Random Musings

I cannot believe that tomorrow is the last day of February!!!! I've been trying to get the grapevines pruned before warm weather hit, but didn't quite make it. Bobby had some young men come and plow up my garden area and move all the grape vines I had pruned this past Saturday while I was working, and I think I disappointed him a little by promptly going out when I got home and finishing off the grape vines, without hauling my clippings to the special place in the woods (he had the boys leave a path because I told him I might be needing the vines). The vines now look naked. I'm starting to seriously doubt that I'll work on the posts and wiring this year. And my current project: Little Dog felt the need to cover the smell of the new wood. The old pen to the little chicken house. Side one halfway finished beside the old part of side two. Today I hope to finish the base of the pen, if not the whole thing, then start on gutting the small house tomorrow. The...

Despite all my yearnings for more cooler temps, despite what the calendar says, nature is screaming "It's spring!" I was able to finish pruning one line of grape vines today, and they were weeping with each major cut (which means their juices are NOT lying dormant!). Sweet gum and oak trees are budding, tulips and crocuses are popping up their heads, our late daffodils are up (we have one set that comes in January like they should and the other doesn't appear until February), and we had our first goose egg today. This Saturday marks the first meeting for election trainers. Thankfully we have two weeks or so before we have to start with staff presentations, and actual classes won't start for another week or two after that, but just the fact that it is here reminds me that life is about to get busier. I'm excited about working again, even if it just a few hours each week, but primary elections are my least favorite. I'm having a hard time mustering up exci...

We have two chicken coops, and both of them are in need of repair before we head into the spring season. Biddies go on sale at various places a week from today, and we normally move them into the smaller coop outside when they're between 2-3 weeks old (depending on the weather, etc). So I'm on the fence between trying my hand at repairing the smaller coop and building a pen myself or purchasing one. I'm feeling my ignorance and inadequacies greatly as I there's so much about wood and building that I don't know. I don't want to waste my time and money on supplies to build something that won't hold up, but I also don't want to lose biddies to snakes, rats, raccoons, or hawks. So there's a lot to research and think about during the next few weeks. It's also getting closer to time to start planting early peas and putting up fences and such for the garden to be planted in March and April. So while people around me are moaning and groaning for warmin...

This morning we got up earlier than normal, and I pulled the curtains back so Bobby could see the fog, and was greeted with this guy: He appears much larger/fatter than he was last month, and I'm wondering if his swollen chest might have something do with our missing chickens. Usually hawks only eat the pullet sized (teenagers) chicks or younger, but we had three grown chickens go missing last week. He can eat all the squirrels he wants (and there's still plenty hanging around), but leave my birds alone!  Though I suppose it's possible there are more than one, and this is just the grandpa/grandma of the flock. And the view above is not zoomed in on the bird, but from the kitchen window. And for those of you wondering, no neither the dogs nor the chickens were in the dog pen.

Garner has a "new" restaurant. I don't know how long it's been there, but we discovered it today, and tried it out tonight. I was reminded of two things: 1. Jimmy & Janie Aldridge teaching our Jr Church at the Cordova Free Will Baptist Church. One of the things we learned was the "missions" chorus to the hymn Where He Leads Me I Will Follow.  Where he leads me I will follow. What he feeds me I will swallow. Though I may be sick tomorrow, if I can get this down today.   and 2.  eating at banquets in China. Except there I HAD to eat everything served, or at least half of it, because my hosts were sitting across from me. We've tried Peruvian chicken before at a place in Raleigh and LOVED it. This place is also Peruvian and sells Rotisserie chicken, with other things. It's called Chio's Rotisserie Chicken.  The chicken here was good (not as good as Alpaca Peruvian Chicken, but okay), and their stir fry and noodles was good. We also tried...

There's a new restaurant in Cary,  http://www.goodharvestny.com  called Good Harvest. It was featured in the paper today. I just watched the video on the website and looked through their menu. It reminded me so much of China! Except the hot pot restaurant we went to there had a large buffet where you went through and picked the food items to take back to your table instead of a paper checklist, and the pots on the tables were connected to gas tanks instead of electric plates. But other than that, it's very similar.  I'm not sure if I'm brave enough to take Bobby or not. The raw egg...one of the things they had on the table in China was eggs. I forgot that the Chinese "drop" eggs into their soup for flavor and protein, and I put the entire egg in the broth so I could have a boiled egg. We had two directors in the "foreign affairs" department (the area that was in charge of/responsible for us). One of them thought the boiled egg was hysterically funn...