Wednesday Night Nothing-ness!

I got nothing for you today. So let's take a wander around the Little Brain and see what pieces we can pick up, shall we? After all, leaving pieces around for Little Brain to trip over is not exactly the recipe for anything good to happen. At all.

First of all, the sweater picture you see is a project that is definitely on my to do list. I actually got to pet the sweater, I tried not to drool over it, and the shop owner, Peg, from Tawas Bay Yarn Company graciously allowed me to photograph it. Not saying it will be the next project, just that it will definitely be on the list.

Let's see, here's another piece: Little Brain and I went to our favorite store last night after work, Tractor Supply, to aquire little buddies for our sole hatchling. They didn't have any meat birds, have to special order those, but they did have lots and lots of cute bronze turkeys and "miscellaneous straight run chickens". So of course, we had to buy our daily supply of cute and picked up 9 "miscellaneous straight run chickens" and 3 bronze turkeys. Just because. I didn't really need them, didn't really want them, but Little Brain won out on this one, they had to come home with us just to keep the sole hatchling company.

Awhile back, on ebay, I bid on and won 25 blueberry seedlings, which arrived in perfect health and as soon as I planted them, died. This was my fault, totally, as it was too cold to plant them outside so I stuck them in a few buckets of compost, and didn't water them enough. I wrote back to the original seller to ask if I could purchase more and he very very kindly offered to replace them for the cost of shipping. I won't do this, it was my fault, totally, not his, so I will send him what I originally sent him for the 25 plus shipping and expect in return another batch of gorgeous blueberry seedlings. How great is that? I've had a lot of good stuff happen with ebay and a lot of bad stuff too, but this guy went above and beyond and deserves an A+++++++++++++ rating. Here is a link to his "stuff". Seriously, this guy rocks! http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQfgtpZ1QQfrppZ25QQsassZjohnnynoseQQssPageNameZMERCQ5fVICQ5fRCRXQ5fPr4Q5fPcNQ5fQ5fSI

Along the same lines, kind of, in a berry kind of way, Tractor Supply was clearancing out some strawberry plants and I scored 30 of them for 15.00! I also got more tomato seeds that need to be started, jalapeno seeds (finally found them), and cilantro seeds. Can you say yummy salsa? Got to get some onion sets too.

Tonight is knit night, and I'll continue to work on granddaughter's sweater. I really have made some progress on it, tonight being knit night AND my Red Wings play a late game I should get a good 4 or 5 hours to knit. That ought to be good for a couple of rows anyway! Then tomorrow I'll post pics of both the sweater and my new birdies. I love baby birdies!

Go Wings! Take that Colorado Brother! (cause they are playing the Colorado Avalanche, in case you're just tuning in and are, GASP, not a hockey fan!)

Announcing our New Bouncing Baby.....

This baby started pecking his way into world last night around 11. Here are some pics.





There is only the one chick so far so tonite after work I'll go to the farm store and get my meat chix. This one is an egg layer, a Rhode Island Red.

It's kind of discourging in a way. All of these seeds get started and all of these eggs get collected and put in the incubators and you wait. And start more seeds and collect more eggs and wait. Finally you hear the tiniest of chirps coming from inside one of the eggs, or a seedling pops through the soil and all the wait has been worth it.. So tonight I will go to the farm store and get my meat chickens and hubby wil roll his eyes cause I'm the farmer, not him. And I'll set up shop in the guest bedroom with the feeders and waterers and heat lamps cause its still too cold for them outside and hubby will shake his head but I love this life and he knows it so its all good..

In a few weeks i'll start pestering him cause it's time to get the garden worked up and last years compost moved to wherever I need it to be. With the cost of food skyrocketing, my garden will be at least 4 times the size it was last year with every available flower bed turned into spots for asparagus, strawberries, grapes and blueberries along with the staples of beans, tomatoes, peppers, onions, garlic, corn, squash, punkins ...

I will be a busy gal this summer, with all the canning, freezing and processing but I love this life. Then comes haying season, with the 18 hour days on the tractors, wagons and up in the dusty loft. The exhaustion is overwhelming but it's such a good, satisfying exhaustion. The next day starts all over again. So tonight after work I'll go to the farm store and maybe come home to find that another chick has pecked his way into my life! I love this life! Spring on the farm is the best place to be.

And, to top it all off, my Red Wings won again last night. One more win against the Avalanche will launch them into the finals. Tomorrow night! Go Wings!!

One Of These Things Just Doesn't Belong Here....

Everybody say hi to Bu-Dawgh!
What do fish hooks and motorcycle keys have in common? As it happened they were both in hubby's pocket. Last night. When he decided to go fishing. And had my bike keys with him. And my car. Grrrr.
Back up....it really is an interesting story, bear with me here.

