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I'm kind of enjoying using the "Wordless Wednesday" picture idea.  Though, i'm not very good at letting a picture be its own thousand words. This is a picture of my mom and dad.  My scanner has gone to the land of no return, but i wanted to share this picture, so i had to take a picture of it. My mom gave this picture to me, i think near the time i got married - or when i moved back to Texas.  Either way, just before the turn of the century. I love this picture.  It's so natural and makes me happy because it feels like having my parents in the room with me. It's mangled and scratched, trimmed crookedly, and slightly bent.  But those are just terms for well-loved.

Can you see them?  Twenty-two chicks?  They're between the tree and the pallet teepee.  They're so tiny in that great big run! Yesterday, i thought (without aid of a weather forecast) that it would be a great day for my 2 week chicks to spend a day in the run and get some practice scratching around and being chickens. Silly me. Meanwhile, i had my poor dogs on their third day of a strenuous, paranoia-based game of musical dogs, and Punkin's patience was wearing thin. During the meanwhile, we got an invite to a family Labor Day gathering. At the current stage of musical dogs, Bingo was in the house with us, and Jelly and Punkin were tied up ( in the shade, with plenty of water), Jelly having been found guilty of trying to dig into the chicken run.  I'm already feeling a little stressed for unknown reasons, when Punkin, sitting under a tree, separated from her brother, begins to let out the most heart wrenching howl.  It's the saddest thing.  I sh...

Almost two years ago, when we bought this house, a very major selling point for me - was the wind. On a nice day, i can open up all the windows, and let the breeze flow through our tiny house, and it feels like i'm outside, even though i'm doing dishes or sitting on the couch.  I absolutely love that!  But because of our hot Texas summer, our windows haven't been opened for months .  Until today. Last night, we actually slept without air conditioning, and this morning, upon the news of a weather forecast predicting a low of 60 degrees for tonight, my loving husband agreed upon an "open window day." I stood in my kitchen and watched the chickens in the yard, and felt the breeze so strong on my face.  I nearly broke into tears.  I love the open windows part of the year more than many many things. It actually got a little warm today, 85 or higher.  But the breeze felt so nice that i didn't mention it, and neither did he.  We're both also kind of w...

I knew that things were going a little too smoothly around here.  Don't get me wrong.  I'm thankful.  But it appears the chaos must resume. See this little cutey? She kind of grew up. See this little cutey? He did too. Here's the chaotic part.  You know what girl dogs do when they grow up, right?  And you know how boy dogs respond, right?  Do you also know how horrified i would be if brother and sister responded together? Right. That's why we're playing musical dogs.  They can't be together, at all. I'm not willing to risk it.  And it takes a long time to get into our vet to make all that adulthood-ness not an issue.  So it's not like i can just throw them in the truck and take them to the vet and make it all go away. They're seven months old. Why do dogs grow up so fast?   Ahh, fun on the farm.

Ever since we have been raising chickens for meat, i have watched quite a few videos and tutorials about how to cut up a whole chicken.  In some cases, i don't really want to cut my chicken up the same way said tutorial wants me to.  In other cases, it turns out that my knife....doesn't do that.  I have made some attempts and not been successful - mostly at splitting the chicken down the middle to get to halves of the breast and what have you. Flashback: I remember when i was a girl, at some point, or sometimes, it was cheaper to buy a whole chicken and cut it up to do with as you please, rather than to buy say, a bag of leg quarters or whatever precut pieces you're looking for. Stick with me, here.  This is going somewhere non-bloody. Back to when i was a girl, one or more of those times that we bought whole chickens, my dad would cut them up for fried chicken or baked chicken or some such, and i would watch while he explained which piece to cut off when and...

Coolest.  Picture.  Ever. Well, at least this week.

Do you smell it? Can you close your eyes and foresee it? Can you feel it on your skin? I think. I hope. I'm ready just to whisper it. There might be an autumn at the end of this summer. It must be. It hasn't been 100 degrees outside for like a week. Is this the post-hundreds? I thought it might never come.