Best Christmas EVER!!!!

There is a remarkable breakdown of taste and intelligence at Christmastime.  Mature, responsible grown men wear neckties made of holly leaves and drink alcoholic beverages with raw egg yolks and cottage cheese in them.    P.J. O'Rourke 


Yeah, it was kinda like that.


Between my trip to the winery and the kids' trip to the winery, we had 8 cases of wine.


We had our second annual Christmas Eve dinner for the extended family.  Around 25 of us.


The wine flowed.  Food was consumed.  The wine flowed.  The chatter was deafening.  The wine flowed.  We were smiling.  And a few outcasts drank beer.

Blah blah blah

The Food

More food

Someone always has to wear a silly hat.

Then came Christmas day.  We started out very well.  We opened presents.

Ninja chicken

Corn meal?? Really?

They're not looking.  I get all the presents.

We went to church and sang Christmas hymns then came home.

Inside the Church

Setting up the music

 Then things got irreverent.  We all got tats, even Gmar.

Jim's tat

My ankle tat

We set up the bonfire, and invited the friendly neighborhood organic farmer over to enjoy the bonfire.

Sister beats sister with a stick

building up the fire

mother hauls son to the fire

More Wood   More Wood

Gathering of the masses

Mother cuts son in half while family laughs

TO BE CONTINUED

bak bak

Red Solo Cup

Proceed to party - Toby Keith


We have a theme for Christmas.

11 days ago, when Jim and I were putting together the panels for my mini greenhouse, he had his radio on in the truck turned to a country station.  This alone is unusual for him.  Anyhoo, the Red Solo Cup song came on.  He laughed and I said, "this is the stupidest song I have ever heard.  I hate it."

Time passes.  Two days later, I was watching Glee, one of my favorites, and they did a cover of  GAAAAH, Red Solo Cup.  I lost faith.  I hate this song.

Time passes.  Two days ago I did something I have NEVER done.  I bought a ring tone for my cell.  You betcha, Red Solo Cup.  I HATE this song.

Yesterday.  We went on youtube and watched the video.  Acutally, this was funny.  Both versions.

Today.  Iris and I went shopping for last minute things we needed for the family party we are having on Saturday.

I HATE

This

Song

I HAT  <Red Solo Cup, I fill you up, Lets have a party, Proceed to party...>

bak bak and merry Christmas

The Great Christmas Cookie Caper

A balanced diet is a christmas cookie in each hand - unknown


Well the peoples have circled and are starting to land for the season.  My daughter and my mother-in-law arrived yesterday.  So now I've got two demented old womens running around and my daughter and Jim pisadeared to go hunting this afternoon.  Fun in dysfunctional. So I made christmas cookies all day.  My daughter helped me with the first batch of triple chocolate cookie balls, then I made the pecan sandies by myself.  It's the first time I have actually made them, though we have them every christmas.  That leaves the hello dollies, the tea cakes, the press cookies and a couple of new recipes to be named later.

I did have a moment of sheer panic when I couldn't get my demy (see former blog) to sync so I emailed their troubleshooting hot line and got an american and an immediate answer and fix.  Very impressive.  So I went on my blythe cookie making way.

The weather has gotten a bit less cold.  It is not freezing at night, but it is in the upper thirties.  The moon is on the wain and the stars are gorgeous.

The vegetation is mostly dead, except a few herbs hanging on.  The lettuce has bolted, so I will collect seeds soon.  Most of the trees are bare.  The cockers are having a ball scratching around in the leaves.  I swear if I could mound them, they would run and jump in the middle.

The egg production is still down and my saddle girl is looking so sad.  I caught her to put a new saddle on and when I grabbed her, she lost about 20 feathers.  I put the saddle on, but she was so forlorn this time that I took it off her after about 4 hours.  I just worry that she will catch cold with so few feathers.

The new rooster is starting to mess with the hens pretty regularly now.  From what I've seen, they will not accept him, and if JW is around there is big trouble in little china.  However, today, I noticed that JW was in the garden with three hens and the new rooster was with the rest of the girls in the woods.  I think it won't be too long to a confrontation.  So, there is the new rooster's name.  Pilgrim (remember Mcclintock?)

