Glenn Cottage Chronicles

Glenn Cottage is in The Great Southwestern Sonoran Desert of Arizona. I refuse to accept the fact I live in a desert.

Weather

Glenn Cottage Eggery

Fall. The Best Season of the Year!!

I get to plant all the cool weather crops! Things grow much better here in the winter than in the summer. My husband suggests I pretend in the summer that there is snow on the ground and nothing will grow. So far.... My imagination has not been that good. I continue to attempt to grow things in the summer here.

Recipes

First Dust Bath

Today I let the chicks play in their chicken tractor. One of the little Buff Opington chicks was the first to do a dust bath. Then everyone wanted to get into the act. It is amazing how quicky they become dirt balls! Instead of fluff balls. They are all clean now sleeping in their coop.

Why is there a light on in the coop tonight?

Today I stopped by the feedstore to show the girls pictures of my finished coop. While we were looking at the photos, I remarked "I wish you guys would hurry and get some chicks." They said "We have some new chicks in the "baby chick" house right now!" I about fell over!! I was just there a few days ago!

Well they had Buff Orpingtons, about 25 to 30 of the little fuzzy butts!! I said I would take two, they are 4 days old!! The feed store was my first stop on doing my errands, so I told them I would be back so as not to have to leave the chicks in the hot car.

My next stop was to water the garden at the congregation building. While I was there I called the other feedstore where I had a $5.00 deposit for an order of 4 chicks. I told them I found some Buff Orpingtons, and how long would it be before they ordered some Barred Rock chicks... She said, "We have some Barred Rock chicks right now!" I about croaked!! This feed store is a good 20 miles from our house. I told them I would be there in about 30 minutes or so to pick up two Barrred Rock Chicks.

I made it though the rush hour traffic, I got the chicks, went back to the feedstore right by my house, picked out two Buff Orpington chicks. And came home.

The only thing I HAD to do was make a lid for the big plastic container I bought as a brooder for them. When I was telling Rick I got the chicks, all four of them! And how I had to hurry now and figure out some kind of lid for the brooder box since one of the little Barred Rocks had already tried to fly out of the box she was in!

He said, "Isn't the coop all secure from preditors? Why don't you just put the chicks in the coop with the brooder light? After all, you spent so much time making a coop why have them be all crowded in a plastic box?"

So I did just that! I put them in the coop. Here are the very first pictures I took tonight.

Getting ready for bed. They seem to have hit it off famously!! They are all being very nice to each other.

The Old Tree Stump Had to Go

...was a tree stump that had been in the way in the back garden for almost 20 years.

Here is a photo of me with the saw after cutting it down, it took 2 whole hours to cut that stump off!! I forgot to take photos as I was cutting it down. And many thanks to my friend Louise with the great saw!!

It was petrified!! The tree had been hit by lightning and that is what killed it.

For a few years it had served as a the base for a scarecrow in the vegetable garden.

This last spring I planted some Morning gloriy seeds at the base of the stump and it looked pretty festive with flowers in it's hair for it's last photo with it's face on.

The day after putting the face on the pine tree, I was on the phone to my daughter, and I was telling her about moving the face, she said to take a picture for her, I got the camera out, and I noticed... his nose was now running!!

Silly Goat!

Shadow decided the chicken feed was just too tempting!

Unfortunately she got the feeder stuck on her head.

I am so glad this didn't happen on my day to take care of the goats! I wonder if she will ever do that again?

The heat is taking a toll on my gardnen. I do have one type of lettuce that seems to be growing just fine and is not at all bitter, which is very unusual given we have had a few days in the high 90's here. And I think we broke 100 last Saturday.

I am hoping to get some seeds from these lettuce plants. In early spring I threw a bunch of them out in the front flower garden, not knowing if they would sprout or not. I had gathered them a couple of years ago, and had the seeds in the storage room.

Now I have little heads of lettuce every where!

This may be one of the last little salads I can make out of my own garden until the weather gets cooler, in Novemer some time!

New Kids at The Goat Pen

Last week we had five kids born! Still waiting for one doe to give birth.

Shortnin' was the first one to go into labor. She was quite huge and very

uncomfortable the few days.

Here is Rich trying to make her feel better.

This photo shows just how big she got.

These are the triplets. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego.

Then the next day, Countess had twins. Buttercup and Wesley.

Here they are close up.

And these are some cute photos of Miss Elizabeth from last week.

Playing in water, it was 92 degrees!

And of course what is the use of playing in water, if you don't have some mud?

Here she is holding Wesley.

I took Buttercup for her first outing. Here she is on the frontseat of the car.

She was very good!

We went to Big Frog. The are my goat cheese customers.

Now we are just waiting for Shadow to give birth.

Here is she with her "Ladies in Waiting"

Not Quite a Month Has Gone By!

Goodness March is goinb by so quickly! It is almost over!

The Bat Mitzvah was a great success!

Here are some photos

Being Blessed before her reading.

Reading her Torah Portion,

Practicing her speech before guests arrive.

The chair dance!

March 5th this year, or 23 Adar on the Hebrew Calendar was our 18th Wedding Anniversary.

I got to choose the kind of meal we had after target practice that Sunday. I choose an Ethiopian Restaurant, Zeman's. The food is great! No plates, no silverware. Just a big platter in the center of the table with a nice spongy bread to pick up the different types of what Rich calls "playdough" on the common platter. I LOVE it!!

We made short work of the meal!!

It hailed here yesteday! And today it is pretty cold outside.

Here is the front walkway with the hail.

And here it is coming down in the back yard.

Well got to go feed the goats, new kids due the frist week in April!!

I'll take lots of photos to share, baby goats are just too fun!

Sad Day At Glenn Cottage Eggery. Lady Rosalind died

One of my first baby chicks from 2008, Lady Rosalind died today. She was fine, her comb was a bit pale, but it does that from time to time, so I wasn't concerned. Yesterday for some quite unknown reason, when I put new water in the pen, I picked her up and told her she was a good chiken.

This afternoon, after running some errands, I came home went out to give the chickens some treats,
and there she was... dead as can be!

Here are a few photos of Lady Rosalind as a Memorial.

Portrait from Egg Carton Label.

First day home with all her sisters in the coop.

Fifteen days old, playing on a basket.

Checking out the nest box.

First Egg!!

She was a very nice Chicken, she will be missed.

Bat Mitzvah Classes

We have a young lady that is studying for her Bat Mitzvah in early March. She is doing so well.

Here she is reading her Torah portion from the Scroll for the first time.

While her younger sister looks on.

Here she and Rich are studying and "fine tuning" her singing of the portion.

This week she helped me make a very nice dinner. I decided to do homemade Tortillas.

Here is Rick her step dad, waiting for the lesson to end. He is such a happy fellow

as you can see here.

Been a While...

Not a whole lot is new. We got our first strawberry of the season yesterday!

I planted my strawberries in Nov. of 2009! In an old wheelbarrow, remember?

Here is how the looked back then.

And here is how it looked just a few minutes ago.

I think I will thin them out a bit, and add them to the Strawberry bed

I have in the garden at the congregation.

Oh my Cranberry and Raspberry Cordials I made turned out very good.

I found some little bottles at World Mart to put the cordial in for giving as gifts.

Hopefully it won't leak out!

2001 Vacation Pacific Coast Hwy

Last night I tried to put these photos up but they wouldn't go, so I will try again.

This is me by the Golden Gate Bridge.

This is the sunset from the cabins on the beach at Murphy's Jenner Inn, at Ft. Ross CA.

They were neat cabins with hot tubs on the back patio, so you could sit in the hot tub

and watch the sun go down over the water. There is nothing behind the cabins but a bit

of vacant land and then a steep cliff to the ocean.

This one is of me in the Sea Lion Caves, looking across the bay to a lighthouse.

And this one is in Washington state in a forest right on the ocean.

Well off to fix dinner! I have been working all day in the yard!

maybe later I will post a photo of my giant pile of brush and weeds!

Been Keeping Busy.

This week while going through some software CDs Rich found some photo CDs from some vacations we took in 2000 to 2003. I had such fun going through the photos! Brought back many fond memories!

A couple of the photos I played around with. One was of my brother Herb and I. We were trying out my new camera, and the timer on the shutter went off sooner than we expected. The photo was really funny. Rich came in and said we looked like we should be standing in front of an old farm house with a pitchfork between us. So... I worked on the photo a bit and this is how it turned out.

Here is the original photo.

I also had some fun with a couple of photos from a message board I belong to, Photos of a Great Pyrenees that just need some text bubbles.

This one is just too sweet.

This dog has such great expressions.

I think the next dog we get will be a Great Pyrenees. Rich and I both like that breed. But, it will be a few years yet. Spartacus is doing lots better, His face on one side is tightening up. The vets never did figure out if it was a stroke or Bell's Palsey.

Well, I was going to put up some pictures from Oregon and Washington, but for some reason, I can't seem to get them to work.

I will try later.

Last Couple of Weeks.

Rick is back to work, after taking his annual month off in December. In a few days he starts school to be a Paralegal. He will be rebuilding his computer in the next few weeks. It will be all "Razoo"... so he says.

My garden is doing very well! I am able to make lots of nice fresh salads this time of year. Here are a few I have made in the past week.

This is a tiny one I made for Rick's dinner.

Here is one I made this last Saturday for Nosh.

Last week Rick made some Salsa that turned out very nice! It was from the Ancho Peppers I grew this last summer. I had to harvest them last week due to very cold weather. And one Habenero Pepper (I had lots of them this year) I did all the prep work, roasting the peppers, cutting the onions, garlic, cilantro, and lots of very nice Heirloom Tomatoes.

Here it is all in jars.

Then a couple of days ago I decided to try to make some berry cordials. For Chanukkah one of the ladies in the congregatiom made and gave as gifts some Cranberry Cordial she made. It was so yummy, I wanted to try to make some. It will take three weeks for it to be ready.

Well that is all that is new around here!

What a difference a few weeks make!

I made a new vegetable bed in the backyard on October 4th 2011. Over the summer I put my composted bedding straw from both the goats and the chickens in that area, kept it moist, and covered it with plastic so it would heat up and kill the weed seeds and any bugs that might be in the soil.

I added some steer manure and Scott's Miracle Grow Moistrure Control Potting soil. Then between the planting areas I put wheat straw for walkways.

I planted Cilantro, several types of radishes, many different kinds of lettuce, some red and green cabbage, swiss chard and kale, and two different types of spinach. We have had lots of rain this month and the plants are quite happy. Now we don't get any hard freezes things should grow beautifully until it heats up in late spring.

This photo is from Nov. 17, 2011

And this one is from today Dec. 22, 2011. This is the only good thing about living in the

desert, you can grow lots of things in the winter.

Notice the blue tarp over the chicken coop. It is to keep the sand in the chicken run dry when it rains. It also helps keep in the heat in the coop from the heat lamp I use when the temps get below freezing. Which did happen a couple of weeks ago. You can see the extension cord that runs across the yard to the chicken coop.

All three goats are bred, and on April 7-8 they are due to kid. We will have anywhere from six to nine new babies! That will be exciting! I'll take lots of photos, baby goats are so cute!

Last wek it was really cold and rainy here! This is the view I had in the afternoon while milking. You can't even see the mountians that are always visabe through the milking shed window.

The ground was like a lake! It was still muddy and yucky on Tuesday when I was there.

Shortnin' was happy to see me.

In the winter I bring nice warm water to wash them off before milking. I couldn't imagine using the really cold water from the hose on them, I know I wouldn't like it!

Rick is going back to school in Jan. He has decided to try a new career since his over 30 years of work at Otis Elevators will end in Dec. of 2012 (or maybe into early 2013, not sure yet.) Thankfully 100% of his schooling will be paid for by Otis Elevators. He plans to be a Certified Paralegal. It is a two year course. I think he will do well in the legal profession.

Afterall he is a teacher of "The Law"....

Uh oh, over a month since I was up here!

Being on Facebook, I don't come up here like I used to. Let's see what has been going on in this past month. I had a birthday! And the celebration with friends lasted for about two weeks! I got lots of fun stuff. A surprise trip to IKEA in the Phoenix area. That is a very neat place.

One of the fun things I got was some flowering tea. Here it is steeping in the pot

Here it is looking down into the pot.

Our weather here has been perfect! My winter garden is growing nicely.

Here is the before photo. taken 10/4/2011

And here it is on 11/17/2011

I love winter here in Tucson! I can go out and pick my own salads and herbs all winter!

Rick is off for the whole month of December. We don't have any plans to go any place. I have lots to accomplish in the area of gifts for the holidays. I better get started!

Been A Long Time....

Seems having a Facebook acct. keeps me from taking the time to post up here. Lots has happened in the past couple of months. Rick's day job, of over 30 years, is moving to Florence South Carolina, Aug. of 2012. He was invited to go, but, doesn't want to move to South Carolina. They say he will have job until early 2013. And he will most likely have to make a few trips back there to help set up the factory.

I have been trying my hand at making goat cheese lately. Here are a few photos. This is a cheese Torte.

The layers are Basil Pesto and Sun Dried Tomatoes.

I gave my neighbor Pam, a Torte with dates and walnut layers. She had

it for breakfast with some really nice Plum Soup

This last week I made some Apple Butter.

And I made a new vegetable bed in the backyard.

The straw will give me the ability to not have to walk on my planted areas.

And here are a Riot of Morning Glories from the other day.

I hope I will post more often in the days to come.

Tomato Solutions

For years and years I have tried to grow tomatoes. And it is so hot and dry here that they are never very happy and don't produce many tomatoes. This year, I came up with what I am hoping will be a solution to the extreme heat and lack of humidity.

What I did was put my Tomato Plants in a wading pool with shade cloth over the top of them.

They are able to get early morning sun and are sheltered from the afternoon sun. The shadecloth keeps in some of the humidity and with the pots sitting in water, the soil stays evenly moist.

I still have to water them twice a day on the hottest of day. But, now they don't dry out between waterings which causes them to be too stressed. They have lots of flowers and I hope to this year actually get some decent tomatoes.

Been Busy!

We have done lots of fun stuff in the past few weeks. We went to the circus! Had a great time!

I have been keeping busy in the garden. This morning when I went out to the front yard, I found my new mini rose bushes at the base of the birdbath had all been completely stripped of their leaves!

Here is a close up of the damage.

I figured it was the Dreaded Leaf Cutter Ants that have been a problem in the front yard on and off for years now. And sure enough I found their "nest"!! With all my nice rose leaves there on the surface of the hill.

I now have to figure out how to get rid of them. I have tried many different Ant type killers, but it appears they are immune!

Update on Tomatoes and Peppers

The past few weeks my potted Tomatoes and Peppers have really grown! Here they were went I planted them on May 17th

Here they are on June 1st.

Here are the tomatoes today,

Here are are the Peppers

I had to move them because they were getting too much sun where they were. Now they are shaded from about 1:00pm on.

A close up of my Thai Peppers, there is even one ripe one!

And my first ripe Habenero

Blasted Bobcat!!

One of the baby goats got killed yesterday by a bobcat!! Today one of the "goat ladies" (there are four of us) put up a very strong portable corral in the goat pen. So, now we will put them in that at night, since the bobcat comes at dawn to do his/her hunting.

The owner of the goats is visiting a friend in New Mexico, she took the older goats with her. Leaving the four youngest goats that would only need to be fed and watered once a day. This is the first time in three years that a preditor has come around. Probably since the adult goats were gone, the babies were easy to get.

It is very sad, that Fern was killed, she was such a friendly little thing!

Funny, Maggie( the one building the new pen) said Sunday she was awakened with the feeling something was wrong at the goat pen, threw on dirty clothes, just got in the car and took off... When She got there, the kids were by the gate not making a sound, which was very strange, usually when they hear anyone pull up they start calling to us. Then, she noticed one is missing, when she went around the corner of the milking shed, there was a Bobcat on top of Fern, she was just barely alive, and died in Maggie's arms. Oh so sad.!!

Here was my last photo of Fern. Giving my friend's grandson a hug!!

and here is a cute photo that Maggie sent me of "Fernie" just now.

First Tomato and Pepper!!

Here is my ONE tomato

And my ONE pepper

And I found this little fellow on the pepper plants this am, I had to get his photo! he was about an inch long!

Can you see him?

My Newest Morning Glories

I planted these striped Morning Glory seeds at the base of the PVC Arch. I hope they don't get overpowered by the other ones.

