More Eggs!

Same star chicken. Laying like a champ: an egg a day! Go Annie, go!

EcoBorrow

Check out this cool service that my sister-in-law tipped me off to.

I've often thought it would be great to have a local, neighborhood library of stuff. You know, a single lawn mower for the block or friends who share baby gear that they don't need at the moment but don't want to get rid of forever.

That's basically what this does. Helps you set up a system with friends and neighbors where you can borrow each other's stuff: ecoBorrow is an eco-friendly service for neighbors, friends and family that enables you to lend things and borrow things from people you already know.

Some friends and I are going to try it out. First order of business: an electric grain mill. (Of course.)

But This I Can Claim

The recycle, reuse, repurpose gene - that one she got from me.

Check her out - rescuing re-usable stuff from the recycling bin. She's got a whole bag of boxes, bottles, paper, plastic containers, and such in her closet.
That's my girl!

Another Glimpse into My Future

And this one's a bit of a mystery. I'm guessing the primping gene can skip a generation?

In any case, before heading out, particularly when headed to a party, Sophia likes to put on something nice (a dress or skirt), brush her hair, brush her teeth and put on lip gloss (chap stick).

Yeah, this must be genetic—straight from Nana—since she couldn't have learned this from me.

The Culinary Gene

Like father, like son.

Aren't they cute?

Seeing My Future

And it looks a lot like my past.

As nearly any of my childhood friends (and certainly my parents) would attest to, I spent a lot of time at the baseball field as a kid.
No, not playing, it wasn't my thing. But it was my brothers' thing. (I'm pretty sure they both started playing at age 2 and kept it up everyday until...well, who knows, maybe they still play.) And my dad's. (Nearly as obsessed as my brothers, Dad watched, coached, talked, and dreamed baseball.) And my mom's. (Not wanting to be left out of all the excitement - or perhaps because we were all there so much anyway, my Mom not only watched every practice and every game but also volunteered in the snack bar.)

And now...it's definitely Oliver's thing. (The pool turned up like that makes a great backstop.)
You can stop laughing now Mom, I know, I should have seen this coming...

Woohoo!

What an exciting morning!

First, Annie went missing. My first guess, strangely, was that a hawk had gotten her (since there was absolutely no sign of her - not even a stray feather). But thankfully, no.


She had flown the coop. Or rather the chicken yard to the side of the coop. All the way to the front yard. It took me at least 10 minutes to find her.

Then she was acting all strange once she was back inside the coop. Hiding and such. I thought she was traumatized by her escape. Ha! Shows how much I know about chickens.

No, she was laying an egg!


Which I found after I had discovered that she had gone missing again that afternoon. This time I found her in the neighbor's yard. Sheesh. That girl is getting her wings clipped, let me tell you!

So, although she escaped twice in one day (!), she's redeemed herself by laying the very first egg. All I can say is that she'd better lay an egg a day for awhile...

Lopez Island

We are very fortunate to have friends who not only live in the San Juan Islands, but also have a studio with a guest room.

When you visit an island, you generally have to get there by boat. In our case we took a ferry.



A lovely way to travel.

We kept with the water theme the whole time we were on island. Visiting a few ponds...

...for swimming and boating...
...and more swimming...
And a little gazing out at the bay.

We all cried a little when we had to come home.