August 27, 2006
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did morning chores like normal, except I was on the phone to a sick friend while
the boys fed and let the livestock out. After that I culled plants out of the
greenhouse. The ones that were not doing as well as the others and did not have
a chance at producing much more before they were dead for the year. They were
mostly tomatoes which I had put into the compost pile.
I have one beautiful pepper plant that I have had for 2 years now and am saving
seed off it to sell to a seed house and I dropped it upside down when the
brittle pot broke and THANKFULLY did not snap the main stock, but I did manage
to take a couple side branches off. This is one of my favorite houseplants in
the winter so I was NOT impressed with myself. But I think it will live.
I watered everything heavily in there and there is now plants reduced by half,
so maybe I can spare more water to them, other than every 14 days or so. These
varieties have been through Hades and back. Last year the seedlings went from
0.8C to +40.0C (33F - 104F) in one day, day after day for a couple weeks and
this year drought. They are going to be tough plants, I wonder what stress I can
put them through next year *rolls eyes*.
Then we had friends from Vancouver show up and we decided to have a 'play day',
so we all changed into shorts and headed to the lake to splash around. Staying a
little longer due to my bf's watch laying somewhere in the lake, "Kid"
with his goggles found it and since it was a waterproof watch, it was still
ticking (or whatever a digital watch does). At the lake, everyone decided I was
making pizza at the friends home who brought the other friends up to our house
(they are relatives of the out of town friends) and so we made plans as to who
had what and what they were going to pick up from the store (like basil pesto
since I was out of my homemade stuff and did not really have time to make more),
grab all my
kitchen gear and foodstuffs I was taking and head over to there.
The husband of the woman we went to the lake with has an injured back and was
also not feeling well. So I made him from ginger syrup and fennel tea. He
chugged 2 glasses of the ginger ale.. and felt worse.. and I told him you were
supposed to sip it, not down 2 glasses in 3 seconds.. but the Fennel tea made
him feel better.
I got the pizzas underway and cooking and I do Trigger Point Massage therapy and
so I worked on his back for awhile and I think that he is just muscle pained all
over the place and it was his back he noticed the worst. Then of course I had
people lining up for me and so I did the woman relative from the coast and about
this time my own back was screaming.. so she was nice and I showed her a 20
second course on how to do my back.. Ahhhh.. I could breathe again. I hate it
when my back gets that tight.. so much so I cannot take a deep breathe.
It is another gorgeous day out, though it is getting a little chill at night. I
am glad there is firewood and kindling cut up and in the sling on the front
porch. We never did get to cleaning the woodstove pipe yesterday.. well, there
is always tomorrow. We are supposed to get help on the root cellar as well
tomorrow since we are 2 days behind on it now.
Another good find yesterday, we were at a 68th wedding anniversary party the
other night and someone mentioned they were getting new windows for the house.
When I asked what they did with the old ones, I got the reply "You want
them?".. I was thinking "Are you kidding? This is ME you are talking
to!!" So we got 10 windows, wooden frame slightly damaged where they had to
pull the window out of the house, but not bad and these open and come with
screens..
cool! My bf did
not take the last 3-4 of them and when I asked why? He said as they did not
open.. I looked at him and he said "Cold frames.. I will go back and get
them tomorrow or the next day". And then he explained what cold frames were
to one of the friends.. I was proud of him. Even if I cannot use them all, Mary
and her husband are moving here soon, so they can utilize them I am sure.
My bf is counting the days until we can butcher roosters. 17 of them crowing
starting at 4 am is ridiculous he says, that is probably true, though I tune
them out when I am sleeping. I do not remember if I wrote about it already, but
we went out with my rabbit judging scale and started to weigh roosters. Most of
the Plymouth Barred Rocks were coming in at 5 3/4 to 6 pounds each, though there
were 2 lightweights at 4 1/2 pounds. We saved back the best 3 with the highest
weights. We took everyone else's leg bands off. They are 4 months old now, we are
going to wait until the end of September to butcher them and the turkeys and put
a little more weight on them. We have been hemming and hawing as usually I
butcher at 16 weeks for chickens, but my bf is right, we need the largest
carcass possible for the munch mouths around here.
Something I have noticed on the Dark Brahma and maybe someone else can answer
this for me.. I have never heard nor seen any of the Dark Brahma roosters
crow... and the hens also make a distinctly different (quiet) noise. When I
mentioned that to my bf, he hopes I only keep Dark Brahma roosters.. I told him
no such luck *G*. I am wondering if the Asian breeds (Dark Brahma) crow
differently or not at all compared to the American breeds (Rhode Island Red and
Plymouth Barred Rock).
Well.. I have to get the rest of the household up (plus a spare) and at'em. That
will be the end of my quiet for the rest of the day.. *S*
Everyone have a great and safe weekend!!