Friends

It was a lovely day yesterday.  It was a lovely start to a long and much-needed weekend.  We invited PEOPLE out!  We haven't done that in quite a while.  We have been tired, or the house is a mess or we are too busy...or for whatever reason.  But in any case, we took a chance and did yesterday. 

We cleaned like crazy in the morning and even though things were not perfect, we just let it go once they got here.  That is a big deal for both Tim and I, who sometimes get on a cleaning roll and just cannot stop even after out company get here. 

We invited a couple who are just about our age and who have a boy who is just a little older than Carl.  It was great for us and we got so much chatting and telling of stories in.  Good for my soul.  And it was so great to see Carl and his friend out in the yard/brush playing and just enjoying.  The weather cooperated and if I had had my head in the right place, I would have gotten some lovely pictures of two boys enjoying nature and each other.  But I will just have to remember it in my head instead. 

We took a walk.  The sun was shining down.  The dogs were running on ahead of us and bounding in the tall grass.  We walked down towards the river.  Just as we could see the river, Blue, our neighbor the Blue Heron decided to grace us with his presence.  Lovely and graceful as he took to the skies. 

The kids ran on ahead and the dogs got lost in the tall grass hunting for something.  I thought it was so neat to see the boys look back to make sure where their parents were and I motioned them to go on ahead and play, but to stay away from the river.  It is a freedom that we share with our child that is not part of this culture anymore.  And that is sad. 

We pet our quickly growing chickens.  We talked over chicken tractor designs.  We took two of the chickens outside onto the grass in an upside down laundry basket, so they could enjoy the sunshine and get a little pecking in.  I was surprised to find that Gabby, our sweet dog, has a clear desire to get VERY close to our chickens.  That might be a problem as we get them outside into their tractor.  But I guess we will have to deal with that when the time comes...or better yet, prepare for it before that time comes.  The BoyScout motto is "Always be prepared."  We take that seriously around here, where a lack of prepartion could mean death. 

After our friends left, who by the way live the same hours we do and get up early and go to bed early, the cats came out.  They sniffed all around to see who it was who was here.  I told them they had nothing to be afraid of, but I guess two active young boys isn't the best on cats' nerves. 

Speaking of active boys though, I loved that our place is set up for running and sword-fighting and tag.  We have little furniture for the amount of space that we have.  It is a lovely setting for creative play.  It was nice not to have to say, "No running.  Settle down."  Sometimes a boy just needs to be a boy and run and play and pretend. 

It was good to share our peace of heaven with our friends.

Saturday

Wow.  I look out the window and am amazed at the beautiful sunshine.  I have been wanting to write for a bit, but instead I have been a voracious reader.  I am reading at least three books right now and in the interim I read the whole Reader's Digest magazine too.  Have you noticed that there is a lot less violence in Reader's Digest?  I mean when I first started taking it, there were more violent stories in it then there were what I would consider "good" ones.  Lots of stories about people being attacked by wild animals.  So I quit reading it for a while.  Now that I have gone back to reading it, I find that there is usually one stark reality-type article and the rest are about tips to help with life, etc.  Good stuff, good reading. 

On another matter, I am reading a really good book called Highly Sensitive People.  I have read pieces of it before, but I am going back and reading from the beginning.  It is a very good book for those of us who are highly sensitive and wouldn't have it any other way.  I am amazed at how each chapter really speaks to me and the type of personality that I have.  If you are interested, you should check it out. 

I have been sick.  It is weird because whenever I get tired, run-down, over-stressed lately, it goes straight to my chest.  I am looking at that more.  And thinking on it.  I am sure that there is a message there.  I am just not sure what it is yet.

I had to go out and save some people from my dogs.  The dogs bark a lot, but I can never tell if they are barking at people or bunnies.  This time it was a good hunch.  They were in the face of two people who were all decked out for going for a serious hike up the hill.  They even had their dog on a leash.  That was good to see.  Most people just figure that this is the boonies and they don't have to leash their dogs even when they are trespassing.  Anyway, I got the dogs to back down and let them by.

I was looking at Facebook today.  My Japanese friend posted pictures from 1994.  It is weird, but although that was 17 years ago, it doesn't seem like all that much time has passed.  It was good to see old friends' faces.  It made me wonder what they are up to. 

My sis had to put her 15 year old dog down a couple days ago.  They had him since he was a puppy.  It was harder for me to hear than I had thought.  I know that he is in a better place, but letting go of our animal friends/relatives is harder than I thought. 

As you can tell, my mind is in a lot of different places this morning.  I also participated in an Inspiring Women's Summit online.  I did not know that it started last week, so I have a lot of talks to catch up on.  I listened to a few of them yesterday.  Some were better than others, but they all had something good in them to take away. 

Food...I went to the Naturopath to deal with my chest cold.  They were very helpful.  I appreciated their use of intuition and their ability to listen to what I was saying.  For me these days it is all about preventative medicine instead of waiting until I get sick.  I haven't had many veggies to juice with, so I have slacked off on that some.  I have them now though, so maybe I will go put some together now.  It tastes WAY better when it is just juiced. 

Love to you on this beautiful day.

Chickens

Ok, so now I have graduated from feeding the wild birds.  We got chicks today!  The line up looks like this...once they grow up, we will have two beautiful black and white hens, one black with green shimmery hen and one gold with a little black.  I guess the gold one is one of the ones that people show.  So far they are tiny.  They were hatched on Tuesday.  I think they hatch them, feed and water them and throw them in a box.  Did you know that chicks are fed ex'd in a box with 200 of them all together?  That is just crazy. 

So we talked to the feed store guy for a while the other night about what the temperaments of the hens are.  We passed over the leghorns.  I guess they lay eggs like crazy, but they are flighty.  That isn't the best kind of hen to have if you are going to have them in a chicken tractor.  Yeah, I said chicken tractor.  It is a portable house and pen for chickens.  We can move them around and fertilize different areas of our yard.  At least that is the idea. 

We got the girls a few hours ago.  It is amazing to see how alive they have become just in the past few hours.  Tim was giving me the play by play for a while.  New chicken parents get a little nervous.  We will have to see how things turn out.  They are nice and warm and have food and water thanks to my big sis Monica. 

So the thing is about chicken tractors...I realized that chicken tractors for people who are going to have their chickens in a fenced yard can be different than people who have to watch for predators.  Even the dogs next door can be considered predators here.  Or our dogs for that matter.  So now we have to figure out what is going to keep them safe.  Maybe I will talk to my nephew Jason and get his thoughts.  He has had a variety of different chicken dwellings over the years.

Wish I had some funny stories to tell you, but so far we just got things set up.  I did learn that if you want to pick up chicks and you are coming at them from above, it is good to talk to them or hum while you are doing it.  Just think about Godzilla coming to pick you up.  You would be scared too!  And you have to be careful of them jumping out of your hands as you are holding them.  I already had one take a jump out.  Luckily she seemed ok afterwards.

I am sure that I will have more stories soon.  Have a good evening.