One Cheap Brooder

I thought I was done with raising baby chickens for this season, but low and behold, a neighbor dropped by yesterday, knowing how I can't turn anything away that needs a home, with one baby chick. It seems his Mom had a hen to hatch off only one, and she didn't care to work with just the one chick. The son doesn't even have chickens. Some of his family do, but not him, so why he offered to take it in the first place is beyond me.None the less, I ended up with the the chick. We had just went through the setting process with our second hen this season, and she had no luck hatching any babies, so we gave up on her and broke up her nest.I thought perhaps,she might take in the orphaned chick, but Pop said it had been too long, and she wouldn't accept it now.If She had still been on the nest setting,maybe she would have.Hence, I needed to come up with a brooder for the one baby chick. The neighbor couldn't stand the constant cheeping. That's why he gave it to me. Now I must find a way to keep it from driving me insane with the constant cheeping.I knew I needed to keep it close at hand,since I was to be it's sole caregiver, and I really didn't need another chore.I had a huge glass canister that wasn't being used at the moment, so I put it in that. I put paper down, since it kept slipping and sliding on the glass bottom. I gave it a little cornbread from supper last night.I put a jar top in filled with water ,a thermometer, and now I needed a "Mother Hen" for it to snuggle under. Wah lah! The feather duster.A perfect Mother. It slept quietly all night under one small light over the counter. No cheeping all night.Now I need to come up with a name. The grand children had already gone home by the time the neighbor brought the chick by, so they will be Sooooo Happy!They love babies of any kind. Now I only wish he had had two chicks.One for each grandchild.

Friendship!

To My Special Blogging Friends,

There was a piece in our local paper,sometime ago, about Friendships as we age, and I agree with it wholeheartedly. I don't run the roads like some folks, stopping at every little gas station, grocery store, or restaurant along the road, or sit with the locals, morning after morning, like clock work, drinking cup after cup of coffee, discussing the news form every corner of the globe, but I am guilty of taking a few minutes out of every day (or should I say, most days) and blogging with a few good friends. I feel sitting here peacefully, in my home, typing a few words, is indeed, sharing a free special moments with dear friends.Whether we see each other, face to face or not, I feel a good friend, is out there somewhere waiting to check their morning blog, just as I am. A lot of folks hit the coffee pot the first moment their eyes are open. Well, maybe the second. The bathroom has first dibs, but during those first few minutes, anyway for me, I hit the computer's On button. No paper or phone for me. I get the paper, but hardly ever read it, beyond the obituary column, and I use the phone, when absolutely necessary, but very little.

This a piece by Monica Rhueling, in our local paper, is excellent. It expresses my feelings exactly. I emailed the paper to see if they had it online, but they did not.
Here is the last paragraph.The rest was equally true in regards to special friends,
and I consider all of you to be among my special friends.

No matter what type of gathering or setting,no matter how many people are involved,and no mater the social or economic backgrounds,friendship means acceptance.We all have a desire to be needed and to feel as if we belong.Becoming a part of someone else's life can be uplifting;our self worth increases as a result.The sense of giving back to others, with no strings attached,is the ultimate gift of true friendship.
This piece was written by Monica Rhueling,family caregiver coordinator for The Lincoln Trail Area Development District Agency on Aging,for our local paper.


If friendships were not that important, I doubt there would be so many quotes in reference to them. Here are a few quotes I found this morning. I love quotes.

Life’s truest happiness is in the friendships we make along the way

The best times are always found when friends and family gather round

Love, laughter and friends always welcome

Love is blind. Friendship quietly closes its eyes

Keep company with those who make you better

Good friends are good for your health

Friendship sweetens the cares of life

Friends and family make this house a home

Friends are angels in disguise

Friends are God’s way of taking care of us

Friends are like quilts, they never loose their warmth

Friends are the family we choose

Friendship is a sheltering tree

....and I could go on and on with the quotes on Friendship.

Please forgive me if I have posted on this before, but when I read the post today from My Farmhouse Kitchen on Kindness, I felt the urge to repeat my post. Thanks for visiting. I Do Love Hearing From You All!

They're Off To The Flea Market Again!

Today is Wednesday,Flea Market Day. Pop loves to go and socialize
with all the locals.He never buys much,just visits and
talks.He meets with his oldest daughter,Rhonda, and
occasionally Cousin Larry, for breakfast. Rhonda is between
jobs, so she has a little more time to spend with Pop.She
is taking night classes to refresh her teaching degree, in
hopes of using that part of her education. As for me, the
weather is a little cooler, mornings and evenings,for awhile,
so I'll most likely, be in the yard,mowing,trimming,mulching,and
weeding.Pop says I should have been a mole.I am in my element there.


