A "Christmas" walk around the yard

Sometimes on Sundays, when life slows down a little, I like to take a walk around our yard and look for new things blooming.  This is our third summer at this house and each year has had new surprises.  It's sort of like Christmas.  :)
 
So if you have a minute, come along with me ....

More day lilies have bloomed!  The old ones (that were here when we moved in) still have had only one bloom.  (It's a very thick cluster - I wonder if I need to thin them?  Would that encourage them to bloom?)

An Easter lily has finally bloomed!  We had a bunch planted outside of Lilly's garden.  BUT ... that wretched thief that stole ALL of my lily bulbs from Lilly's garden has now stolen ALL of my Easter lily bulbs except two!  WHAT IN THE WORLD??!!  Being attacked from underground is no fun.  In fact it makes me mad.  (It's like being attacked by Satan - can't see him and he strikes when you aren't always expecting it.  And he just never seems to go away, does he?)

Peppermint is growing!

I thought this might be lamb's ear because the leaves are so incredibly soft.  But after studying Google Images, I think it is rose campion:

Day lilies with Tabby's flock of chickens behind them:

Things in our garden are growing nicely:

I don't know what these flowers are - first year I've seen them bloom.  They grow out of a rather tropical looking plant:

The puppies love to leave random bones around the yard that they find in the woods. Wish I had a animal bones identification book!  Jawbone anyone?

Exhaust Pipe sniffing a patch of wild daisies:

Pears growing on an old tree:

Tadpoles!

Old bottles we've collected  on the property.  (If you want old bottles - contact me!):

The woodshed - Frank stays busy cutting wood and stacking it in preparation for the next winter.  (We have a wood stove in our living room.)  Lots of cedar wood in there - it smells wonderful!

Stalker the chicken (a Barred Rock) is never far away:

Padme is a wonderful mother to Leia:

Precious continues to do a great job with these three biddies:

Greetings from the goat herd:

"Hello!" from Fred and George (the two babies that are bottle fed):

Finally, the Bloods and Crips seem to have finally worked out their differences.  (Their "Berlin Wall" came down last week.)  They still seem to segregate themselves much of the time.  (Birds of a feather ...)  But I haven't seen any evidence of brutal pecking, thank goodness!:

OK - enough picture overload for today.  :)

Concerning piano and martial arts

What do piano playing and martial arts have in common?  Tabby!  Last Friday night was her spring piano recital.  She played a duet with her teacher - "Bethena" by Scott Joplin.

She also played Billy Boyd's "The Last Goodbye."  (That one was from the closing of the movie "The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies.")  My camera battery died right when I started recording.  Sigh.

Saturday morning was testing day in Tabby's Hapkido class.  (Hapkido is a Korean form of martial arts.)  Tabby tested for the next level and should be receiving her yellow belt at the awards ceremony later this week.  (She currently has a white/yellow belt, which is one step up from the beginners solid white.)  Tabby has on the hot pink pants:

My favorite part of the testing was when Tabby flipped one of her instructors with the "hip throw."  She did it twice and I got video the second time around.  My boys like the part where the young man's glasses fall off.  (Note if you are viewing this post through e-mail you may have to click into my blog to see the video):

After testing, we stayed for a special seminar taught by one of the (if not the) top Hapkido masters in this country.  He was an engrossing speaker and taught how to use pressure points for self defense.  That was so fun for me to watch.  Tabby got to participate.  After that, we watched one of Tabby's instructors take a grueling 2 hour test for his third degree black belt.  That was very interesting.  It ended with him breaking through several concrete patio-type bricks with his palm.

Two other random things from yesterday.  One was that a daylily bloomed!  I have a little patch of them in our front yard.  A few bloomed the first summer we were here, and not one did last year.  So, especially in light of my discovery that Lilly's garden is mysteriously "lily free" this year, I was happy to see this flower:

Yesterday evening, Hunter told me his front tooth was really loose.  He asked me to help him pull it.  (Yay!  I love doing that.)  I ended up using needle nose pliers to get a good grip.

"Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. . . ." - James 4:8

Photo Contest Winner and the Case of the Missing Lilies

Back at the end of April, I shared a photo tour of our tree house in a blog post.  I submitted one of my photos and a description to Carolina Country, our electric co-ops magazine.  They had a "Places to Play: Tree houses, Playhouses, & Forts" photo contest.  This is my photo:

Hunter and Solomon protecting the tree house, Sherlotta the dog is by the slide

Wednesday, my mother-in-law called me.  She had just come in from getting the mail and had opened up the latest issue of Carolina Country and saw her grandbabies staring back at her.  :)  I was so excited!  We got our copy of the magazine yesterday and here is a picture of the inside cover:

Here is the page inside the magazine:

And a close-up:

Here is the paragraph I wrote, under the picture:

"Last summer, my husband Frank decided to build a treehouse for our children. He watched a how-to DVD and consulted a treehouse idea book. Then he just started building, figuring things out as he went. Some of our children—Tabby, Hunter, and Solomon—helped too. Frank used old cedar planks from his late father and wood from his late Uncle Henry. The roof is covered in old split cedar roofing shingles, and the mailbox belonged to his late Uncle Davey. Plus, there are ladders and a slide, a swing, a basket on a pulley, skylights, windows, a door, and an "escape hatch." A rock-climbing wall and fireman's pole are forthcoming."

You can see our tree house in the magazine's website here:
http://www.carolinacountry.com/index.php/carolina-stories/carolina-life/figuring-it-out

You can see all the winning tree houses at this link:
http://www.carolinacountry.com/index.php/carolina-stories/carolina-life/places-to-play-article

Not only did I get the fun and satisfaction of seeing our tree house in the magazine, but I am supposed to receive a check for $50 from the magazine.  This will be going into my fund to buy a better camera one day.  :)

On a completely different note, I realized the other day that something must have eaten ALL the lily flower bulbs in Lilly's garden!  I am SO VERY DISAPPOINTED!  About two months ago, one was coming up nicely and then suddenly disappeared with nothing left but a hole where the lily had been growing.  I thought that was too bad, but didn't worry because I knew the garden was full of other lily bulbs. 

But recently, I realized that nothing was growing.  I was confused because I thought they should be by now.  Then I came across a picture I took last May of the first lily bloom.  Then yesterday, when we were in town, I saw a lot of lily flowers beautifully blooming.  Oh no!

I know they are just flowers, but they meant something to me.  :(  Here are a couple photos of Lilly's lily garden from last May and June:

Tabby had lily bulbs in her garden too, and only one has grown.  :(

Is it too late for me to plant lily bulbs this spring?  And what in the world got all those bulbs?  Perhaps a mole?  If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them!

The Book List - April

Here it is almost June!  So I best get my April books list post done.

But first I wanted to share the link to a post by The Pioneer Girl Project about Laura Ingalls Wilder and her chickens.  (The Pioneer Girl project has recently published Pioneer Girl: The Annotated Autobiography which is Laura Ingalls Wilder's unpublished autobiography.  She later re-wrote her story (with the help of her daughter Rose) as what is known as the Little House books.)

Besides writing the Little House books, Laura wrote farming articles for The Ruralist and The Missouri Ruralist.  She also was the poultry columnist for St. Louis Farmer.  This post on The Pioneer Girl Project talks about some of her poultry articles.  I was interested to see that Laura's favorite breed of chickens was the Brown Leghorn.  We have two Leghorns.  This one is Peach - she has a very floppy comb on her head:

Peach - a Leghorn - easy to tell by the shape of the tail feathers

Silver Days by Sonia Levitin - After reading the first book in this series, Journey to America (see my post here), Tabby and I wanted to know - what happened to this Jewish immigrant family next?  (They had a harrowing escape from Nazi Germany.)  This book describes life for them in America.  Tabby liked this book better, and I liked the first one better.  This one was "too American" for me.  Meaning - not enough war and too much American pop culture from the time.  Still, it was interesting.

