6-25-08

I have to confess that my taking Monday and Tuesday off from updating the journal was due less to the fact that I needed time away from the computer and more the fact that the “available space” percentage on the DVR dropped down to single digits. So I had to get some TV watched.

I know, I’m lame. But you’ve gotta have priorities!

I cleared off enough stuff so that there’s more than 30% space on the DVR now, which gives us some breathing room. It helped that I went through the THIRTY-SIX episodes of Roseanne I’d taped (don’t judge me, I love the hell out of that show) and deleted the ones I don’t want to see.

So, I’m back! Woohoo! And in lieu of a texty entry, I provide for you some of the sights (and sounds!) from around Crooked Acres.

You lucky fools.

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Every evening at dusk (which is around 8:00 right now), Fred and I go outside to close up the chicken coops. After, we walk out to the pig yard, and we give those damn pigs a snack. Lately, we’ve been feeding them several chocolates from an assorted box of milk chocolates we bought at the Russell Stover store (four 12-ounce boxes for less than ten bucks!). Those pigs LOVE them some chocolate. I finally remembered to bring the camera out with me one evening and made a movie. In this one, we (Fred) are feeding them those cream-filled chocolate eggs. Which were a hit. Most food items are a hit with the pigs, really. I find that I yammer a LOT (newsflash: standing by a pig yard: stinky! I know, I was shocked too!), so you might want to turn off your sound so you don’t have to listen to me babbling.

See it here in mpg format.

The Wisteria is abloom.

Cucumber plants, very happy. I’ve already made five pints of dill pickles, and we’re only getting started!

Squash plants, also very happy.

I love it when one of life’s little mysteries is solved. Remember a few months ago when I couldn’t find that bottle of Feliway and I looked EVERYWHERE and was completely mystified? There it is, under the secretaire in the dining room, with a bunch of cat toys. I wonder how it got there, CATS.

Outside the window over my desk, a spider has set up shop. She catches at least one big bug every day. A week and a half ago, three egg sacs appeared. I check every day, but no baby spiders yet. Every now and again, a little red spider visits. I don’t know if it’s the daddy spider or just a friend dropping by for bug guts. The mother spider never fights it off, though, and sometimes the little red spider helps clean out the web.

Mayfly, maybe? Whatever it is, it was living on one of the clothespins and wasn’t inclined to move, so I left it alone.

Maxi followed us into the chicken yard the other day and flopped down in one of their dust bath holes. The toddlers approached curiously, unafraid of her. They made her a little nervous, though.

Charlie and her twisted little toes. Poor thing – but she’s growing and thriving, so I guess she’s okay.

One of the white-crested black polish chickens. The poor damn things can’t see a thing, so I trimmed back the feathers. A whole new world opened up to them!

Some of the toddlers like to roost on these blocks.

Toddlers taking dust baths.

This one’s kind of neat – mostly black, with a patch of Americauna-like coloring on her/ his chest.

Black-crested golden polish, after I trimmed some of the feathers back. She was so calm while I did it, didn’t fight at all. Maybe she knew we were trying to help her?

Good ol’ Frick, taking a dust bath.

I don’t even want to know what Maxi’s thinking, here. Probably “Dinner!”

You see a recipe for Mississippi Mud Cookies that are basically chocolate cookies with milk chocolate chips, pecans, and mini marshmallows. You think “How could that possibly be anything but fabulous!”, right? I made them on Friday and was completely underwhelmed. I don’t know what was lacking, they were just kind of bland. We each ate a couple (the second one to make sure the first impression was right, of course) then fed the rest to the pigs. The pigs liked them a lot, especially the big one.

I came across this recipe for Pineapple Upside-Down Skillet Cake on the Razor Family Farms blog a few weeks ago. I printed it out, and decided on Friday to make it. I was really looking forward to it, but guess what I didn’t take into account? I don’t like pineapple, unless you’re talking about fresh chunks of pineapple in a dish. Duh. Fred liked it okay, but says that next time he’d prefer it if I used light brown sugar instead of dark. WHATEVS. Also, this picture illustrates why I am not a professional photographer. Could I have made it look any less appetizing?

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Kara and the monkeys are enjoying having the run of the upstairs all day long. Inara figured out how to climb over the gates (I was only putting the one across the top when I left the house; otherwise I just had two up with a gap at the top) so we’ve gone to keeping all three gates up during the day. Kara will occasionally come to the bottom of the stairs and check out the situation. Sometimes she just meows at whatever cat is there, and sometimes she hisses and flies at the gate. Fred has taken to, every now and then, picking her up and carrying her around the downstairs. So far she’s calm as long as he’s holding her, but I’m waiting for the time when she catches sight of the wrong cat at the wrong time and leaves tracks up one side of Fred’s face.

I made a movie of the kittens at 9 weeks old – well, I made two of them, I’ll post the other one on Friday. This one is what they’re like when they’re relatively calm.

See it here in MPG format.

Kaylee would like you to know it’s a rough, rough life.

Lots more kitten pics over at Flickr.

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“Whatchoo talkin’ ’bout, Willis?”

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Previously
2007: Three times in the course of an hour, the same conversation, word-for-word, I swear it.
2006: No entry.
2005: I’d say this country is going to hell, but that handbasket sailed a loooooong time ago.
2004: Yes. Robyn DID recently learn how to do popup windows. Why do you ask?
2003: Do I LOOK like an outside kinda gal?
2002: Which is when I realized that I’d actually dreamed the conversation and hug and kiss.
2001: No entry.
2000: No entry.