I decided to attempt to grow some tomatoes this year. I seldom have good luck planting them in the ground so I am trying pots this time. Here they were on May 17th, the day I planted them.

I took this photo of them today, see how much they have grown in two weeks!

The PVC Arch is starting to fill in.

It has taken a long time this year for the plants to get going. I think the 17 degrees we had was hard on them!

I planted some green beans today, and I had a nagging feeling that planting them in the bed with my onions was not a good idea. And after checking on companion planting, they are not good to be planted near each other. sSo bright and early tomorrow I will go out and move the onions and put in some new soil and plant some cucumbers or something the beans will like to have as a "bed partner"

My toe healed up nicely. In case anyone was wondering.....

New Baby Blanket and Stubbed Toe.

This is the blanket I made for the new baby.

I even found the perfect gift bag for it!

And I stubbed my toe the other day!

How Time Flies By!

This has been a very busy month. Lots of New Life!! There were triplets born at the goat pen.

Here they are....

And we had a new human baby born too!

Here I am holding her.

Then yesterday, I stubbed my toe on the carpet!

It hurts and I can't stand to wear a shoe at the moment! I hope it heals quickly!

Visit to Ironwood Ranch

Today I went to visit Ironwood Ranch today.

They raise Nigerian Dwarf Goats.

I was greeted at the door with 2, week old kids.

Then one was put in my arms. They are just too cute!

There are three kids being bottle fed.
Here they are in the house.

They have a very nice set up, I should have taken more photos.
Here are a few eating,

There are 12 does, 3 bucks, and I think about 6 kids at the moment.

This is a "kid" pen. How quickly they grow, the smallest kids are about a week old, the larger one is a month old.

This one is due any day now.

I had a great time! Those kids are so tiny compared to Nubian kids.

And I had a good visit with my friend Cathy who is here from the Ukraine, She and her husband are missionaries to the Ukraine. I just found out this morning she and her youngest son, Kendon, are in Arizona for a couple of weeks. Since the family with the goats are mutual friends, we met at their house. I was so good to visit with her!

Motorcycle Ride to Chandler AZ for Lunch

Sunday was a sort of cloudy day, cool and just perfect for a motorcycle ride. We went with a small group from the "Freewheelers."

I don't know how many of you have been to Arizona, but here in the desert, we have lots of sand and cactus! What is interesting is that on one side of the road, it looks dry and the vegetation is pretty sparce.
Like this.

But, when you look on the other side of the road, there for miles on end, are Alfalfa fields, as far as the eye can see.

Our Arizona desert does have a "forest" of sorts...

Here is an interesting photo of the motorcycles ahead of us on a curve.

At one of our stops for stretching our legs there was a fellow with his
dog friend that was able to ride on the motorcycle with him.

I thought she was pretty cute, here is close up of her.
He had a way of strapping her to the seat so she couldn't fall off.

We stopped for lunch at a restaurant that serves a combination of Mexican and Chinese food. The Emerald Chicken is my favorite.
Here is the group at lunch.

The traditional food fight, came early when Rich spilled his entire drink on the table just as he sat down!

We stopped for gas along the way, here is the bike all dressed up for a trip.

The bike has some really neat new mirrors, they have signal lights in them!

On the way home there was a very nice sunset.

So hope you enjoyed the photos of our latest ride.

Wow, a whole month since I put up a post here!!

I Guess Facebook is getting more use than this blog!! I was pretty busy in Feb. I did a lot of sewing and embroidery work. I made three aprons, a dish towel and two dish cloths for my Cousin Rachel's wedding gift.

Here are some photos of them for you to see. My cousin Rachel will now have two step daughters. I woke up one morning, with the thought, "Why don't you make Rachel and the girls matching aprons?" So, that is what I did.

Here are the aprons. They are all this style.

Here are the close ups of the embroidery designs.

This is the design I picked for Rachel's apron.

Then, I thought, I should make something for the groom, but

what??? I decided a matching dishtowel might work. And then,

I made a couple of dishcloths to go with the dishtowel.

Here is the dishtowel and dishcloths I made for Matt, the groom.

From what my Aunt Jennie says he is a great cook, and loves antiques.

So, I am hoping he will like them.

Hey remember the huge egg? Well a few days later, I had a really tiny egg!!

We had a record cold spell here in Feb. got down to 17 degrees here!! The cold weather killed many of my succulents!! I covered any plants I wanted to keep alive, but, at 17 degrees, even covering is not enough to keep the plants from freezing.

Rich is now wanting me to make him a "Cowboy" shirt!! OY... I hate doing buttons and button holes. Maybe snaps are easier? I wonder if I can find the right kind of snaps?

Look What I Found In The Nest Box!

On Saturday I went to the nest box and look what I saw!

This is a huge egg!

I assume it is a double yolker, I have yet to open it.

Meet "Little Joe"

Last Friday (1/21/11) we had a new kid born at the Goat Pen.

Here are some photos from last Friday. I finally had some time to reduce the photos.

Elizabeth, age 4 "helping to suction"

(Of course, he is not in any need of suction at this time!)

Jennifer helping Elizabeth holding "Little Joe"

Countess (mom) nudging Little Joe to get up.

Still trying....

Still not getting up...

Maggie giving standing lessons

FINALLY STANDING!! All by Himself!!

Meeting the rest of the herd.

Mom and Baby resting after a very busy afternoon.

This afternoon I planted some flower and vegetable seeds in the

small garden at the congregation. Here are some "before" photos

The garden is pretty dead looking at the moment.

Here is a photo looking to the south,

Along the back wall I planted about 30 strawberry plants. I got the baby plants from my garden

here at home. The tree, in ther ring, is an Apricot. The "stubby" plants growing all around the edges are Garlic Chives, they help keep the burrowing critters out of the garden!

Here is a view looking to the North

I am hoping the ground cover returns between the stepping stones.

Here is a view looking East,

You can see my pitiful Meyer Lemon tree. He is still hanging on!! The plan is for the patches of dirt to be a "riot" of color in a few weeks...

I will keep you posted!!

Happy New Year!

Happiest of New Years to each of you! Goodness it has been a while since I updated my blog here. In the past couple of weeks we have made a quick trip to CA to visit my Uncle Bill. I was able to see my brother Harri and my sister Holli, that was nice! I have photos of the trip, but rather than post them again here I will put in a link to them on facebook.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=273282&id=587369860&l=7f54c0bb17

One of my new chicken has started to lay eggs!! Neato!! Pretty soon I should be getting more eggs than I can use! I hope that happens anyhow.

It has been really cold here at night. This morning at the goat pen the waterers were frozen. I like the cold weather much better than what we have here in the summers! All my plants have been covered for the past week. I think later this week it is to get warmer.

Our "staycation" went by much too quickly! Well, I have lots to do today. I finished the apron I was making for Jodi's (my youngest grand daughter) birthday. I think it is one of my best so far. I want to make myself an apron from this fabric.

Here is a photo of the full apron.

The bib area with the "J" on a small pocket.

The pocket detail there are 7 pockets in this apron!

That should be enough pockets for a three year old! I decorated the pockets with some daisy buttons.

Here are the other gifts that fit in the pockets.

A set of garden gloves and row markers and a covered container for starting seedlings. Seed packets from my own Glenn Cottage Heirloom Seeds. A flower and hand cookie cutters.

And last but not least is the name/gift tag, which took as long if not longer to make than the entire apron!

Last week whille we were in CA. My neighbor fed and watered the chickens, and even got a couple of eggs!

Yesterday I got a phone call from her saying she wanted to give me one of the eggs back. "It won't crack! We dropped it on the floor and it still won't crack!" I was puzzled so we met over the back fence so she could give me this strange "uncrackable" egg.

When she handed it to me I "cracked up"...

It was one of the wooden eggs I had in the nest box to help show the new chickens were I wanted them to lay theiir eggs.

I still laugh when I think of them trying to open that egg!

Have a good day everyone!!

Trip to see TRON at IMAX

Sunday we took the motorcycle on a trip to Tempe, on the outskirts of Phoenix, to see the movie TRON at the IMAX theater. It has a 6 story screen!! I hadn't seen the original movie TRON. This was a good film. We went up there with another couple. And met a third couple at the Theater. Then we all went out to lunch after the movie.

I really want to see a movie coming out this April, "Born To Be Wild" in 3-D. It is about baby jungle animals. The previews were really neat, the baby animals appeared to be sitting right in our laps! It was like you could reach out and pet them! Neat effects, the best 3-D I have seen so far.

Here are some photos of the scenery on our way back from Phoenix.

There is this one where you can see me in the mirror

We have some very straight roads from Phoenix to Tucson. We like to take the back roads instead of I-10. Less traffic and better sights to see.

This is one place along the road I found amusing. The sign says "Gila River"

Here is the "Gila River" or rather I should say "Where is the Gila River?"

I thought these dark clouds over the mountians were interesting.

Then there is the typical desert scenery. Lots of cactus.

This is a nicely branched Saguaro. They say each arm represents 50 years.

Here is a photo of our shadow on the road.

Communal Dust Bath

Today I put the chickens out in their play yard. One of the things they do is to take a dust bath. It is funny to watch. They kick dust up over their backs, and flap their wings making a indentation in the ground.

Here are the four new ones taking a dust bath together.

The new play yard has two levels. The chickens enjoy getting up on the second level. Today I gave them some wheat grass to peck at in a suet feeder.

They are very brave to get up so high!

Here is a photo of me and Rich from this weekend.

Frosty Morning!

It was so cold that I waited until the sun came up to go milking. But... that really didn't make much difference in the temperature! It was 25 degrees with the sun shining!! That is unusual for Tucson.

Here is my view from the milking shed this am.

This is the soccer field next to the goat pen. That white stuff is a heavy frost on the ground.

When I checked on the waterer, it was frozen almost solid!

Since the hose was frozen solid, I dumped the ice and the bit of water out the tub, and moved it closer to the water spigot. I had un hook the hose, and thankfully the spigot was not frozen too. I was able to use a smaller bucket to refill the water tub. I noticed before I left, the water I dumped out, and the bit that got spilled was FROZEN! No wonder I am still cold. I had on three layers, thermal underwear, top and bottoms, a heavy long sleeve knit shirt and a sweatshirt on top of that, heavy pants, and still I was very cold!!

Now this is Gracie,

you might not be able to tell, but she is now all shaggy. Black goats are hard to photograph. Her coat is much heavier than it was last week, funny how the Holy One gives them the ability to so quickly grow more hair to endure the cold weater.

This last Shabbat the kids and I finished making Chanukkah Menorahs. The girls were all in pretty holiday dresses, and our projects needed painting. So we used some old plastic tablecloths and some ribbon to make aprons to keep the paint off their clothes.

I felt the idea was rather good!! And we had fun making the custom aprons.

Stay warm!!

This is really sad!!

Ok... Now I don't remember what all I had put in my last post that disappeared!! Good Grief!! This getting older is for the birds! We had a great Thanksgiving! I didn't take any photos! What a goof ball I am!! Everything tasted yummy! Rick likes Duck better than Turkey, so we had both! I made a Wild Rice Stuffing for the Duck. It was great, If I do say so myself!

Tomorrow Jancis is taking me for a pedicure for my birthday! Fun and Fun... I will take my camera for that!

Now, lets see if I can jog my memory on what it was that was so interesting I had to share with you all.

One photo was of Rick, feeding the chickens!! I came outside, and he was "sweet talking " the new chicks. He asked me to find him some weeds to feed them. I was rather happy to see "Mr. NO CHICKENS!" wanting to feed them!

The new chickens are now being "integrated" with the older two hens. It has been a fun couple of weeks moving them back and forth.

It is to get down to 29 degrees tonight, so I covered all the plants. Well, sorry I can't remember all that was in the last post. I will have to do some more thinking!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving!

I Don't Believe This!!

I just spent over an hour on here doing an update with photos... and it has disappeared before I could post it!! And now Photobucket is doing maintenance, so I can't get the photos on here unitl they are finished, whenever that is!! So...I am going to bed! Rick is up getting all the printing done for the Annual Meeting of the congregation tomorrow.

I had such a great post too!! Oh well, it is not the end of the world. I will survive!!

Visit to Biosphere 2

On Sunday we and about a dozen other people from our motorcycle club visited Biosphere 2. We had a great day!

Here is Rich just outside the housing area.

It was a very interesting place to visit. You can visit the website and learn more about it. http://www.b2science.org/

The Morning Glory vines are really bloooming now!

This was from Sunday morning.

Here is a better view of the flowers.

Funny thing is they turn a pinkish color in the evenings.

Today was a sort of sad day at the goat pen. Three of the goats went to a new home. Lancelot, Dutchess, and her son, George. They will now be "lawn mowers" on about 1200 acres. I think they will like having a big area to roam. But we will miss them.

I got there just in time to take these photos as the truck was leaving.

Lancelot looks sad and confused.

It was hard on the goats left behind. They were anxious. Poor Gracie will be missing her mom and brother for sure. But a new kid is due in January.

Trip to Kitt Peak Observatory

This last Sunday, 10/10/10, we, about 30 people, on 25 motorcycles, took a trip to Kitt Peak Observatory. It was a very enjoyable day! I took lots of photos!

So I will give you a sort of virtual motorcycle ride.

We began the day at a local IHOP restaurant for breakfast. Then before we get on the road there is a safety briefing. Since Rick organized the trip, he was the one to do the safety briefing.

After the briefing we headed west leaving the IHOP.

Twenty five motorcycles make quite a long line going down the road.

Here we are going through Gates Pass.

We stopped in Three Points for gasoline and to stretch our legs.

Just before we hit Three Points, an eldery couple joined us. They are in their 80's and drive a big red Trike.

Then we are back on the road again.

We can just begin to see Kitt Peak in the distance. You have to look

close to see the Observatory on the top of that mountain.

Rick worked really hard to make sure he knew all right places to turn.

He spent many hours planning this trip. He used Google to see the

road and all the scenery on a virtual tour. But, it is not quite the

same when you are driving...

Here are the bikes lined up to make a U turn, on the wrong road!

Now if making one wrong turn was not bad enough, the very next road Rick

turned down, was not the right one to go up Kitt Peak either! Here we are

again lined up to make another "U-eee"

Needless to say these types of mistakes are "bonding experiences" for

the group. Rick has had a lot of good natured ribbing all week over it.

We now finally are on the right road headed up to Kitt Peak!

This was about noon, as you can tell by the sun right overhead.

This next shot caused me to be ill the rest of the day! I get motion sickness very easily. I turned around to get this photo of the bikes coming up the mountain.

There is a big "S" turn right there.

If you look closely you can see the bikes coming up behind us.

Finally we go around a curve, and there are the Observatories!

We spent about an hour up at the Observatory. We had a lunch reservation, so

we had to head back to town.

We made it down to the restaurant, right on time!

Here we are waiting for our meals.

After lunch we all headed out in different directions.

We took the long way home, out by Old Tucson Movie Studios, back through Grants Pass with one of Rick's co-workers, who had joined us on our trip.

I got a rather nice cactus photo quite by accident! (I really hate cactus)

And as we come over the last ridge, there before us is Downtown Tucson!

Hope you enjoyed the virtual trip to Kitt Peak.

Next time I will share with the the Biosphere! We have a trip planned to go there!

He Hears Our Thoughts

Many times I spend my time in the garden just thinking about different things, sometimes I pray, and just talk with the Holy One.

Last Friday, I was just thinking, "Hey, in all the years I have lived here I have never seen a frog or a toad in the garden." In the summer, we have Colorado River Toads that come above ground after the rains. Usually near streambeds that quickly dry up after the rain. I live a few blocks away from a rather large river/stream that flows from the mountians, only when it rains though.

In thirty years, I have never seen a toad in my yard.

The very next morning, there on the back patio, to my great surprise was.... you guessed it... a small Colorado River Toad!

I haven't seen him again. Which is fine, because they secrete a toxin if picked up by a preditor. I wouldn't want Spartacus to get sick.

I did think it was interesting that my rather off handed thought, was 'answered' the very next morning.

My PVC trellis in the front yard is finally blooming!

Here is a close up of the flowers, they are not so easy to see from far away.

The Hawk has become a regular visitor to the front yard bird bath. Several times a day it comes and cools off it's feet and gets drinks.

I got this one of it flying away the other day.