I have a few apples this year. Last year,we had none.I don't know if
the frost,or my pruning my tree during the wrong time of the season
was to blame,but nevertheless,it didn't bare at all.I don't really
need the apples this year, but I hate to see them all go to the deer.
They come during the night,and eat some, then the local hunters come
and get more to feed them to draw them in during hunting season.Some
of the apples are always really nice, even though I don't spray they
during the time they need to be sprayed.We try, but we don't really know
exactly what or when to spray.I may put a few slices in the freezer.
Pop likes fried apples with cornbread on occasion.He would love fried
apple pies, but I haven't mastered them yet. I do fix them, but they
just don't turn out to suit me, so I hate fixing them at all. They
taste alright, but they never look like the ones our Grandmothers or
various ladies in our past use to make.The art of making fried apple
pies has always intrigued me, but I just can't get the hang of it.I
hate using canned biscuits for the crust. It works OK.Some use them
and get great results,but mine always turn out short of my expectations.
I guess I need to take a class on Making Fried Apple Pies. Maybe
someone has a Tutorial on it?

The SideWinder

Suzanne, over at Chickens In The Road, sounds so much like myself.I made a room in one quarter of my basement for a craft room, then suddenly, it was needed for an extra bedroom.The craft supplies are still stacked everywhere in boxes and bins.Barely room to wiggle down there.Hopefully when it's too cold outdoors, I'll get back to it. Since Suzanne was speaking of bobbins, I picked up a SideWinder,bobbin winder at the local fabric store yesterday. My machine is computerized, and it would scare me when the bobbin started winding and jerking and eventually stall, making the machine act all weird and crazy.That's when I decided I'd use the separate portable winder.It is not so scary, and I can take it to Mom's and wind all her bobbins at once for her. She can't see good enough to wind her own.I had been thinking about getting one for awhile now, and since we would be going in that direction yesterday, I had Pop to swing by the fabric store so I could pick one up. I called both WalMart and the fabric store to see if they had one and the price.They both had the Sidewinder, but the one at the fabric store was approximately $5 cheaper. I had already looked on line, and found one, just like the one I ended up buying, and with the postage and all, it would have been roughly $10 more.Another good thing was that I didn't have to wait several days for it to arrive in the mail.That is one of my faults.When I take a notion for something, I want it now.

Trying Something New!

As I've mentioned in the past, my Mother's people are all in Louisiana. A few weeks ago, they visited our family here in Kentucky,as they do about every year.They have been doing that for awhile, especially now that many of the older family members have died, and many of the remaining family are getting much older.When visiting them, on occasion, we had the opportunity to eat fig preserves. Pop and I both love them, but as you know, they don't grow in Kentucky. At least, we have never had any luck with them.Nevertheless, we asked the family to try and locate some figs for us on their next trip up.They found a friend who had a gallon in his freezer, that he was willing to send us.I am just now getting around to taking them from the freezer and attempting to make the preserves.I looked up the directions on the Internet, but of course, being me, I wanted to try it my way.I read the recipe over and then proceeded to get the job done as close to their way as I could. It said to soak the figs overnight in sugar, which I did.Then after they had made the sugary juice, to boil the juice,or syrup,which I did,then I added the figs and boiled awhile longer. I let them set for awhile till they soaked up some of the syrup and began to appear a little glassy.Next step was to put them in my sterilized jars, and seal them with my newly found reusable lids from Tattler.I learned about them on one of the blogs,possibly Down-To-Earth,I'll have to check, and ordered some to try.So far, I am well pleased with them. You're suppose to be able to use the rubber rings several times, before they need to be replaced, then they are $2.50 a dozen to order more rubber rings. The flats are suppose to last forever.Nevertheless, I had three 1/2 pints of figs, and two 1/2 pints of jelly, plus a couple of samples left for me and Pop to try with tomorrows breakfast.We'll splurge tomorrow.We had dry cereal for breakfast today.Pop never ate dry cereal before, in his life, until he went on that fishing trip to Graham's Lake with Cousin Keith. Keith is a little more health conscious, and keeps only healthy food around.Now Pop and I will eat an occasional bowl of cereal together. I have always enjoyed cereal.
This was my first try at preserving figs. What I wouldn't give for a fig tree of my own that would bear.I may do some research to see if it is even possible for them to grow in Kentucky.Maybe I could pot it up and move it into the basement during the winter.We'll see!

