Miss Marple : Mouse-o-matic

This is Miss Marple. She slices, she dices, and she......HEY!!!!

Miss Marple, GET OFF the table! You're not s'posed to be sleeping on the dining room table !

"You talking to me ?....I was just cat nappin', go away and leave me alone."

Hey...Knock it off ! Get off the table....no bathing on the dining room table !

Now where was I ? Oh...Miss Marple: she slices, she dices, she disembowels and dismembers. She is a real mouse-o-matic! Why, every morning I find at least one of these poor little critters on the front door mat. I said at LEAST one. Miss Marple is quite proficient and prolific in her search and destroy missions aimed at any and all small varmints.

~~~~~Isn't this little shrew cute ? Dead, but cute. Apparently Miss Marple does not care for the taste of shrews. Some days we find 2 or 3 shrews , completely intact, but dead, right there for our viewing pleasure when we open the front door in the morning to let her in. Guess this is how she shows us how wonderful she is. ~~~~~What you are not seeing is a picture of what we usually find at the front door. I decided to spare you, after all, my grandchildren and squeamish relatives and friends would not like to see a picture of what we find. ~~~~~We usually find GUTS. Yup, guts. Intestines, hearts, livers,unrecognizable parts of yuck. What I truly find amazing though are the neat piles. Yes, the neat piles. I have found a perfectly severed mouse head looking as if it is just there to greet me...and in perfect order , all laid out so neatly will be 4 little feet and a tail. The rest of the mouse will be missing...how does she do that ?I mean, it looks like someone went to work on the mouse with a little dissecting kit. I do believe she has a little Swiss Army Knife tucked into her claws. ~~~~~Anyway, we got tired of finding freshly killed hummingbirds, little yellow warblers, wrens, grosbeaks, finches, swallows, towhees, and anything else that flies , on the front porch. So now Miss Marple is allowed out only after dark where most of the prey is vermin. ~~~~~However, yesterday there were HUGE guts on the doormat...some poor little bunny bit the dust!

So where were we...OH, Miss Marple. She slices, she dices, she disembowels and dismembers ...and she sleeps where she wants !

Spot of Dinner (breakfast ?)

~I think I will harvest a bit of dinner. Lettuces and pea pods from the garden.~

~Windfall yellow (will turn yellow quickly) transparent apples. I have to pick them up from under the trees before the rabbits and dogs eat them. Today's eggs from the chickens.~

~Notice anything funny here about the eggs ? Two normal sized and one strange long egg..wonder what is inside ?

A Double yolker !

This is what the other eggs look like.

~Heart attack in waiting for dinner!

Really though, you have to love fresh from the chicken eggs steamed in bacon fat!

~Serve with fresh from the garden lettuces, pea pods, that special sheep cheese we had to buy lots more of, dribbled, O.K. SMOTHERED in Ranch dressing ...what ? Doesn't the salad make this a healthy meal ? Guess I'll make the apple pie tomorrow.

Spot on Frizzles

Agnes is so ugly she's cute !

Annabelle is Agnes' sister, don't they look alike ?

Annabelle and Agnes lay eggs. They lay the small white eggs.
~Annabelle and Agnes are bantam chickens. They are the result of a breeding program I started with my chickens several years ago. Their father is a handsome pretty boy. He is a bantam black cochin, with frizzle feathers.

The little bantam eggs are compared with medium eggs laid by my young flock of standard ( normal size ) Cuckoo Marans.

" Frizzle is a mutant in the chicken in which the feathers grow so they curve outward instead of laying smoothly along the bird's body." Glenda Heyward
 
Annabelle's mother is a bantam Mottled Cochin. She has regular feathers, but otherwise , she and her daughter Annabelle look alike. Agnes' mother is a Naked Neck bantam frizzle. She is uglier than Agnes, and a bit bigger. Agnes and Annabelle weigh under a pound, with Agnes feeling several ounces lighter.

For a few years I was our local 4H poultry leader, and I also superintended the poultry barn at the county fair. Our family was active in showing our poultry in several fairs and shows. It was a lot of fun, and hard work. I do not show my chickens anymore and decided to breed the chickens for characteristics that appealed to me instead of breeding to show standards of purebreds.
 
I am breeding my standard laying flock for very dark, chocolate brown eggs. I also want to really like the look of my chickens, so have chosen the breeds to produce the egg and feather color of my preference.
 
As for the bantams, I am going for very, very tiny, with very curly feathers...and a tuxedo or all over pattern of white feathers on black. I have 2 little chickens with a tuxedo pattern.

I love to talk chickens and will post more about them later .

" A hen is only an egg's way of making another egg." Samuel Butler

Spot of Rest & Company ( Family Support )

~~~~~Candy, our sweet cat,quietly kept us company while we enjoyed the sunshine on the front porch.Candy adores Hubby, who is enjoying some relief from pain.~~~~~

~~~~~Our wonderful son-in law came over and shared lunch with Hubby. I don't like to call him son-in-law, because he is every bit as precious as our sons, and he and our daughter are always here when we need help, and we don't have to ask. Thank-you Son !~~~~~

~~~~~Later on , Hubby's parents came over to commiserate with Hubby. Hubby and his Mother compared canes. We watched the hummingbirds and the grosbeaks at the bird feeders. We had tea and snacks. Later, Hubby's brother and nephew came over for a visit on the porch and we had ice cream and pleasant talk .~~~~~

~~~~~Our sons, who do not live close at all, began making plans to rush home for us. They were very concerned about Hubby, and have called regularly to check up on him.~~~~~

~~~~~Hubby is doing fine, and how special to know we have family to love and care about the good times and the bad times, and all the times in between. By family, I mean my side of the family as well, they all called ( thank-you sisters ) and our church family. We know they are all willing to be there for us and that matters! That matters a lot. We love you all ! ~~~~~

"Call it a clan, call it a network, call it a tribe, call it a family.Whatever you call it, whoever you are, you need one." Jane Howard

Spot on Plans !

