Today.

Started early, as usual during the week. We're up at 5 to get the Spousal Unit to the bus-stop. It's so light in the morning now - if I wake before the alarm there's really no way of knowing what time it might be from the piece of sky through my window. The sun's been up for hours. It was worse when I lived 400 miles further north though. There the sun barely dips below the horizon at all. Or so it seems.

From the bus-stop back to the chicks. They're so big and voracious by now that by the time I get to them in the morning the feeders and waterers are empty. Mercy. I didn't realize I was in the market for avian elephants.

Altogether we've lost 24 so far. We finally went and got some antibiotics for the water, because it was beginning to look like we might lose all of them. Since that we've only lost a couple. I didn't want to, but I also didn't want to have nothing to show for this endeavor at the end of the summer. We'll keep them on it for a week and a half longer, and then pull them off. Since we got them, people have been coming out of the woodwork to share their experiences with Cornish Giants, and they all said the same - these birds are bred for antibiotics and factories. It was the Cornish Crosses we wanted, the ones Joel Salatin recommends, but those weren't available. Oh well. Live and learn. We'll try something different next year, and hopefully by the end of the summer we'll have a little flock of laying hens to try our hands at.

The birds are two weeks old today, and to celebrate that they got extremely belligerent. They puff out their chests and explode in each other's faces. Charming. I think I won't have as much trouble with the butchering as I thought.
"Homeschooling". Patch's reading-readiness has taken some big leaps lately. Hallelujah! He wants this so badly, and it looks like it's finally on the map. He loves real, meaty books, things along the lines of Terry Pratchett. For years we've been pulling them in from the library in audio format, so he could have that autonomous access. Now that the symbols are making more sense for him, he's decided to work on Joseph Campbell, Myths to Live By. He breaks it down as he can, phrases here and there. It's still beyond his fluency, but it's not beyond his sophistication or his pride. He's never tolerated the condescension of "readers". He'll get there. I'm so happy for him.


Garden. After the chicks, I was out busting the clods from my last unseeded bed. This is hard work for me. I'm such a wimp!

Big, bright, and bold. I got the purse done on the weekend, but I feel a bit too... conspicuous carrying it around. I know big purses have been really popular for the last decade or so, but I can't get over the diaper-bag effect. I think this purse will enter a library raffle and find new life on someone else's arm.

Jess, my girl who gives the coyotes a severe barking when they need it. Geez those things are loud! They park next to my window and make their horrible moaning and wailing in the middle of the night. I get up and flash the house lights at them, and that seems to unnerve them enough that they go find somewhere else to hold their convention.

Groan. Just when I got the kids sleeping through the night...

The proportions on this photo are so ridiculous. It looks like her feet belong on a poodle!

Baby. Just because he's so cute.

Attacking his mum. This is the part just before she hangs a lickin' on him.