the sky is pink

So, where was I? Oh, right. The memorable birthday party. The party was starting to disassemble and my side of the family (the early attenders) were leaving. Joe's family (who arrived later) were still hanging around. During the party we had a huge downpour (which has been typical of life in Maryland the past month or so). After things cleared up a bit, the kids went out to play. One of the kids ran in the house to report one of our hens in the neighbor's yard, so I quickly put on my shoes and went to retrieve the hen. She was hiding from us and it took three of us to get her out of the brush. As soon as I grabbed her, I tossed her over the fence into our yard and walked home. I kicked off my shoes and was about to relax. Moments later one of the kids ran into the house screaming there was a dog in our yard. We do not own a dog. I ran around the house looking for shoes I could wear out in the wet grass. By the time I got outside, the dog was gone. But I was out there in time fo...

My favorite craft is making gifts. In years' past , I have cranked out multiples of the same gift to give to my sisters, friends, and teachers. This Christmas, I decided to give an embroidered linen handkerchief (with a bar of my homemade chocolate-mint soap). At first I was really excited about giving the hankies. I love little vintage hankies. I collect and use them. (I have a very small collection.) But then I started to wonder and fear if this was a weird thing to give people. After all, I'm sure not everyone shares my affinity with hankies. I still wonder what people think about them. And if they know what is is. One teacher sent home a thank-you note and thanked my son for the monogrammed "cloth." You can see years' past here . My sister, Kate, reminded me last year that I gifted a gold-gilded picture of the temple one year. But there is one year that still eludes us both. * * As I was typing this, I looked out to the chicken coop and saw an odd thing. We h...

We had our first chicken tragedy on Saturday. I went out to gather eggs and check the chickens, and noticed one wasn't running when I made my "kissing" sounds that make them come running. Without even looking at her, I knew she was dead. Buckwheat. She was my favorite. She was an Aracauna with black and white feathers. She was beautiful. The kids sometimes called her Roadrunner because if she got out, that girl could run. I ran up to the house to get Joe. Carter knew something was wrong. He is so attached to these chickens. He nearly beat Joe out the door trying to get there as fast as he could. Carter cried and, as I hugged him, I gave him the "life on a farm is tough" talk. Not that we live on a farm. But we do have a chicken coop, smokehouse, and barn on our property. It was once a little farm. Joe scooped her up with a shovel and asked me what he should do with her. And, being the practical farm girl that I am, I replied, "Oh, just toss her over the fe...

We love our hens. We have all hens. No roosters in the mix. I was worried for awhile. Everyone I knew thought they were buying all girls, and ended up with as many as half roosters. But, on three separate days, we've gotten 11 eggs. And that totally confirms that our 11 chickens are all hens. Whew! We have five araucana hens. Their feathers are so unique. As unique as their eggs. Two lay blue eggs. One lays green eggs. And two lay pinkish eggs (see front left egg). They were the last of our egg-layers to start and their eggs are a little small, but we have hope to believe that their eggs will get larger. We not only enjoy eating our eggs, but baking the shells, crushing them, and feeding them back to the chickens . What pretty colors. (The blue and green eggs are slightly tinted on the inside of the shell, too.) We've enjoy fried eggs, scrambled eggs, egg drop soup, crepes, and quiche, among other things. And it's so nice to use a fresh egg, right from the hen's bott...