We picked up trash last Saturday along our stretch of highway and will complete it this Saturday.  It is getting better.  This time we got 5 bags of trash and 3 of recycle on one side.  What really pissed me off, though was that after we dropped the trash off at the church, someone had already thrown a can on the clean side!  It took less than 2 hours to litter.  I wish I had caught the people.

Sunday is our annual christmas program at Harmony Church and I will narrate again.  We have one more practice on saturday then the real thing.  It is alway so fun.  We never get it completely right, which is simply charming.

I finally got all my christmas shopping done and all wrapped under the tree.  Sigh, what a great feeling.

That's all.

bak bak

I love UPS, I'm going to marry UPS.

Every once in a while, someone will mail me a single popcorn kernel that didn't pop. I'll get out a fresh kernel, tape it to a piece of paper and mail it back to them.
Orville Redenbacher

This quote didn't exactly fit the theme, but it is about the mail and I thought it was hilarious.


This year, with very few exceptions, I did all my shopping online.  The UPS guy is here every other day, but I give him eggs once a week so he doesn't mind.  Today, he asked to buy a dozen for his buddy, who saw him with the eggs.  I didn't have a dozen so I gave him 1/2 dozen.  What can I say.  My girls eggs are superior.  Unfortunately, they are on winter hours so I am only getting 4 eggs a day.  I have to stretch them to give enough away as I now give some to the owner of my gym, the UPS guy and the church members.  We all have to learn to share.


Lately I have taken to sitting with the cockers of an evening in the pen, before I shut them up.  I give them meal worm treats.  Minion will now sit on my shoulder to get above the crowd.  JW will peck my hand or leg when he can.  He HATES when I get the girls.  Yesterday he got me really good with his spurs on my ankle.  It took me an hour to work through the pain.  I never can believe how strong his legs are.  He could probably break a squirrels back if so inclined.


Anyway, back to the gifts.  I've gotten everyone except my two nephews.  So hard to buy for.  One has everything and is happy, one has nothing and is happy.  How can you deal with this??  In addition to online shopping, I got a few bargains at the auction this time around.  I can't tell you what cause they are secret.  I am also getting a collection of F. Roy Johnson books from various sources.  He is a local writer (now deceased) who collected stories from the area from old timers.  They are really wonderful books but hard to find cause they are out of print.


I've got the house completely decorated now.  I love this time of year.  I went to a charity christmas luncheon with one of the ladies from church on tuesday.  I even put lipstick on (gasp) but could not bring myself to wear a dress.  I am practicing with the choir for the christmas program.  I will be narrating again this year, since I like the program, but can't carry a tune in a bucket.  I made a donation to a chicken rescue farm in Hampstead Texas.  GIVE GIVE GIVE.  It feels so good.


And the weather is finally seasonal again.  It froze last night and will be cold all next week.  Dare I hope for snow on Christmas???

I have not been as persevering at the gym for the last two weeks cause of all the things going, but I try to get there at least three times a week.  I am not losing weight much, but I am getting stronger.

Oh, and one more thing.  I got my three beekeeping books today.  That's right.  Next spring, I am going into beekeeping.  But first, research.  Lots of research.  Can't wait.

Bak Bak

Visit from Jack

The frost performs its secret ministry, Unhelped by any wind. - Samuel Taylor Coleridge


Well, it seems that the seasons have finally straightened themselves out.  We have a gorgeous frost on the ground this morning and I froze my butt off turning the chickens out.


I just went out to take a picture of the frost and had a bufflehead land on the pond, so I didn't get the picture, but watched him for about 15 minutes.  Now I really am cold, but it was worth it.


We had a wonderful day after thanksgiving open house.  Friends and family stopped by for a nosh and a josh.  The spread was pretty wonderful.  Jim cooked one of his heritage turkeys and all pronounced it the best.  We had ranch style beans, sweet potato casserole, sweet potato cookies, sweet potato pie and deep fried sweet potato chips, which were also a big hit.  I couldn't make them fast enough.  We had triple chocolate cookie balls, organic radishes (I ate so many of these I had a tummy ache the next day, then promptly ate some more), divinity, spinach dip, queso and chips, pound cake, sausage balls, and on and on.  Oh yeah, and wine.