The other day I came out the back door, just in time to see it standing not a foot from the new chick enclosure! I am pretty sure it was trying to figure out how to get in and get the chicks!!

If I looked out the door first, I could have gotten a great photo of it right there by the chicks!!

Birthday Aprons

I like to make aprons as gifts for my grandchildren. These are the latest ones. Jonah (5 yrs old) whose nickname is "Donut." He says his favorite color is pink. So... I figured I'd make the decorations on his apron doughnuts, with pink frosting and chocolate sprinkles.

Close up of "J"

Close up of pocket

I just finished Junie's apron. She will be 10 tomorrow, goodness how fast they are growing up!! She says her favorite colors are blue and orange. So... I hope she will like this combination of fabrics and trims.

Close up of yoke

Close up of pocket

Label

I forgot to make a label for Jonah's apron!! I will have to make him one this week.

Got to get to bed. Milking day tomorrow!

INTRODUCING.....

These chicks were hatched on July 31st. They are now 7 weeks old!! I got them, hmmm, a couple of weeks ago now. Here they are.

Amelia and Alicia will lay blue colored eggs. Sonya and Sadie will lay large brown eggs.

It will be a while yet before they begin to lay.

Sonya is the bravest of the chicks.

I have been able to hold her. The others are warming up to me. They will all come and eat things from my hand.

Spartacus loves to watch Chicken TV. He would probably sit there all day!

I wasn't fast enough with the camera to get any of the photos of them being "nose to beak" through the wire.

It will probably be a week or so before I am on here again. We have lots to do

during the High Holiday Season. When it is over I will post some photos.

Promise Not To Laugh

Next week I plan to get some new chicks. But, I can't put them in with my two remaining hens until they are bigger.

After checking prices at Home Depot and Lowe's, I was kind of discouraged about building a new coop and run area. So, I came home, and I have wracked my brain to think of where I can house them until then. Looking around my yard and using my imagination, I think I have solved my problem.

I have a raised bed that is about 6ft by 10ft. It is covered with chicken wire, to keep the birds out. But, the past few years that bed doesn't get enough sun to really grow much but lettuce in there.
Here is what I came up with for a new enclosure for my chicks, without spending any money!!

Side view

View from front

Since my grandchildren are now in Missouri, I don't have much use for the play structure in my yard. So, it is now going to be a "coop" of sorts.

Next week, I will cover the open area above the "coop"with some vinyl I found at a discount fabric store for $2.99 a yard. That will make it waterproof over the "coop" area and help retain some heat at night, and hopefully keep it cooler during the day.

Anyway, that is my plan... What do you think??

Oatmeal Lavendar Soap

Yesterday I made some Oatmeal Lavendar soap.

A lady on a message board made this label for me,

but I tweeked it a bit.

Here is the label I plan to use for this soap.

What do you think?

Saddest Of Days AT Glenn Cottage Eggery

I am so sad today!

Yesterday I put my four hens out early in the morning to play in the chicken tractor. As always I moved the tractor around to give them some grass weeds to eat. Our recent rain has made lots of nice weeds in the yard.

Anyhow, I lost track of time while doing other things, and they were in the sun too long. Two of my Buff Orpingtons couldn't take the heat. My Barred Rocks were fine. But, Ophelia was already dead when I went out to check them. And poor Olivia died in my arms as I was attempting to cool her off with water from the hose.

I feel so HORRIBLE today. I keep crying. It was completley preventable! I am so sorry I didn't put them back in the coop when it started to get warm. I am just heart broken!

For those in warm climates, please learn from my stupidity...

Some photos of my beloved Ophelia and Olivia for a Memorial.

Olivia and Ophelia as a chicks.

First Day Home
Three days old

Young Pullets

As Hens

Oliva

Ophelia being camera shy.

And last one that makes me really sad.

Me holding Olivia. earlier this year.

Now I have my two Barred Rocks, Rosalind and Roxanne, and Roxanne is egg bound.. or something... her tush is all swollen. I have tried to help her by warm water soaks, massage of her swollen tush, nothing helps, I feel no egg up there, she is eating and drinking and pecking just like normal.

This is not a good day!

First Time Soap Making

After about 6 days in the fridge, Goat Milk becomes a bit "goaty" tasting. So, this week I tried my hand at soap making!!

I made three batches of soap, and this is what I got...

Here are some close ups of some of the finished soaps

I bought most of these molds at Michael's.

These small candy molds came in handy for the little bits of soap from each batch that wouldn't fill a whole bar mold.

I only had one problem. The embossing stamps I bought, had one where the design was not in reverse.

Of course, I didn't notice it until I unmolded the soap!!
(center soap in bottom row)

I contacted the company that makes the stamps, and they are sending me a replacement. They were very quick to reply. I was impressed!!

I am working now on a label for my soaps, Here is one idea.

Iron Kettle Bread

This week I checked a very nice Bread book out of the library. Yesterday I tried one of the recipes out of the book.

It is "My Bread" by Jim Lahey

http://search.barnesandnoble.com/My-Bread/Jim-Lahey/e/9780393066302

The recipe uses an iron kettle, preheated in a very hot oven, then the bread is baked at a very high heat. The crust is crisp and the interior is soft and chewy! It was great!! I will be using this method again in the future to be sure!!

Here is a photo of the bread hot out of the kettle.

Here it is sliced so you can see the interior. Notice the two bites taken out of the slice! After tasting it I decided I wanted a photo with the slice in it.

The dough is coated with wheat bran for the second rising. Then more wheat bran is sprinkled on the top before putting it in the heated kettle. The Bran keeps the dough from sticking to the hot kettle.

It was sooooooooooooooo good!!!

These next photos I got Tuesday night at milking time.

Three generation at the feeder.

The Black and White goat is the mother of the larger black goats. The largest Black goat is the mother of the smallest goats, you can only see the tail end of one of the youngest kids.

The Queen Goat, Shortnin' is about 4 years old.

Side view

From the front

She is a cross of Nubian, Boer and Alpine. She is a great milker! Gives over a gallon a day at the momement! Her ears are usually sticking out to the side more than in these photos. She looks much like an airplane most of the time.

Lots of Milk!!

Last night I got about a gallon and a half of milk. That is pretty good! My hands are still sore today! Here is a photo of the milk from the evening milking.

Last week I made some Chicken Kabobs on the BBQ... I saw a cooking show where they used Rosemary twigs as the skewers for Kabobs. It seemed like a good idea... I thought they turned out pretty good. But Rick said he was getting "splinters" from the twigs!!

Here is a photo of the plate.

Yesterday was a fun day for taking photos of the goats.

Here they are waiting for me to put more hay in the feeder.Notice Countess

is up close to the camera. She is just so sweet!!

Notice the red plastic feeder on the wall? It is a special feeder for a mineral supplement. The kids really like that stuff. Here is George with his leg in it.

Goat kids are very busy creatures... Gwenivere is at her new home, but Gracie has taken over getting into the feeder.

I told her to get out of there, so she decided to kneel in the feeder instead of getting out of it.

Countess and Shadow are very patient goats for the most part.

The kids spend much of their day butting heads with each other.

For the past couple of weeks Dutchess has been eager to go into the milking shed. Last night I let her go up on the stand for a few minutes after I was finished milking. She is still nursing her kids, but I suppose she wants to mimic the other goats now that she "is big" and has milk too. I don't know if she will be a good milker, she was quite a wild child before she had her kids.

It was getting dark when I finally got done with all the "stuff" that needs to be done to keep the goats happy and healthy. I thought these sunset photos were nice.

Here is one with all three of the kids.

and here is one with just Sir Lancelot.

Traditional 4th of July Whale

Last Year I didn't make my traditional watermelon whale, because I lost one of the eyes. But, this year, when I still couldn't find an eye to match in the craft stores, Rick suggested I make the whale a pirate!! So that is what I did!

Here is a better view of the eye patch.

The whale is not as much fun when you don't have little kids around to help enjoy it! So here are some kids from the congregation and me with the whale.

I usually just put the old whale carcass in the compost pile. But this year I decided to give it to the chickens and Zoop the Tortoise.

Zoop liked eating a Whale!!

But, then he has always like melons.

Zucchini and Goats

One of the families in the congregation has more than they can use coming out of their garden! So we are all getting some nice produce! Here are some huge Zucchini. Thank you Foster Family!

The newest kids are now 2 weeks old. They are so frisky and fun to watch!

Here is George givng Shadow a kiss on the head.

Shadow is a very patient goat.

Debut of George and Gracie

Today while out to lunch with my husband, we went to Sweet Tomatoes, we had just been seated when I got a text message, asking if I could go check on Dutchess. Her due date was today. And sure enough when I got there she was in the early stages of labor. I got to help birth the first one, a little doe, pure black Nubian. Her brother came next, both were a bit over 8 lbs. Not bad for a first time mom. She did great! Very calm, just kept putting her head against the walls of the pen. Then finally she found a comfortable spot layed down and quickly gave birith.
It was great!

Both kids are healthy and cute! We named them George and Gracie.

Here are some photos, taken by a phone camera, so they are not the best quality, but .. I will get more photos as the days go by. Since I am on goat duty this weeken.

Didn't get any photos of Gracie being born, too busy watching and getting things all set. Jennifer (owner of the goats)arrived just after Gracie was born. She helped deliver George.

Here are some photos.

Birth of George

Cutting Georges' Cord

Jennifer holding George

After about 20 minutes the kids were up on wobbley legs, but standing up on their own!

Here I am with the "old" kids looking in the Birthing Pen at Dutchess and her new babies.

Just before that last photo was taken all the goats were with me looking in at the new kids, even the duck was sticking his head in to see, but those moments don't always get recorded except in our memories.

Here is what we were seeing in the Birthing Pen.

I had a rather exciting week!!

Tea Party With a Surprise Ending

Wow, it has been almost a month since I posted up here!!

Today was a really fun day!! We had a Tea Party for a young mom who has recently moved to Tucson with her husband and two children. We had a wonderful afternoon. Here are some photos of our time together. Since we (My friends, Robin and Jennifer, and Robin's grand daugher, "Miss Elizabeth") had invited ourselves over to Maryann's for Tea, we told her we would make it worth her while when we came over.

Here is Elizabeth giving Annabelle a gift.

Sorry I cut off some of Maryann's head!

Elizabeth is attempting to help with putting on the apron,

that Jennifer made for Annabelle.

Robin is showing Annabelle that she has a POCKET!

Something very important to a toddler!

I made a plate of pinwheel sandwiches with three different filings.

Strawberry, Cheddar Cheese and Chive, and a Honey Mustard and Smoked Turkey. I garnished it with Rosemary and Johnny Jump Ups from the garden.

I also made some Oatmeal Raisin Chocolate Chip Cookies. And brought a jar of Honeysuckle jelly and some fresh eggs. Robin and Jennifer brought some Cucumber sandwiches, Banana Bread, Fruit Salad, a half gallon of fresh goat milk, and some fresh cheese Jennifer had just made. Maryann made a very nice uncooked fresh vegetable pizza (which on a day like today that was over 105 it was nice to have lots of cool foods!) and she made some DELICIOUS Whole Wheat Cinnamon rolls. Needless to say we had plenty to eat!

Here is a photo of the table.

We set the "young ladies" up at their own table.

Here is Jennifer with Baby Silas. He is about 2 months old now.

Here is Elizabeth giving Annabelle a hug "Bye."

Elizabeth saying Bye to Maryann.

After we left Maryann's, we went to Arby's and took Rich a late lunch. During Rich's lunch break, he was visiting with his Mentor who has been here in Tucson at the hospital for a Triple Bypass surgery on his heart.

Then after that, we drove way down south, almost to San Xavier Mission to meet up with a friend of Jennifer's that is due to have a baby any day now. We met her in a parking lot, so she could give Jennifer a duck! Here Jennifer and Maray are about to get the duck out of the backseat.

He was in a big bucket on the backseat.

Young Miss Elizabeth got the job of watching the duck while we drove back to my house.

She took her job very seriously!

"Ducky" made himself right at home in the Goat Watering Trough!

Elizabeth decided to be helpful...

She figured she would help Ducky take a proper bath! As Countess looks on wondering how in the world she is suppose to drink from that water now!

So that was my excitement for the day!

Honeysuckle Jelly

I had never thought of making a flower jelly before. So I tried Honeysuckle.

Here are the photos of how my Honeysuckle Jelly turned out.

Before putting lids on jars.

Jars backlit by the kitchen window

Flowers in the jar.

Here they are taken with a flash, it shows the color of the jelly.

I was sort of disappointed that the jelly didn't really taste like the fragrance of Honeysuckle. Obviously the heat changes it. It has a very pleasant flavor, just not what I expected. I make a sort of "tea" from the flowers, only I use cold water. It is wonderful! Just like the flower smells.

I do want to try the Apple Rosemary. Or maybe Apple Sage and Apple Mint, or maybe Apple Thyme would be good. I have a few Lemon Thyme plants.

Here is my first ripe tomato!!

Artichokes!!

My neighbors have the biggest Artichoke bush I have ever seen!

Here is a "Where's Heidi" photo of the Artichoke Bush.

My neighbor Bob, says he has picked over 50 artichokes off this plant and they are still coming!

Yesterday Bob made me the last stop on his "handing out" artichokes to the neighborhood.

I got 11 of them!

He says he used Fish Emulsion, and Bat Guano to grow such a big plant.

The other day Jennifer stopped by with some fresh milk and some Banana Raspberry bread hot out of the oven! She brought a surprise with her...

It is Gwenivere! Here she is with her head out!

Here she is stretching her legs a bit.

You can about watch the "kids" growing!!

Yesterday I took a photo of the PVC Trellis in the front yard.

The plan is for the vines to cover the PVC pipe completely. We will see how it goes. I planed two kinds of vines at the base of the trellis. One is a Triple Lobed Morning Glory Vine, and the other vine I forgot the name of, but it has a deep throated pink trumpet flower.

Here are what the flowers will look like, hopefully

The Triple Lobed Morning Glory

The Pink Trumpet vine

I do hope they will cover up the white PVC pipe in the next few weeks. Then I will show you how pretty it will be!! The nasturshims are soon going to be gone. They don't like the hot summers here! I plan to re do the back garden in the next few days, I should take before and after pictures to show you. It is wild back there now with Dill that is over 6 feet tall, with Lettuce and Cilantro that has gone to seed! Oh I need to show you my first Iris from my new Iris Bed.

Well I better get to bed, or I won't want to get up tomorrow!

Creative Backyard

Last Tuesday we were in El Paso for my husband's grandmother's funeral, she just turned 91 last month. Lived a very good life. We will all miss her.

After the services we all went over to my SIL's for lunch. We hadn't been there in a while. And she has really gone crazy with glass beads!

In the photos you will have to do a bit of "study" to see everything in each of them.

Here is a Peacock panel at the back wall of the covered Patio.

This is the stairway to nowhere, it is to at some point in the future lead to a craft room on top of the garage.

Here it is from a different angle.

Here is a fun one of a Rooster crowing at the sun.

Here is the grape arbor, decorated with glass beads

This is the back Trellis, it is also decorated with glass bead work, but harder to see.

This is sort of treehouse/deck with a nice little covered area of seating under it.

This was a really fun project! The Green House.

Here is a close up of the roof/ceiling.

There are 90 individual panels each a different design.

In the greenhouse are two benches that she covered with old family photos then put an epoxy coating over them.

A couple of close ups of benches. (See if you see anyone you know.)

Isn't that a neat idea for glass beads? Denise's friend Gwen built the Greenhouse and the glass panels for the beadwork They are both very talented!!

We were not able to stay to see the garden at night. It is lighted with lots of small lights, so it is quite magical at night too.

What It Means to Be a Chicken!

Yesterday I cleaned out a garden bed of Cilantro that was getting ready to go to seed. I put the plants in a big black trash bag. They filled up the entire bag! I thought the chickens might like to have a chance to peck at the nice greens that were still on the plants.

So.. I took the big bag into the chicken run. and you would have thought I unleashed a mountian lion in the coop! The Ladies were flying and squaking and just running around like crazy trying to get away from the bag and me!

After I got all the cilantro out of the bag, they still got in the furthest corner and just looked at me!

Here they are it was too funny!

April in the Garden

We have had such great weather I hate to be in the house! Yesterday I bought a new birdbath for the front garden. It is just too cute! I have been looking for months to find one that is just right. It is concrete with three squirrels chasing each other around the base that looks like a tree.

