It's all about the "before" photos.

So here's my problem; I get half way through a project and then think, "I should be taking pictures of this".  The "after" photos aren't nearly as effective if there's no "before".

 Here it is.  The only before I have for this year.  You can't see the other 170 filled buckets and carts.  Or the scrapes and cuts.  Or the permanent bend in my back.  Really, I think this might be just an ad for John Deere.

 It's been a relatively lovely, dry (and by dry I mean not raining buckets constantly) spring around here.  So my poppies look beautiful.  Usually they look like wet tissue paper on a stem.

And look!  I found the vegetable beds!  And more importantly, planted things in them!  Kind of impressed with myself.  Does it show?

Of course now we have more lettuce than anyone can be expected to eat.  

Who wants salad for breakfast?

just when you think you have a slacker chicken

So Azul, the weird looking chicken had been laying pretty nicely.

Then suddenly nothing.  I gave up trying to be a chicken psychotherapist after the first year of having them in our midst.  They're weird.  And have little tiny brains; who knows what goes on in there.

So no eggs from Azul.  Whatever.

Then yesterday, Izzy found this.

Hmmmm, who's been laying eggs NOT in the coop?  in the barn. behind a plastic lid. in the gravel.

18 of them?!

The rest of the family is refusing to eat them.  But really, our version of summer hasn't been hot.  And a few days out?  I'm willing to take the chance.  So two were had for breakfast this morning.  We'll see if I'm regretting my decision by noon.

And maybe I should redecorate the boxes or something to make it more pleasant to lay eggs where they are supposed to be laid.  

Proof of Slacker Parenting Found in the Closet

Why is the American Girl doll in the closet?  Because the 11 year old owner watched Chuckie on Netflix while her mother was sewing.

Oops.

 But look at the cute bag I finished!

If that's not worth a doll spending a day or two in the closet, I don't know what is.

I'll pay for her therapy later (the daughter's, not the doll's).

Like when I sell the bag..

The Hen Has More Chicks

I mean really, who can resist these?  The boys in the family were against it, but we girls (including the other hens, I like to think) won.

This is one of the men who hates chickens.  For the record, I'm not the one who brought them in the house this morning...

So it's Freddy, Hazel, and Dorothy added to Blanca, Karen, and Azul.  Yes, the names all mean something, but it's ridiculous to get into.

Yeah for spring chickens and (if it stops snowing and blowing here) Spring!

rage cleaning

My first day off work this week saw me cleaning the house for SIX hours.  By the time I was done, I was ready to toss the rest of the family out to live in the camper indefinitely.  You would think no one else knew where the trash can was.  sheesh. 

But I'm better now.   
I'm finally getting to the diaper bags I've been promising people.  A friend ordered one with owls.  Here's what I was fiddling with today.  What do you think?  The inside of the bag is the same fabric as the owl's wings...

My beloved (who is still being allowed to live here, even after my cleaning rage) says it looks as though the owl has wrapped himself up in a blanket. But he's taking me out to dinner, so I let the comment slide (and I think he might be right, now that I'm looking at it).

I see a margarita in my future...