Let me take a moment to reflect on Finley.

When she was four, I bought her one of those big boxes of crayons. One day I walked in on her to find that she was organizing the box based on the color's beauty. On the right side of the box were the colors she thought were beautiful: reds, pinks, oranges, purples, and blues. On the left were the 'ugly' colors: yellows, greens, browns, greys, and black. I felt sorry for the colors on the left. How do explain to a four year old that colors you don't think are beautiful in themselves have use and merit, and that when they are used in the right way make a beautiful world even more beautiful?

Now she is six. She still has a definite sense for beauty, and it makes me a little nervous. I don't want her to be shallow. Her first week in school, she came home and told me that a boy she didn't like was line leader that day. "Why don't you like him?" I asked her. "He doesn't look very nice," she said. I asked her if he was nice to her. Yes. Carefully, I explained to her that even though he may not look as nice as she likes people to look, there were other nice things about him besides looks, and if she paid attention, she would probably find that he would be a very good friend... and that was more important than looks. Then, just to be safe, I threatened her with severe punishment if I ever found that she had been mean to him in any way...

My lecture hasn't stopped her interest in visual beauty, however... Joe told her one day that he had made a new friend: a girl named Katie. Finley's first question was "Was she beautiful?" And yesterday, she told me about her new friend at school. "She's very pretty," she said, then went on to describe the clothes the girl wore that day.

So on top of all the other prayers for my children is that they would be able to enjoy the obviously beautiful things in the world, but also have eyes to see the hidden beauty of things as well...

The Yolk Is On Us

A couple of weeks ago, we had some hot, dry weather here, temps reaching the upper 90's. We stopped finding eggs. I heard that hens stopped laying in very hot temps, so figured that was the case with our hens. Finally, it cooled off a bit, and we got some rain, and once again, we started finding some eggs in the nesting boxes in the coop.

Today, Chris came in and said he found a few eggs out in the stable by the tractor. Two of them were broken, and there was one whole brown egg. I was a little confused. I know Elizabeth, the only one I thought to lay brown eggs, had been giving me a daily egg, and I had gotten one for the last 5 or 6 days, I thought, and had already gotten hers this morning. Was she laying more than one a day? I took the egg inside and washed it off and set it out to dry.

Later, I went outside to bush hog for a bit. When I came back to the stable to park the tractor, Chris and Finley were standing by a cache of 16 eggs. Now, I doubt they ever stopped laying. They just found a cooler place to do it: under the bush hog. And I was wondering why the polish hen hadn't given me any more eggs once it cooled down... but I guess she still preferred the shelter of the tractor.

So I raked out the old hay to discourage them from laying there any longer. This time the yolk's on them.

Two Year Old Beggar

Z is mastering the art of begging. In her sweet, little voice, she'll ask for things. "Watch Cars, Mom? Pease, Mom, pease?" or "Mo milk, pease? Pease, Mom, pease?" Makes it hard when I need to say 'no'.

This week's project:

Jane's new home...
One of the first things I wanted to do when we moved was set up an area for Jane to safely hop around and munch on grass.


This past week, I finally decided to take the bull by the horns and get it done... especially since I was very tired of the ammonia smell that would waft from the litter pan to my nose as I tried to enjoy a sit on the porch.


I hauled an old hutch that was left here by the previoius owners (hereafter abbreviated 'lbpo') to the shop with my wagon (lbpo) and shingled it to weather proof the plywood roof (shingles:lbpo). Then I gathered fence posts (lbpo) and left over garden fencing, and created her hop area. The gate is a section of fence fixed to two long pieces of rebar (lbpo). The legs of the gate slide into conduit I pounded into the ground, and the top sides are velcroed to the fence posts that make the gateway. Some old deck boards (lbpo) make up Jane's ramp. I also tacked on bits of shingle (lbpo) to the ramp for a non-skid surface. At the time of the photo, Jane had yet to brave a trip down the ramp.

These are the moments I live for

a light rain adding a touch of coolness to the warm summer air
sheltered away on my porch where all I can see is green and fence and sky and all i hear is the rain on the tin roof above me
hands busy with a project that is finally seeing some progress
hummingbirds buzzing by
kids playing happily in the pool in the rain