Here is a close up of it

The nasturshims are taking over the garden this year. Here is the trellis, hopefully by

midsummer it will be covered vines with big blue and pink trumpet flowers.

Today I was over at the Secret Garden across the street, I am dog sitting for my neighbor.

She owns the Secret Garden. I took some photos there. Here are some Iris photos

Here are some pink and bronze Irises.

Look at this huge Artichoke bush! It is as tall as me,

Here are a couple baby Artichokes

I need to do some stuff around here yet tonight. Hope you enjoyed the garden.

My New Summer Jacket

Rick surprised me with a new summer motorcycle jacket!! It is very nice!! White with lots of reflective designs on it.

Here it is on my dress form.

Full front

Earphone hole, for audio from a phone or other type of listening device.

Right side

Detail on left sleeve (the sleeves are different)

Detail on sides.

I didn't take a photo of the back..it is just white, with refective piping. And it has adjustments in the back to make it tighter or looser.

Neat O!! I got to try it out on Sat. night when we met some friends for dinner. It works great, lets in a nice breeze as you go down the road. This summer it will be very nice to have a jacket that works well in the heat.

Got to run lots to do yet today!! I will post some more fun things I have been up to in the next day or two.

Goat Trailer with a Bonus

My friends Robin, Jennifer and young Miss Elizabeth with the goats came by the other day, very excited! They found this trailer for hauling the goats on Craig's list. It is old, but really heavy duty, made in the 1950's. They liked it because it is very "rustic" looking. No more hauling the goats in the back of their vehicles!! Here are some photos of it.

Here is the back

Here is the inside

A funny story, when Robin got off the phone, she said "Guess what came with the trailer?" she opened up the little door on the side near the front of the trailer, and I was surprised to see this...

The fellow that sold them the trailer said he would PAY THEM $10.00 to take the Rooster! So they said sure!! Now what to do with the rooster?

I'll let you know what they do with him...

Very Busy Couple of Weeks!!

The past couple of weeks have been very busy around here. There was a wedding in the congregation! That is always a busy time! It was a very nice wedding. Tomorrow we are going on a motorcycle "putt" to Globe AZ for lunch, then hurry back here for my neighbor's "Welcome Spring" party. The garden is going very well. I love winter here in AZ. The lettuce and flowers have been loving the extra rain we have been getting. I made a few pretty salads recently.

Here is one that turned out especially nice. I think.

I have been trying to make some special meals for dinner. Just for fun.

Here is a tiny rack of lamb I made.

I have made a few changes in the front garden.

This is the view from the driveway this year.

I can hardly believe the front garden is finally beginning to look like what I had in my head when starting the redo a few years ago now.

Here is a photo from Feb. 10, 2007 when I first started to put in the new path from the driveway to the front door, and around the flower beds.

This year the nasturshims are really happy!

Here is my new Iris bed in the front yard.

They are a bit more "perked up" now, I took this photo the day I planted them. I couldn't bear to take out the Italian Parsley, it is doing so well in that spot.

My neighbor was thinning out her Iris beds and gave me some bulbs. I was debating putting in a formal mini rose garden in that spot, with a very short rosemary hedge around it. But... decided to be more practical and plant the Iris bulbs instead. In a couple of years it should be all filled with beautiful Iris flowers this time each year. And much less work and water than a formal rose bed. In the center of that bed is a tiny Texas Mountain Laurel that I grew from seed! They appear to be very slow growing! The plant is now about 2 years old, and less than a foot tall!

Speaking of formal beds... The wedding was held at the home of one of our friends. I was an The wedding ceremony was held outdoors. They have a wonderful herb and annual flower bed I took a photo of it. There is a rock waterfall at the very end of the planter.

I am green with envy over the work her husband had done in her garden area. Last Summer this area was a tangle of Tomato plants and Bermuda grass all around the Apple tree.

The Apple Tree in the center, is a variety from Israel. It doesn't need very many cold days to produce fruit like most apples. There are two grape arbors, and planting areas all around the edges with a wonderful raised path. She has blueberry, blackberry and strawberry plants. Tomatoes and other wonderful veggies. And the entire garden is covered in chicken wire to help keep birds from eating the apples and other fruits.

Is that a neat garden area or what!!

Well, I better get to bed. I am doing several sewing projects at once! Sewing for me!! When I get things done I will show you what I am making.

More Milking Practice

Yesterday morning I met Jennifer and young Miss Elizabeth to do some more milking practice. It was so fun! I just love spending time with them. Elizabeth is such a joy! This moment was just too precious. She was giving her Auntie Jennifer a hug.

Here she is helping to feed the goats

Here is a "playing with goats" photo.

Goats are fun to play with... each one has a very different personality. Countess is a very friendly and patient goat. Here she is putting up with Elizabeth's bonnet on her head.

I am so mad at myself. Last night I downloaded the photos from the camera, and over half of them from yesteday's visit with the goats didn't make it to the computer, and I didn't check first to make sure they had all downloaded before deleting them from the camera!! This morning when I got ready to reduce them I found only a few were on the computer!

Hopefully I will have more chances to get some cute photos of Elizabeth and the goats in the future. In a few weeks, there will be some baby goats!! That will be fun!!

Birth of a Poppy Flower

This morning I was surprised to see a poppy flower emerging from the bud stage. I missed very first stage of the bud opening. But, I got there to see the bud still attached to the flower head.
Here it is as it was being "born."

I thought it was going to be orange, but as it opened up it was a bright yellow.

And just as it is suppose to happen, there as I was photographing, a bee stopped by to do some pollenating!

There were some other things in the garden that I found interesting this morning.

My first ripening strawberry.

And a very huge Nasturshim leaf! Too bad the Chickens don't like to eat them!!

Tomorrow I go for another lesson on goat milking!! I am excited!!

Welcome Visitors!

Last week I had two very special visitors! My friend Robin's (from previous post) daughter Jennifer and her niece Elizabeth, age 2. Jennifer had just been milking the goats, and Elizabeth was helping her.

Don't they look to be just the best milkmaids!! I love their aprons. And Elizabeth's special boots!

We traded some goat milk for eggs.

Here is Elizabeth petting Spartacus. Spartacus loves little kids, though at times they find his size to be a bit intimidating. Elizabeth wasn't afraid of him at all. She is such a cutie! And talks so well!

Here is a better photo of them.

Pardon the mess in the background. I am working on a new cross stitch for a couple that are expecting their first baby in a few months. Speaking of cross stitch, I didn't post the one I finished for the wedding shower. It turned out very nice! I did have a time of it trying to find pre cut mat and frame for it. But... I think I found a great combination. It doesn't exactly come out that great in the photos, the colors aren't quite right in the photo. The frame matches the colors in the cookie jar.

Here is a photo of just the text so you can see it better.

The bride to be was able to find a spiritual meaning in the design. The "Mouse in the Cookie Jar" story by Papa TenBoom. If you haven't heard it, I will give you the gist of it here. Back in WWII, many people hid Jews from the Nazi's. In Holland, where the TenBoom family lived, this was a common practice for many people. One day, a Jewish baby was needing to find shelter, Papa Ten Boom asked a pastor who lived in the country to please take the baby to his house to keep it safe from the Nazis. The Pastor refused, saying it was against the law to harbor Jews. When the pastor left, Corrie asked her father, "How can he call himself a Christian?" And her father replied "Just because the mouse lives in the cookie jar, that does not make him a cookie." Rick has used that story as an illustration many times over the years. I didn't even think of it when I was designing the piece!! But, I am glad it now has even a deeper meaning for this young bride.

Due to the rain coming every weekend for the past few weeks, we have not gone anywhere on the motorcycle. This week my new passenger seat should be here! The old one about killed my tush on long rides. It is only 9 inches wide, and has two seams right on the top, that cut into my thighs and fanny. The new seat, is 16 inches wide, and has no seams at all. That should be much better! Rick also ordered a "Tour Pack" that will give us the abilty to carry more things with us when we go for longer "putts", if the rain ever stops! They say it is to rain next weekend too.

Today is the holiday of Purim. When we celebrate the happenings in the Book of Esther. One of the special treats for this holiday are Hamantashen, "Haman's pockets", a type of filled cookie. This year I used my favorite sugar cookie recipe. They were great right out of the oven, light and tenderly crisp, with a warm filling. I make half the dough chocolate and gave them cherry and raspberry fillings with mini chocolate chips in the center. They are quite yummy!! But now they are a soft cookie. My daughter Jennifer's favorite kind!!

Here is a photo, they taste better than they look.

Our cool weather is giving me lots of lettuce and flowers for salads, here is one from yesterday. Nasturshims, violets and rosemary flowers decorate the top.

Well it is now light out, and I better go feed the chickens.

Milking Time

This morning I went over to meet with my dear friend Robin while she was milking her goats. She has four goats, two are milking, and two are pregnant. It was lots of fun. This one goat met us at the gate. Here she is giving Robin a kiss.

We then went over to the goat shed. This one is saying "Hey, Let's get

going here!"

Here she is all ready standing on the Milking Station.

Robin is a real pro at milking.

I got to try my hand at milking, it is harder than it looks!

This little one is only 8 months old, but she is due to have her first kid in April.

She seems so small to be having a kid of her own. The Black and White Goat is

this one's Mom. I forgot who is who, but, as soon as I find out who is who,

I will come back and edit this with their proper names.

Robin gave me about a half gallon of milk to take home. I put some

of it in an elegant little glass.

I will use this photo to make a nice Thank You note for the milk.

And last, but not least here I am enjoying the milk.

and it is REALLY GOOD!!!

I am now. Somebody with the name of "Heidi" really ought

to have a goat or two. Hmmmmmmm, it took me four years to get my chickens. I might be pushing my luck to think about getting a goat. Plus there is no way I can keep one here at the house.

Rick will think I have gone quite if I mention getting a goat.

Maybe we can retire to a farm?

Snow in Tucson

Now I realize you people in the Midwest and East are getting tons of snow. But we here in the desert got some too. And for us it is a treat!

Here are a couple really nice Desert snow photos taken by my friend Pam.

The new fairing got back finally from being painted. Wow! it is sure reflective! It is solid black, but looks like it has a painting on the side of it.

Today we got the new chrome "eyebrows" that will go over the driving lights.

It will look pretty spiffy then! I will show you a photo when they are put on.

Not much is new here. I will show you some recent flower photos from the garden.

Here are some drops of rain on my nasturshim leaves.

Here are some of my wild violets blooming, they are also wet from the rain. I love violets!

They look pretty candied and put on cakes! I have violets in several places in the garden.

I bought three of these yellow daisy plants. They flower all year here! I think I will get more of them for the yard.

and last but not least is my newest Poppy flower. I have lots of new buds coming up on the Poppies.

I think with all the rain we will have lots of pretty wild flowers this year in the desert.

Well better go do my Wii, Rick came home today with a new stair stepper that adjusts up to 10 inches tall! That will give me a better workout!!

Have a great weekend.

Chickens!!

I haven't posted much about the chickens lately. They have been laying about 2 eggs a day all this winter. Which is pretty good. We have not had to buy any eggs. They have grown up to be very pretty hens. Here is a photo of three of them.

Ophelia was camera shy that day. Here she is "peeking" around the corner at me.

I make them special treats from time to time. They love to have all kinds of different types of food. They especially like Dandelion greens. Here is a photo of some special chicken food.

Last night I finished a bib for new baby Joel. I think it turned out pretty cute.

I am waiting for my friend Pam to send me some of her snow photos. They are so nice!

We had a lot of snow here in the mountians surrounding Tucson. We have had lots of rain the past couple of weeks. It is very good for my flowers!

Surprising Harvest

I think I have found a crop I can grow here!! Sunchokes!!

Last spring, I planted three or four small sunchokes I bought at a local heathfood type store.

They were about this big.

They made tall sunflowers during the spring, summer and into the late fall. The plants ranged from about 5 feet to about 11 feet tall.

Here is what the plants looked like.

Close up of the flowers.

We had some frosty nights recently, and the plants died off. I was cleaning out the garden bed where they were a few days ago. And to my great surprise under ground as I was pulling up the dead stalks were a large amount of tubers!!

Here is my harvest!!

This is the largest of the tubers I found.

Now these tubers are said to help in the control of insulin production. They are useful in the control of blood sugar highs and lows. Neat Oh!! They taste sort of like Jicama, or a kind of sweet water chestnut.

I am going to plant many of the tubers so I will have more next year!!

Well we now have our "colors" on the backs of our motorcycle vests. They are embroidered patches that have to do with the type of motorcycle we have.

This is the back of my vest.

The bottom patch Rick had custom made. It is the designation for the type of Harley we have.

It is short for... "Full (size) Harley Roadking Classic (fuel) Injected"

I planted a tree the other day. It is a Fuyu Persimmon. I got it as a gift from a fellow that visited the congregation last week. I planted it in the back garden, behind the chicken coop.

Here is what it looks like now.

I pray it will take root, and in the years to come that it will make some nice shade in the summer for the chicken coop.

Hope you all have a good week.

Birthday Gift for Jodi

I got this finished today for my grand daughter Jodi, soon to be a big 2 years old.

It is a sort of drawstring purse.

But when opened up. It is a bed for a baby doll, with a blanket and a tiny stuffed animal.

The blanket and the bunny are attached to the bed/purse so they won't be easily lost when taken away from home.

Since the baby might get cold, there in Missouri, I made her a hooded pancho in matching yarn. Then I decided to make a matching hat for Jodi.

In the center of the doll blanket is a granny square made by my mother, some time prior to 1987 when she died.

My mom was an avid "crocheter." She was always making something. I inherited all her yarn when she died. It was YEARS, before I had to buy any yarn. And I still have some of the yarn, and quite a few granny squares over 20 years later!!

Parsley Mistletoe

On Christmas Eve we attended services and went out to dinner with some of our friends. At the restaurant, we had a really fun time singing carols and just enjoying the festive atmosphere.

These are a couple of photos of Rick making "mistletoe" out of a sprig of parsley.

We all had a great evening!

Christmas Lights and Playing Santa

We (Jancis, Rich, me, and Spartacus) went to see the Christmas lights. Well, we got about half a block and Rich decided that any thoughts he has of being "in control" of Spartacus were only an illusion. So... we took Spartacus back home and came back. Even got the same parking spot!

We met a fellow there that had his dog dressed up as an elf..

Unfortunately, my camera ran out of batteriens after only a few photos!! But here are the few I was able to take.

This was a neat house.

Rich said it reminded him of the story of Hansel and Gretel, and there ought to have been a Witch in the window.

This is a cute one.

This house had a ton of lights in fact it is the only other house I photographed before my camera pooped out!!

This was in the sideyard, I took it especially for Jenna. It is a neon guitar!!

Our motorcycle group was contacted to help a family that is in dire need this holiday season. The husband died at Thanksgiving, he was waiting for a liver transplant. Somehow the liver damage was related to his US Military service. This couple had recently adopted three of their grandchildren. Due to "paperwork snafus" the wife was out of money and with Christmas coming she was afraid they would have no gifts for the kids, and she had some major plumbing work that was needed on top of all the other stress she was having.

We were so blessed to have such an outpouring of help for the family. The other night we gathered up all the gifts and groceries that were donated (a plumbing company donated fixing the plumbing!) and we made a visit to the family.

Here is the truck loaded up.

One of the guys decorated his bike as Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer.

That is Elmo on the back under the helmet.

This is Jo Jo, a French Bulldog that belongs to the Hennessey's. He is taking a nap at one of the nights of Chanukah.

Last night, Christmas Eve, we attended services with our friends Bill and Alexandrea Young, John and Corinne Hennessey. Then we went out to a fun time at an Irish Pub/Restaurant. I forgot my camera, but... Bill and Alex had theirs, so when I get the photos I will post the fun time we had there.

Hope you are all having a Happy Holiday Season.

Trip to San Manuel for Lunch

This was last Sunday. Dec. 20, 2009. A group of us (27 motorcycles) went to lunch at San Manuel, a very small town here in Southern Arizona.

This was before "Kickstands Up"

Here we are starting out, the sky was really pretty.

Can you see me in the mirror?

Here we are going up a hill on the way to San Manuel.

This is looking behind me.

Here we are at the Restaurant.

This is a really tiny city, an old mining town.

