alcohol and then with vinegar, just for good measure.  I then rinsed it with water.  I was delighted with just how easily and quickly the tatouage went on.  Before I knew it, my little can was fully decorated.  The only snag I hit was when I sprayed it with a sealant designed for acrylic paint.  This caused a little bubbling in a couple of spots, and the old, perfectionist me would have “trashed” the whole project.  However, the new, tired me just said, “Aaah, this makes it look vintage”, and called it a day.

Is it perfect?  NO!  But I still get a little chuckle over this silly, little trash can every time I see it in the yard:

Ruby and Opal Woodbury: Warrior Cuddle Chickens

It’s been awhile since I have written about the girls, so I wanted to do an update on how they are doing.  They have grown to be quite big now, and they certainly have personalities.  As I have stated before, I knew that chickens would be great to have for fresh eggs, but I had no idea just how much fun they could be (although there IS a little bit of work involved, too).

It’s fun to watch the crazy things they do, such as sunning themselves like so many teenaged girls:

I had read in a book that if it is at all possible, if you want, let’s say, four chickens (our goal), it is best to get all four at one time.  It’s not impossible to add to a flock, and I’ve seen that people do this quite often.  However, you have to be able to handle the squabbling and fighting that can occur between the new chickens and the older chickens in order to establish that “pecking order” thing.  “Pecking order” is not a myth – one of the reasons I picked Opal was because her little tail had been pecked at by all those other chickens until she was bloody, and I wanted to save her.  Since the girls are always sweet to me, and seem to get along well with each other, I thought we would be immune from this pecking order rule (which is good – I don’t have the stomach for squabbling and  bloody tails).  However, watching the girls in action has made me think otherwise.

I first noticed the “warrior chicken” come out in Ruby.  When they are running around in the yard, Opal and Ruby generally stick pretty close to one another.  However, every now and then they will go their separate ways.  Before you know it, here comes Molly, trying to sniff Opal’s bottom.  Ruby Woodbury, “Warrior Chicken”, springs into action and is across the yard before you know it.  She has no qualms about taking Molly on, and Molly is driven away from Opal, sent away to sniff someone else’s bottom.

The girls will often team up against the wildlife in the area.  I love feeding the birds and squirrels, and I usually put their food in the fenced area behind the garden.  But there are times that it is too muddy to go back there, so I will pick some random area in the yard to dump the seed.  If Opal and Ruby are out in the yard, heaven help the wild life!  I was shocked at how aggressive they were in chasing off a dove one day.  Even sparrows can’t catch a break – the girls become warrior chickens and make sure that everyone knows that this is THEIR yard!  STAY OUT!

Despite their warrior chicken tendencies, when it comes to interacting with us, they are certainly loving, especially as evening sets in.  Once the sun is low in the sky they feel the need to cuddle, and if anyone makes the mistake of sitting in a chair, the girls are on it!  (Although standing doesn’t always save you – I was out raking some leaves one evening and Opal flew up to my shoulder while I was still raking!)  Every evening, before they go in for the night, I try to set aside some “chicken time”.  Usually Opal ends up roosting on my shoulder and Ruby ends up sitting on my arm or lap (which actually allows for more petting).  Tonight, Robert was the lucky ducky who got to enjoy “chicken time” while I snapped some pictures:

So there you have it:  we are the proud owners of warrior cuddle chickens!

Bozeman, Yellowstone, and Heading Home….

After arriving in Bozeman, we had an extra day to kick around so we drove here and there a bit.  Ever forgetting something, we made a trip to the local Wal-Mart to pick up a couple of things that we found we were in need of.  As we walked through the parking lot, there was a sign in a spot right next to the handicapped parking.  I got so tickled when I saw this sign (I’ve never seen this before!):

It’s not that uncommon to see an airport, even in a smaller community, but I’ve never seen such a scenic route taking you there:

We also knocked around the historic part of town, and I found just the perfect house:

Here is another sign that was on that very residential street, and it is certainly not something I’ve ever seen in Texas:

Bozeman seems to be a very “organic”  and green town in many respects.  I saw a lot of people riding bicycles – not wearing biking pants and helmets via Lance Armstrong, but even wearing skirts and sandals with their groceries safely secured on the back.  I had visited the very large organic food co-op on my first visit, but I hadn’t noticed this little co-op tucked among the quaint shops on Main Street.  I wonder:  how many organic food co-ops are there in town?