I played hooky from church on Sunday and decorated the house for Christmas.  I used to think that is was so early, but my attitude has changed.  I love this time of year and love putting the decorations up.  Our poor artificial tree has seen better days, but it has so much tradition, I can't bear to get a new one.

Santaaaaaaaa

Many stockings

I TOLD Santa there would be trouble

Santa quackers

The mantle

I am going to the gym each morning, except I didn't go on monday and tuesday cause I was on egg patrol.  There is another rogue nest out there and I can't find it.  I spent monday and tuesday all morning watching the cockers and nothing.  It's very frustrating.  The one I found last week they abandoned as soon as I raided it.  They are getting smarter.

Jim shot a doe on saturday so he could have one in the freezer.  He collected a big bag of scraps from the bones for the chickens and they can't get enough.  Apparently, even with the drought, there are fat deer to be had.  This one had been eating our friendly neighborhood organic farmer's cover crop.

Oops, time for the gym, so more later.

bak bak

Happy Thanksgiving

What we're really talking about is a wonderful day set aside on the fourth Thursday of November when no one diets.  I mean, why else would they call it Thanksgiving?  ~Erma Bombeck

What did I drink last night?  Is that a turkey on my head??

We are going to have a quiet thanksgiving, just me, Jim, Gmar and the dogs.  We have to spend most of the day getting ready for our Sir Cluckington Baak Friday open house tomorrow.  We invited some relatives and neighbors over for a get together and more turkey, one of Jim's heritage birds.  So I have got to clean house, clean the porch, bake and cook some sides, but it should be fun.

So much to do, so little time

The weather has been all over the place.  For the past week it has been in the 70's, but last night we had rain and it is now in the 50's where it should be at this time of year.  Jim and I have progressed on my porch green house.  I got all my dado's and tenons duly cut and left him to cut 1/2 of the plastic panels to fit the frames, while Gmar and I played bridge yesterday.  I don't know where his head was, but he ended up cutting ALL of the panels, for which I payed a pretty penny.  Yeah, I was kinda mad.  So now we (HE) has to fix it.  In the meantime I have to move my plants out today, clean my room, move the plants back in tonight then move them out again tomorrow then move them in after the party.   GAAAAAH!!!!

The cockers, bless their little hearts, had another rogue nest in the wild.  I watched one of the girls acting funny as soon as I let her out.  So I followed her at a discreet distance, and it was lucky I did, because there was a hawk sitting on a tree about 30 yards away from her.  I didn't see it until I scared it away.  It flew a little distance then stopped again.  So I spent about 2 hours outside making sure there was no attack.  Thank you God.  Anyway, after some minutes, I saw her disappear into a hollow formed by some branches we had cut from one of the trees we took down.  Sure enough, there were 14 eggs in there, of all sizes.  My buppy has been laying in there as well as two more older hens.  So I removed the eggs and put a wooden one in.  I think there may be one more nest out there cause I had another hen disappear into a copse next to the barn.  I haven't found that one yet.  Why can't they all just lay in the coop??

I don't have any goat milk to make goat cheese right now so I got some almonds and made my own almond butter.  It is 1/2 the price that you can buy it for in the stores.  I'm not sure what to do with it yet, but I will figure something out.

I have been working out at the Gym for a week now and feel much better.  I don't hurt badly anymore, except for my knees, so I graduated myself to two reps on each machine, except for a few, where I can only do 1 and 1/2 reps.

The christmas season is ramping up and the calendar is starting to get filled with programs and luncheons.  I can't believe that the year is almost over.

Well, got to get busy now for the feast today and tomorrow.

Everyone have a blessed turkey day and,

gobble gobble

Blogged down

The more elaborate our means of communication, the less we communicate. - Joseph Priestley


So, I am not going to get bogged down in trying to attach pictures all the time.