We filled up most the tables in the restaurant. I forgot to take any photos of

us while we were eating!!

This is the backside of Mt. Lemmon with snow on it.

From our house, we see the front side, or what is to us the front side of this Mountian range.

It has more snow now, we had some rain the other day.

This is Jancis.

She is here from Canada, working for three years in the States. She is a Chemical Engineer with Schlumberger. Right now, she is in Canada spending the Holidays with her children. Rick and I went with her the night before she left to Canada to buy a new motorcycle! Well, new to her, a 2003 Anniversary "Fatboy". She will pick it up when she comes back in two weeks.

Well, here I am in the mirror,

I am getting better at taking photos in the mirror!

I am going make another post now...

Keeping Busy

A few months ago I saw this apron fabric and decided I would make it for my daughter Jennifer for her tradtional Christmas cookie baking and candy making with her husband. Of course, I procrastinated to the last minute to sew it up!!

Here it is... (Don't forget Jennifer, to send me a photo

of you in the apron.)

Here is a close up of the bib

and here is the pocket

I have some cute pansies in the garden right now.

I like ths lines in the "face" of this one.

This was unusual, Tomato Horn Worms in the winter! The chickens

liked them a lot!! I am thinking they get the brown color from eating

leaves that are no longer greeen, maybe?

I am going to make a couple more posts of things we have been doing lately.

Toy Run

Getting up at 6:30 am was something I never thought we would be doing on a Sunday, especially during Rick's vacation. But, that is just what we did this morning to participate in the Sun Riders Motorcycle Club 28th Annual Toy run. So for the cost of two toys and $15.00 each we helped to raise some funds for needy children here in Tucson.

Rick thought a couple of stuffed bears would fit nicely in the saddlebags. We picked out two really soft cute fellows.

A few of us from our group met at a local IHOP to eat breakfast before the Run. Then we headed out for the gathering of motorcycles at a local park. Here we are waiting to get started.

We had a couple of hours before we got started, so I took some photos of different motorcycles and some people that had gathered for the event.

Here are some motorcycles that were decorated and some people that were in festive costumes.

I had seen this caboose trailer before in town. I like the side car and passenger. She is not real.

There were many people there with small dogs that ride with them. This fellow has an interesting way to carry his dogs.

Here are a couple of photos of me and Rick while we were waiting.

There were about a thousand motorcycles! We made quite a parade though the town! There were people on the curbs taking photos and waving as we went by them.

Here is what I could see during the run when I looked ahead of me. MOtorcycles as far as the eye can see.

And this is what I could see when I looked behind me. How do you like the "Ape Hanger" handlebars on those two motorcycles?

I would have liked to get a photo from this overpass. These fellow had a great vantage point.

Our friend Bill was working at a booth selling leather vests, jackets and other Motorcycle things.

Here is the parking lot where the run ended

So that was our day today.... Here I am in the mirror

We are enjoying our "staycation"

Love you all bunches!

Such a Deal!!

Every couple of weeks Joann Fabric and Crafts sends out a flyer with coupons to get you to buy more fun stuff! I had a coupon for 50% off anything in the store, even things already on sale. So I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get this for the gate on the back garden. It was a turkey, but I changed it to a chicken!! The original price was $14.99, it was on sale for 75% off. So with my 50% off coupon.... drumroll!!! It cost me only $1.88! And it is just too cute on the gate!

Our Thanksgiving was very nice. We had our friends the Hennessey's over. And we all "pigged out" on the traditional things for Thanksgiving. I forgot to get a photo of the table all set up. But here are a couple of photos of what we had. My lettuce is doing very well now. I was able to go out and pick a nice green salad and garnish it with some very pretty flowers.

I made two different pumpkin pies. The lighter one has cream cheese in the filling. The darker one has lots more spices.

This month there are two grandchildren with Birthdays. Jessica and Jillian. I made them each a sachet. I like to make them with an inner refillable bag for the herbs. I used Lavender.

This one is for Jessica.

This one is for Jillian

Yesterday Rick put an alarm system on his motorcycle. All by himself! It works great! It has different types of chirps, beeps and sirens depending on what someone is doing to the motorcycle. . And it has a "key fob" that tells Rick what exactly is happening to make the alarm go off. The remote key fob works up to a half mile away. I thought he would get the type that says "Step slowly away from the motorcycle!" But, I suppose that costs more.

Oh, I almost forgot.. we are in a war with a neighborhood cat. It decided to use the Harley as a unrinal! Rick went out to go to work, started up the motorcycle to warm it up while he put on his helmet. Then he smelled something not good. He looked at the motorcycle, and it had a cloud of blue smoke coming off the exhaust pipes! The cat had peed on the exahust pipe, the brakes, the back tire and the underside of the saddlebag! Talk about a person going ballistic! It took almost an entire bottle of Windex and a roll of paper towels to get the pee off the motorcycle! All the while Rick is fuming, saying he is going to KILL that cat!! And he likes cats, and he carefully removes spiders from the house with a paper cup so as not to harm them. But, you just don't pee on a man's motorcycle! That day he bought a cheapy cover, so his good cover wouldn't get peed. And the war was on!

We heard mothballs will repel cats. So.. for a few days we had the overhelming odor of mothballs in the carport! But, it only worked for a couple of days. Then the cat had peed the motorcycle again! Over the weekend we bought a motion sensor that is attached to a can of air, that is suppose to scare cats. Only thing is on Monday, I went out and there sat a cat! Happy as can be! Right next the the motorcycle practically sitting in a tray of mothballs and right next the the motion sensor device! That silly thing was $30.00 at PetsMart!! I don't think it works very well! Or the cat is just not afraid of cans of air going "Pssst" at it!

Yesterday we got one estimate on enclosing the carport. I think that will be the best solution..

Well that is all the news that is fit to print!

Have a great week!

My "Happy To You" Day!!

This year I made out like a bandit as far as gifts are concerned!! The week before my birthday I got a very nice pair of Smart Wool Knee Sox from Jennifer. She sent them early since we had talked about my trying to find some here for motorcycle run that would be coming back after the sun went down. And here in the Desert, in the winter anyhow, it gets pretty cool after the sun goes down. Here are the sox... If you have a chance to buy some, they are GREAT!! Jenn got me a pair last year too, and I love them!!

A few ladies from the congregation took me out to lunch. One of them gave me the funds to put in a nice winter flower garden in the little garden at the shul. I bought the flowers and potting soil last week. Today I will go over and plant everything. Then maybe I will take some photos, if I remember to take the camera.

Rick got me a new T-Shirt and matching baseball cap from our Local Pistol Range. And he also got me some Deerskin Motorcycle gloves with "Spaceage liners."

The new gloves worked very nicely last night on our way home from having a late lunch in the Phoenix area. It was in the low 50's, but with going 65mph most of the way home, the windchill made it much colder. We went to a place called "Chino Bandito" in Chandler AZ. It is a Chinese/Mexican Restaurant. If you are a customer for the first time they give you samples of all the sauces and meats so you can see what tastes the best to you before you order.

Let's see what else did I get for my birthday... oh yes, my friend Pam got me some really neat "Flowering Tea. I put it in the nice little glass Tea Pot she got for Rick a while back.

Here is how the tea looks. Isn't it pretty! And it tastes great too!

Here it is from the top of the pot.

Then, last Friday, on my actual birthday, we went out to lunch with a group from the Tucson

Free Wheelers motorcycle club. One of the guys there got me a really neat hose attachment for washing, cars or motorcycles. It is has a filtering system to filter the water, and has a rinsing agent additive so you don't get any waterspots without having to dry whatever you are washing.

Here I am trying it out.

I think it will even do windows!!

I hope you enjoyed seeing my Birthday gifts. Thanks to everyone!! I even heard from my both my kids and one of my brothers that day too!! It was a good day!!

Now off to plant my snapdragons, pansies, alyssum, and petunias!! I can't wait to show you in a couple of months how pretty that little garden will be!!

Look What I Planted!!

One great thing about living here in the desert is that we can grow things in the winter. Sometimes much better than in the Summertime.

My basil was going to seed, so I transplanted all the herbs and Swiss Chard out of the wheelbarrow planter and put in STRAWBERRIES!! I got these great looking plants at Lowe's garden center.

Here is a recent salad I made from my new baby lettuces and spinach.

Rick is not much of a salad eater so you notice the salad is in a custard cup. He has this to say about salad... "That is not food, that is what "food" eats!"

Redneck GPS

Wow, it has been exactly a month since I have made an entry on here. I have been busy making a few things. And we have taken a few more motorcycle trips on the weekends. This last Sunday we went to Queen Creek Arizona. Rick belongs to a audio forum, and a few of the guys here in Arizona got together to listen to "tunes" and have a bite to eat.

We met a few people from the Tucson Freewheeler Motorcycle Club in Florence AZ for lunch before going to Queen Creek. After lunch Rick was looking at his map and intructions on how to get the the gathering in Queen Creek. Since looking at a map is next to impossible while driving a motorcycle. He came up with an idea of how he would follow the directions without having to stop and look at the map. I called it his "Redneck GPS."

Here is a photo of a few of our Motorcycle Club friends at the Chinese Restaurant in Florence AZ

Here is the group that was at the Audio meeting.

The fellow hosting this event is the envy of all the guys that were there. This whole house is a "Man Cave." He bought the house before the market went all crazy. He has each room set up with a different types of audio/video systems. With seating in the "sweet spot" for each system. I told Rick he needs a separate house for all his audio gear!! I bet this fellow's wife is happy to have all his audio gear out of their house. Imagine a whole house dedicated to listening to music!

Now I have "Leathers" too!! Here I am all dressed up in my new helmet.

Here I am with the helmet opened up.

It is a really nice helmet, I love the built in sunglasses!!

Here is what I see as I look in the mirror going down the road.

I will not wait a month before I post again. I want to show you

what I have been making, but... I have to wait a few days.

First "Putt-Putt" Trip

This last weekend we took trip to Saguaro Lake, which is East of Phoenix AZ. It was about 250 miles round trip. There were 12 people, on 10 motorcycles in the group. Riding on the back of a motorcycle is quite fun! It is great to be able to really see all the scenery around you.

This a a photo of Saguaro Lake. It is not often you see Saguaro cactus near the water.

We had lunch there in a cafe overlooking the lake. It is a pretty big lake out there in the desert.

The drive was quite enjoyable, lots of nice hills and such to see.

If you notice, in the photo above, is an arrow with the word Phoenix in

white at the base of the hill. They say that is so soldiers who are dropped off in the desert for survival training, can find their way back to town.

We had only one scary moment. A silly woman decided to pass the "pack" of motorcycles, but, as each one of the motorcycles dropped back to open space to let her in, she would slow down, and not get back in the lane. Soon she was going "head on" with another vehicle! Just so happened it was a Sheriff's vechicle. They came to a dead stop nose to nose, or "grill to grill", and the officer pointed to her, and motioned for her to pull over.

Not smart to play "chicken" with Law Enforcement!

I thought this was a fun photo, it is the shadow of the bike on the road.

About once an hour we would stop to stretch our legs and get the kinks out of our bodies.

You can get a bit sore in the bottom after a while. Here is a photo of one of those stops.

There was the most amazing sunset that night on our way back to Tucson!

Here are some photos of it as the sun is going down.

There was some roadwork just as we were coming into town. It caused a bit of a

traffic jam.

As I was editing these photos, I noticed there was one of me in the mirror, so I will

end this post with that one!

Adios!!

I Forgot To Show You This...

Last weekend my neighbors went to New Mexico for a "getaway". I watched their house for them. She got me this really cute apron as a thank you gift She said when she saw it she knew she had to get it for me.

Here is a close up of the Bib of the apron.

Here is a close up of the ruffle on the bottom

A great idea to recycle old jeans!!

Guess What We Have!!!

Here is a hint.....

It is in showroom condition, the 100 Year Anniversary of Harley Davidson model, with only 10,000 miles on it. We have been having fun going for rides here in town.

Here is Rick on the day he brought it home.

Maybe tomorrow I will get a photo of his new helmet. It is really space age looking.

Here is a link to the helmet.

http://hawkhelmets.com/p/Hawk-Helmets/Advanced-Hawk-Flat-Black-Dual-Visor-Full-Face-Motorcycle-Helmet/54907.html;jsessionid=A34439256E382D4872D06B7BF71DC797

I am getting one just like it.

Sorry not to post in so long. I have been doing some sewing. I made Junie an apron for her birthday which is next week, she will be nine!! Hard to believe, seems like just the other day she came home from the hospital. I remember how Jenna used to sit and wait each morning for Katie to bring June and put her in her baby seat. Here are some great photos from back in the "good old days."

Uncle Herb and baby Junie

Me and Junie

Jenna and Junie in matching dresses I bought for them, gosh seems like yesterday I was trying to decide on what sizes to get of those dresses!

I keep that same photo on my computer desk.

A nice trip down memory lane... anyhow I made Junie a new apron for her birthday because I was thinking she probably had outgrown the last one I made for her.

Here is a close up of the front of the apron, the pockets are only pinned on at this point.

Here is the front once it is finished

This is the back

And this was the most fun part of the whole project.

I put it on the underside of the yoke of the apron. This project was such an ordeal!!

Here is an email I sent to a couple people while working on the apron

Today I was determined to finish the apron I am working on for Junie's birthday. At about 2:00pm, I was feeling pretty good, I only had to sew on the rickrack, and put together the pockets.

Then I noticed a black spot in a very noticable place in the body of the apron! I had just pressed that place, so I figured it came off the ironing board cover, which was getting old. I attempted to remove the black spot, and only managed to make things worse! As I was trying to decide what to do, I found another black spot! Great!!

Well, rather than ruin more fabric on that old ironing board cover, I quickly drove to Bed Bath and Beyond and bought a new cover. Came home, ripped out the seams, cut out a new body for the apron.

To my great DISMAY, there in the center of the new apron body were three black spots!! It was a flaw in the printing of the fabric!! I had bought twice the amount of fabric I needed thinking I could make a couple of aprons from it. WEll, now I was in a quandry... I didn't have enough fabric to cut a third apron body. Thankfully I had made this one pretty long, so I was able to move the top of the pattern down a bit and recut it, minus the black spots.

By this time, it was about 4:30pm. Time to start dinner and get ready for services.

At dinner I drank some coffee, determined to finish this apron before I went to sleep tonight.

Well, I am now a bit further than I was at 2:00pm yesterday, it is now 4:00am!! I figure I better go to bed before the sun comes up!! It will now be Saturday afternoon before I can work on this again.

It turned out pretty good for having such a bad start.

Hope you all have a good weekend

My Creation for Nosh Today

I had some fresh Mozzarella in the fridge, so I bought a couple nice tomatoes, and picked a bunch of Basil from my garden and Voila, I made this...

The little white flowers are from Garlic Chives that are blooming in the garden now. I infused some Olive Oil with garlic, fresh rosemary and fresh oregano to use as a dressing. It was a great hit at the congregation today. This week I will make more Pesto since I have so much Basil. About three weeks ago I cut back all the basil plants and made about three pints of pesto. All the plants are ready to cut back again! This has been a good year for Basil!

My Garden in the Morning

I love the way my garden looks in the early morning before the sun gets really hot and stresses the plants.

Here are some photos I took.

Yellow Four O' Clocks

Here are some Fushia Four O'Clocks.

I have these wonderful huge Blue Moring Glory flowers that grow om the back fence.

Two weeks ago I bought a piece of Taro root at an Asian Market, and it sprouted and is growing!!

I am still having lots of fun with my exercise program on the Wii. I do some serious aerobics for 30 to 45 minutes a day. Then last weekend Rich bought the Sports Resort program for the Wii. We have both been enjoying the Sword Fight game. It is really a workout!!

Here is my Mii all ready to fight.

This is another fun one. It is throwing a frisbee on the Beach to a small dog.

There is a balance game. It is a penguin on an ice flo. The object of the game is for the penguin to catch and eat the fish that jump on the ice. You stand on a small pad that records your movements. You then shift your weight from side to side, which them tilts the ice from one side to the other to catch the fish. But, if you are not quick enough you end up in the water!

Here I am as a Penguin.

I have lost 7lbs in 15 days. I have been eating less on top of the added activity. Now in the eveings Rick and I have fun doing the Wii and not just sitting in front of the computer or TV.

We Have A Wii!!!

