Prolific chicks

It sure makes a person feel good when someone is excited to see them. Take this chicken...I think her name is 'Red.' If that's not correct, we'll call her that anyway.

And...if you want the truth, she's not excited to see me. She was probably pretty agitated from her master turning the water sprinkler on and getting her soaking wet!Here's the brood - after they shook the water off. They were just hanging out but wanted to show me something.

I followed..."Come on in," I was told. That made me feel good that they thought I was actually thin enough to fit through their door.Their master knew I would never fit, so he showed me hidden door...The chicks all piled in. One was pretty busy... Butters was a bit concerned with the intrusion. She just wasn't too sure why we were peering in from the hidden door.Red, (I think this is her) stuck her neck out to try and put Butter at ease. I didn't tell Red that it wasn't a great idea to 'stick her neck out'... what with being a chicken and all...
She decided to just get up in the roost with Red...Notice anything???Yep, eggs... lots of eggs...

But do you notice anything - well, anything a bit unusual about any of them?

Like the color?I guess ole Red and the others needed a little encouragement to get busy. I have to tell you that the yellow egg was actually not laid by any of these prolific chickens. Sorry. It's fake. It's plastic.

But it worked. Look at her sitting on top of all those eggs!"OK, enough of that business," claimed Red. "It's time to eat."Ole Pumpkin was hanging out by the chicken's water bowl. He (Is Pumpkin a he or a she?) was just hanging out, watching the whole escapade.

My afternoon with Jack

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Dear friends

Many of you know about 'my buddy Bob.' You may not know what he looks like, so check him out:My buddy Bob often sends great emails that I will pass on to my friends. Even though they haven't met him, they know about 'my buddy Bob.'

My buddy, Bob, is married. He'll introduce you to his "first wife, Helen." There is no second wife, and he and Helen have been married for 57 years! We used to get together every Thursday night for a Bible study. This went on for...I don't know, maybe 5-6 years? We were known as 'The Luke Group' because we stayed in the book of Luke for - well, for a long time!

Last night, Bob and Helen came over for dinner. It's been a long time since we sat down together for any length of time to just visit. It was fun to show them around the house because they've been following the entire remodeling project here on the Johnston Chronicles.

You may remember this post. Here's a photo to remind you:This is our dear friend and neighbor, Marvin's, match holder. If you read that post, you'll remember how much I loved it.

Last night, my buddy Bob and his first wife, Helen, come to dinner... Helen hands me this decorator bag with a big sunflower on it... but it's what's INSIDE:A match holder... an antique match holder...one my buddy Bob cleaned and polished up for me! I absolutely LOVE it... it's perfect! More than anything, it's a gift from the hearts of two dear friends.

Thank you Bob and Helen!

Do you think it's cold enough for a fire yet?

Green madrone on a Friday afternoon

"Hey dear," my guy said when I answered the phone.

"Hey dear!"

"Hey, would you back your car out of the driveway so I can back in? I've got a load of wood."

I did my duty, and then proceeded to sit back down in my lounge chair in the backyard. I was so enjoying the sunshine. I had been looking at a new REI catalog when my guy called.

I think I dozed off a little. Ron stomping his feet to get the dirt off startled me awake.

I went out to look at the load of wood and guess what he said? "Here dear, these are for you." Now it wasn't flowers or anything like that, but it was a pair of gloves....for taking the wood out of the back of the truck and stacking it.
He did get in the back of the truck and put the wood down on the tailgate to make it easier for me. Thanks, dear!He spent about an hour cutting and splitting this today. I think it's about a quarter of a cord. It'll be great when the wood is dry...and it's cold outside... ah, cozy, cozy, cozy!My guy says cutting wood warms you three times: 1st when you cut and split it; 2nd when you haul and stack it; and 3rd when you actually burn it.

Do you see a resemblance?

This is Thalia...

I've written how I have this sweetheart new class of students. One of them is Faith. Faith is new to our town so I didn't know anything about her. The first couple of days of school, I just kept looking at her - KNOWING that she was reminding me of someone....but it wasn't clicking. Finally, it dawned on me.

