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State of the pantry:

• 9 pints sweet and sour pickles
• 4 quarts hot dill pickles
• 20 quarts tomato sauce
• 3 quarts + 15 pints corn and tomato soup
• 16 half-pints+ 1 pint salsa
• 2 4-oz of hot peppers (mostly jalapenos, some hot cherry, some habanero)
• 2 pints + 2 quarts tomato vegetable soup
• 12 half-pints + 3 cups cinnamon/nutmeg applesauce
• 10 quarts grape juice (refrigerated but not canned–we’ll drink it all pretty quickly :)

This represents about half the total food we canned–my mom took about the same amounts of the tomato sauce, soups, salsa, peppers, and applesauce as are listed above. We also gave a few cans away. We would have had more pickles, but the crock pickles went bad–probably too many cukes for too little brine.

Now I just have to figure out where to store it (small house, no basement, everywhere else freezes in winter). :) Yay, maybe I can get more computer stuff done; we’ve been canning almost every weekend from the beginning of August until now.

We’ve been working our way through the archives of the Austin, TX cable access show The Atheist Experience lately. Great stuff and often hilarious. It must be maddening to hear the same questions every week for years: 1) do you believe in any higher power (god/ghosts/angels/jesus), 2) what do you think happens to you after you die, 3) where did we come from, if we weren’t created, 4) how can you be moral without god telling you how to act, 5) do you believe in evolution. My favorite so far was the lady whose belief in god was triggered when her alarm clock beeped differently one day (it never did that before!).

It falls quickly for guinea keets. (meanwhile Blanco/a gets cuter).

The incredible bearded women:

Guess what?

Another canning weekend. My mom and I did 14 quarts of spaghetti sauce. With any luck we’ll get that much more from her garden, then maybe we’ll buy tomatoes locally to do salsa.

The little birds made it into the new coop first. See that triangle at the top? They managed to fly up there and escape to the main coop two nights in a row (8 feet up). Today I put some mesh up there, for their own protection.

We had to transfer them one at a time from the old coop to the new one. We’re keeping them in for a few days, until hopefully they won’t go to the empty coop anymore.

Or not so empty, because later this week we’ll be picking up another rooster (and possibly a couple of hens) from jkk. Which will bring the total to 26-28 birds (depending on hens).

NASA wants your pee. Seriously? Urine, for Orion? And it’s part of the constellation program? (This works on a number of levels…the old NASA pee joke as heard in ‘Apollo 13′, and the fact that ‘Orion’ comes from the greek word for ‘urine’).

This little dudette didn’t make it. She never really ate properly and petered out on Friday night.

One of the keets isn’t looking so good, either; is eating ok but having a great deal of trouble at the other end. It spends a lot of time under the heat lamp. The other chicks and keets are quickly outgrowing it. Poor thing is all dirty; we keep cleaning it, it keeps pooping itself. It does seem to like blow driers; after one cleanup effort it stood on the palm of my hand while I dried it, and it didn’t even try to run away. Hopefully it will either correct itself or expire on its own; the alternative is no fun.

I say ‘it’ because keets are not vent sexable and thus ‘it’ to us until they start making ‘buck-wheat!’ noises (or not) in about 7 weeks.

The remaining 5 chicks are 90% certain to be pullets (hens), although I’m having my doubts about the little yellow one.

Invisubul corn plant? Or, chick high by the fourth of July.

all arrived OK, although we think one of the Ameraucanas might not make it (she is not digesting food well). Also, it’s really weird going to the post office and picking up live animals. That image link goes to the gallery where there are like a hojilion new pictures, some of which are video.

It’s not enough that the Japanese make great tractors, they have to make them look Japanese, too. :)

The Pixar folks got Frank the Combine SO right.

• co-ed naked monopolacrosse
• closet lambada
• shik shik
• mcfreshman
• hungry hungry hippoes in the government
• frosted cross puffs
• gwar (whatever happened to eddie munster? I’m lookin’ at him!)
• hairball’s unsuaveness
• nid, the mailbox chinchilla
• is this in color or black and white? (duck for the ‘3d effect’)
• whooooosh

Finished painting. Now if only we could find someone who does blown-in foam insulation and who would actually call back. None of the interior work can start til we get that done.

Unfortunately, we lost Squeak last Friday to unknown causes. She had been under the weather for a few weeks; tried mite dusting, yogurt, and keeping her in a quite spot, but to no avail. I had been just about to start getting her broody to raise the chicks we have coming in 2 weeks. I’m hoping we can get the silkies to do it instead; otherwise it will be heat lamps and the kiddie pool again.

We ordered a new tractor today, a Kubota L5740, a mid-size one. No cab, because we will be attaching a backhoe. Also ordered a front bucket and a 6′ bush hog (larger won’t fit through the woods). 0% financing, although it’s a bit disconcerting taking on debt again, especially as it cost way more than our car. Rather than paying it off fast, we’ll probably make payments and put extra in a high interest savings account every month.