A couple of weeks ago I watched a friend of mine do the Wiii Fit program. It looked like lots of fun. I told Rick.. "We need one of those!" And a couple of days later, he came how with a Wii!! He bought an exercise program with over 490 different exercizes and a personal trainer.

So far, I have lost 5lbs!! I even look forward to my exercise time each day!! I hope by this time next year to be back in shape!

Here are the little characters we have when we use the Wii. I think mine still needs work but, Rick's sure looks like him.

Here is Rick' Mii Playing Tennis.

Here is my Wii doing step aerobics.

Here we are bowiling

I guess this is the exercize of the future. You don't have to leave the house. No Gym memberships, or going out in the hot sun or cold rain. I bowl much better on the Wii than I do with a bowling ball!!

I will keep you posted on my weight loss. According to my Wii Fit, the age of my body today was 34 years old!!! It bases that on your balance and ability to do some simple tasks. I thought that was pretty good, it is my best score yet.

Have a great week!

Trellis Update

If you remember in the Spring I added a trellis to the front yard. It has been very slow in filling in since we have had about half our normal amount of rainfall.

Here is how it looks today.

This is what it looked like when I first put it up.

A few years ago I made a topiary that was suppose to be a snail. Well, it never really looked much like a snail. I used the planter it was in for some Basil Plants, so I dumped the ivy out under the pine tree.

It was just kind of a lump of Ivy, so I gave it a face.

It think he needs a hat. But I have yet to find one that will suit him.

Last week was Rick's 53rd Birthday!! His good friend Eck took us all out

to lunch at a Chinese Buffet. Here we all are together at the restaurant

Rick and Eck have been friends for about 26 years now!!

Well have a good week!!

Love you all bunches,

Heidi

Potting Shed Improvements

The past few weeks I have been busy in the yard making lots of improvements. One of the projects was to clean up my potting shed. It is next to the chicken coop. I keep all the garden tools, pots, potting soil, chichen feed, my manure tea jug, etc in there. It never looked "neat" no matter how I straightened things up on the shelves. So... I came up with an idea just to cover it all up with a curtain of sorts. I found some fabric for $.99 a yard. It is a great blue and white potted plant print. I think it looks much better now. I didn't think to take any before photos!! Silly me!!

Here is looking from the outside.

This is looking directly north. The roof is shade cloth. Someday I hope to have a real roof on the potting shed.

and this is this is looking at the other side.

If you are wondering about all the white containers, they are old laundry soap containers, that I use to gather rain water when it rains. Rain water is best for starting new seedlings.

I still have not finished the artificial grass between the stones under the clotheslines. It has been just too hot and humid to be out there for very long. We are suppose to get cooler this coming week. I hope so. It is very hard to be motivated to do much outside when between 105 and 108 every day!!

What I Have Been Doing

With the ever increasing price of water here in the desert, I decided to take out the lawn area under the clotheslines. I know Spartacus will not be happy about that! He loves to roll in the grass there. But... it is just too expensive to keep it watered and green all year.

Here is a photo of the area after I dug out all the dead grass.

Here it is after I layed down the flagstones.

Now I am in the process of cutting pieces of artificial grass to go between the stones. That is not an easy job!! When I get it done I will show you how it looks. I have less than 25% of it done at the moment.

We decided that Spartacus had earned a new toy for being such a good watchdog on our camping trip a few weeks ago. I took him to a local feedstore here that has a huge selection of fun dog toys. We spent over an hour looking at different toys. He was not interested in any of them!! I was about to give up, then I noticed a sort of barrel with lots of stuffed toys. I dug aound in there and showed some of them to Spartacus. No real interest from him, until then I found a Kitty stuffed animal. Oh my goodness! He grabbed it out of my hand and wouldn't give it back. It was just what he wanted!

We came home and I got some photos of him with his new "Kitty Toy."

Here he is you can tell he is very happy to have it.

The next couple of photos are not for the "squeemish" (or cat lovers)

I told him he had to be nice to his new Kitty toy, and as you can see he is truly repentant for chewing on the poor thing.

He is very nice to his toys really. He still has most the toys he has ever gotten. Dawn, he still has the toys you sent him when he was a baby, and Jenn, he still has the very first toy you sent him too. And they are in great shape.

Well I hope this find you all staying cool.

It has been between 105 and 108 here lately.

Oh and a bit of sad news. The baby hummingbird died. I am not sure why. The silly mother bird built the nest right under the eaves of the carport. And when it rains, which we have had a couple good downpours, the nest was right in line with the run off from the roof! I am thinking the poor little thing got too wet and cold. But in any case he died. I buried him next to the Rain Lilies in the front yard.

Hummingbird Nest and Summer Flowers

On Monday I noticed we had another Hummingbird nest!! It is in the Ivy that runs across the front of the house. This time the nest is on a Ivy Branch that hangs over the carport. Needless to say the mother bird flies off the next every time we walk by. It is not easy to get a photo of her. These are not the best being I had to use the telephoto lens and it can be a bit blurry at times. Here she is on the nest.

This was taken on Monday from pretty far away.

This one I took a few minutes ago, I was about 7 feet from the nest, but used the telephoto lens to get a close up of her.

There is only one baby in the nest, I can't get a good photo of him or her.

I don't want to disturb the mom too much. I will try in a few days to get a photo of the baby in the nest.

These are my favorite summer flowers. They withstand the 100+ temperatures we get. They have the most wonderful bright colors for such delicate little flowers.

This is my favorite color for these flowers.

They come in all kinds of colors, even white ones.

Today is Hebrew Class so I better get going around here so I won't be late.

Camping

We had a great time camping. We were at around 8,000 ft. on Mt. Lemmon. Which is about 27 miles from where we live. Here is a photo of the view of the city of Tucson taken from the end of the trail where we were camping.

Here is Spartacus with Michelle, one of his favorite people.

Spartacus had a great time!! He was the official Security Guard. Anyone that approached the

camp had to first be properly introduced to Spartacus or they were not going to get by him.

The first day one of the Park Rangers came to clean out the fire pit. He was carrying two

shovels. Well, Spartacus decided this fellow was not allowed in camp with any "weapons."

The fellow had to put down the shovels before Spartacus would let him come into the camp

to be introduced. Then later as the people were gathering firewood, anyone that were not

well known to Spartacus, was not allowed to bring sticks/weapons into the camp!!

He would bark at them and not let them pass, until Rick or I said it was ok for them to

bring in the sticks.On the last night, one fellow who had been there the entire previous

four days, got out a hot dog fork, it was one of those that are able to get longer by

pulling on them. It makes a sound much like a sword coming out of the sheath. This fellow

was sitting in a chair by the fire. Which put him right at eye level with Spartacus. As

soon as he opened up that fork, Spartacus was right beside him. The fellow turned his

head, and Spartacus "chuffed" right in his face, as if to say, "Put down the weapon!"

It was funny how serious Spartacus took to his job of keeping eveyone safe from what he considered to be a threat.

During the day there was lots to do, like playing chess...

Sitting and just enjoying the nice weather. See our camp kitchen in the background?

That was one of the best things we ever bought for camping.

Everyday there was wood to chop.

And more wood chopping.

Can you read Rick's shirt?

Here I am with Spartacus just relaxing.

Spartacus got to meet an 8 month old puppy named Gretel. She wasn't sure she wanted

to meet him at first. Here they are getting to know each other.

Mt. Lemmon has some really interesting rock formations.

And here is one Happy Dog on the drive back home.

Being a Securtity Guard must be very hard work. Spartacus slept for pretty much

three days straight when we got back home.

Motorcycle Weekend

On Friday Rick rented a motorcycle for the trip we had planned to drive up to Mt. Lemmon this last Sunday. We had a great time!! It had been 23 years since Rick was on a motorcycle. Of course we rented a Harley Davidson, it had to be a Harley! For grins Rick got down some of his old motorcycle garb from the attic. He even posed for a few photos! Here is one.

Here we are on Saturday night leaving a friend's house that lives about 30 miles

out of town

The weather on the mountian was nice and cool compared to down here in the valley.

This was our view as we ate lunch on the patio of the Ski Lodge.

We enjoyed watching the hummingbirds fight over the feeders. There are two of them eating

from this feeder

Last week I let the chickens out to play in a section of the garden that was

a bit overgrown with flowers. They had a great time. Spartacus loves to watch

the chickens. He lays down beside them and watches for hours on end. Once

and a while he gets up and does a "play posture" to the chickens and they all

get wild and crazy. He loves that!! I tell him to "knock it off and be nice!" Then

he will lie down all quiet again. Silly animals!!

Here are Roxanne and Olivia

Here is Rosalind taking a dust bath.

Here are Roxanne, Rosalind and Olivia, Ophelia was camera shy that day.

Hope you all have a great week!!

Mother's Day!!

On Mothers' Day we went out to a special Mother's Day Breakfast. My daughter Jennifer and her husband Christophter got me the cutest garden statue. I think we look alike. I need to get a better picture of the Bee's legs. She has the most adorable shoes!! Maybe tomorrow I will get a new photo with her shoes included.

Last week I added a couple of new plants to the garden. One is a vine that will grow up a trellis in the front garden. It is called Scarlet Pimpernel Mandeville.

I got another plant, a Pink Dalia. They are really quite pretty too.

I am fighting the heat this week to keep things from wilting in the later afternoon.

It has been over 100 for the past few days now. I really hate summer herre!!!

Well that is all the news that I have for now.

My Project This Week

A couple of months ago I got an idea. Every week for the past year I have been noticing the artificial lawn at a local Radio Station. It looks really nice, with the added bonus of not using any water.

So... I don't know if anyone remembers my front walkway...it is, or rather was... flagstone and dichondra. The photo at the top right of the heading on this page is one of my favorite photos of it.

Anyway, I got this idea that just maybe the company that installs the artificial lawns might just have some small scraps that I could use between the flagstones and save money on water. I called them, and the owner said he would give me some scraps and they would even deliver them. I was really happy.

When the fellows showed up with the scraps, instead of a bunch of small pieces, they left me two 5ft X 30ft rolls of the stuff!!

I about croaked!! So since Monday this week I have been trying to make a new walkway I decided it would be really hard to cut out all the holes for each stone. So.. I thought I would just place the stones on the top of the grass. I worked and worked to lay flagstones. It is not easy to do!! I had to keep pulling up the carpet of grass, and level the soil so the stones would lay properly.

Here is a photo of what I did.

Rick thought the stones were too far apart, and that they might cause someone to sprain an ankle if they didn't step on the stones just right.
So.. I made the gaps between the stones smaller by rearranging all the stones again.

As I was working, I noticed I really liked the look of the grass without the stones on it.

Here is a closer view.

Here is how it looks from the front door. I made the path to the birdbath more narrow.

Well, what do you think? I used to have to water the dichcondra at least twice a day in the summer. Now I don't have to water this stuff at all!! And it was FREE!!

The Secret Garden

My next door neighbor invited me to her "Secret Garden". The Irises are in bloom. I thought I would share some of the flowers with you.

Here is one bed of Irises and poppies.

Here is the same bed looking from another angle. There is a circular patio with planters coming out from the edges of the patio like spokes of a wheel. Right now it just has baby seedlings in the beds, except for this one with the flowers.

Here is a close up of it, I wish the camera could see what I see.

These are Desert Blue Bells

These next photos are of some really pretty Irises.

I especially liked this one. The sun was shining in such a way to make it look like the center of the flower was a sunbeam.

This is a bronze Iris

This is a true pale blue Iris.

And here is a pale pink one

These looked like twins

I envy this garden. When they bought the land they had a Agricultural water meter put in since they planned to only use it for a garden area.The water is much less expensive that way. Last year one of their watermelon vines put out about 30 watermelons, still producing well into the fall. The garden beds and trees are all on an underground drip system. Of course it helps to have a resident irrigation expert in the house.

From time to time I will show you how the secret garden is doing. There are grapevines, fruit trees and lots of vegetables. It is a nice place to have a cup of tea.

Been Busy in the Garden

How time flies by these days!! This year my flowers by the mailbox are tumbling into the street.

The backyard smells beautiful!! The Honeysuckle is blooming. I have two vines that I planted last year and they are quickly filling out the trellises. I was able to root a piece of one of the vines that I accidently broke off earlier this year. so by next year I ought to have three nice Honeysuckle vines in the backyard.

I replaced the rock and succulent garden by the backdoor ... Here it is, or was...

Photobucket

The succulents I moved to the side yard with the other succulents. I think flowers make me happier than succulents. It will be a few weeks before the tiny sprouts look like much of anything.

I planted a varigated Alyssum, Bachelor Buttons, Cosmos, and some other little flowers I don't remember their names right now.

Yesterday, my neighor Pam treated me to a manicure and a pedicure!! Just for being a good neighbor!! Here are the results, I chose two different colors, one lighter one for my fingers,

and a darker one for my toes.

Well, I will try to come up here next week if not sooner to post some fun things for you to see.

Have a great week.

Five Eggs in One Day!!

The other day I got five eggs from my four hens! And one is a double yolker for sure!!

I am getting enough eggs now to give some as gifts to my friends. I came up with a label for a six egg carton that make a nice little gift. Here is the label.

I think it turned out pretty good! Yesterday I got one of the cartons back, empty, with a strong hint they brought it back for a refill!!

Yesterday when I went to check up on the chickens, who were out in the yard playing, they were all in a line, taking dust baths in the dirt. By the time I went in to get the camera, and got back, two of them had decided to go do something else. But here are two of them in a photo I titled "Hens in Hog Heaven"

They love to dig indentations in the dirt and and then throw the dirt up on themselves.

I am working on a new water conservation project. For the past year, I have been noticing how nice the new artificial lawn in front of the Radio Station looks. I got an idea! They must have scaps leftover from jobs, and what do they do with them? So, I called and they said they would be happy to give me all the scraps I could use. And they even deliver them to me!! Can't beat that! I was expecting small pieces. But what I got are two big rolls!! I am starting back by the chicken coop, I will put a flagstone path going to the chicken coop and to my potting shed. I am happy now!! No more flooding the chicken run when I have to water the dichondra between the flagstones!! And I will save lots of water. The next phase is to replace the dichondra in the front pathway. That will be a much bigger project!!

Here is the grass, it is not put down yet, I just laid it there to see how it will look. We have had lots of wind lately so I need to vacuum the grass!! The shadows on the grass are from a new overhead screen I put up to shade the plants a bit during the heat of the summer.

Here this looks better now!! I didn't vacuum it..

I used Photo Paint to take out the straw and pine pollen and needles!

I could just not put the flagstones back, but I think it will help the grass last longer if I am not walking on it.

Have a good week!!

Pink Jasmine Vine and Other Fun Stuff

Things are really starting to bloom here now!! This week we have had such wonderful weather. It is hard to stay inside during the day. We are having beautiful blue skies with white puffy clouds. The citrus trees are in bloom and the air is filled with a scent of flowers.

Last year I planted a Pink Jasmine vine. It is suppose to grow about 12 feet tall!! I planted it in the corner of the back garden against the fence. It smells so prety! I think it is called Pink Jasmine because the buds are pink before they open.

This year the dandelion leaves are HUGE!! Good thing too, because it is one of the favorite chichen snacks!

The Nasturshims in the back garden also have huge leaves this year.

Now that the chickens are all laying eggs, they have to wait in line to use the nest box.

Oh, I boiled a double yolked egg. I can tell right away now if an egg is a double yolker. Theyare so much larger than the regular size eggs. It makes an interesing boiled egg.

I tried this week to get some photos of Spartacus playing frisbee. It is not easy with my camera. The shutter is somewhat delayed. So I got a ton of photos with no dog in them at all, or just a blur. Here are a few that turned out ok.

He is watching how high it can go.

He is jumping up to get the frisbee.

Here he is right after catching it.

I wish I could get one so you could see just how far he gets off the ground!! For such a big fellow he can jump pretty high. He seldom misses catching it.

Have a great weekend!