Tr

Is It or Is It Not A MayApple?

This is a MayApple (picture obtained from the Internet)


This is a Ginseng Plant (picture obtained from the Internet)

I have tried to relocate the blog about the MayApple, to no avail. I follow several blogs, and once in a while I will check out other blogs listed on those blogs that I do follow.I ran across one post asking if anyone could identify a plant she had ran across and posted on her blog. Several of us thought it was a MayApple by it's growing habits, and it's leaf formation, but it had a red seed pod.

This is a Trillium (picture obtained from the Internet)

I have done a little more research, and found another plant, a Trillium, with what appeared to be a single red seed, larger than the seeds in her picture.But I am a little more certain now,that the picture she posted was that of the ginseng plant. It has a red seed pod. The MayApple does not appear to have that red seedpod.I am hoping that someone will help me to relocate the original post. I'm thinking the postee lives in Indiana.

My Faithful Companion!

I have always loved cats, but have not always had one for various reasons. I love my birds. I hate the clean up that follows.I always felt I had enough to do without that added chore. I am allergic to so many unknown things, and cat dander could be one of them.I don't think so much about all that with Lucky. That's the name we gave him after saving him as a tiny kitten, from a horrible death in the busy downtown traffic, in the heart of town one day while we were running some errands.I had him neutered as soon as possible, so he would not be so apt to do all those unwanted things that male cats do;however, he does get pretty rough at times, when playing with our inside dog,Sarah, and our new female cat, Minnie.We adopted Minnie,shortly after Lucky.We found her hiding in a sink hole on our property, and rescued her, thinking she would make a good pet for our Grandson, since his cat had disappeared, but as you can guess that never happened, and Minnie is still here. We had her neutered the same day, so the worries that come with a female cat would be lessened,also. I(we)have grown to love them both. They bring lots of laughs to Pop and myself. The two Grandchildren spend a lot of time with them, when they are here,thus,giving me a break. That turned out to be a real plus,since both Grandchildren are so spoiled and attached to Meemaw.They both love any small animal, so the kitty cats get lots of attention at our house.But back to My Faithful Companion.Lucky has taken a liking to me, and stays by my side constantly. No matter what I am doing, he finds the closest place he can,to be near me, and sleeps,as he is doing here,while I post to my blog.When Pop and I, sit for awhile and watch a show together,before bedtime, Lucky lays on my lap,a nightly ritual now.Strange how pets get to be such a wonderful part of your life for some, and others have no desire to love an animal. I guess it's their loss.We love all of our animals, and it is a good feeling when they let you know they love you,too.

Could I Be Obsessive Compulsive?

This is a very hard post to write and an even harder to admit to the world, but hopefully it will help me understand it, by me admitting to having such a condition.
I see and hear and read a lot about this condition, but who in their right mind would ever admit to having it. I think I might. When I try to figure out my problem, it always comes back to this same conclusion. I admit,I am a collector,and possibly a hoarder.I don't like admitting to that either, but it appears that is exactly what I am. I do believe it is a sickness. Not something that can be fixed by someone else entering into your home and demanding that you get rid of all your precious "stuff".What does that do, but make bad matters worse. I cherish my things, even though I have way too many. I have tried to minimize my collections, to no avail.I do not know why a person collects what they do. I wish I did. It is really foolish, the things I do collect.I collect cups for one. No rhyme nor reason, just cups. I love cups with sayings that strike a chord in me.I love pretty cups. I love to collect sets of two matching cups.(One for me and one for Pop, if he would use it when we drink our morning or evening cup of coffee, during our quiet time together,but he won't.Just a fantasy I've always had of us drinking our coffee in our matching cups.)I use a lot of cups, since we have a lot of coffee drinkers most days.I like real cups to serve my friends.A styrofoam cup seems so impersonal.That's how the cup thing got started. I have built a cupboard just for my cups,but it is still a work in progress. Hopefully when Winter sets in, and I am couped up in the house, I will finish it.By making this cupboard for my cups, and keeping most of them together in one place, I feel a little more in control. I can see my cup collection, as just that, and not as an illness.

Off To The Lake We Go.