"Faith!" I said, "Now I know who you remind me of!"
"Who?" asked Faith.
"You remind me of my granddaughter, Thalia!"
"Does she talk a lot?"
That was the first question out of Faith's mouth when I told her about the resemblance. I started to laugh. I said, "Well, I guess a little, but not too much!" Faith's only answer to that was "Oh."

Now I see more of a resemblance. They act a lot alike, they walk a lot alike, they both dress so cute...same style. Their skin is the same color, as is their hair, and their eyes. Of course, they ar both in 4th grade. Thalia is a little older with her birthday being in October and Faith's in May. I just had to post their photos.

Do you see the resemblance?
This is Faith...Thalia (and Ozzy)...


This is Faith...Thalia and her Mimi (me!)...

Faith with part of her collection of shells...Thalia eating sushi with Saddie...Faith with one of her favorite books...Thalia with a banana slug...

Thalia ... after her haul of firewood tipped over...

So there you have it... Thalia and Faith. There's definitely a resemblance there that I see. I bet they would be good friends if they lived close to each other... they're both sweethearts!

Oh boy, a 3-day weekend

The first week of school has come and gone...a 3 day weekend is here!

First I have to say, my class consists of 32 sweethearts! Like Max... Max is a dream...he has an all-boy personality and there's something about him I just adore. I could say this about so many of my students, but I had this photo of Max so I decided to talk about him!

But now it's time to rest for three days. Our neighbor, we call him "The Farmer", is having an estate sale. His wife's mother died so they are selling a lot of her stuff. Look what I bought for $5.I was excited to find this! It's going to go in Lindsey's room - as soon as I repaint it and had a new handle. But I love the look of it...just what I was looking for! (Actually, I haven't been looking at all, but I was planning on looking.)Here's where the nightstand will go. I also want to change the bedspread and hang some pictures, but I don't know which pictures! More decisions.

This new nightstand now leaves me with some decisions... what color to paint it...do I give it a distressed look... what kind of lamp should I get for it? Oh well, at least I have accomplished the first step in just getting the thing!

Another plan for this 3-day weekend is hanging pictures. It seems that once the house was finished, life went into a whirlwind - a fun whirlwind - and all activity on the house ceased. I have some areas I just can't decide what I want to do with. For example:This is the corner you first see when you walk in the front door and turn left into the new room. You can see a mirror and a painting, but I need ... well, a piece of furniture or something. I found a curio cabinet at a local store... um? Maybe I should go shopping on this 3-day weekend.This was Mimi's corner shelf... I have always loved it. I need to get my guy to hang it in this corner this weekend.This is the upstairs hallway. You can see I at least have the pictures I want my guy to hang leaning against the wall. I'll have to vacuum away the indentions in the carpet after they're hung since they've been sitting there for so long.

Let's see, what else do I want to do? Work-out (Ron's already left for the gym and I'm suppose to join him, except my work-out pants are in the dryer - good excuse for continuing to blog!), paint - I have 2 paintings I'm working on, and one I think I could about finish in the weekend - make a blueberry pie, or something with all the fresh blueberries that I also need to pick! Have my buddy Bob and his first wife, Helen, over for dinner and to see the house, have Marvin over, deadhead the flowers, read, watch the rest of Season 1 of Lost, ...

Maybe I should prioritize?

This is not exactly what my guy had in mind for the weekend

The meter reader opened our meter....

He then left us a note saying our 'consumption' had more than doubled since last month.

Um? We haven't been watering????? My guy knew that could only mean one thing...

A leak...
can you see that water down there?What a mess for my guy...digging it all out, and then to the hardware store and back - several times for parts.Just in case I couldn't see 'the problem', my guy pointed it out to me.This fuschia bush has absolutely nothing to do with the leak. But I thought I'd throw something in pretty amidst (ooh, "amidst", how do you like that word? Sounds rather...sophisticated...do you think?) ... amidst all the mud.

Like a good neighbor... Pete (and Ozzy) came to help out. I think he helped Ron 'bleed' the pipes? Does that sound correct?

Here's our hydrangea bush... minus any blooms. It's a late bloomer...but isn't it huge? My guy cuts it ALL the way back every year, and then every summer, it just grows like crazy!
Ahhh... here you can see the fuschia all nestled in there.

Good thing my guy fixed the water so we could water those bushes...