Working in the Garden

Yesterday I built a trellis. If any of you remember, a couple of summers ago I made a trellis from two Sunflowers and some Morning Glories. In fact it is one of the photos in my header here. Anyhow. A day or so afer that photo was taken, we had a thunderstorm with winds and rain that caused it to fall over! It was very sad. This year I decided to try again for a Sunflower and Morning Glory arch. But this time I will reinforce it. I was very proud of it, until Rick came home and told me it had no "Sturctural Integrity".... So, I asked him what I needed to make it stand up to the winds we get with our summer storms. (He figured the way it was, the thing would fall over on his truck at the first good wind that blows.) I got one side fixed tonight just before it got dark. Tomorrow I will have to go to Home Depot and get some more PVC fittings, since I figured out a better way to make the support leg for the other side. I will take new photos when I finish it. Once it is covered with vines, you won't see that it is not perfectly straight.

Here it is...

Well, I finally had two eggs in one day!! I think now both Rosalind and Roxanne are laying.

Here is what I found the other afternoon in the coop, they didn't use the next box, but they were very close to it.

I did have a very weird egg this week. I was cleaning out the coop and thought at first it was a feather, but, when I picked it up, it was like a wet, deflated balloon! And it had nothing in it!! Very odd looking, I think it might have "popped" on the way out of the chicken.

Here is a photo of it.

I found a new way to keep the chickens entertained when they have to be in the chicken run by the coop instead of out in their Tractor. I used a wild bird feeder, that is suppose to hold suet and seed blocks. I fill it with greens from the garden, dandelion greens are their favorite, and they like cabbage and grapes a lot too. Anyhow they love to pick the greens out of the holder.

Here it is all filled with different weeds and lettuces.

Then I hang it in the chicken run, and they play "volley ball" with it.

Sometimes if they are really hungry they can empty that little hanger in just a few minutes. Then they look at me as if to say, "Hey, we want some more!"

This year we had a very mild winter. I still have tomato plants and basil that survived the winter. The other day I made Rick a salad with two tiny tomatoes that I found in the garden. My "oak leaf" lettuces are really dark this year! I thought this salad had a funny face.

That salad is in a custard cup, the tomatoes are between three egg slices, not our eggs, they were eggs I made from a recipe that Eck gave us. It is really good!! If I ever get the time I will type out and post the recipe. It is a sort of sauce you use to soak the eggs in. It has Soy Sauce, Ginger, Lemon Grass, and a couple of other things. I plan to keep a jar of eggs in that sauce in the fridge for snacks. Are those tiny tomatoes or what? Rick said they had lots of flavor for such tiny tomatoes. The are "Sweet 100's" I hope the plant perks up and makes lot of tomatoes this summer, it only made a few tomatoes last year. I did notice today I do have lots of voluteer tomatoes coming up. I am waiting for Zoop to appear that means winter is over for sure when he comes out.

Got to go.

Have a good weekend.

Nagging Pays Offf!!

After eleven days of putting straw back in the nest box after they kick it all out, and putting the plastic egg back in the next box, and telling them ...

"This is where EGGS go, NOT in the corners of the coop!!"

Finally!! Rosalind laid an egg in the nest box this am!!! I am SOOOOOOO Happy!!!

Here are some photos I took of the EVENT!!

I think you can see the little brown egg better in this one.

I am so happy my chickens can understand English!!

Spring Has Sprung!!

I really love this time of year!!

We can grow so many things here in the Winter.and early Spring. Lettuce is one thing the loves cool weather. Each year I plant lots of different kinds of lettuces. This time of year I am able to make nice big salads to serve at our weekly "nosh" at the congregation. Here is a close up photo of the one from yesterday. I decorated it with Desert Honeysuckle(The bright orange flowers, Nasturshims, Johnny Jump Ups, and Rosemary Flowers (the very tiny lavendar flowers).

I had never used Rosemary flowers before. They have a very slight Rosemary flavor.

Which is to be expected I guess.

On Friday I was able to get a series of photos of Rosalind laying an egg!!! Here they are for those of you who have never seen a chicken in the process of laying an egg.

I took these photos from the door of the next box, which they don't appear to understand that iw where I want the eggs to be laid, even though I did go to the trouble of making a nice sign to go above the nest box.

Here is Rosalind in the process of making a nest in the front corner of the coop. Olivia is coming to check out what is going on.

Here is Olivia coming to see what I am doing. You can see the nest box at the bottom of the photo. I just cut it down a bit last week so they could get in it easier.

Here is Olivia checking out the nest box, I am hoping when she begins to lay eggs she will lay them in there.

Here Is Rosalind with her newly laid egg!

and here is a photo of the egg in the straw.

The other day I thought I would take a photo of the difference between a store bought egg and one of my home grown eggs. I used my largest egg from the hens. This one was about twice the size of the eggs I had been getting. To my surprise when I cracked it into the pan it was a double yolker!!

Notice the difference in the color of the yolks. And the whites are different too. Notice how the white in my egg stays nice and high near the yolks, and the store bought eggs white is all flattened out.

You all have a great week!!

"EGGCITING" NEWS!!

Yesterday At 22 weeks and one day.....
Lady Rosalind laid her first egg!!!

Lady Rosalind 2/5/09

Rosalind at 15 days old. Taken Sept 25, 2008 Wasn't she a cute chick!!

I was so surprised!! I was in the run with them, feeding them some dandelion greens, their all time favorite things to eat!!

I left for a few minutes, came back for some reason, looked in the run and there under the broken chair they use for a outdoor roost in their yard was a brand new little egg!!

Here it is under the chair, I had just put down a nice new layer of sand the day before.

Here are a couple of close up photos of the egg so you can get an idea of it's size.

Dark background

Now just yesterday in the morning, I put some hay and eggs in the nest box, but left the screen up so they could see into the nest box, but not get into it.

Here is the next box all ready to go....

They were curiously watching me from inside the coop as I arranged the straw and plastic eggs, I held up an egg and showed it to them and said "This is an egg. Pretty soon you will be making these!"

And sure enough that afternoon, I had an egg!!

Maybe I should have showed them an egg sooner?

New Furniture!!

Last night they delivered our new furniture for the livingroom. I am sooooooo happy!! We were concerned it might not fit, but it fits just perfect!! It is sooooo comfortable. It is micro-suede that looks like leather. It is just so soft and comfy!! I had to lighten the photo a bit, it was too dark to see any details on the funiture. Poor Spartacus looks a bit washed out!!

Here it is.

That was my big surprise for you!!

Salad With Violets

Yesterday I made a salad with lettuces from my garden. I added some edible flowers. I think it looked very pretty. It smelled good too!!

Well on Wednesday... I will have something fun to show you!! I can't wait!!

Silly Chickens

Last night when I got home it was dark, and I went to shut the coop door,

since the chickens are usually in there as soon as it gets to be dusk.

But to my surprise I found three of them outside the coop roosting on

the "pop" door!! If the door was bigger I bet all four of them would

have been on there!!

Here are Roxanne and Rosalind the other day, being bookends. in the

Chicken Tractor, for those who don't know what that is...

it is a big cage that moves around the yard so the chickens can eat weeds

and bugs, but still be safe from preditors and they can't escape the yard.

My garden is doing well Here is the lettuce at the base of the Apricot tree.

It is a special mix of lettuce from a famous restaurant, but, now I have

forgotten the name of the restaurant!! Notiice the purple cabbage,

it has been growing since LAST year.

Here is more lettuce in the little green house by the back door

And here is the Wheel Barrow Garden I planted last spring,

the Italian Parsley has about taken over!

Here is my first pea!!! It is an Oregon Giant.

They will get bigger as the weather warms up a bit.

Good News!! We used half as much natural gas as we did last year. The new heater and water heater are much more effecient!!

And.... next week I will have a big surprise for you!! I can't wait to take pictures!!

Sunset Snapdragons

Winter has arrived in Tucson!! I will have to cover my plants later this week.We are due for some really chillly nights on Thursday and Friday, so they predict. .

Here is one of my favorite snapdragons in the front yard. I just love this color. It reminds me of a sunset.

Yesterday Rick put in a new light fixture in the kitchen. For about 20 years I have had the same lighting in the kitchen. A florescent tube over the sink, and a ceiling fixture the held two 60 watt bulbs.For the past few years now, the ceiling fixture has been turning on and off by itself. Many people thought the house was haunted when that kitchen light was on!! I now have a adjustable three bulb fixture!! Each bulb is 75 watts.

Here is a close up photo of the fixture.

I couldn't believe the difference more light makes!! But, the drawback is.... I can see all the spots that need cleaning!! The fixture holds bulbs that are floresent and they take a while to come up to full brightness. That is odd to get used to.

I couldn't get a photo of it turned on, it is way too bright and sends my camera into real fits!!

A few days ago we got a new vacuum cleaner!! That too makes a real difference!! Somewhere I have a photo of Rick using the last vacuum we bought, about 10 years ago now. He has to use them when they come out of the box.

And here is how the chickens sleep in the coop. All cuddled up to stay warm. Olivia stood up right as the camera flashed.

The coop is nice and snug. Yesterday it rained on and off, but the coop stays nice and dry. Even the run area stays pretty dry since it is under a huge pine tree in the backyard. Some time in February I should start getting some eggs. Oh guess what! My coop was tied for first place in a coop contest on Backyard Chickens!! I won a $20.00 gift certificate!! The contest was based on this posting of the construction of my chicken coop. If you haven't seen this page before, here is a link to it. Glenn Cottage Eggery Construction

I won two contests last week actually, my photo of Irving the snowman won "Photo of the Week" on a gardening message board I belong to. All my life I never win anything, then in a week I win two contests!! Here is the photo of Irving that won that contest.

Irving, in case you don't know, is a snowman I kept in the freezer a couple of years ago now, when we got some snow here. Which is a rare thing. Here he is in the freezer.

As you can tell he had begun to melt a bit in the photo with the Johnny Jump Ups. His Kippah was getting too big for him.

Well, I better go let the chickens out of the coop!!

Have a great week.

What A Week!!

This has been a very interesting week. We finally are getting a new water heater,

furnace, and air conditioning unit.

Spartacus and I have been spending this past week at the congregation

buildings during the day. I needed electricity to do the gifts I am making for the

holidays. Since the front and back doors were open with 6 to 10 guys

going in an out every few minutes during the day, we thought it would be

less of a hassle if Spartacus was not here under foot. Rick rented a

generator so he could continue to do a few things here at the house whlie

the power was off.

They began on Monday, putting in the new water heater.

Here is the new water heater in the side yard near the kitchen.

I didn't get before pictures of the hall closet with both the water heater

and furnace in the closet, which is no longer allowed since the codes

have changed. This house was built in 1951 and back then you could

do many things that are not done today. Here is the empty closet.

Looks pretty bad huh? I wanted to paint it while it was empty, but...

I didn't get a chance. I thought for a while I would get a whole new

closet out of this deal, but I was wrong!!

On Tuesday and Wednesday things began to get really busy here.

There were five different kinds of trucks in front of the house most

of the day. There was no electricity in the house while the Power

Company was putting new wires from the pole to the house and we

got a whole new breaker box on the side of the house.

Here is a photo of the bucket truck working on the pole by the house

Here in an in process photo of the new unit. In the closet.

Here it is almost finished

This is a photo of the new compressor on the roof next to the old swamp cooler,

we will most likely replace the old cooler at some point. That way we can use the

swamp cooler when the weather is hot and dry, and save some money on cooling

the house in the summer.

Tonight, we have heat!! And the new thermostat gives us the temerature

outside! That is a nice feature. They put in all new vent covers today.

There are still a few things they will do tomorrow. This furnace is so

quiet compared to the old one!!

Winter Garden 2008

Yesterday I took some photos of the backyard gardens. They are all doing very well. We had guests for dinner last night and I was able to make a very nice sized salad from the greens in the garden.

Here is the greenhouse by the back door. There is Sage, Parsley, Garlic Chives, Beets, Stevia, Greek Oregano, red, white, and blue potatoes, several types of lettuce, and a clump of violets.

This year the potatoes seem to be doing very well in the little green house and the violets seem to be very happy growing with the potatoes.

Now on to the back garden. The other day I decided to plant violets along the path in the very back garden behind the Peach and Apricot trees. If you look carefully you can see the tiny transplants of violets. The plan is that in a couple of years The area between the stones will be filled in thick with violets. They are good in salads and for a nice garnish on desserts.

The violets look like this when they are happy!

This is the special blend of lettuce I planted under one of the Apricot trees. It was a seed blend from a famous restaurant, but I forgot the name of the place!!

This is the square foot garden in a ladder in the back garden. It has different types of lettuce, cilantro, and spinach. And a Basil plant that is still making it through the winter so far. Opps! I didn't get the Basil in the photo!!

Do you remember the little Pomegranate Tree with all the flowers? I think I posted it on here a while ago... Anyhow, here it is today with lots of tiny Pomegranates. I should have counted how many there are. Wait I will go do that.. there are 20 small pomegranates, and a few flowers that might produce fruit.

Here is the baby citrus bed. It doesn't look like much at the momemt. The trees are really small, and the flowers are still just coming up so all you see is green. Do you see my peas on the fence?

This year I planted some Red Habenero plants, I took a photo of the one I have in a pot on the back patio.

It is loaded with peppers, so are the other plants that are in different places in the garden. Over the years I have found I have better sucess if I don't plant things in rows, but put different plants in different places each year. And I study "Companion Planting" so I can fool the bugs.

Well, Spartacus was "helping" me in the garden. I had carefully removed a Amaranth plant that was loaded with seed, and I shook a few seeds in the citrus bed, just so next year there would be some different color of leaves in with the spring and summer flowers there. I set the Amaranth stalk down, and Spartacus decided to spread the seeds all over the backyard for me!! Here is is once he was finished sowing the seeds.

And here are the chickens this morning just being chickens

You may notice I replaced the cute blue and white ladder going into the coop, I was tired of trying to keep it looking nice and clean!! Now I will save it for "special". I put in a scrap piece of wood for them to use as a ramp. It is much easier to clean!!

Anybody know of a way to "potty train" a chicken???

VACATION!!!

For the past few years Rich has taken the month of December off from both his day job as a Design Engineer with United Technologies/Otis Elevators, and the congregation. It gives him time to really rest from the busy schedule he has all year.

This is how he spends most of his vacation time.

Spartacus loves to sit on people, since he is not really allowed on the furniture, this gives him a "loophole." He has a shirt on not because he is cold, but because he has an 'owie" on his elbow, and the shirt keeps him from licking it.

Spartacus has become quite a big fellow. This is a picture of him on the first day

we got him.

The past couple of years we have been having "staycations" trying to save up to replace the water heater, furnace and air conditioner. They have been on their last legs for a few years now. So, we finally saved up the close to $15,000.00 it is going to take to do all that! They are to begin in a week or so, the Electric Company was out here yesterday to check on what it will take to boost our service to handle an air conditioning unit. We have only had a swamp cooler before. I hope our electric bill doesn't go up too much in the summer.

Not too much is new. I think later today I will take some photos of my garden, I did quite a bit of cleaning up of plants that will not make it through the winter yesterday afternoon. Now watch, we won't even get a freeze and I could have let them grow!!

My lettuce, spinach and other winter crops are doing well. Soon as I am dressed I will take some photos to show you.

Winter Comes to the Eggery

Since we seldom see snow here in Tucson, I have to pretend it is winter. I got some really

cute snowmen and put up some snow flakes to make my 80 degree days seem cooler!!

Here are some photos of the Eggery all done up to celebrate winter.

Here are the snowmen close up, I thought they had cute faces!

This one is on the gate.

And there are two of these guys, one hanging from each end of the roof

With the warm weather my garden is still very happy!! I have flowers finally after three years of watering these vines! This is a type of morning glory that doesn't put out any seed. It grow from cuttings of the vines. And it become a "weed" very quickly if you don't keep an eye on it.

Notice my baby lettuce, spinach, potatoes in the little "green house"

Here is a close up of flowers on the arch. They are out all day, and change color during the day from light blue to lavendar and dark pink colors.

And of course there must be a chicken photo!! Here they are playing "Volleyball" with a cluster of grapes. It is a fun game for them. I tried to get a picture of them as they peck at the grapes, but my camera wasn't fast enough.

Have a good weekend!

Love you all bunches,

Heidi

Chick Pix

On Friday I got my car back!! It was a very nice job of body work!! I will take pictures tomorrow. The only thing that is a problem is the door sensor is not working right, so it shows a light on the dash that indicates the door is open when it is closed. So.. I will take it back to get that fixed on Monday.

The other day I took some new photos of "the girls" Hope you enjoy them.

Here are Ophelia and Olivia, you can tell which is which very easy on these two. Olivia still has some of her "chick fluff" on her head. And she is a bit lighter in color than Ophelia.