We don't spend as much time on the lake as we once did, but Mom's family was in from Louisiana, and we were doing what we could to keep them entertained. The lake was one of their requests.It was really too hot to enjoy it for long, but the day was getting late, and we thought perhaps the evening would be a bit cooler.It wasn't, so we didn't tarry long, but the 2 year old enjoyed himself anyway.We drove around the lake and stopped at Dog Creek.They have a spot that's roped off just for kids,where the baby could play safely.The trip did bring back memories of days gone by when Pop and I use to camp out at the lake a lot. It seems since we both retired, we are too busy to do any more camping.Pop vowed we'd try to spend a night or two doing just that before it gets too cold. We use to take the speed boat out and enjoy the lake and the sun, but I'm afraid those days are long gone. The pontoon will have to do.We can relax in our lounge chairs, sip our drinks by the moonlight, and watch the sun set on the lake.We'll pitch our tents and set up our camping gear,and cook a few meals out on the open fire, and relive it all through our memories.

Ain't Love Grand?

My grand daughter is in love. I think she has been in love a few times now, and she is only nine. I do remember the feeling of young love from my youth. I think I was about 4th grade when I recall my first love. I see him now and then, and I am willing to tell him and others that he was my first love,which I am sure he had already picked up on, but back then, I, like Leah, was too shy to admit it to anyone.I guess you might call them crushes, but I remember having a dozen crushes on different boys in my lifetime. I suppose that's how you exercise your emotions. I'm sure this love will run it's course, and she'll fall in love many more times, but for now she is wearing HIS ring,and she is in Heaven.

Can You Guess What I've Been Doing Today?

If you guessed canning green beans and tomatoes, you're right.Connie, over at Granny's Sewing Room, isn't the only one having to buy produce this year.I'd be willing to wager a lot of folks had a lot less produce from their own gardens this season, and have had to resort to buying from the Amish. It seems those folks have veggies galore no matter what.They must take lots of schooling on gardening. I hear the boys are allowed to drop out about the age of twelve to start working. I'll bet they do a lot a cramming during those few years, not matter what field they are studying. They are great carpenters,too. They built our house after the fire in 07, and did a wonderful job.
I didn't plan to can green beans this year, but I found some Tenderettes at the Farmer's Market, and decided to go on and get a 1/2 bushel.They are not our favorite when it comes to flavor, but they have no strings. Maybe next year we'll plant some Half White Runners or Horticultural Dwarf. I do love the flavor of those. With this canner today makes 54 pints of whole tomatoes. If Pop eats 1 pint a week, he will have enough to last all year, with 2 left over.He looooveeees cornbread with milk and tomatoes.He has to eat smaller portions now on account of his blood sugar, but he says life wouldn't be worth living without his cornbread and milk and tomatoes.(and cigarettes,I don't want to forget those.)


Oh,yes! Remember these?They are laying now. We suspected it yesterday when we got a much smaller egg in the days collection, but then today we are pretty much convinced. We go an even smaller one today in our days egg collection.The date the picture was taken of the chicks was 4/15/10.Today is 8/5/10. Is it possible they could be laying this soon?I'll need to do more research on that to be sure.I can't imagine why we would be getting those tiny little eggs otherwise.We have no bantam chickens.

We're Doing Our Part!

Our two kitties are back home. They took a trip to Louisville with a Snip Program.The Humane Society spays and neuters animals to cut down on unwanted animals.I copied this information from their website.

The Kentucky Humane Society (KHS) opened the S.N.I.P. Clinic in February 2007, following analysis of local and national statistics that suggested adoptions alone could not solve the area’s pet overpopulation crisis. Being the only facility of its kind in the region, the S.N.I.P. Clinic is a high quality, high-volume clinic that’s dedicated entirely to providing low-cost spay/neuter surgeries for owned pets, Monday through Thursday.

During its first year of operations, the S.N.I.P. Clinic met its goal of 6,000 spay/neuter surgeries. To date, the clinic has altered more than 25,000 felines and canines

I think it is an amazing thing that these folks do. Heaven knows our towns are over run with unwanted uncared for cats, especially.We took these two cats in, that were destined to be among those same statistics, and they are as loved as any of the other pets we have. Their names are Lucky and Minnie.

Mams Goes to the Hospital.

