Beauty Is...

A ripe cantaloupe from my very own garden

and my three adorable children showing off their face paint.

Pictures!

Well, Nathaniel wasn't able to fix my old camera, but he promptly bought me a new one.  He's been spoiling me lately.  So now I have pictures again!  Yesterday, all of my cantaloupes were green, but today:

I'm starting to get excited about those!  And the chickens have grown a lot, as you can see.

One of the Ameruacana.  We have 2 more that look a lot like this one, including Penguin, and we think all three of those are pullets! 

This is a barred rock, my favorite type.

The chickens are 7 weeks old this weekend.  It looks like more than half are pullets (will be hens). 

Lydia and I have been playing outside in the third, grassy yard with the chickens the past few mornings.  She likes to pick the morning glories.  When we're done, she "boos" the chickens back into the second yard, which is to say that she runs at them yelling "boo chickens!" until they are all in the second yard.  It doesn't take long.

This last picture is at my parents' house, where I had the kids posing in front of the "naked ladies" when the last camera died for good. 

Today at our house

The boys are in school, but they did get up happy this morning.  They seem to be adjusting to the school year now.  Malachi even admitted that school was "good" a few days ago, so that's an improvement!
Lydia's doing good with potty training.
We all went to a local orchard and picked apples.  (not tons)  This place has an ice cream shop, too, so that was a nice treat as well, and I got lots of peppers for our meals this week, seranos, anchos, and bells.  Mmm.  We plan to go back in about a month and pick lots of apples, for applesauces and jams/butters.
  By the way, Elijah told me the other day that he doesn't know what he wants to be when he grows up, but maybe a teacher or an orchard worker.  I had to smile. 

The chickens are doing great.  Since Nathaniel stapled the netting to the top of the second fence, the chickens have been enjoying that yard without any more issues.  (Knock wood)  Lydia and I did let them into the third yard for a little bit this morning.  I think it's like heaven for chickens, at least that's how they seem to take it!  We are only letting them in that yard when we're outside, though.

I had a few tomatoes, enough to make a good salsa for the Saturday afternoon visit to a neighbor's pool.  We had snacks and swam.  It was nice. 

The camera is broke...

...so I have no pictures to share here today, not of my niece's fun birthday party nor of my garden nor anything else.  I bought a new battery for it, but it still doesn't work.  I'll have to have Nathaniel try to resurrect it (he's sometimes able to do stuff like that), but I'm afraid it's really done this time.

I'm finally getting tomatoes from the garden, maybe one or two a day now.  That's great for eating - which I do constantly! - but I'm hoping that a ton more ripen soon for salsas. 

The chickens are doing good, but they are confined to the small yard while Nathaniel tries to trap the feral cat that killed one the other day.  I hope he can trap it and get it to the Humane Society, but we'll have to wait and see.  In the meantime, we have to try to cat-proof the second, larger yard.

I made a batch of blackberry peach jam yesterday, so the boys are thrilled with me.  I'm almost to the end of the peaches, which is good because I need to pick the crabapples and make some crabapple butter soon.  (I'll post that recipe when I make it.  It is really beautiful and different, but I figure I should post it this time, since I don't remember exactly what measurements I used last time.  Surprise, surprise, I just add a little of this and  a little of that and forget to jot it all down!)

Penguin Problems

Penguin has a problem:

His/her beak is not supposed to be "crossed" like that.  We did some research, and evidently it's just bum genes, not much you can do.  If it continues to be able to eat and drink, it should be ok, but we may have to cull the kids' favorite bird.  Elijah commented that we should name more of the chicks, and I said "NOT YET!  Wait til we know which ones are roosters and which are going to make it!  He agreed.  We still have 23 of them (for those of you that don't know, Nathaniel had to kill Floppy). 
The rest, though, are looking pretty good:



We're pretty sure this black one is a rooster.



Our garden is coming along nicely, even if it is much later than I'd like.  We have some little cucumbers that are about ready to pick.  We just ate some more broccoli, probably the last of it.  The pumpkins look good.  The zucchini plants are growing, but no zucchini just yet.  I'm hoping soon.   And although I haven't gotten any more red tomatoes, I hope to eat these soon:

Lastly, do you remember how last year I decided I wouldn't try cantaloupes again this year?  Well, I changed my mind and planted just 2 hills of them.  Now, I've got these:

Isn't it beautiful?  I have at least 4 growing.  I'm hoping, but not saying much around them, because I don't want them to hear me and decide to die!  :)

In other news, Elijah and Malachi had a good first day of school yesterday.  Lydia's still potty training, and doing good most of the time (but of course, there are still accidents).  And now I'd better get to exercising and sewing. 

He lost it!!

Updates

Well, it's been a full week, which is good since it was the last full week of summer break.  Malachi's tooth is still loose.  He actually carried the bunny pillow that Karen made him around yesterday, just in case he lost the tooth and got to put it in the pocket.  (He named the bunny Juicy Fat.  Really.)  But the tooth's just not loose enough yet. 
The chicks keep growing:

And the pumpkins are turning more orange:

And I finally got red tomatoes from my garden.  There have been only 3 red ones, and they were tiny, but they were delicious!
Tomorrow the boys get to meet their teachers. 
This morning Lydia decided to wear panties.  And she did all day.  She did really well for a first try, even when we were not at home.  She started having problems this evening, so we went ahead and got her in her jammies with a diaper and plan on going for the underwear again in the morning.  The boys are praising her like crazy every time she goes potty, so that's nice.  She's so proud of her panties.  I hope tomorrow goes well.