last 2 weeks

If I have slowed down enough to take pictures, they're on my cell phone, which for some reason is now saying I do not have access to my blog. So until there is time to upload photos, I'll just have to posts a few quick reminders...

I officially ended my garden today. Yes. On October 4th. We've always had okra and some tomatoes grow until the end of Oct or the first frost, but never peas or green beans. I honestly think if I had kept watering it we'd have more, but I was ready to be done by the middle of September. The garden gate is now open, and tomorrow the chickens can have at it.

We had three Quilts of Valor presentations last week. While we were preparing to leave for the first one, I tripped and fell in the garage. Didn't land on the ramp like I did 10 years ago, but I still fell on the cement. My cell phone case did its job and was utterly destroyed, but my phone survived (and is now scratched from a week of no protection). As long as I don't kneel or bump my knees or one toe on either foot, I'm okay. But it still looks atrocious. My husband saved the day by taking the quilts and folders on to the group who carried on without me and did a fabulous job.

And we replaced the 20 year old carpet on one end of the house with a type of tile/laminate insert. So everything except the really big pieces of furniture (beds and dressers) had to be moved out. I had so much stuff piled in the dining room and living room the workers barely had space to move the big furniture to.  So I've sorted quite a bit, and still have a bit more to do. Not quite sure what I'm going to do with some of the things or pieces, but I am thankful for how my sewing room is finally come back together. At the moment it is not so cluttered as before, even though everything is not back in it yet, and moving some things around has helped it feel a little more calming. And I'm amazed at how much bigger the rooms look now.

Dogs ran a coyote across the yard once this week, and today Bobby said they chased it back into the woods. There's been a few nights they've had howling contests with them...ugh! I need to repair their fence line soon. Freckles is starting to figure out she can venture further out of the yard. I don't think Little Dog will ever leave the yard (I had to remove his collar), but Freckles is a totally different matter.

It was a wonderful feeling to leave a building tonight and feel a cool breeze. The last two days have had temps of mid-90s and 100.  I'll be outside a fair amount tomorrow, so I'm looking forward to fall weather.

We have a very full schedule now through next Thursday. So it might be another week or two before I can load photos of all that is happening.

a bullet list

• Thursday night will be my last class to teach for the 2019 elections. Then there will be 2 days of madness in October and 2 in November, then about a week in December to prepare for the new materials in January 2020 when we start the cycle again.
• While the American  media complained about the President skipping climate control meetings, they have almost totally ignored his speech at a special called meeting with 60+ countries dealing with the humanitarian crisis in China. In the last several years, over 1 million Muslim minorities have been imprisoned, tortured, and some even executed. This past year the "re-education camps" have started spreading to include Christians, Falan-Gang, and devout Buddhists. Our US Senate unanimously passed a bi-partisan bill denouncing the crimes. And our media is almost silent.
• A former colleague and dear brother has been diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. He will be facing a very intense surgery, several months to heal, followed by six months of chemotherapy. I have cried and prayed on behalf of this dear family. Please remember the Bachmanns, as well as all they come in contact with. God is moving mountains, but I'd also love for Him to miraculously heal Ron.
• I'm trying to slowly regain control over our schedule and certain aspects of life. I know it means letting go of some things I dearly enjoy doing, but I think it has to be done. 
• Since the end of August we've had 10 biddies hatch. 3 of 4 remain from the first batch, 1 of 4 remain from the 2nd, the only one of batch 3 died within 2 days, and the 4th one born today got kicked around pecked quite badly tonight. Not sure if it will last or not and quite aggravated that its Mama did not get off the nest to defend it. She's still on eggs, as is another hen. I think at the end of October everything is coming off nests whether it wants to or not!!

Hopefully there will be updates and further explanations, with pictures, in the days to come.

Dorian

The last few days I've spent a little more time than normal on social media, and some of the things I've seen have really made me pause.

Hurricane Dorian flattened the Bahamas. Some weather stations listed it hitting the islands as a category five; others side a severe four. Either way, the winds hit the islands with a very intense force and stayed there for more than a day.  People died. The homes they lost were not their summer homes, but the only location they had containing everything they owned. Any emergency food or clothing they had was swept away in the waters that sent them scrambling to the attic, sometimes pushing out air vents or attempting to punch holes in the roof so they could actually climb on the roof of the house to escape the waters rushing into the attic.