Not the greatest picture of Mams, but this was taken at Christmas of 09 at the older daughter's home.(Mams is on the far left.)
Mams is Pop's ex-wife, the mother of his two daughters. She had to have surgery since she had 98-99% blockage in both sides of her carotid arteries.She came through the surgery fairly well, considering a lot of other problems she has, and her age didn't help either. I think she is about 4 years older than myself, and I know I am beginning to have a few minor problems brought on by age.Nevertheless, she was doing good, so we all thought, but yesterday,the older daughter, called to check on her and ended up going to the house.She was somewhat incoherent, and non responsive.The daughter flagged down a policeman and told him what was happening,so he followed her to the emergency room with her Mom.The younger daughter, being a nurse was already there, on duty.We all rushed up to the hospital, to be with the girls, and help with the grandchildren, if necessary.They run some test right then, suspecting a blood clot or another stroke, but neither seemed to be the case.A bit later, they had concluded it was a blood infection of some sort. She remains there at the hospital,still, and I am sure they will be doing a few more tests.We are all just waiting to hear more.

More on Multi Tasking?

I'll bet you're wondering what in the world this picture has to do with multi- tasking.Well,in the beginning, I planted my birdhouse gourds along side the porch with the intention of the rails supporting the vines. Not having a lot of experience with growing them before, I was not sure how rampant they would run.I did know,however, that pumpkins were ridiculous with all their vining.Pop made me swear never to grow one next to the doorstep again.However, as the gourd vines began to grow, I noticed it brought a cool shade to that portion of the porch and even shaded the window to the living room somewhat.Wonderful. We need all the shade we can get with the hot summer days we have been having.Well, my little wren built in a hanging flower pot. Soon, one of the flowers died, leaving her nest exposed, so,knowing they liked to be secluded, I hung the pot among the vines. She never fretted a bit about that.Today, I went out to take a picture of the baby birds to show, and I frightened one with my flash of the camera, causing it to hop out and flutter away. I was able to run it down and put it back in the nest, but I fear,when they do leave the nest, the cats or dogs will devour them. That is the worst part of having dogs and cats, for pets. They,occasionally, do eat the birds you have watched and loved throughout the season.I'm keeping my fingers crossed,in hopes that they survive.

We're Being Invaded!

Don't get me wrong! We do enjoy watching wildlife from our porch each morning.But......the turkey population around here is getting ridiculous. Not only are the turkeys multiplying, so are the mites that they drop when they pass through. You cannot go anywhere on your property or anywhere else for that matter,without getting covered up with mites.When I was a kid, it was chiggers. Now it's ticks and turkey mites. I may have it all wrong. They may all be the same pest. If only we knew an entomologist.I do know one thing. The things you get when making a trip through your property,leaves you itching and scratching for days. And the scars they leave behind are forever.I was so concerned about getting Lyme Disease or Rocky Mountain Spotted Tick Fever, or what ever it is that ticks carry,I had a blood test run when I had my last check up.Thank goodness nothing showed up.
One day this last week, a couple of hens and their young passed though our yard right at the edge of the garden.We counted at least a dozen young turkeys, with two mothers. I guess the grasshoppers are bringing them out into the open fields more lately. Thank Heaven,they are good for something.If only controlling those pesty grasshoppers to some extent.

How Can Anyone Not Love Cats?

I guess I understand, to a point,as in my Mom's case, how you could hate cats.The only thing she knows about cats is that they do their business in whatever loose materials they can find. In Mom's area, it seems the only loose material is her mulch around her flowers. Mom takes great pride in her yard. Even though she is 84, she still is very active in keeping her yard neat. She hires it mowed whenever it begins to look the least bit shaggy. She keeps check on everything that needs painting.She is for ever painting something. She never cared for flowers until Dad passed away. I suppose she did it more for the need for something to do than anything else, as she did the quilting.Two things she never had time for or cared for in all the years she was raising nine children.I guess if you have nine children to raise, you probably don't have energy for much else.
I am now retired, and have a little more time to enjoy some things that I use to see as another job. Taking care of another beings needs was not what I needed all the years I worked. With all the responsibilities I already had, my entire life, I had no patience for the extra work that having pets would bring.Now it is such a joy to have my two cats lay by my side sound asleep, while I do my work. There is nothing more lovable than a cat.We have a male,Lucky,and now a female,Minnie.We found both kittens.One on the busy street in the middle of town, and the other in a sink hole on our property. Right away, we had them both neutered, so as not to have more unwanted kittens.We have grown to love these two cats, but need no more.The grandchildren will have lots of days entertainment loving on Lucky and Minnie. They do love cats, as do most children.