Priorities happen

Cliff and his brother are going to visit their Kansas brother today, so this is one of those extremely rare times when I’m on the place alone.  It’s hard to find time to blog when the baby is here on Monday through Thursday, since she is of the opinion that no adult should be handling a computer unless she is helping them.  So on days when she’s here, I use the IPad to communicate. By the way, I am writing this entry via Windows Live Writer, just to see how I like it. 

My garden has totally gone to weeds.




There are two reasons for this:  The obvious one, of course, is the baby, although if I had the energy of my youth, there are three days every week without her around, so that’s a pitiful excuse.  But it was much easier when I could just go out several times a day and pull weeds when I was in the mood.  I wouldn’t trade the joy that little girl brings us for all the fresh veggies in the county.  The other thing that happened was when, early on, some varmints were taking my tomatoes from the plants before they could even ripen, Cliff put a couple strands of barbed wire close to the ground.  This worked great to keep varmints out, but it also made it difficult for me to use my tiller.  The tiller is normally my main weapon against weeds.  Ironically, the tomato crop this year was doomed from the start.  The tomatoes developed some sort of disease that put black spots all over the fruits.  The hogs, may they rest in peace, got many buckets full of bad tomatoes, so at least it wasn’t a total waste.  I set out twelve plants and canned about seven quarts, I think.  They have, thank goodness, provided us with enough tomatoes for our table. 
The chicks have all survived.  I sold all but two of the older hens on Craigslist, knowing that the seven young pullets will be laying eggs this winter.  I’m seriously wishing there was someone close by who butchers chickens for a fee, because I really want to eat our young roosters when they’re big enough, but Cliff and I don’t have the best history of chicken-butchering. 



The father of the brood of thirteen chicks was a Buff Orpington, but the hens were a variety of breeds:  Aracauna, Barred Rock, Buff Orpington, and Rhode Island Red.  The Barred Rock/Orpington mix evidently has a sex-link sort of coloring:  That’s what those brown pullets on the left are, and so is the rooster on the right.  All the boys of that cross ended up looking a lot like pure Barred Rocks, but the coloring of the pullets really doesn’t resemble any breed!  I love their looks, by the way.  I think I have three of those pullets. 
OK, this entry is long enough.  Who knows, I may try to do another before the day I done.