the first egg

Some very exciting news here at the homestead. Our first egg! Our girls are nearly their full size at four and a half months, and yesterday we were thrilled to find a tiny little gift in their house. By the color, I had thought it was surely from Caliope (our Rhode Island Red) but it turns out it could just as likely have been from Juniper (the Barred Plymouth Rock). Jak, the monster sized Light Brahma, will likely lay white eggs and we think they will be much larger. While the chickens have pretty much destroyed the flower gardens and are working to find a way into the caged herbs, they have left the fenced off veggies pretty much alone. The six raised beds are in full production mode with potatoes, tomatoes, lettuces, chard, onions, leeks, peas, broccoli, rhubarb, garlic, beets and spinach. The blueberries and strawberries will likely need another year to bear some tasty fruit but we are thoroughly enjoying the bounty of all we are getting now. It is an odd thrill to make dinner from our own back yard. (The slugs in our salad, though, I could do without.)

summer garden

For the photograph I took down the fence that keeps the chickens out of the garden. We're in full swing now...

here, wipe my butt...

Naiya uses the potty pretty much on her own now. The other day she went upstairs and a few minutes later called out to me. At the foot of the stairwell I looked up to see her standing at the top with her pants and panties around her ankles and a wipe in her hand. “Mommy,” she called down, “I went poop.... I brought you a wipe.”

the oregon garden

 

The Oregon Garden in Silverton welcomes visitors with more than 20 specialty gardens and features. There you'll discover waterfalls, quiet ponds, fountains, a unique display of conifers, the 400 year old signature Oak, a Northwest Garden, a pet garden, beautiful vistas and art. The Children's Garden is complete with an in-ground Hobbit house, a tree fort, furniture filled with colorful annuals, perennials and other kid-friendly plants.

spiders

I remember learning that crows gathered together are called a murder. A murder of crows. Like a colony of ants or a herd of elephants. It turns out that barracudas come in a battery while cheetahs come in coalitions. Cockroaches are an intrusion, an assembly of finches are a charm and a collection of kittens are a kindle. A group of spiders though, it turns out, is just a group of spiders.

no more friends

Naiya: "Mommy, some fish eat other fish?...Why?" "
Mommy: "Because they’re carnivores."
Naiya: "But then they don’t have friends anymore."

flowers in my hair

When I was a girl, my dad used to pick up feathers and flowers all the time and put them in my hair. There was something I found really...I don’t know...touching...in that simple act. I don’t know how to describe it. Perhaps it was because I was the girl and he never did it to my brother...it felt like this special thing we shared at random intervals.
I’ve never said anything about it to anyone. Actually I never really even thought about it, but the emotional memory is strong.
Now Ryan does this to Naiya. Maybe it’s just something loving dad’s are compelled to do with their little girls.
It touches me in the same way to watch him tuck those beautiful blossoms behind her ear.