"When all other means of communication fail, try words."- Anonomous


Quite a bit has happened in the past couple of weeks.  It has turned cold for the long haul, I think.  Right now I have all of my tropical plants scrunched into my bedroom.  They are not happy and I am not happy.  I finally got my panels to make my little greenhouse on my porch but have to prep the wood that goes around them.  Jim taught me how to do dados on the table saw. I've done all the 2x2's but don't know what to do with the cross bars yet.  He has been too busy with local jobs to continue my lessons.  So I continue to be unhappy and my plants continue to be unhappy.

I finally got so disgusted with myself, that I joined the gym in Atkinson.  It doesn't have a grocery store, a restaurant or even a bank, but it now has a gym.  And a pretty good one too.  All of the equipment is more or less state of the art.  The only thing they ain't got is space.  The owners are very nice people.  I was in there yesterday and Jerry, the husband, talked to me for about an hour.  I think he gets lonely when there are few people around.  I try to go around 8 am when the morning rush is over.  So I got his life story, or at least a version of it...

The chickens are molting and the floor of the coop looks like someone plucked a whole chicken.  I don't know why they chose to do it in the cold weather.  My buppy has laid her first egg.  She is not quite the size of the older cockers, but she is much more pretty, with her new feathers and all.

...You do know how to cackle, don't you?

I love this time of year.  Not because of Thanksgiving.  Not because of Christmas.  Not because of cool weather.  Because the sun is now hitting the disco ball!!!!

Deesco, Deesco Pato, Quauk Quauk

I've also spent the past two weeks gleaning sweet potatoes from the harvested fields.  It was a good year.   The potatoes are really sweet.  I have made deep fried chips and sweet potato cookies and sweet potato pie.  And for the dogs, I made dehydrated sweet potato snacks.  They LOVE them!!!  I have given a bunch away.  I am not so much into eating them myself but I will dig them all day long.  It's like looking for buried treasure.  I did find a bit of a treasure during one dig.  A piece of a horse shoe.  Very old and rusty.  I have no idea how old it it or how long it had been buried in the field.  Maybe a piece of antebellum history.

The garden still has a few herbs in it and some lettuce.  The rest of the stuff I have pulled up, except the dead basil.  The cockers like to hide under it, so I will leave it til next year.

That's all from the farm.

bak bak

Old Time, New Time

Don't forget it's daylight savings time. You spring forward, then you fall back. It's like Robert Downey Jr. getting out of bed. - David Letterman



Got up bright and early at 6:30??? to let the cockers out.  This gave me one hour more to cook for church.  Today is our green team assignment to bring dishes using leftovers.  So I made a sweet potato pie from left over sweet potatoes (more on this later), and a bean and rice casserole from left over bean soup.


On Thursday, my two aunties and I went to glean sweet potatoes in a big field of one of her Baptist friends.  I took my little potato rake and dug 3 five gallon buckets of sweets.  It is such fun!!!  I am not all that partial to sweet potatoes, but I LOVE to dig for them.  I am trying different things with them.  I made some deep fried sweet potato chips that were really yummy.  I put some in the dehydrator and they turned out to be crunchy and chewy.  I'm not sure if I like these or not, but supposedly they make great doggy treats.

My Haul

Last night was the auction.  There was a lot of stuff and a lot of people.  I went to bid on a couple of items for Christmas presents.  Got some but the ones I wanted went for a ridiculous price.  There were 4 of them (can't say what cause I still may find one) and I stopped bidding at 75 dollars apiece.  The ahole bidding against me took all four.  D*** dealers!  But it was entertaining, as always.

Yesterday, besides the auction, I drug another of my aunties out of bed at 4am to get to a charity sale at Belks in Wilmington.  Besides a five dollar coupon and massive sales cuts, to the first 150 persons through the door, they gave another gift card worth anywhere from 5 dollars to 1000 dollars.  When we got there, at 5:30, there were already about 125 people in line.  So we got cards, but it was a close thing. Both of our cards turned out to be only 5 dollars, but she got some intimates and some sheets and I got some intimates and a cake carrier for very deep discounts.