Rosalind and Roxanne are much more difficult to tell apart. Roxanne is a tiny bit bigger with a longer tail, but you have to really study them to see any difference.

Here they are sitting on a old chair I let them have in their tractor.

Here they are "preening" their feathers.

They look do a good job of keeping clean. They love to take "dust baths". They throw dirt upon themselves in a very wild fashion! Then they lay there in the indentation they create and take a bit of a nap. I will have to get some new photos of the dust bath ritual.

I thought I would get more done around here with no transportation, but.... my neighbor Pam came to make sure I got out a couple of days last week. We went shopping and out to lunch. It is very nice to have good neighbors! We trade plants, seeds, and when we make meals that turn out especially good we take each other some! She is still getting watermelons from her garden!

Today is cool and windy. I have a roast beef in the crockpot, and just finished a gingerbread for dessert. I put pieces of candied ginger in the gingerbread. I think it will taste good, I will let you know.

My plan for the afternoon is to clean out the chicken coop and put new straw in there. I need to go to Ace Hardware and buy a dust mask for that job. Last time I did it the dust from the straw made me cough.

Off to Ace now!!

What a Great Way To Start The Shabbat

Friday evening, I was in my "office/computer/craft room. Rick was practicing his songs that he wanted to sing at Havdallah. We both heard water begin to run. He thought I war running a bath, I thought he was in the kitchen, we have a wireless mic, so I thought he was running water for some reason in the kitchen and singing, odd thing to do but... hey he could have been rinsing out a glass or something, but then the water seemed to be running a long time, maybe 3 to 4
minutes. I went to see what the heck he was doing singing and running water... (maybe doing dishes?) But, he was sitting in his chair singing...

uh, oh... I turned and then I saw the bathroom floor was an inch or two deep in water and coming up into the hall carpeting!! YIKES!!

Of course the handle on the valve was completely stuck, I had to run quick and turn off the water at the main valve, on the front of the house obsecured by the ivy on the front of the house! Not easy to find in the dark since we had the porch light off since it was Halloween night! Thankfully I knew about where the valve was and found it pretty quickly, got the water off. I came back in the house to Rick trying to figure out what the heck was spraying water all over tthe place. (the little hose that goes up to the tank sprung a leak, it is plastic, but has not been moved for at least 25 years now.

I got out a couple of towels to try to stop the water from going into the carpet. I went to get my carpet machine, (which is a glorified shop vac in reality) It, too, is ancient, but Bissel made a good product that year! Rick was the one that cleaned up all the water. I think for him it was a fun science experiment to see which nozzle worked best, and what angle he needed to hold it to make the water go up in the hose better. It took a good 45 minutes to get all the water up off the floor!!

What a great start to the Shabbat!

Jenn Your Wish Is My Command!

This week the chicks are really changing into chickens. Every morning now they are perched on the roosting posts when I open the coop door. See how big they are getting?

Their voices are getting deeper and instead of making baby bird chirping sounds, they are starting to go "Brwack" when they get excited. One thing that excites them is when I bring them nice grubs from my compost pile. This photo is not for the squeemish...

those are some huge grubs!!

Now that it is fall, and I have removed all the Morning Glory vines from the fence that divides the back yard, I can see the coop clearly. There are peas coming up that will in a few weeks hopefully cover the fence. Here are a couple of photos of the coop from across the yard.

This is what my neighbor behind me sees when he looks over the back fence.

Jenna, remember you asked about the apricot and peach trees? That skinny tree with almost no leaves that is casting a shadow on the coop is one of the Apricot trees, and if you look at the other coop picture above, in the far right side you see the green leaves of the Peach tree. The peach tree seems to keep it's leaves all year. I hope in a couple of years to actually get some fruit from these trees!!

Next year I think I will put the same PVC roof on the potting shed, I just have a shade cloth cover on it now. But a solid roof would look much nicer I think. Don't you think the chicken coop made a nice addition to the backyard? I think everyone should have some "backyard chickens", they are such fun to watch.

I finally finished my entry in a Chicken Coop contest. The people at Ace Hardware think I should enter the coop in the county fair, (if they have such a thing as a Chicken Coop display.)

We were to give as much information as possible on our constuction of our chicken coop. The winner gets a $20.00 gift certificate to be used in the BYC Gift Shop (BYC=Backyard Chickens)

If you would like to see my entry you can go to this link.

http://www.backyardchickens.com/web/viewblog.php?id=8389-coop-construction

Let me know what you think of my entry.

The car is in the shop being fixed, and it is to be finished Nov. 19th!! That is three weeks with no car!! We don't have rental car coverage on our insurance. But, to be honest I am not minding staying home in the least. I have a much calmer day.

Have a great weekend.

What A Week!!

Tuesday was just not my day! My perfectly wonderful car iwas "customized" by a city bus. Thankfully nobody got hurt. The bkie rack on the front of the bus hit the side of my car. The bike that was in the bke rack was damaged. I now have to deal with the insurance company. They were suppose to send someone down from Phoenix last week to look at it. But, that didn't happen. Here are a couple photos of the car.

On a happier note. The chicks are growing nicely. Here is a photo of me holding all of them. The lighting was not the best. In a couple of weeks I'll do another on so I can see how fast they are growing. The Barred Rocks are just nine days older than the Buff Orpingtons. It is amazing what a difference just nine days makes when they are so young. The Barred Rocks have all their feathers now. Poor Olivia is the last to get real feathers. She reminds me of "Woodstock" in the Snoopy comic strips. The feathers on her head are still baby chick fluff and they poke out in all directions. Ophelia has most of her feathers now. I am hoping they are all hens and that I won't have to deal with how to get rid of one if it turns out to be a rooster. We can't have roosters in the city. They say there is only a 10% chance of one being a rooster. But, with my luck lately... I hate to think about it at all.

Yestereday I worked all day in the garden. Getting ready for winter. Here in Tucson winter is the best time for growing many crops. Like lettuce, spinach, cabbage, radishes, peas and many flowers. I will take some "before" pictures later today. They are pretty boring, since they are just bare dirt at the moment.

Look What's New in the Garden

A few months ago I bought a dwarf Pomegranate Tree at Trader Joe's. It is now loaded with fruits and flowers. Here are a couple of photos for you to see.

This is the tree

Here are some of the fruits

Here is the size of the little pomegranate fruits

The other day I looked out the back door and saw a spider had made a web all over the top of one of the windchimes. The sun was just right so you could see how pretty the web looks.

And of course there have to be a few chicken photos for you to see!!

Here are Ophelia and Olivia in the garden.

Ophelia is the darker of the two. Olivia still has mostly baby chick fluff. But, the feathers Oliva is getting are lighter in color than Ophelia's feathers. Maybe they will stay two different shades. That would be fine with me, makes them eaiser to tell apart that way.

Here is a good picture of Ophelia.

I need to get a good one of each of the chicks while they are still young.

Hope you all have a good week.

Chicks at Play

Everyday I put the chicks out to play in their tractor for a few hours.

They have lots of fun!!

Here are some photos I took yesterday.

Some are in the yard attached to the coop,

others are in the chicken tractor.

Here are Olivia and Ophelia playing follow the leader

Here are all four on the back of an old chair I put in the run for them to play on during the day.

Here are two photos of them perching on the old chair I put in the chicken tractor.

I picked up some old chairs people were throwing away a while back. I planned on painting

them, I still might do that.

Here are all four perching on the chair, but one is flapping her wings so you can't see her very well.

And here are just three of them perched on the chair watching the world go by.

Here are Roxanne and Rosalind up on the top of the old chair.

Here is Roxanne on the porch of the coop, notice Spartacus standing guard in the background.

Hope you enjoyed the pictures, I am off to recover one of my little greenhouses

Rick made me a few years ago. I am putting chicken wire on it. It was Rick's idea

to give the chickens a alternate place to look for bugs. There is nothing growing

in the little greenhouse at the moment except some herbs that I think are big enough

the they won't be able to do much damage to them with their tiny baby feet. Once

they are big chickens, well that is another story I would imagine.

Introducing Lady Rosalind

Today one of the chicks stood out as being more curious and more adventuresome than the others. I spent a good hour watching and "interacting" with the chicks. I can now tell them apart. And have named them. Lady Rosalind is darker and weighs less than her sister Roxanne.

Here are some photos of Lady Rosalind.

Sitting on the edge of a basket

Sitting way up on the handle of the basket.

she looks like she is sitting on the head of the other little chick.

And here she is taking a nap on the edge of the basket.

Also today, my neighbor Pam brought over a Coop Warming gift. It is a watercolor of some Hollyhocks in bloom. She said it had been in her garage and when she saw it she knew it belonged in my coop. So... I mounted it on the inside of the entrance gate to the chicken yard.

Here are some photos of the watercolor

Here with the gate open

Here with the gate shut

and here is a close up of the watercolor, it is of Hollyhocks in bloom.

I thought this photo ws neat, notice there is lattice around the Hollyhocks, and see the refection of the lattice in the glass of the photo

Today I also mounted the word "Eggs" above the nest box. I had to do a bit of modification on the letters to get them to fit in the space The "S" had to be a bit tipped, but I think it looks ok, being not quite straight..

Well off to bed now. I spend most of the evening cleaning up a "Hazmat"

problem in the kitchen, I accidently broke the florescent tube over the sink!

So... in case any of you didn't know, they contain Mercury. And it is not

good to be breathing and touching Mercury. It is all cleaned up now!!

For Jenn, Me with the Coop

Ok, Jenn just for you, so you can better tell how big

the coop really is. Here is the coop and me beside it.

This is me standing on the sidewalk that goes to the back

Vegetable garden. This is the short side of the coop,

It is taller than me when I am in the chicken run. I dug

out the soil so I can replace it with sand every so often.

The coop is set on concrete blocks. On the sidewalk side

they are set about half way in the dirt up against the

sidewalk, so no critters can dig under the coop or run.

Here I am opening the nest box, where sometime next year,

I will get eggs!! I bought some wooden letters today to go

above the nest box. That side of the coop was severly lacking in

any kind of deoration.

In the next couple of days I will get the word "Eggs" above the nest box. And I will

post how that turns out.

Have a good evening,

I am off to fix dinner.

Glenn Cottage Eggery is Finally Complete!!

On Thursday I finished putting up all the hardware cloth on the chicken run. That was a job to be sure! I still have cuts on my arms!

Friday morning I had some good friends come and visit the garden and eggery. I gave them the guided tour! We then went over to my next door neighbors house to see her grape arbor that is loaded with beautiful purple grapes. She gave us a snack of watermelon. Then we went to her "secret garden" across the street to see her three waternelon plants that have produced about 40 waterneloms so far in the past three months. They are the best watermelons I have ever tasted!

I took photos of the coop and chicken run. I put it in a filmstrip that begins with Spartacus looking at me through the sliding glass door, then we proceed down the sidewalk to the gate, we look at the fall display on the fence that separates that side of the yard. The plan is that someday the pallet fence will be covered with ivy. Then we go down the side walk, around the back of the coop, through the chicken run gate, down the side of the coop, we go in front of the coop and look inside of it. Then back down the side of the coop and around the back of the coop to the house again.

Now I am patiently waiting for chicks.

Have a good weekend, what is left of it that is....

It is late now and I am going to go to ....

Names for Chickens

I was telling my husband, the names I had picked out for my chickens. The Buff Orpintons I plan to name Ophelia and Olivia. He said "What goony names are those? Why don't you neme them something more practical like... Deliciious and Deletable? Just think you could be the only person in the world with a chicken named "Lunchmeat."

I took pictures of the coop this morning, they have yet to be downloaded and edited. I have a TON of stuff to do today! Housecleaning mostly, which is not my favorite thing to do. I am taking Spartacus in to have his nails cut at a grooming place. His nails are now too big and hard for me to do it. Well, y'all have a good day now. I'll post new photos of the completed coop and run later, probably way later tonight after I get all my other chores done.

Today I Put Down a Deposit On Some Chicks!!

On my way back from the Airport I decided to stop by a feedstore at that end of town. I had never been there and I was a bit leary of going there because it is not in the best area of the city. I was pleasantly surprised to find it clean and bright, very organized, the livestock they had were in spotlessly clean cages. It was the cleanest feedstore I have seen so far.

They are way more organized than the feedstore that is just a few blocks from me. And a big plus, they take orders for chicks!! Something the other feedstores don't do. I am well on my way now to getting my baby chicks!! I put down a big $5.00 for my four chicks!!! I am so excited!!

Hopefully in a couple of weeks I will be posting baby chick photos!! I wonder if I can make some cute bonnets for them to wear for photos?

A bonnet and an apron would look very nice on a chicken I think!

Off to the Airport

This is a busy day for me. Taking a friend to the airport, cleaning up the constuction mess in the back yard, and doing some much needed work in the garden. I have negelected both the housework and the garden while I was concentrating on getting the coop and run finished. I will take pictures once I get the coop and run "presentable" for photos.

Now the search for baby chicks begins!!

I had plans to make a Tomatillo sauce for dinner tonight. Last night I made some chicken stock, for the recipe... But this morning I noticed I forgot to put it in the fridge!! YUCK!! Now I will have to go buy some chicken stock.

I am so mad at myself

Glenn Cottage Eggery Almost Complete

The photos at the top of the page are some of my favorite photos from my garden.

As many of you know the past few weeks I have been very busy building a chicken coop! I plan to get four chicks, two Buff Orpingtons, and two Barred Rocks. This has been an adventure! I have never really built anything like this. I will post the pictures as soon as I get them organized. Today I got the chicken "run" complete. I learned the hard way there are definate ways NOT to do things!! I spent more time pulling out staples today becasue I needed to have access behind a section of Hardware cloth I had just securely stapled!! I do believe I have made it preditor proof. All I have left to do is putting up some trim pieces tomorrow.

The weather is here is feeling like fall. It is still in the high 90's. But it is less humid and the monsoons are over.

I will work now on the Eggery photo album.

Hope you will enjoy this blog.

Love you all bunches,

Heidi

Glenn Cottage Chronicles - glenncottage

Featured pictures

Welcome

Weather

Glenn Cottage Eggery

Finished Coop

Glenn Cottage Eggery

Fall. The Best Season of the Year!!

Recipes

Spaghetti Pie

First Dust Bath

Why is there a light on in the coop tonight?

The Old Tree Stump Had to Go

Latest news

Silly Goat!

New Kids at The Goat Pen

Not Quite a Month Has Gone By!

Sad Day At Glenn Cottage Eggery. Lady Rosalind died

Bat Mitzvah Classes

Been a While...

2001 Vacation Pacific Coast Hwy

Been Keeping Busy.

Last Couple of Weeks.

What a difference a few weeks make!

Uh oh, over a month since I was up here!

Been A Long Time....

Tomato Solutions

Been Busy!

Update on Tomatoes and Peppers

Blasted Bobcat!!

First Tomato and Pepper!!

My Newest Morning Glories

New Baby Blanket and Stubbed Toe.

How Time Flies By!

Visit to Ironwood Ranch

Motorcycle Ride to Chandler AZ for Lunch

Wow, a whole month since I put up a post here!!

Look What I Found In The Nest Box!

Meet "Little Joe"

Happy New Year!

Trip to see TRON at IMAX

Communal Dust Bath

Frosty Morning!

This is really sad!!

I Don't Believe This!!

Visit to Biosphere 2

Trip to Kitt Peak Observatory

He Hears Our Thoughts

Birthday Aprons

INTRODUCING.....

Promise Not To Laugh

Oatmeal Lavendar Soap

Saddest Of Days AT Glenn Cottage Eggery

First Time Soap Making

Iron Kettle Bread

Lots of Milk!!

Traditional 4th of July Whale

Zucchini and Goats

Debut of George and Gracie

Tea Party With a Surprise Ending

Honeysuckle Jelly

Artichokes!!

Creative Backyard

What It Means to Be a Chicken!

April in the Garden

My New Summer Jacket

Goat Trailer with a Bonus

Very Busy Couple of Weeks!!

More Milking Practice

Birth of a Poppy Flower

Welcome Visitors!

Milking Time

Snow in Tucson

Chickens!!

Surprising Harvest

Birthday Gift for Jodi

Parsley Mistletoe

Christmas Lights and Playing Santa

Trip to San Manuel for Lunch

Keeping Busy