Monday, May 22, 2023

Lovely Spring Day

Stacia and I ended the day at the T-ball field. We dropped by to watch Benny plan and to visit with Arielle. This time we came armed with hand warmers, hats, and 20 oz of HOT DRINKS...EACH. We even brought a drink for Arielle. 


We had planned for Mike, Dad, Stacia and I to meet the family at the ballpark. Dad didn't want to go. It WAS windy tonight, so Michael said he'd stay home with GG so we could keep to the plan. 


These kids are so cute to watch! Benny's a joy to observe. He's got a good swing and throw...and I don't think he stops talking the whole time he's out there. LOL  He seems much less nervous this week...

The day was full. I began by upsetting a broody hen. She was not going to give me her eggs - but I prevailed. We have 12 new chicks in our brooder. When it warms up a bit, we'll probably hatch some of our green and olive eggs...but we want to time it better so they can make it to joining the others before it snows...and to give them enough time for the current chicks to move out the brooder.


I got Grandpa up and his morning routine completed. The girls agreed to stay present so I could run out and meet with a friend.  I've wanted to check in with her as she's had lots of changes in the recent past and upcoming future. Church just isn't enough time to REALLY catch up. LOL 

When I got home, I found Allie catching some sun - while avoiding the chilly wind. Allie isn't taking summer courses, but she's doubled her local workload. She's enjoying more time to read FUN things - rather than textbooks. 

Stacia finished her high school work in January and jumped right into college classes. We've advised her to finish her current class and then take a break until the fall semester. She enjoyed studying outside today and has decided to finish this class and break until August. 

This time of year, it's hard to know which chores take priority. Michael decided to try out the new rear-tine rototiller. We have decided NOT to plant all the in-ground garden space this year. We'll try to get the beds planted. We don't plant outside until June, so we are on schedule.  We just don't have the hours to maintain all of the garden spaces this year. We are hoping this will allow us to make progress on things like, unloading a trailer, setting up a guest room and the study, staining the house, replacing a retaining wall...

The chickens are living their best lives. They are classified as free-range but they do not have free range of our property. Why? Because they make a giant mess I don't want to deal with, we have predators, and we have grands who are nervous around them. We've created a generous chicken yard for them to run around in. We hope to reseed this year so they have fresh grass to destroy.  They crowd this gate looking for food every time someone walks past. 

Not only do they get to be OUT for hours and hours this time of year, but they also get to eat the freezer burned salmon. These eggs are rich. 

I spent a couple of hours uploading photos from my phone to google photos, then downloading to the laptop and deleting from my phone. My phone was squawking about no storage space...and not is is yelling that something is wrong with the SD card. I don't know....I just know I freed up over 1.5 gb of space and went from 98% full to 95% full. It was liberating to delete all the inspirational and sarcastic memes I'd saved as well as about 500 photos. 

I love the fact that winter is over. Arielle tried to convince me tonight, as we sat in the chilly wind, that this is still "winter with green." I refuse to accept her assessment. LOL 

Krista called from Guam where they are hunkering down for a typhoon. I am thankful to be in Alaska - the sunlight is glorious and the sun was OUT today - the wind is just a bit chilly...but our winds are far below typhoon speed winds.