Summer

After a rainy May we went back to the old pattern of hot and dry.  Good news is that this gives us a lot of free time because the store is so slow.  Bad news is that the store is slow...  It's time or money, can't seem to have both at the same time. 
We have been working around the house though.  Hubby has been a machine in the yard and is almost done painting the house!  He has been pulling back deadwood and clearing debris from the ice storm and life in general.  Moving trees, seeding, ripping out weeds and seedling trees that have started to encroach on our house, clearing the area behind the greenhouse that we had a bobcat bed down in last summer and reinforcing the wall of the stream-bed.  I added a chicken fence since we have lost so many this past year.

The chickens are growing and doing well.  We lost our little Chipmunk who was an adorable english hen, but we have settled with 10 older girls and two roosters (4 months old), and ten babies (almost 2 months old) of which one is definitely a rooster since I ordered a pair of brahmas and one other suspected roo in the bunch.  Subban is our top roo in the coop.  He is very large and very gorgeous.  He watches me as closely as I watch him but so far we are ok.  Little Buttercup, my Orpington Rooster is a different story.  His name was changed to Loki for a reason.  I can't tell if he's just excited to see me or if he is posturing or if it is an attack but he runs at me every time I come into the coop.  He may be looking for treats?  Jury is still out on him...  Baby Spice has officially snapped.  She spends most of her time in a laying box.  If you take her out she will attack anyone, any chick, or nothing at all just because.  She also has a crazy head twist that she does and she cackles.  Very creepy and very sad.  She used to be so sweet and her Momma- Little Miss Sunshine- was an angel.

My Barred Rocks are two of my favorite new chicks.  They are so sweet and cuddly.  Molly is my love sponge.

Velma, our white silkie holds her own in the adorable white fluffy pet category.

 Our only layer at this point is Suzy.  Baby Spice was until the babies figured out they were bigger than she is and put her in her place.  I am hoping they start laying soon!  Should just be a few more weeks...





We traveled a great deal at the beginning of the year so we have been laying low spending time close to home and spending time with Art's Dad.  He is very sad still but seems to be getting more active and we have enjoyed spending time with him. 

We have spent nights over there and enjoy going around the seacoast.  We even took Z back to the beach we stayed at last summer.  He had such fun chasing his ball in the ocean that day :-)

Dad has been staying over with us this summer a few times which is really great.  He even babysat the chickens and Zdeno when Art and I went on our mid-summer adventures.  I think he has almost as much fun with Zdeno as Z does with him.



 

Zdeno has lived in the pond this summer which has been great except no rain has made our little pond more of a mudpit.  He will come out black as night (EWWWW!) but loves to be hosed off and cleaned up ;-)  He turned two on July 2.  He is not a puppy anymore.  He eats much better and seems to have lost most of his fears.  He has been a good boy.



We did a little get together here on Mother's Day but the family shifted the focus to Father's Day at Pam's for our first big family get together of the year.  Dale took Art and his Dad out on a fishing boat in the morning and they each caught a striped bass.  They were huge and wore large smiles that told us all we needed to know about the adventure.  Great visit with family.

I missed Lindsay and Jimmy's engagement party as I was in Las Vegas with my Mom and Rachel for her high school graduation trip.  I did not think that one through.  Las Vegas at the beginning of July was 110 degrees F!!  That is beyond ridiculous HOT!  I did take a hike with Peter and got to spend some good time with him down there.  It sounds like he is doing well and enjoying his job.  He is back in school. 

Won't do that again but we had a great time walking around, seeing shows, shopping, doing the spa thing and just hanging out!  My Dad drove down later in the week for a few days which was really nice.  We took a drive out to see the new bridge at the Hoover Dam.  My Dad took us for a helicopter ride to view it.  Our first time, but he told us stories of when he was stationed in Cheyenne and used to be transported on a Huey.  Very fun :-)

My Mother's had bad knees for a quite a while now but she is delaying surgery.   She is trying a procedure where they inject chicken fat between the knee joint to lubricate it.  Sounds almost as painful to have the treatment if you ask me.  She is still playing tennis and golf though.  Good for her!  I do hope she has the surgery soon.  I have only heard positive things about how well those types of surgeries work.

My Dad is going in for surgery today.  He has been getting sick for the past couple of years at least.  When he walks for any distance after eating especially.  He has continued to play tennis but having someone pause to toss their cookies is not comforting.  After I don't know how many doctors and tests one of them actually found something.  (more than the idiot ear docs here in New England who are incompetent and inept.)  They found he has two hernias which they are going in to fix today.  Hopefully that will make him feel much better and he will be able to be active as he likes :-)