Plan : " 1. To form a scheme or method for the doing of; entertain as a project, with a prospect of effecting or performing; devise ways and means of accomplishing; "
Funk &Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary ( 1938)

~~~~~Hubby and I had our weekend planned. We have a project that is scheduled to be done. We shopped at Home Depot, purchased the lumber required, then came home and unloaded the lumber and sand. This is a needed project, and we have only a few summer weekends on our calendar allotted to doing these projects. So far our summer days ( weekends included ) have already been swallowed up by other events that were unplanned but more important than our projects, so we were looking forward to getting most of this project done THIS weekend !

~~~~~Hubby though, not by choice, decided we needed to spend all of Friday night and on into the wee hours of Saturday morning at the emergency room of the closest hospital! He just did not appreciate my attempt at hospital humor as I chided him about doing anything to get out of having to work on a project around the place ! No....I mean, how can you not have a sense of humor even if you are in agonizing, unrelenting pain ? !

~~~~~We had been at this very hospital just 2 weeks ago where our daughter gave birth to our 8th grandchild. I was privileged to be in the birthing room with her and her husband. So being 'experienced' in pain control I was giving Hubby advice. Hubby had extreme pain that came in waves every 10 minutes or so, as I told him how to breathe and concentrate I did happen to complain that he was going through all this and WE were NOT even going to come home with a baby after all that. ( a very good thing I must say ) Anyway, again...Hubby showed a lack of appreciation for my bed side humor !

~~~~~The hospital sent us home with all kinds of goodies...can't wait for the bill. We got medicine to help out, knee stabilizers , medicines to help out.......

~~~~~All this just reminds me we can plan so very carefully for everything but ?~~~~~

" The mind of a man plans his way, But the Lord directs his steps." Proverbs 16 :9

"For I know the plans I have for you', declares the Lord, "plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope." Jeremiah 29:11

Spot On Cute Goats

Good morning.......time for me to start my day. Such a hard life. Being a cute little goat and all. Having to wait for Kathy to feed me my breakfast, then the hard decision, what will I do today ? Play with Bombadil or nap ? Nap first or play with Bombadil ? Maybe we will break out of our pen again and graze on the beautiful plants in Hubby's gardens !

Bombadil, brother and companion of.......

Thorin ! ( yes, Kathy is a J.R.R. Tolkein fan )

~~~~~These are my pygmy / Nigerian dwarf goats. They were born 7 years ago and spent their first 3 weeks of life at the Washington State Fair in Puyallup. They got to entertain thousands of people in the Petting Farm, along with their sister. They were soooooooo tiny, and so cute ! I brought them home when they were so small they could fit through almost all the fencing we had. And they DID get through the fencing several times, to their peril I might add. Goats are commonly killed by dogs and these little guys did not seem to realize they were surrounded by canines just drooling for the chance to munch on them ! There were many close calls, but as you can see, Thorin and Bombadil are surviving. I have had to put them on diets too.....they're surviving too well.

~~~~~Thorin and Bombadil are pretty much useless, except they are cute. Children love to feed them crackers, and they love children who feed them crackers ! They can put on quite a show of head butting while climbing backwards up to their two story loft. ( shown above )

~~~~~About a decade ago I had a flock of Nubian goats. I milked my goats twice a day. We drank the milk, I made goat milk soap, and generally enjoyed the goats. I love the nosy, noisy Nubians with their beautiful long droopy ears, and their need to be in your business. However, our children had all grown up and left home and I did not need so much milk. I was giving it to the chickens~~~~~I now have my little cuties who do not need milking, just a bit of hay and cracker treats~~~~~~who needs T.V. with caprine acrobatics ?

Spot On Salad

Lettuce : " A kitchen herb cultivated and used in salad. " Funk & Wagnalls Standard Dictionary

Look at the beautiful lettuces my Hubby has grown ! We have fresh and yummy salad any time we want, and we do want salad. Hubby has grown several types of lettuce, and mustard greens for the salad, and pea pods for the salad. Just wish he could grow all the cheese I put on the salad....but oh well, we buy it. Remember , I now have a new favorite cheese for my salads, and I believe in using it generously on my salad !
Aren't these lettuces beautiful ? Hubby keeps such nice , even rows in his garden. Unlike my very disorderly clumps and climbings in the herb garden. See the beans just beginning to climb the twine Hubby very neatly put up for them ? He likes fresh beans cooked in butter...I and a certain granddaughter love green beans raw, right off the vine. Sometimes poor Hubby suffers a dearth of freshly cooked green beans when said Granddaughter visits and the two of us graze in the garden.

Hip hip hooray ! It is raining outside and it rained last night and today, so I did not have to drag hoses all over the property to water the flowers and gardens. I love the rain, and this rain did not bring cold weather, so I spent an hour or two on the porch, spinning my wool into yarn while watching the birds and the rain ,enjoying the smell of rain . I love the smell of rain and usually July is hot and parched, but not today !

Back to salads, I harvest the lettuces, rinse them well, give them a few spins in the salad spinner, then I rip the leaves by hand into the big salad bowl . I often add flowers from my herbs to the salad..borage, violets, geranium, chive flowers...and chives too. Then I might add tomatoes, cucumbers, snapped peas..and CHEESE ! Lots of cheese. Salad dressing is optional . Top with more blossoms and sliced hard boiled eggs, sunflower seeds, almonds, raisins, CHEESE and more CHEESE ! Voila..you have a meal. Maybe some bread or biscuits on the side. Yum !

" For He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. " Matthew 5:25