A few days pass, and hurricane Dorian arrives on the East Coast, after what felt like an eternity of warnings. Even though the hurricane had weakened all the way to a category two, the way the media cancelled everything to do non-stop hurricane coverage seemed a bit over the top, but I suppose being over-informed is better than being under-informed.

But then I go on social media and see comments like "Oh, pray for my sister-in-law's family. They lost their beach house."

Would it be a difficult thing to have spent years saving up money for something opulent like a beach house (even if it's a trailer) only to see it washed or blown away? Yes. It would. But when you put that in comparison to the person who lost their home, not a vacation home, but the place they sleep every single night of the year, losing something that is a luxury item seems almost trivial. Is losing electricity difficult, especially in the south? Absolutely. But that is nothing to compare to the parents who watched the waters sweep their children away as they attempted to get out of a collapsing house and make it to a safe location. Or the families who have absolutely no food to eat at all because the waters washed it all away. I also know many people who live on the coast, and they are just now getting back into their homes from Hurricane Florence...Dorian was a very real concern. This was their daily life that was disrupted, not just their vacation spot.

I am thankful for all the cruise lines who are going in to serve the people of the Bahamas or who have donated millions of dollars to help rebuild the islands. But some of the posts I've seen that derisively say the cruise lines made their money off of the Bahamas so they owe it to the people are forgetting some very important details. One, they made their money off rich tourists. The Bahamas are just one of many locations that benefit from tourists wishing to visit the paradise the locals have made. Two, the chefs and stewards and the captain of that ship are neither slaves nor volunteers.  If the ships go to the Bahamas to feed and house the locals, who is going to pay the salaries of the people who run the kitchen, clean the rooms, and perform maintenance on the ship? Those workers have bills to pay and financial responsibilities the same way we do. I don't know of many people who could afford to send all their employees or the family members to a disaster area and still pay them their work salary if they are not actually performing the company business. It's simply not feasible.  Yes, cruise lines probably make a lot of money, but it also costs an incredible amount of money to keep the ship afloat, much less make it desirable. If you think about all the employees who work for the cruise line, add up the cost of fuel for a boat that size, how much of your cruise ticket is actually profit?  Probably not as much as you think. I'm sure the cruise lines could take a week or two and go to the Bahamas to assist people. Workers who want to volunteer their time could; the others - are they laid off for the week? Mandatory unpaid time? Forced vacation time which means the company has to pay for the time they are off? But what happens after 2-3 weeks? The cruise lines have a responsibility to their employees, and the islanders will still need a place to live and sleep, a place to eat, clothes to wear, etc. It's a great idea and many cruise lines have already stepped up to the plate, but the reality of implementing ideas are not always as simple or easy as people seem to think.

So if you really want to help, instead of ranting on social media, donate to an organization that is prepared to handle disaster relief aid. Here's a few to consider:

Samaritan's Purse

American Red Cross

NC Baptist Men- Disaster Relief Team

snack time

Today in the grocery store I saw this:







I never knew bugles came in flavors. When I was a child, bugles were simply strange shaped corn chips that came in a box...a red box to be exact. And we (my sisters and I) loved them because they fit perfectly on our fingers and we would pretend we had very long fingernails.  Then my brother came along, and he'd make comments about eating his fingers and chomp down very loudly, so they became just something to eat after that. I mean, eating fingernails is a gross thing. So he killed the fun in eating them off our fingers.

But I was very surprised when I went online to get the picture to discover that there is actually FOUR flavors now - corn, nacho cheese, caramel, and chocolate peanut butter. For some reason, those last two don't sound appealing to me. I like both of those flavors, but simply cannot imagine them on corn chips. Perhaps that is why Food Lion only carries the original corn and nacho cheese - its clientele has a simple palate.

Sometimes it's nice to have a childhood throwback.

the Saturday surprise

Geese eggs take 27-30 days to hatch.

When our first hen went broody, I counted out 27 days on the calendar. I was fully expecting an egg or two of the four to hatch this coming weekend.

But I forgot one minor but important detail. Chicken eggs hatch in 21 days.

