Category: best friends

Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award

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Well, much to my surprise, I have just today been nominated for the Sisterhood of the World Bloggers Award.  The lovely award was sent by a new blogging friend Terry1954 who can be found here:  http://terry1954.wordpress.com/

Thank you Terry!

As with all awards they come with rules of course…

and the rules are,

  • Give credit to the one who nominated you
  • Tell seven secrets about yourself
  • Nominate seven others

Seven secrets?  Hm, I don’t think I have any more since I started blogging here on WordPress! 😉  But, here goes…

  1. If I could, I would live on five acres and get a pair of Alpacas because I love their little humming noises
  2. I am allergic to carrots and I love them, but not the stomach ache I get when I eat them.
  3. My eyes are Hazel Green. <— (click here to guess the secret.) 😉
  4. I am a perfectionist and have to do it perfect or I can’t  won’t do it at all.
  5. I am going to be completely tearing out my vegetable garden and revamping it between now and next spring… it is going to be redone in raised beds with a goose proof fence all around.
  6. If I had enough money and time I have several friends around the world that I would love to travel and visit with!
  7. I am hopelessly old-fashioned in my ways.

My Nominees, should they choose to accept, are:

  1. Lori at Day by Day the Farmgirl Way  because we have so much in common.
  2. Julie at Wings and Things because we both love geese, and because I know she won’t accept this award (and I secretly covet one of her “Hot Potato” awards that she hands out to people who give her awards.  😉  )
  3. Linda at The Task at Hand  because she is a masterful writer and always surprises me with her stories she weaves.
  4. Jayme at Tales From the Coop Keeper who I know won’t accept it, but I’m sending it anyway.  A funny chicken keeper and gardener who recently lost 100 pounds!  Yup, she get’s it.
  5. C  The Kitchen Gardener over on the Farmy who has more energy and verve for life than anyone else I know.  She accomplishes so many things in her day.
  6. Cindy of On and Over the Hills who is a school librarian five days a week, and finds the time to capture captivating photographs and writes so beautifully about her subjects.
  7. And finally, April at Gluten Free Zen because she makes Gluten Free easy and delicious!  Those who can do what she does are few and far between!

That was harder than it looked, because it was so hard to choose!  I hope you will go and have a visit with each of the nominees.  They are only a few among the many unique, talented, and lovely women I know.

Again, thank you Terry!

Photo Friday: the world according to my little dog

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Here on the Farmlet there are a few words and phrases that are never said out loud unless we really mean it.

In order of importance to the Little Dog they are:

  1. “Ball”  (ALWAYS spelled when we are talking to each other.)
  2. “Kong” (Same as above)
  3. “Who want’s breakfast/dinner?”  (abbreviated, when we are wondering if the other has already fed them their “B” or “D”)
  4. “Is daddy home yet?”
  5. “Clean-up on isle nine!”  (This one is handy whenever you have spilled something on the kitchen floor, or when it is time to go to bed and they are frolicking and barking with total abandon in the dark …  and yes, we do reward for an appropriate response at bedtime!)

This morning However . . .

Not even the number one word could get a rise out of the Little Dog!

 

 

When the north wind blows,

and a chill is in the air,

sometimes all that is needed

is a soft bed…

and a warm nose.

~*~

Stay warm, and enjoy your weekend my friends!

~*~

Once Upon a Time in the West: the power of a flower

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Please click the photo to go to “Caesara Botanical Consulting” the source for this lovely photograph of Cleveland Sage.

Once in my classroom in California I was given a special needs student for mainstreaming.  He was brilliant in math, and very quiet.  He used to follow me around when all the rest of the kids were on the playground and would be waiting for me each morning when I arrived.  Conversation was not his way, but he sure was an observer!

One day, towards the end of a particularly stressful week,  I brought in a long sprig of Cleveland Sage.  I thought it might help me by lifting my spirits if I kept it near to inhale its heady aroma.  Placing it onto my desk my little friend spoke… “Teacher, what’s that?”

I told him it was Cleveland Sage from my garden at home and that I loved to smell its fragrance because it made me smile.  I demonstrated the action and its effect for him.

“Can I smell it?”  he asked.

“Sure!”  I said, and handed it over to him.

He told me he liked it and I asked him if he would like to keep it in his pocket so he could enjoy it for the rest of the day.  He nodded his head and stuck it in his pocket.  Many times during the day I observed him take it out to give it a sniff.  Each time it produced a smile for him just as it had for me.

It was a beginning.  A way for me to see into the depths he kept locked into that quiet little face.

