Happy July 4th

Little Red Shoes

We have trouble with shoes at our home.  We lose them or get them so muddy in the ditch they are just rectangular blobs of mud.  This happens especially when the back field has been irrigated but we still need to get back there for milking chores.

Enter the solution:  

This is the best $5.00 I've spent recently.  Granny Smith now has shoes I can spot a mile away and they can be sprayed with water.  I know, I don't know why it took me so long to come up with a solution.  These little shoes have been available for years and years, but it takes me awhile sometimes.  Now the Spy twins want a pair (NOT red though, they stress) so we'll have to see if I can find some - and THEN we'll see if they wear them, or just look at them and then pull on their old muddy familiar shoes.  Old habits die hard you know.

Cheep, Cheep, Cheep

Let me introduce to you our 15 new chicks.  These adorable creatures are cornish cross chickens bred for MEAT.... At 8 weeks of age we are supposed to think they are MEAT and put them in the freezer for winter.  To further this goal, we're not naming them.  Right now, though, they are so darn cute it's hard to imagine them being MEAT.

Aren't we great chicken farmers?  Look how happy they are.  I know all the magazine and book articles say you are not supposed to use pine shaving as bedding because the chicks eat it instead of food.  But the book recommended corn cob hulls....corn cob hulls, who in Idaho has such a thing as that??  So far the birds have not eaten (too much) of the pine shavings.

This brilliant little nursery was designed by our neighbors: round so the chicks can't suffocate in a corner, washable, and tall so the birds can't fly out.  In a few weeks the birdies can graduate to the potting shed.  Stay tuned for further exciting poultry events.

Tomatoes Anyone?

Gardening this year has not been for the faint of heart - for either gardeners or plants.  In fact, I think my tomatoes could start quoting Langston Hughes poetry any moment, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair"...

These are my early pathetic attempts to save the poor things.  This experiment was a failure due to the wind blowing all my cans and milk containers clear to Montana.

My second attempt was to just weigh everything down so they ABSOLUTELY COULDN'T blow away.  This worked.  But after 3 or 4 days of no light, the tomatoes told me we couldn't do this forever.

My third attempt involved staking the whole area, wrapping twine around the stakes and wrapping the whole thing with plastic.  Like a giant saran wrap effect.  This worked for about 2 hours and then the wind whipped it apart and the plastic beat the poor little plants to death.

I then gave up.  After giving up the wind stopped...... I should have done that a lot sooner.

I have replanted a few tomatoes and  the weather has been perfect this week.  We may have tomatoes after all.  

Hope springs eternal.

Art

This, as well as the second photo down, is a picture of Bodiam castle, which we visited early last week. No, I did not draw this picture, but I wish I had. I brought all of my art equipment, but we've been so busy looking at the sights that I haven't really had time to do anything with them. We'll see if there's anything I can do about that.

look what you've been missing!

I understand that the rest of the crabapple clan is going horse riding this week. Poor guys. It's really too bad that they weren't able to come to the british Museum with us yesterday, where a large spectrum of mummies and other upsetting human remains were on display. Among other notables, we saw Big Ben, the London eye, Westminster Abbey,  and Trafalgar square. It is midsummer nights eve here tonight, in the land of Shakespeare- fitting that we saw a play today eh? Don't forget to do the chores boys.

The Way it Really is

Before me and G.D. left for the realm, mom was foolish enough to let us know how to log on to her blogger account- thus this surprise post. We have now been in England for 2 days, and seen, by my count: 2 castles, 2 churches, and a ruin, among other smaller sights.If you have been a long time subscriber, you may have read her story about England- don't believe it. First of all, mom didn't take nearly as many pictures as she should have, secondly, she talked overly much about the beautiful landscape- hardly mentioning the castles and history. Well, this time around, we are going to focus on what really matters. The weather has been lovely (pronounced "louv-ely"), and we are having a great time. I have begun to wonder what kind of hopeless person would vacation in Hawaii. Enjoy the snow in Idaho.