Egging us on

Eric says I overschedule myself. I think it's just May with lots of kids. The past weekend was the high school Ultimate Frisbee States championship, won by my child's undefeated team. (Yay!)

This weekend, among other events, it's:


Yes, that time of year again! The kids and I have put in a good couple of days cleaning up -- tomorrow we'll be shoveling mulch -- and Eric and now Kevin have really rocked the new, fancy coop. I think everything will be ready by Sunday.

I even made art.

Sunday afternoon, I'll be standing outside, talking to whoever makes the trek around town to view chicken coops. Since I learned a little bit last year, I'm going to make and post directional
and informational signs, recruit helpers so I can get a drink or visit the bathroom at least once, and plan to eat takeout or crock pot food that night.

Being me, however, I have to drive back from a four day homeschooling camping trip to do this. I'm going to need that trip to destress from getting ready for the trip.

The weekend after next is the Middle School Ultimate States tournament. . .

I'm looking forward to June.

Read. The. Pattern.

Cheerfully resurrected Odelia by Julie Weisenberger to simply finish off the sleeves and voila, have a sweater for summer.

Except, eight inches ago, I neglected to continue the edge decreases.

Guess I'll just rip that puppy right out to the point where I left the pattern to wander in the wilderness and redo it the right way.

Grrrrr.

Thank goodness the high school team won States again! Seven years of domination sort of make up for redoing eight inches of sweater.

Sort of.

Not just to show off

That is, the new, shiny red chicken coop (which is almost done) is not just for showing off. The old one is pretty much in need of repair, especially the yard area. It's just not very secure nor very sturdy.

Case in point -- the gals made a run for it through a stretched-out place in the wire last week:


Conveniently, the salad garden bed is right in front of their coop.


They made the most of it. I shored up the pen, at least temporarily.

Jailbird.

Should've made it longer

. . . although I barely made the deadline as it was. Seriously cute, even if it's too short.

This almost makes up for the three sweaters stuck on Sleeve Island.

Astonishing Variety

Same chickens, different days. Who knows why sometimes it looks as though miniature ostriches live out there and other days it's Lilliputian poultry? Wonderfulness.

This post brought to you by the letter "P"

Those kids. . . today they woke up to find individual yogurt/granola/fruit parfaits waiting on the table. No whining for pancakes today! I'm able to do things like this when I write a detailed menu before I go to the stores. Today's sandwich bread dough will also have to become burger buns, though, since I forgot to purchase any. Oh well, I was baking anyhow, and this way I can make teensy buns for teensy burgers. Custom cooking!


Other excitement? Well, I believe at least one of the Padron peppers, that tasted so wonderful last year, is going to pull through. I need to get out there and side dress with either some composted chicken poo or compost or something. Peppers are really heavy feeders, in my experience. I'm especially excited about this because I didn't get any started from seed, and I love these peppers.


The Aladdin peas are starting to fill out. Ed Hume says to keep picking so that's what we'll do. With a relatively small pea patch, it feels more tedious to shell, since there are only a handful ready at a time. We do love our frozen peas, though. They have been terrifically self-supporting, as advertised.


Here's Eric working on the Palais de Poulet. I had asked to just move the original coop, to make room for the beehives in a different place, but with the third annual coop tour coming up, Eric decided to pull out all the stops.



When the doors and nest boxes get installed, it will be only a few post holes and wire stretching away. I even think we'll make the deadline.

Pancakes and Pests

My children would eat pancakes every day, if allowed. Since real maple syrup runs almost $18 for 32 ounces here, we have Pancake Day once a week, on Saturday. (There is also Waffle Wednesday, so I don't think they're too deprived.) And one thing that has made my breakfast sweets-making easier is aerosol oil. Pastry brushes are all well and good, but a quick squirt of oil and the pancakes and waffles are easily released from griddle and maker, respectively.

But that's not all! And thus begins the infomercial.

A couple of years ago, the Anna apple tree became infested with black aphids covered with white fuzz. They made galls on the stems, and I tried all sorts of discouragement, but finally hit on one that worked.

Last week, I found another round of fuzz:



Since this was concentrated on damaged parts of the bark and flower clusters, I assume it's somewhat fungus-related. Still, I'm trying my first line of defense:


That's right -- the ever-versatile spray oil. A quick squirt:


And the white fuzz disappears.


Time will tell if it works as well as it did on the last round of fuzzy menace. If you have a small tree that's infested with anything that oil will smother (aphids and scale come to mind) this is easier than making up a sprayer of horticultural oil.