For the rest of that year I would bring in special things from my gardens and we would communicate through the scent of herbs and flowers.  If he liked it, it went into his pocket, and if he didn’t he would wrinkle his nose and hand it back.
By the end of the year we were having verbal conversations.  They were short ones, but those few words between us are a treasure I hold dear to my heart.

I often think of him and wonder if he remembers our herbal communications.  Did I plant a seed?  Does he still enjoy the scents of herbs and flowers even today?  By now I feel he is old enough to plant a garden of his own, and I like to think that if he does have a garden, that there is Cleveland sage growing somewhere in the midst of it.

You may call me a dreamer, but that was a special year, and I hope the seeds we planted were special ones… and that they bore fruit.

~*~

A special thank you to Lynda Phillips Kachurek, at Second Memory, for her post on Aromatherapy which inspired me today. 

It’s what I do

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A coworker once asked me about my weekend, which launched me into a conversation monologue about my chickens.   I told her my husband and I had built some security into their run because of hawk problems, and that I had mucked out the chicken palace.  At that last comment she snorted incredulously,

“You enjoy doing that?“

to which I replied,

“Well, yes I do.”

My chickens and geese depend on me.  I get up, don my “Fashionable attire for feeding chickens and geese on COLD mornings,”  brace myself, walk out the door, and set to work.

The routine is the same, it never varies by much except for how cold it gets.  Today the ice on the chicken’s water is only the thickness of cardboard.  Once last year it was over an inch thick and I had to go out and crack it again midday!  This morning I easily break it with my wellies, and then reaching in with my ungloved hand, I lift out the shards.  My fingers burn from the icy chill.  Quickly I dry them on my wooly robe, and just as quickly reglove them.

Next, I let out Quasimodo and Miss Dixie, check for an egg, and grab their food dispenser to take with me to the barn for refilling.

Quasi is my special needs silky rooster.   He has curled toes, that make him hobble and lurch, and he’s blind in one eye from an infection he picked up as a baby chick.  Miss Dixie is a mixed breed, little white splash hen (Blue Andalusian and Buff Polish) who thinks that Quasimodo is the perfect mate… she can say,

“No, thank you dear.”

and there is nothing he can do about it.

Now, the fun begins!  It’s off to the barn to let out the geese.  As I near the roll up door I hear them becoming animated.   I try to sneak up on them every morning, but their little grunting noises tell me that they’ve once again heard the gate latch.  I approach the door and call out,

“Good morning duck-butts, good morning!”

Which gets them knocking on the metal door with their beaks in response.  Huey stretches his long neck under the door and rushes out, next comes Polly who strolls out, stops, and taking a moment, looks up at me as if to say,

“Good morning to you Missus!”  and  “What took you so long?”

Last is Little Dorrit, who once everyone else is out of the way, begins flapping her wings and honking as she becomes airborne!  This little morning flight gets her four feet up out of the straw and six feet out of the door.  When she lands she takes off running and honking to catch up.  I listen as her little flappy feet slap the frozen mud and I realize I’m smiling.

Last stop, the chicken palace.   I open the gate to the run and hear them all cooing inside.  Someone has gotten into someone else’ space in the door lineup inside the coop.  Squawking and rustling ensues.  I call out…

“Good morning stinkies, com’on out!”

I open the coop doors and they rush, tumbling beak-over-butt-feathers to get out and find breakfast.  Some days, I let them out first and when they realize the food isn’t there yet, they race back to me, and stopping they look up as if to say,

“What’s this trick?  Where’s breakfast?”

I refill their food dispenser, put food into the other chicken’s feeder, check their water and then go in to check for eggs.  This morning I find that there is one, freshly laid, blue-green jewel in the back nest.  Reaching in I pick it up and discover that it is still warm.  Removing my glove from the still frozen hand I take the egg and cradle it there.  It’s heat begins thawing my fingers as I place it into my pocket.  Unwilling to let go, I leave my hand there with the egg until it becomes too cool to work its magic.

Almost done!  Now, returning to the little coop, I hang the newly filled feeder for them, then looking back, I check quickly to be sure I haven’t left any gates open.

Pausing before I go in, I reach back into my pocket and pull out the little egg.   Looking at it I think,

“This is why I do it.”

~*~

My little reward from my girls for the time I take to keep them happy.

~*~

Ahem, if you haven’t clicked on the link to “Fashionable attire for feeding chickens and geese on COLD mornings”  then you’re missing out on a rare and candid view…  😉

~*~