There is something so...beautiful about drying clothes on a clothesline.  This isn't mine.  Mine is not this picture perfect.  But it is warm out today and I took the time to put one load of laundry out to dry.  Honestly, I would have put more out if it hadn't taken me so long to clean the lines and if I had more clothespins.

You just don't see people using clothes lines much in this part of the United States.  It takes time and preparation if your line hasn't been used much lately.  It was so funny to think that all the years that I lived in Japan, I didn't even have a clothes dryer!  I didn't have a fully automatic washing machine until the last few years I was there also.  So on the weekends I would wash my clothes and then hang them out to dry on my balcony.  They smelled so good when they were taken in.  Also, there is an art to making sure that they don't come out all wrinkled.  My host family Mama showed me how to fold them square and then slap them in between my hands to get the wrinkles out.  They used an iron a lot more than I like to also.  So I am extra serious about the slapping business!  :-)

Chickens were out on a walk about today and my husband spent much of the day pressure washing everything in sight.  I was busy scrubbing the shower.  We also decided to join a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)...it is a box of vegetables that we will pick up at the Farmers Market every weekend.  It supports the local farmers and we get a variety of vegetables for our table weekly.  It is usually a good deal and it forces us to get creative about using different kinds of vegetables than we would would normally use.

We did start a garden this year...but the chickens got into it and ate all the leaves of everything.  I should share a picture...but it was just too pathetic.  The chicken egg yolks are BRIGHT orange though!  All those nutrients...Yum.  I do have to say that they plants are growing back...little by little!

We are all well.  Summer feels like it is here.  I think it is 90 degrees out there today.  We still have one of our old chickens, Penelope.  She was just out having a lovely dirt bath.  She is the head of the roost now that she has two younger hens in the coop with her.  She also started laying again!

Just wanted to say hello on this lazy Saturday afternoon.

Hello. Hello... Hello....

Hello.  Hello...  Hello....



Hi.  The last time I wrote in here was today, one year ago.  My link showed up on my FB page.  I hadn't forgotten about this, but honestly it has been a tough couple of years and I didn't know if I wanted to write in here anymore.

Today is the Winter Solstice.  Lots has been going on in our little home over the past few months.  I made the mistake of saying to someone that all our animals have been healthy lately.  Hee hee...probably the next day, I come home after a lovely day out with my family and my husband greets me at the door.  He told me that something attacked our oldest chicken Penelope and she had passed.  I was upset, but she has lived longer than any of our other original chickens.  She had a good life, I thought.

It was stormy out, so my husband got ready to go out and bury her for me.  And boy was he surprised to find her standing at the back door when he came out!!  I think he calls her zombie chicken now.  In any case, she had been attacked by something.  It was so late I couldn't really figure out what to do with her, but I knew that she could not be put back with the other chickens.  So I enclosed her in the secure run-around pen that we have, gave her some water and food and a box with straw to snuggle in if she got too cold.  She woke me up at 3AM, letting me know that whatever had gotten her was back to finish the job.  She was safe, but very distraught by the time our dog and I got out there.  As it was still pitch black, I hung out there raking with my head lamp on in order to discourage the thing...still not sure what it was...not to come back.

Once it got light out, I gave Penelope a good bath (have you ever seen a chicken in a bath?  They really like it once they realize that they are not going to be cooked.) and cleaned her wounds with hydrogen peroxide.  I read that on the web.  She was pretty beat up with most of her feathers off her neck and a puncture wound in her side.  My husband helped me get our dog crate out and filled with straw.  We put her in the dog crate in our laundry room.  The first thing that my husband said to her  was, "I know you have been wanting to get in the house for a long time, and see, you finally made it."  Penelope has always liked to sit at the back door and she tried to come in when we opened it!

I am not sure what day that was, but it felt like she was out there for a while.  As of yesterday, she is back out in the coop with the other girls - Ruby and Rosy.  These names are thanks to my young friend, who wanted to name them.  We got these girls as grown ups a couple months back.  They and Penelope seemed happy to see one another.  That was a relief.

In the meantime, while Penelope was still recuperating, our youngest and most feisty cat Yoshi started yowling.  We couldn't figure out what the problem was.  I honestly have never had cats before his older sister and brother.  He kept eating and drinking, but now that I think of it, his belly was very rolly-polly.  We brought him to the vet and found that he didn't just have a urinary tract infection, but he was completely blocked.  He had to stay at the vet for five days!  We have been asked to continue watching him very closely and he has to eat special food, but he is doing so much better!

My beautiful Mom passed in March.  It was as lovely a death as I could have asked for.  But it was hard and continues to be hard all the same.  We made it through Thanksgiving...but for me, Christmas is a lot harder.  So many memories all wrapped up.  I am so thankful though for the time that we had with her after her stroke.  It was a trying time, but a beautiful time as well.

Let's see, it has been raining like crazy this fall and winter so far.  Our back yard is a messy, muddy muck pit.  The front yard is just as bad, as there was NO rain this past summer and the grass has mostly died in the front.  I am tempted to do some gardens out there!

We did have a garden this year!  That was kind of a miracle.  The things that grew well were lemon cucumbers, tomatoes and the berries - blueberries and raspberries.  The sun was hard on the leafy veggies this year. Will try to do a more shady spot for them next year.  We did use chicken manure in the boxes and the rhubarb especially liked it.  It is fun to talk about gardens when it actually snowed for a bit today!

My husband got a bit interested in the garden this year.  He fenced it off, so the chicken (we only had one at that time) would stay out and not eat everything in site and so our dog would stop making a race track over the garden beds.  Then when the weather turned, he gathered cardboard, cleaned the beds, covered them with cardboard and then with leaves.  They are sleeping soundly and preparing the wormy-goodness for next year.

My husband made points with me today too...I came home to beautiful twinkle lights all around the living room.  He spiffed the place up too.  I was so tired after work that I just laid down on the couch and reveled in the beauty all evening. Christmas is coming!