Rainy Sunday

Yesterday I said that Alex was an excellent artist. She loves to draw and paint. Over the years I have asked for different paintings. This was a Christmas gift from a couple of years back. I think pigs are the cutest. They are smart and remind me of dogs at times. Anytime pigs stink it is because their humans keep them in a small area and they cant get out of mud and muck. These pigs remind me of T and I. The frame is made of weathered barn wood.

This is a painting of the tug boats in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. I have always thought they were personable. Like they have their own attitude. We lived in Portsmouth when we first moved up north. These tugs are on the Pisquatiqua River (I know I spelled that wrong). Alex painted this about 4 years ago. I draw stick people. No joke. If it is a girl there is a triangle for a dress, a boy with boxy pants. I have no talent. It's easy when I have a best friend who paints scenery and a boy friend who sketches portraits. Remember, I draw a great stick person. Wanna see a cat?

This is our neighbor Kevin. He came over to dig a big hole for us. Our barn does not have water. We run a hose out of the basement window to water the chickens. Winter is fast approaching and we have to have a water source. News flash. This is new to me. Water freezing in winter? Amazing, it just didn't do that in Florida when I was growing up. Now we have to have this thing called a hydrant with drainage so the water can flow back out of the faucet and into a rock bed after using. That way the pipe doesn't freeze. I keep learning so much.

This is a backhoe at it's best. Go Kevin Go. I'm in the cheering section.

This is what we got after about an hour. A big honkin hole. See the water? It rained today, all day. Now Chris will have to come out and install our new shiny water hydrant. Woohoo!

This is the expression on the faces of the girls when I told them that they couldn't go out today. They were not impressed. They like to stay in the barn on rainy days and poop everywhere. Just take a sec and imagine how much poop 45 hens and 2 Roos make. No, on second thought stop. It's not a pretty sight.

They weren't too mad at us. They gave us this beautiful bounty from their, ah.... hearts. Have a safe and happy evening. We have plans to paint and trim the mud room tomorrow. I will post pictures for anyone who is into self torture. Thanks to Peggy from Hidden Haven I can now post and move pictures around. Thank you Peggy. You are an inspiration. Night all.

Spiders have a life on the farm. They are in the barn, in the window sills, in the corner, in the chicken coop, you name it and they have staked their claims. I love spiders. They help keep down the fly population in summer. Anything that keeps flys down is good in my book. This one was in the bathroom window. The key thing to keep in mind is that she was on the outside. That's a good thing too. The weather is getting cooler and the leaves have already lost their color and fell to the ground. Fall is here and on its way out. Winter is reminding us that it's not far away. The folks in "The County" (an area north of us near the Canadian border) have already had 6 inches of snow last week. In Maine you are either born here or are "from away". When you don't understand something and ask a Mainer about it, they get a twinkle in their eye and a slight mile on their face and say "Oh, that's ok, you don't know, you're from away". I'm from away. I love Maine and Mainers too. I was sitting here looking at pictures from this summer and thought I would try and post them on Blogspot. It taint easy folks. I have to put the pictures on first in reverse order then type. Isn't there an easier way? Anyhow, here are some highlights of our summer. I hope you enjoy.

My daughter, Sue, and I went to Frelsi Farm to put a deposit on the sheep that we will be getting next year. They were so sweet. This ram was bottle fed and very loving. We spent the day traveling back roads and enjoying each others company. We stopped for lunch at "The Yankee Smoakhouse" barbecue. It was so yummy.

Alex, T and I went strawberry picking. Greed is a bad thing. We picked 19 quarts and they were divided between preserves and berries in the freezer for later this winter. We did give 2 quarts to the neighbors.

Maine has a wild life. No, not the one of clubs, bright lights and dancing. This beautiful girl came up one afternoon while we were working on the back of the house. She was curious about what we were up to. She kept easing closer and closer. By late afternoon she was laying in the grass about 200 ft away. People were stopping and taking pictures. A real traffic jam. In Maine two cars are a traffic jam. Anyhow, we went to work that evening and the next morning when we got home we had moose tracks by the back door. She had came all the way up to the house. I bet the cats had a spazz.

This summer we decided to let the chickens out of the coop. So far so good. Samson our main Roo looks out for our hens. He is such a handsome devil. Makes the hens swoon.

Most places have guard dogs, we have a guard cats. This is Oreo watching this hen very closely. He never bothers her. The cats think that the chickens are more powerful than they let on.

The girls are now free range during the day. We have 45 Barred Rock Hens. We are getting about 32-36 eggs a day. You may ask what we do with all those eggs. Well, we try to sell what we can at work. We give neighbors and family eggs. Actually we push eggs on everyone in shouting distance. They are all locking their doors when we stop by. Hmm. We have all the makings to build and paint a sign, EGGS FOR SALE, and Alex is a wonderful artist too. However, time is not on our side. When the masterpiece gets done I will take a picture of it and post. We take the left over eggs to the homeless shelter in Bangor. These wonderful people provide 3 meals a day and have no food budget. Everything is donated. The white roo in this pic is named "The Captain". He is for entertainment only. He doesn't lay any eggs, picks on all humans except T. He decided to make friends with T and then T wouldn't let us send him to the butcher with the rest of his brethren. He is the size of a turkey now and pushy as all get out. I keep threatening him with the roasting pot but I think he knows better.

At night the girls and Samson (the mostest handsome roo) go back in the coop for safety and warmth. It is getting chilly in Maine now. I hope you have enjoyed this update. We have been working a lot at the hospital and hence work on the house has slowed a bit. We will try to post more often. I will definitely work on posting pictures. I feel there has to be an easier way. Take care and everyone have a peaceful night and remember to Vote. We need everyone to be there.

Kelly