summer math.

5 kids + 2 trucks + 2 air matresses + 4 tired parents + 100 laughs = 1 cool summer night at the drive-ins!

Henrietta goes broody.

Yesterday the kids noticed that Henrietta spent the day in the nesting box - very unusual for Henrietta. Henrietta is usually right in the middle of everyone's business. She is one of, if not "the" alpha hen. She and April, her wingman, were hatched in my classroom two years ago. So, they do believe that rule the farm and the roost...

So, for Henrietta to by camping out in a nesting box could only mean one thing... she is broody. Being broody means "in the mood" to sit on eggs. This has only happened one other time on our farm. Bessie went broody.

What usually happens is the hen lays an egg then gets settled on it and that's the end of it. They get extremely protective and puff up and peck you or other hens that come near. RT and Bee begged us to let her sit on eggs, so once we consented off they went to talk to our neighbor Chicken Jorge, the man with roosters...

After about ten minutes, back they came with eight hopefully fertilized eggs. I risked my arm to put them under Henrietta. She only pecked me a few times then she seemed good with it. Chickens don't care if they aren't their eggs. They're cool with whatever.

So, if all goes well with Henrietta, she will sit on the eggs for 21 days, only getting off of them every few days to eat, drink, go to the bathroom, and stretch her legs. But, you never know with chickens, she could up and change her mind, come to her senses about motherhood and run for the hills - later, eggs!

Our take is that nature will take it's course, and you don't mess with nature. We are just lucky enough to get a front row seat to a little hen house miracle or eight miracles, if we're lucky!

kids are funny!

It is not uncommon in our house to be greeted in the morning by a child with a rat stuffed into her sweatshirt pocket. Wrong, yes. Uncommon, no. It's also quite normal to find a child in our house watching T.V. while holding a chicken on their lap.

Country kids are funny that way. They just don't seem to see the same boundaries that other kids do. Why not carry a rat in your hood. Why not try to lead the goats into the kitchen. After all, "I was just coming in to get a drink of water and I didn't want to put the goats back yet..."

No goats in the house... I do draw that line...

It can also be very interesting living with country kids. They have no problem doing any outside chore in their pajamas. They are thrilled to trap and catch any bugs, frogs, or lizards. They know to never walk through a gate without closing it behind them - farm animals on the loose! Nothing can entertain them longer than a freshly tilled dirt patch.

Country kids awake to animals waiting to be fed and the sun waiting to shine. And they are soothed by the sound of crickets at bedtime, and pestered by the sounds of coyotes in the night.

Country kids know to empty the cuffs of their pants to get the shavings out before they come in the house. They know to drink all of their milk because a dairyman carefully cared for the cows that gave us that milk. They know that they are lucky to be living the dream of many, many children. And, certain country kids insist on leaving the corner cobwebs up in the barn doorway, even when it's cleaning day...because they are again reading Charlotte's Web.

Some Pig!

Some kids!

give thanks and praise

One of my most favorite things to do on Sunday afternoons is cook. There is something theraputic, cleansing, even spiritual about it. It's the one time in our otherwise busy week that I can think about what's in season, read new recipes, or just relish is making our favorite old ones. It's even more amazing when some of the ingredients come from your own little farm.

This afternoon was one such Sunday afternoon. For the first time (I'm embarrassed to say) I made my own pie crust and used our peaches to make tiny lattice peach pies. RT and I had picked up a lattice pie mold at William-Sonoma quite awhile back and I had yet to use it. Today seemed like the perfect day.

A delicious gift in the form of a tiny pie holding fresh peaches from our own trees, glazed with eggs from our own hens, and accompanied by vanilla ice cream made in our beautiful kitchen.

Now that's a Sunday blessing!

in the bag!

So, I may have stumbled onto the most delicious little hobby for myself. Way back in may at the county fair I spotted a gal carrying a tote bag made out of a feed sack. How clever is that, I think to myself. And the longer we stayed at the fair the more of these crazy bags I saw. So... I got to thinking... what if I try to make one, but what would I do with it? I have plenty of reusable grocery bags, Trader Joe's bags, even a Costco reusable bag. Don't need anymore grocery bags. So, I think to myself again, what if I doll them up a little and use them as a tote or even a purse... yeah, that's it! So, the fun begins...

What I mean by fun is not the process of sewing these crinkly, wrinkly bags - quite a feat. But the fun of the hunt... the hunt for the bags themselves. Virtually immediately I sunk to low depths as I started rummaging through trash cans at the fair to get these old feed bags. I put the word out with friends, I even went through the feed store's garbage... I know, I know... but I got two bags!

And to take things further, I started the super fun hunt for tiny vintage treats that I could incorporate into each bag to make each one truly unique: Antique street fair and antique shops here I come. And oh what fun: vintage buttons, embroidered dish towels designs, hankies, even 4 vintage sheriff badges imported from Germany. Who knew!

It's like the perfect little project: agriculture, vintage goodies, beautiful fabrics and funky design!

So, a big thank you to the blond lady in the poultry barn at the county fair carrying the cutesy feed bag tote! You've given me a purpose! Or at least a project!

is it summer yet?

Other than the fact than we've been out of school for a month and a half and we have had one week of hot weather, you would never know it's summer on California. We have tomato plants with no tomatoes. We have sunflower plants with no flowers. We have wild blackberry bushes on the lane with sour berries. We have rain, wind, and clouds...

You would never know it was summer... until this week. We have peaches!

Juicy,ripe, beautifully orangey yellowy, fuzzy peaches! And like any other summer they all come ripe within about 72 hours of each other. So, it never fails that we end up with about 300 ripe peaches.

Let the crumbles begin!! Peach crumble, sliced peaches on cereal, peaches for lunch, and homemade peach ice cream. Tomorrow Bee and I will try a new mini lattice mold peach pie recipe. Yum! All peaches, all the time. At least until I can peel, slice and freeze them all for the winter. Leaving out few to make more delicious treats: peach galette, peach popsicles, peach smoothies...

the fourth on the farm

It never fails that the fourth of July in California is a streaming hot holiday. 102 is predicted today, and if it's like the past few days it will indeed be stinking hot! So here's how we'll spend our fourth on the farm...

Pre-burning hot hours of the morning are spent: mowing the lawns, cleaning stalls and pastures, hosing down the barn, trimming dog toenails, washing manure stains off Tessy pony, making first batch of homemade peach ice cream (fruit from our trees), hosing down chairs around the campfire.

Full-blown sizzling afternoon hours will be spent: making second batch of ice cream (blackberries this time from the lane), trimming corn off the cob for roasted corn salad, watching recorded cooking competition shows ( the kids not me), running to get fireworks, turning the misters on for the animals.

Thankfully the tiny bit cooler evening hours will be spent: visiting with family and friends, BBQing, swimming, watching fireworks, sitting around the campfire, laughing, talking, playing, being generally happy to be an American!