The chicks are here

Duck-Duck-Chick?
Well- last Thursday we had a knock at the door and it was the post man from Geneva

holding a box of our chicks. We were supposed to have picked them up on Fri so this was a surprise. Thank goodness we were all ready for them.
We set up all the chicks in a big old cardboard box with a rigged up waterer and heat lamp.
All 73 are doin just fine.
One day shipment from Texas made for healthy chicks.
Along with the chicks came 4 turkeys. These are not real fun to raise but we'll only have them
till Nov of course and they are SO good to eat so its worth the fuss.

The stars of the show are the 4 little 'miniture domesticated mallards'. They are SO stinkin cute floppin around in the water. They are not most thoughtful room mates for the turkeys with all the floppin around, pickin and preenin & muck makin however. We only bought these for the cute factor so- so far they are doing their job with zeal!

Oh- above are Maya and her friend from down the road, Alexandra, posing with their little cuties.

Garden

The garden is chugging along. I am finding that I have to go out and do at least

something every day.Then every other day I put in about 3 hrs of weeding. That sounds bad in type but I get up early

and go out while its cool and quiet. Its actually very meditative.
I finally see why people become passionate about gardening.
We have 3 nice watermellon plants. That will keep us buy eating watermellon. I want to make some pickled watermellon rinds too.


The broccoli is getting huge. The one edge of my garden has great soil and the plants there are nice and big. The others are catching up.
Finally some lettuce. I planted 3 types and spinach too.

Steaked tomatoes are doing great. We have lots of blossoms and some little green babies too.

The potatoes are great! Onions are huge, corn, pumkins, cukes, zuces, squash, celery, beans, peas ETC are all coming along! We'll be cannin like crazy in no time!!!

Pretty Tub

Here is our new flower bed.
I was seriously hating the big bushy UGLY flower bed we had in this spot and was spontaniously inspired to use this tub (its a loooong story-dont ask) as a container flower bed.
We had this thing sitting out back just rusting away so Ben and I lugged it up front where I sanded, primed and painted it. Vayda and I went out and bought some annuals and TA-DA!!!!

Instant beauty!

Its funny....some people think its the quaintest thing they have ever seen and others think its down right stupid! LOL.

Fire Pit

This is our new fire pit. I did this on a whim. I laid down cardboard to block the grass and weeds but that will eventually be all covered with burned stuff- and burned itself. I like it :) The kids were psyched too. This obviously means we have to add marsh mellows to our 4 basic food groups.

Elanees Bday party

Elanee is 16!
That makes me OLD. Just For the record.
Due to scheduling issues we had a delayed party late in the month.

Lots of friends came over and made lots of noise, gave lots of gifts, ate lots of cake and left lots of mess.....lol
A couple of girls spent the night.
It was fun for all :)

Flowers

Summer Flowers
I am really enjoying the flowers this summer. I have decided that I really like flowers in containers.
Our border of lilies is coming along. Every year it is bigger and prettier.
The border creates a nice definition between our yard and the road. Most of the new ones look like bushy grass but in a year or two they will look nice.
I dont usually do anuals but this year they are kinda my Thang!

Strawberries

WOOPIE~ STRAWBERRIES!!!!
We planted about 20 strawberry plants 2 yrs ago. Now those 20 are a zillion. 6 big long beds of them. So this spring we are picking like crazy. This is our first bunch. So far we have put about 8 gallons of them in the freezer. I made a batch of strawberrie rhubarb jam and some strawberry banana jam. We've got 40 pints so far. Next will be straight up strawberry. May have to U-Pick to get us up to the goal of 80 pints.

New Sign

How fancy! A new and shiny sign. In time, there will be a nice formal topper with my logo and everything but for now at least you can see the sucker comin down the road.

Bells

Hey! Look what I dun did! Aint it perty?!?!?
Well- I like it. Sounds cool in the wind too :)

Duffis on my camera

Some how- Some way every time I leave my camera lying around I find

this dorky kid's face on it. Hmmmmm?

Angelica

This is Angelica.
Once apon a time I was married to Elanee & Vayda's father, Pedro.
He had a daughter from a previous relationship.

After Elanee came along we all went to MA every other week to visit his daughter, Angelica.

She was an adorable 4 year old.

We went to the park, Science Center and zoo and that kind of thing. We always had a really nice time with Angelica and always hoped she'd live with us one day but that never happened. Nows shes 19.

This is what Vayda looked like back then.

Elanee always liked seeing her "Shishy".

Here I am all young and hot ;)

So- that was then. We only visited with Angelica for about 1 yr while she was 4. Pedro and I divorced and the girls and I never saw her again. Recently she and the girls have reconnected. Its been really nice for them. We are all looking foward to the birth of her son and we're planning a visit in October-ish. Funny how things work out.

Swing Set

The Swing Set
These pictures are way overdue.

Sooooo.... a long story short....last year I posted on Freecycle

for a wooden swing set and this is what we got.

This is the #1 best Freecycle thing we have ever received. Jody and Ben went out and took itdown one screw at a time and brought it home. Ben and I took 4 days putting it together.Just so ya know, that slide has to weigh 600lbs. No joke. We bought one new leg for it and I added some extra slats up top for a little safer experience. Maya and I chose a flag and some chimes for underneith. I used some scrap wood and added a sand box. Good stuff.

Oh- YOU can get anything on Freecycle for FREE. Go to www.freecycle.org and sign up.

Ahhhhhh! The birds!!!!!

We found this on our kitchen window one morning.

AAAAAHHHHHH!

What does it all mean?!?!?

Aaarrrrgggg!

In early June Maya Rae was a pirate for 3 straight days. By the end of those days she was so filthy she looked like a real pirate. Here she is sporting her bandana, eye patch, sword, compass and map. aaaaarrrrrgggg! Now we are reading lots of books about pirates.