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I know I haven't blogged nearly as much as you deserve lately, but, wow, if you could just see how beautiful and time-consuming Spring has been this year, you'd surely understand! Here on the Gulf Coast, we know that the Summer is our mostly-indoors time of year, so I've been spending almost every minute outdoors lately, knowing that soon the bugs, the heat, the afternoon thunderstorms, the hurricane warnings, and the humidity will be here. Here's a bit of what's been going on:
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Consuming.....Little Apricot, my cute distraction, is still consuming minute upon minute of my day until hours are gone. When I catch a glimpse of his white mohair running across the window, you can bet that right then I've lost all concentration on my household chores, and I'll be gazing out the window for at least a full ten minutes, if I can successfully keep myself from putting on my husband's huge galoshes and making my way down to see Apricot, you know, to make sure he's okay.
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Maddening....Toby, the Cocker Spaniel, consumes minute upon minute of my day, too, with maddening cuteness as he chases our rooster across the yard. One of these days that rooster is going to get tough enough to spur Toby. For now, it's an entertaining race.
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Raising...19 Cornish Rock chickens for the freezer. This is our first year doing this; until now, we have only had laying hens. But the more I learn about organic foods, the more I'd like to raise as much as we can on our own. This is going to be a good learning experience for the kids, too. Cornish Rocks are ready for the freezer by 6-8 weeks (that's fast!), so the kids are documenting the amazing growth rate of these chickens as a school project. They can do their documentation through writing, photos, or drawing. We are weighing the birds once a week and the kids are documenting their feed and water requirements.
- Building....a Chicken Tractor with my dad, to house our Cornish Rocks as they grow, and to later house a couple of turkeys that I hope to buy soon from the feed store. Click here to view a bunch of chicken tractors. I'll try to post photos of ours soon -- it looks great and is made of all recycled materials except 1/2 of the chicken wire and the nails.
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Flitting....The butterflies have been flitting about our yard in abundance. I've seen several swallowtails of different colors - orange ones and mostly black ones, and I have seen our native Gulf Fritillary, a bright yellow beauty. Butterflies love mud, so if you want some butterflies, create a little mud or a very shallow puddle, or fill a plant's drip pan.
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Blooming: The Cherry tree, the Lemon tree, the Kumquat tree, the mysterious tiny-tangerine-type tree, Dogwoods (almost done blooming), wild Roses (almost done), and our Yellow Rose, the Amaryllis is in bud, the Louisiana Irises were beautiful this year, the Azaleas were absolutely stunning this year because we are in a drought - there is just one bloom left.
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Gardening: Today, I planted basil, cilantro, jalapenos, and garlic chives in my herb garden, which already houses oregano and rosemary. Tim built this little garden for me, which is about 6' by 3-1/2', made out of two log-type pieces of wood (not railroad ties, but they would work), stacked on top of each other so that the garden is 6-8" deep. I filled the frame with purchased soil a couple of years ago. It is in the full sun. The herbs love their garden!
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Journaling....The kids and I started nature journaling this month. We walked a half mile up the road to the local farmer's cows, only to find the cows wanted to be far away from us (you can draw a distance cow, but who want to see a dot on a piece of paper), so we ended up coming home to draw in our own back yard. On our walk, Britty, our 8yo, took photos of nature with my digital camera. It was a nice walk, but drawing in our yard was the real treat. I had found 88cent drawing pads at Big Lots, so handed one to each of the three older kids, ages 10, 8, and 6. The 3yo got a cheap lined notebook. I had a real artist's sketchpad for myself, a handy little one about 4"x3". Using only pencils, we sketched anything in our yard. I sketched the neighbor's dog, Santana, who thinks she belong to us, and the last azalea blooms. 10yo Brenden sketched a black swallowtail butterfly and the vegetation surrounding it. 6yo Stone sketched a leaf and a twig after telling me "I can't draw anything," and tossing aside his pencil and paper. I encouraged him to draw what he sees, not what he thinks it should look like. And I told him that nobody has to see his drawing if he doesn't want to show it to us. 8yo Britty drew the rooster in his pen. ----------- It was important for all of us, myself included, to not say, "I can't draw." I'll have to blog on this subject soon; nature journaling has been a wonderful "discovery" for our family.
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Welcoming.....Tim (dh) home after a week of business in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I'm more of the outdoor, nature lover in our family, but even Tim said, "Wow, it is really green here!" when he came back home from up North. I missed that man even more than I thought I did. It's nice to have his strength back again, in every way that he gives it to us.
by Lori Seaborg 2006
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