We spent some time in our room, and a very antsy Alan passed the time by keeping connected on Facebook:

I love watching local news when I am visiting an area, and I have been struck by the local news anchor.  While still attractive, she is not a blonde, 20-something, contact lens wearing slip-of-a-girl (which seems to be a major requirement for Fox news anchors -- Hooray for women of wisdom and substance!):

On “Yellowstone” day, Alan was up a little before 5:00 a.m.  He was supposed to be at the bus station across the street no later than 7:15 a.m. (not too bad), but at 6:00 he announced that he was going to go on over.  He had stepped out for a while and had noticed that several people were already there.  I was instructed that I was NOT going over with him (as I did last time) to wait for the bus; he would just say his good-byes in the room so as not to be the butt of “mama’s boy” jokes for months to come.  It reminded me of the day that my kindergartener told me not to kiss him in front of school, and in fact, I could just drop him off at the corner.  Oh, the pain in a mother’s heart!  Once he was gone, I figured I might as well get going myself, so I prepared to leave.  As I was loading the car I noticed that the bus was there.  I couldn’t help myself – I had to hide behind the bushes and take a picture of the bus.  I thought I was ready for all of this (after all, we did it last year), but I found myself unprepared for the incredible sense of sadness that I experienced as his bus pulled away.  I ended up crying like a real nit-wit.  My heart certainly goes out to any mother who sends her child away to war – I can’t even imagine how they must feel.  They have my utmost respect and empathy.

Once he was gone, there was no sense in dallying, so I hit the road.  I couldn’t drive past Sheridan, Wyoming, without stopping at this scenic turnout overlooking a beautiful valley:

Spending the night in Cheyenne, I have put my beloved mountains behind me.  I am on my way home.

To Another Place and Time…

I’m writing this while sitting in one of my favorite places in the world…Bozeman, Montana!  Alan decided to return to Yellowstone to work this year (he’s even considering staying over the winter), and I am the one who got to bring him up.  After two-and-one-half days of driving, I have been transported to another world.

Here’s Alan, at home before we left, ready to go (he is really more excited than he looks; he just doesn’t like being in pictures or taking them):

For the most part, the trip was non-eventful.  I wish I had more pictures, but unfortunately my fare does not like to take pictures and I was a little busy driving.  We were in some VERY heavy rain for a lot of our drive through Oklahoma, and while driving through Oklahoma City the rain was so heavy that you couldn't see the signs for the exit until it was too late to take one.  Hooray for Tom Tom -- I didn't have to read the signs.  The rain wasn't exceptionally heavy throughout Kansas, although it was just misty and yucky for a lot of the drive.  For me, the most exciting sight in Kansas was the wind farm.  Even though I’ve seen it before, I still find it striking:

Kansas was more of an audio experience this time.  I lost talk radio just as we got past Hays and I started searching for a radio station.  I could only get one station at one point and it was an “oldies” station.  It was actually quite a hoot for me because it wasn’t playing songs from my teen and young adult years – it was playing songs that I remember hearing when I was quite a young girl.  There is nothing like music to take you to a certain period in time.  It was a little weird when I realized that I remembered the words to all of the songs; I can’t remember where I put my car keys half of the time!

On the second day, we got into Sheridan a little later in the day than we normally arrive on other legs of the journey.  On the drive through Wyoming we listened to a radio news show, “Wyoming Tonight”(?) and it’s always fun to get a feel for an area through its news programs.  Here are some of the big stories:

1.  Some highway near Riverton had had both lanes shut down for a while after a truck carrying some bees had gone off of the road.  The road stayed shut down until the area fire department took care of the bees.

2.  Gas prices in Wyoming are some of the lowest in the country due to the fact that they get a large supply of their crude oil from Canada, and Wyoming refineries are humming along with no problems.  I took this picture as we fueled up in Sheridan:

3.  Of interest to my husband, the hydrologist, would be the story about Wyoming taking measures to do some controlled releases of water in the area.  Apparently, Wyoming had a much larger than normal amount of snow pack this year, and coupled with the large amount of rain they have been getting/are expecting this week, they needed to do these controlled releases to make room in area lakes for storage of the large amount of melting snow/water.  This made me happy because I know that often having enough water is an issue in some places in this part of the country.