Yesterday I was working at our oldest's resale shop when Grandson #1 called from school and was sick. Since I had ridden my bike to the store, I went to the back of the store where hubby has his machine shop and get my car keys. And gave him my motorcycle key so he wouldn't be stranded without a ride if I didn't get back in time for him to go home. Went to pick up grandson, took him home, gave him excedrin and put him to bed. (he's plenty old enough to be by himself, all is good). Well, I got back to hubby's shop, parked the car.... told him I was back... and went back to work (up front in the same building, logistics are important in this story). An hour or so later he came up and told me he'd be late as he was going fishing. I could just as well blame him for the fact that my bike key remained in his pocket, but to be fair I didn't think about it either.

As it is in one or another of my stories, A+B=C and I was left with transportation, but without a key to make transportation go. So daughter gave me a ride home, which is huge, as she lives 25 miles in the opposite direction of which I live about 10 miles. But I got home, got chores done and had a very nice evening watching my Red Wings clobber Li'l Bro #2's Avalanche! hee heee. I was a nice sister, I didn't rub it in at all very much ok, I rubbed it in, you'd have done the same thing. That's what he gets for deserting the home team!

So, early this morning, I'm riding to work with hubby, so I can get my bike and we are happening to have the first real thunderstorm of the season. This should be fun. Oh well, I've ridden in the rain before, never on the outside of a metallic object, but hey, what's life if you can't count a near death experience once in awhile.
This is LIG in the sun, when it's raining she looks a little shinier, or wetter, or something, and as a backdrop, my awesome farm truck that gets 11 mpg. On a good day. Going downhill. With the wind. And empty.



The rain pretty much held off until I drove into the driveway and parked LIG. Then it downpoured, so I had to do my chores in the pouring down rain. And the horses were all standing in the barn wondering why I was putting their hay out in the rain. Who's the smart one here?
Never mind!

Pics of Eggs Hatching and Other Stuff

Today, a short introduction into my seriously whacked out family!
This is too cool. Li'l Brother #4, who is a "chicken farmer" in the middle of the city in California recently sent me this video of one of his eggs hatching.
http://132.239.50.242/Chicky/Chicky
If and when any of my turkey eggs ever hatch, I'll upload those too.


Another Li'l Brother (#3) who lives in another city in CA, has started his own website called Demand95.com in which he calls everyone to demand that at least 95% of their charity intake goes to the intended recipient. He sponsors orphanages in Thailand, Africa, and Togo, eye surgeries in Viet Nam and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff that he hasn't gotten on his site yet. Be sure to check it out, it's the greatest thing I've ever seen.
This brother also won the Name Ter's Bike contest, in which the only rule was that the acronym must be LIG. "Losing It to Gravity" will be the official name, a nickname will ensue naturally, they always do, just like my critters, they name themselves!

Another Li'l Brother (#1) lives in Alaska of all places. Never will my feet touch the soil, or snow or ice in Alaska. Never! I'm sure it's beautiful, but I'll never find out for sure. Why??? Because it would surely be a one way ticket. On the off chance that my body and mind (which often travel together, much to the surprise of, well, everyone)ever end up there, surely they will not return, together or separately. A one way ticket. So it's just safer to stay in the lower 48. Talk about a logistical nightmare, we can't even imagine moving all of my farm stuff and all of hubby's construction and mechanical toys that far. One day my person will possess a pilot's licence and one day hubby will build me a plane and one day, we will take air trips to lots of different places. This is a for sure thing. The only unsurity is the date when it will happen, but it will happen.

The Mouth has already declared that she will not ride with us. Makes it easier, only have to build a two seater! Well, 3 actually, have to have room for The Bu-Dawgh! Because he can't be left alone. He's a baby, the poster puppy for separation anxiety.

One more brother (#2), and he lives in Colorado. There, I capitalized it, are you happy?

No sisters, never wanted them, never got them (until my brothers married). I was the oldest and only and happy about it. I was Daddy's girl. I ruled. I still do, ask any of them, they're afraid of my 5'3" mightiness, as rightly they should be.

Delivered a couple more hay bales to a neighbor who ran out and then rode LIG to work. The ride to work this morning was nothing short of GLORIOUS!! Warm enough for just a sweatshirt, the morning mist was in the air as was the smell of the dairy farms. My ride to work very rarely passes anyone else on the roads, I pass through no cities, villages or towns, just 4 miles of 4 season splendidness. Each season has it's own sensory nuances, this is clearly spring. My Mother's daffodils are blooming, and things are turning green. The trees are budding out, it's just waaaay too nice to spend time inside.

Unless the playoffs are on, then all bets are off.
Hey, Li'l Bro #2, your Avs made the 2nd round! So depending on who wins tonight, we'll either play you or the Flames.
Go Wings!! We will seriously spank you!!