Yet another sign we are hicks. Rusty pickup truck, riding mower, commercial mower, tractor, chickens, guns, and having gone to the emergency room with a chicken-related injury. And we once used an old toilet as a planter in the yard. Window air conditioners (not our fault–no basement, no duct work). OK, not the Subaru. And the fact that our new chicken coop is nicer than most third-world human housing. Not the servers and vanity domains, or the complicated a/v setup. Tacky lawn kitsch…could go either way. But here’s the thing. My boss has a barky dog and he got an anonymous letter from a neighbor in his mailbox about it. Here, nobody can either hear or see whatever annoying or eccentric thing we chose to do. I can no longer even fathom living somewhere where we’d be in a position to annoy neighbors, nor do I want to.

Dude, I can’t wait to drive that tractor around. Seriously.

Also, check out the Squidbillies art! Deerbait and Moon #1.

-epe

We went to see the new Indiana Jones movie last night. I think I would’ve been happier if they’d gone out with Last Crusade.

I should’ve known when I first listened to the soundtrack earlier in the day; lots of nostalgia there, but I didn’t feel as if there was much new or interesting. The best parts were recycled from Raiders.

The worst part was the relentless action. It was as if they were afraid if any of the characters slowed down for a second they’d realize their only plot function was to get the skull to the lost city, where everything was wrapped up in the most predictable and hackneyed way possible (and the heroes ceased to be useful well before the conclusion). Believe me, you’ll see it coming, and probably be wondering, like I was, how many more Rube Goldberg-machine-like action setpieces it would take before the evil communist villianess’s face was going to melt off (not literally; I mean it felt that much like a rehash of Raiders).

While I’m willing to suspend some disbelief about these characters being able to make it out of any scrape (think the inflatable raft-jump in Temple of Doom), it was unbelievably cartoonish here. You just wanted to laugh because it was so incredibly stupid–from Indy’s nuclear test site escape to the triple waterfall scene.

And aliens? C’mon. My least favorite theory about various ancient civilizations–that the only way they could’ve done it was by copying the answers off someone else’s test paper. I know this is an Indy movie and the supernatural is expected, but jeez. (Incidentally, there’s an article in Archaeology this month about the crystal skulls. Guess what, not elongated, and they’re also fakes. :)

A few of the jokes and reveals worked (Indy’s age, and who didn’t like seeing that little corner of the Ark during the Area 51 scene? And the Marcus Brody references were a nice touch.) but it was mostly just hokey. The Marion character ceased to be interesting just about instantaneously, when the ‘big secret’ (like nobody saw that coming) was revealed and during the subsequent love-fest (conducted on the run, of course, because they couldn’t possibly give up ONE action scene apparently). I felt like the best scenes (like the one where Indy’s packing to leave and discussing the current political environment with the dean of the college) were just rewrites of scenes from Raiders or Last Crusade (with Marcus). The backstabbing colleague seemed a bit too much like Benny from ‘The Mummy’–especially in the treasure scene. Between him and the giant ants (read ‘carnivorous scarab beetles’) you realize that this was Indy ripping off every movie that came after, and ripped off, the previous Indy films. The Mummy was better at it, unfortunately. Maybe the genre is just played out.

Silly, lacking in dramatic suspense, and a tacked-on ending that felt too little too late. Gee, when does it come to blu-ray?

The Spore folks reconsidered after a lot of bad press and complaints. So, our pre-orders are back on!

The new John Williams score for Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is out. How can an 80’s kid possibly resist?

Not to mention a Richard Cheese-ified version of the Indiana Jones theme on Itunes (Plus, so no DRM, if I read the fine print properly).

Baby chicks–Ameraucanas– (and keets–pied) should be here by June 27th or 28th. With any luck the coop will be mostly done, if we can find someone who can blow in insulation before then. If we’re super super lucky, we will get Squeak and the silkies to raise them.

Icky’s on chemo. So far so good, but he can’t have any doggie visitors for awhile. We still aren’t exactly sure what’s wrong with Cupcake’s liver and lipomas, but she goes in for more work on Thursday.

-epe

Coop II work continues. I feel queasy thinking about all the inside work that has to be done before we can get chickens in (insulation, wallboard, plastic sheeting, nestboxes, chicken dooors…) We’re hoping for more Ameraucanas and some pied Guineas this year.

Icky starts chemotherapy this week. He’ll be on Chlorambucil and Prednisone.

Paul found Leo dead in the silkie pen this morning. Oddly enough, he had seemed fine. Hopefully whatever it was isn’t contagious.

Leo was named after ‘Big Leo’, the character from The Freshman. Leo. Big Leo. They’re synonymous (”That’s right!”). Love that movie.

Please don’t feel sorry for us. If he attacked my legs one more time this summer Paul might’ve decided to help him on his way to the big chicken coop in the sky anyway. so in a way, this was easier on everyone. Sumo, our remaining silkie rooster, seems ecstatic…he’s left with 3 hens all to himself, including Squeak. When Paul went into the barn, the three silkies were STANDING on the corpse but Squeak was nowhere to be seen (top was purposely left off last night, so Squeak could roam the barn)…she didn’t return until we removed him.