Saturday was busy with yardwork and a few errands. When I went out to gather eggs and check the feed, I suddenly stopped near the door and exclaimed to Bobby "I hear a lot of chirping!!" Imagine my surprise when I open the door and see a little fuzzball very close to the door, and another near the nesting box. I quickly closed the door so it wouldn't fall out, waited for Bobby to get closer, and we opened the door again. We saw not two, but three!  Then we realized a fourth one was hiding behind the curtain.

This the 4th time we've had a hen hatch our eggs, but the first time we've ever had a 100% hatch rate!  I know the next two months they will be prone to getting smooshed, pecked, or snatched by a hawk, but we are so pleased with how well this Momma hen is doing.  She's kept them warm, protected them from the other chickens, already had them outside the house and pen today, managed to get them back inside the pen and the house, and is breaking up corn for them in addition to the starter feed we put out for them. (We had to make an emergency run to Hudson's in Clayton Sunday - the only ag supply store open on Sunday - to get the starter feed as we were not ready for them!)  We were not expecting more chicks this year, but they're here. There's another hen who has been trying to set, but so far we've not let her have any eggs. If I can get the pen to the other coop repaired I might move her and some eggs there and let her see what she can do...maybe.

tomato pie

A month ago, a friend of mine posted a recipe on Facebook for tomato pie. I had never heard of it before. I read through the ingredient list, and was surprised to see that everything in it I either already had or could easily get. I've now made three, and might make another one tonight.

Ingredients:
4 tomatoes, thinly sliced
1/4 c basil
1/2 c chopped green onion
1 9" deep dish pie shell
2 c grated cheese (such as mozzarella and cheddar)
3/4 c mayonnaise
1 tsp salt
1 T minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Bake pie shell for 10 minutes. reduce heat to 350.

While crust is baking, lay tomato slices in layer on bottom of plate or collander. Sprinkle with salt. Let drain for 10-15 minutes. (I put paper towels between each layer to help absorb the moisture from tomatoes and this helped quite a bit with the runniness in the 2nd pie.)

Put tomatoes in the bottom of pie shell. In a small bowl,  mix all the remaining ingredients. Spread on top of tomatoes. (Carla's recipe called for layering tomatoes with spices and putting cheese and mayo on top, but the 2nd time I mixed it all together and it tasted just as good).

Bake for 30 minutes or until lightly brown. Cut into slices and serve warm.

trying something new

After 5 days of no phone or internet, I can finally post to my blog again!

Our chicks are all laying, and we have acquired a rooster - which means our eggs are now fertilized and hatchable. But we were quite shocked when one we hatched (Leghorn Ameracauna mix) started brooding the first of the month. (For non-chicken owners, that means a hen is gathering eggs to set/sit on for hatching.) That's quite young to be doing that. And since chickens all tend to use the same nesting area or two, not matter how many are available, that means ALL the eggs wind up under the setting hen. Unless you mark them, lift up Momma hen's bottom and pull out the unmarked ones every day WITHOUT getting your hand pecked to a blood pulp. I used a shovel once as a guard between the hen and myself, and still got at least one nasty peck.  So brooding hens are never a great thing unless you can find a way to isolate them and their eggs from the rest of the flock. And right now, that's not an option.

But years ago, I read that you could put a curtain up over the nesting box - and no other chicken would go inside to lay. I decided to give it a try.

We took an old piece of fabric (and every time I see it I wished I had trimmed it up), two push pins, and up went the curtain! And it has worked, with one exception. When the hen comes out to eat or drink, she won't go back in the box unless we notice she is out and lift the curtain up for her. So there's been twice she's started sitting/setting on fresh eggs, and we had to prod her out. Today we lifted the curtain, thinking she would go back to her eggs (she's done that before), but nope. Even after I gathered all the fresh eggs out from under her, she moved all but two from her box and stayed in the middle. So I simply moved the curtain over one and put her last two eggs at the edge of the box for her. By the time I made the next picture, she had already claimed one of them.

So if all continues to go well, we could possibly have four biddies by the end of the month. I'm not anticipating it, as there is no guarantee the eggs are fertilized. And our Momma hens have never had a very good hatching/survival rate. But I'm just so excited and amazed that the curtain works!!!