On the way back I took this picture of a cotton field, pre-harvest.

Looks like snow

Lastly, the cockers have been fighting with the squirrels lately cause they eat the scratch I throw out.  I haven't been able to get a shot of it, but one of the cockers was chasing the squirrel around the hay bale this morning.  Very amusing.  Here is a video of the squirrel, anyway:

bak bak

All Things Dead

Only hens and witches cackle; all others merely imitate. - Farmer Ann


Happy Halloween

Is that??, is that?? Dorothy's house?????

Dead in the past 24 hours:

Basil - dead

Okra - dead

peppers - dead

tomatillos - dead

And a shot of my coffin:

perfect fit

and, lastly, cocker shots

cockers in the frost

cockers in the garden

where's all the food?

boooo (k)  boooo (k)

Quoth the raven "Who let all these damn chickens out???"

Bike Marathon Tomorrow

Learn to ride a bicycle.  You will not regret it if you live. - Mark Twain

Tomorrow is the annual PPD triathalon, which includes a 100 mile bike ride that goes right past our house.  

Here is what the riders will see:

GAAAAAAH  Big Chicken Ahead!!!!!

The organizers do have a sense of humor.

I also got a shot of lake creek as I walked by

What is beyond the tree line?

I have spent the last two days playing bridge in various places, so did not bother to blog.  Today I had to go to Wilmington to pick up chicken food and then I swung by Silver Coast Winery to pick up my quarterly bottles.  It is a great day to stay in and drink red wine.  It is kinda overcast, gloomy, halloweeny weather.

There is a good chance of frost tomorrow PM and as the enviro people screwed up my order, I don't have my plastic panels for the porch yet.  So I have to drag all of the plants inside.  I don't know where I will put them cause many are in huge pots.  I also have a very confused iris, that has decided to bloom now.

It's spring, right?

All of the leaves have started to turn and are dropping.  Our front "yard" is starting to look like a giant leaf pile.  I don't bother to rake them anymore cause there are too many.  They eventually blow away or turn to mulch, so I just let them hang around.  Sometimes I go around and just kick them like good old Charlie Brown.

Minion has ceased to brood so I have no broody chickens left but now several are molting, so the egg count is still down.  I have one laying behind the carport shed door.

hen at work

Minion is also still limping, although I can find nothing outwardly wrong with her foot.  Not sure what to do about this.  She still gets around OK, but I don't know what would happen if she should happen to meet a predator.  Like JW.  He's been really mean to her lately.  Probably because I favor her and give her treats.

The baybay rooster is getting to be a real handful.  He is trying to take on the adult hens for food rights.  I think he and JW are going to be having fights when the time comes.  I would like to keep him, though, so I have protection for all my hens.  Haven't got a name for him yet.

All for now.

Bak Bak

Where's my stuff?

"What's mine is mine and what's yours is mine" - Unattributed


GAAAAAH.  It's happening again.  Jim now has two trucks here and he still drives my car.  Therefore I couldn't mow the cemetery yesterday and had to do it today.  I'm also missing one of my metal tubs, most of my hose connectors, most of my drip irrigation tubing and who knows what else????

I swear I am going to start going around with a sharpie in my pocket and write my name on everything, over and over.

Anyhoo,  I got the cemetery done.  We then cut down some trees for this winter's fires.  Now we have to borrow the preacher's log splitter.  I know what you are thinking, but we ASK before we borrow.  And I give him eggs.

I spent some time making hummus this morning.  I got the sesame seeds all toasted, then proceeded to spill half of the pan on the floor.   DANG.  But I managed to salvage enough to make some dill hummus and some red pepper hummus.  yumm.

I also spent some time putting a board over the nest boxes so the three youngsters won't spend the night there and poop all over the top, and darned if they didn't find enough room between the board and the wall to roost.  Sleeping on an incline.  They are nothing if not tenacious.

And here are some cameos of the girls:

gossip at the water cooler

Is this my good side?

Closeup 1

closeup 2

bak bak