Sheridan is still beautiful, and I love being able to see the mountains, no matter where in town you are:

The best part of the drive for me is the area just outside of Bozeman.  That’s where you really start to see the mountains.  At first they were really “misty”:

Something that I found really exciting was that it began to snow as we went further up into the mountains.  The air temperature was cold enough for the snow, but the ground temperature was warm enough that it didn’t stick to the roads and posed no danger to a Texas driver.  I always love to see the snow covered trees, especially the little “Christmas” trees:

Once we were at the motel, I wanted a picture of the snow:

Alan and I treated ourselves to another “blast” from our past.  The “Dairy Queen” restaurant was everywhere when I was growing up, but they have all but totally disappeared from the area in which I now live.  However, Bozeman has a great Dairy Queen, and that’s where we decided to go for dinner.  Here is a picture of Main Street and all of the cute little shops:

After we ate, I took this picture of some birds that were sitting near a dumpster.  Holy cow!  I feed the birds at home (every day), but I don’t think I could keep up with these guys!

Alan doesn’t leave for Yellowstone until Thursday morning, so we are hoping to get out and explore a little tomorrow.  I can’t wait!

Stinky McFinkey, Order from Chaos, and Chickens

It seems like it has been forever since I have been able to read blogs (and I’ve missed that!) or write one of my own.  I have been so busy that it’s not even funny.  March is the “birthday” of Relief Society, our women’s organization at church and I was in charge of a big, blowout dinner celebration.  Although it did not occupy all of my time, it did occupy all of my brain cells for the first half of the month.   I am terrible when I have an event looming on the horizon; I can’t think of anything besides “the event” and do not switch gears very well.  It is almost paralyzing at times.  Glad that’s over.

I also began a new adventure in March (in fact, the week of the dinner).  It’s a long story, and it’s their story to tell (not mine), but the bottom line is that Miss Popper is no longer going to day care when her parents are at work.   She is now spending her weekdays with her old Lolee, who does the best she can to keep up.  It is actually quite comical to see us.  The little girl who arrives at my house around 7:30 in the morning has been roused from her blissful sleep by her mother, who insists on waking her in order to change her diaper, feed her, and all that stuff.  By the time she gets to my house she is quite done with it all and can be somewhat irritable.  I call this little child, “Stinky McFinkey”.  I do my best to console Miss McFinkey, I give her some breakfast and a bottle, and then I put her little fanny down for a morning nap.

Miss McFinkey insisting on feeding herself:

Nap time is where the magic happens.  Over the next hour or so, this slumbering child is transformed.  When she awakens, she is no longer “Stinky McFinkey” – she has become “Cutie McTooty”.   Little “Cutie” and I have a pretty good time for the rest of the day.  So far, we have both survived three weeks.  She is so sweet and we have been working on reaching her milestones (sitting up, etc.) together.  I love having my girl here, but I will say that there is a reason that 50-year old women are infertile.  I just don’t have the energy her mother seems to have. 

Here is my girl, having a great time playing:

When I am not trying to keep Miss Popper alive or doing church stuff, I have been trying to work on our yard.  There is a reason that I have never shown a full picture of our yard (only close-ups and snippets).  You see, our dogs declared war on our yard a few years back, and they seem to have adopted a “scorched earth” policy.  We also have a variety of building projects that were started, but not finished, resulting in piles of lumber and building materials scattered hither and yon.  This is the year that we are finally working TOGETHER to get our yard in shape.  Robert is working on finishing the mansion for the chickens and other items in an attempt to use up the lumber.  I am planting flowers, herbs, and berry bushes everywhere that there is sun in the hope that if there is enough stuff growing, it won’t be so obvious that we don’t have grass.  We are also looking at laying some more flagstones on all of the “paths” that the dogs have created.  We are trying to create order from chaos.  Once we are finished, I might get brave enough to show you some “before” and “after” pictures.  For now, I will just show you a couple of things that I found this spring that were inexpensive, but that I find oh-so-neat.

I found this cute little thing at “Dollar Tree” for one dollar.  By having Robert drill some holes in the bottom, I transformed it into a cute little planter, just right for one lone plant:

My favorite thing is the set of solar-powered butterfly lights.  I put them among the butterfly bushes (ha ha).  Once dusk arrives, they put on quite a show, changing colors in sequence.  Beautiful!

I am still enjoying our chickens, Opal and Ruby.  I do have to make time for them to run loose in the yard because the hawk is still in the area.  Too many times I go out into the yard, only to find feathers everywhere:

That sight still makes me sick.  Not my girls!  So they are kept safe when we are not in the yard and allowed to run crazy when we can be out there.  I tried to get a good picture of them tonight, but they don’t stay still for very long.  Here is a blurry picture that at least shows what big girls they are:

So that’s it!  That’s the big excitement here in Woodbury World.  Hope things are going well in yours!