Look who’s here! It’s a Flying Devil! Go order your own from Bags that Bite (or their Etsy shop).

We used to worry that we didn’t have enough space in the chicken coop for 18 chickens. Apparently there isn’t (64 sq feet), and the way they’ve chosen to remedy the situation is by having chicken cage match fights every night.

First one Rhode Island Red turned up with a bare, bleeding rear. We put her in a cage in the barn. Next day we noticed another one, so we set up a little pen in a kiddie pool in the barn. Not a big deal; last year every one of our hens and the rooster ended up with bare spots. At least there are two so they can snuggle together when it’s cold.

Next one of the silkie hens turned up with bloody peck marks and tears all over her back. She was starting to moult anyway, so we moved her into a large guinea pig cage in the house. She is VERY quiet for a chicken and managed not to stink up the house like Squeak’s been known to. We were ready to let her stick it out another month until her feathers came in.

But then, yesterday, Squeak was making weird neck motions as if she’d been injured. We figured the silkie hen was healed at least, so we swapped them.

This afternoon we went out to check and as we opened the coop door, only 4 silkies hopped out. The moulting hen was nowhere to be found. We feared that the others had killed her and covered her with litter (not intentionally; they do a lot of digging and scratching during the day). Then we heard some plaintive ‘buck, buck buck’ing coming from somewhere inside the coop. We have the waterer on 4 hollow cinder blocks set tall-wise…this little chicken had managed to wedge her way INTO one. When we extracted her from the block, we saw why, or perhaps saw a result of her wedging in head-first…her entire tail and back end feathers were picked almost completely off and most of her back end was torn skin! Paul had to make a quick run to Country Max to buy another cage…we now have a chicken duplex in the kitchen. Now get this. While I’m home waiting for the cage, I put the silkie in with Squeak. That ‘poor’ silkie pecked Squeak 2 or 3 times! There is no empathy in avian society.

At this rate we’re going to blow our coop budget on 18 individual cages or pens. WTF?

The cookies keep on coming. My mom made gingerbread men (don’t have the recipe for that, maybe eventually I’ll add it) and I made a bunch of Bonbon Cookies. Mom had to make a bunch more of the Chocolate Marzipan Pinwheels and chocolate-dipped stars (Again, linked recipe is not the actual cookies made, which were from a Mrs. Fields book; but it’s similar. I’ll get around to adding the Mrs. Fields one, I hope).

Yesterday I also prepped Good Eats Beef Stew for today when Scott and Jenna and EJ visit; also am working on a pot of soup in case they wanted lunch (probably not, but it will certainly work for my lunch :).

I love having time off; finally time to cook and bake.

I had to wash poop off a rooster’s butt today (along with a lot of quill-trimming). I can’t say he was much happier about it than I was. Now I have to disinfect the shower. I’m just glad he took it so well (it’s Leo, the silkie that loves to attack my feet). He looked more confused than anything, then crowed up a storm in a guinea pig cage while he dried.

Got halfway through a project mounting a flat-panel heater (Shop the Coop) and a timed light in the coop and realized the 100 foot extension cord we bought was about 10 feet short. Had to go to Lowes in Macedon to buy a 25′ extension and parts to put the joined section in a weatherproof box. Maybe when the insulating/waterproofing foam dries I can plug the whole mess in and see if it works without setting things on fire (heater’s fused; using a thermal detection outlet to turn the heater on/off automatically; got a timer on the light, and a GFI power splitter, and lots of super heavy duty extension cord which is more than adequately rated for heater + light).

Waiting for the Pastitsio to be done now. Been meaning to make this for awhile and this is the perfect time, with an open bottle of red wine left over in the fridge. Don’t knock wine-and-cinnamon flavored beef until you try it.

Today:

Walked 1 hour.

Mom started ahead of time with Chocolate Dipped Stars. (Come to think of it, I don’t think she used that recipe, I think she used the Mrs. Fields recipe but I don’t have it in front of me right now).

Then we did the dough for:

• Ribbon Cookies
• Chocolate Marzipan Pinwheels
• Nutmeg Logs

Went home. Fed and walked dogs. Fed chickens. Cooked nutmeg logs and just barely finished in time to take Grep to the vet. While mom stayed at our house and cookied the pinwheels, Paul and I bought chicken feed, a small waterer and feeder for Squeak, peanut hearts for chickens, and rawhide for the dogs, gassed up the truck, and picked up a box from the post office. Went home. Helped mom dip stars and a few pinwheels in chocolate at her house. Went home and baked Ribbon Cookies. Ate leftover lasagna standing up in kitchen. Typed cookie recipes into wiki. Did this blog entry.

Imminent collapse. Putting off the Christmas cards.

I love how one minute it’s fall and Thanksgiving, next it snows overnight and it’s the Christmas season. Doesn’t hurt to watch ‘A Christmas Story’ after demolishing Thanksgiving dinner, either.