Annie's Promise by Sonia Levitin - This was the last book in the above mentioned series.  Definitely our least favorite!  It was about the youngest sister's stay at a summer camp, while WWII continues.  I guess I have read way too many camp stories when I was little and they're all the same.  Always the bad character that has it in for the main character and they spend time continuing to get each other back for bad things done to each other.  I just don't care.  But I did want to see what happened to the rest of the family so I pushed through to the end.

Solomon sitting in the rocking chair I had as a child and reading one of my old books:  The Little Engine that Could

 The Excellent Wife: A Biblical Perspective by Martha Peace - This book was highly recommended to me by the woman that cuts my hair.  She said it's good for those of us with messy backgrounds.  It took me awhile to get through this book, but I finished with some real gems that I learned.  New ways to think about things that have helped me a lot.  (My hairdresser is the Titus 2 woman in my life.  She is a Christian has homeschooled and graduated 4 children and just knows so much about so many things.  I drive 40 minutes to her home, one way, just to get my haircut by her.  Besides her good counsel, she does an excellent job cutting hair.  Diana Beck at Wellspring Salon in Fuquay-Varina, NC.  Tabby gets her hair cut by Diana's daughter Lilly, at the same location.)

Mother hens are simply THE BEST mothers!  Here is Precious with 3 of Tabby's Silkie biddies

It Began with a Parachute by William R. Rang - Another book for history that Tabby and I both read. It is about a 12 year old boy in Holland, during the Nazi occupation.  One night he rescues an American navigator and hides him in his home.  That is when he finds out that his father is already involved in the Resistance!  A good book featuring a family that actually works together and respects each other (seems so rare these days).  Lots of adventure and character building moments.

Padme (another excellent mama hen!) with Leah - both are Silkies and belong to Tabby

Basher Five-Two: The True Story of F-16 Fighter Piolet Captain Scott O'Grady by Captain Scott O'Grady with Michael French - This was the last book in the Veritas Press history course Tabby recently finished.  A very exciting story!  Captain O'Grady was shot down in his F-16 over Bosnia.  He parachuted out of his plane as it exploded, and fell 5 miles down to the ground in enemy territory.  He shares how he survived - avoiding the enemy, no food to eat, depending on God - while he awaited rescue.

An Easter lily is growing on the left, 2 red Gladiolas growing on the right

Lessons from Madame Chic: 20 Stylish Secrets I Learned While Living in Paris by Jennifer L. Scott - Ever since I read French Kids Eat Everything last year (see my post here), followed by Bringing Up Bebe, I have been fascinated in differences between the French and Americans.  Americans seem so childish, lazy, greedy, and sloppy, in so many ways.  (I'm not trying to be anti-American here - I am glad I am an American and not French.  Just putting it the way I see it.) The author of this book lived in Paris during college and learned many things from the French family she lived with.  She shares this wide variety of French things in her book. 

(I would be very interested to read this kind of book about other countries too.  If you know of any - please share the titles with me!)

The boys and I made gingerbread cookies on Memorial Day.  Solomon made gingerbread men and tractor shaped cookies.

Hunter (no surprise) made heating unit shaped cookies:  a gaspack and a ductless heat pump

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusts in him, and he helps me...." - Psalm 28:7

Quick Farm Update: Bottle Feeding and Gang Infiltration

Amazingly, the sheet I put up to separate the Bloods from the Crips has worked very well at holding back the two feathered gangs.  Earlier this week though, I caught the Crips silently infiltrating the Bloods headquarters.  They were on the wall, watchful as spies:

The 3 lighter colored chicks love to attack the black chicks

I plugged up their secret passage so now they're having to come up with a new plan.  In the meantime, the Bloods tail feather areas are all healing nicely.

Last year, Pippi's kid died at 2 weeks old of some sort of arthritic condition.  We knew that Pippi's mother had that sort of issue and had to be put down for it.  Pippi's previous owner thought that perhaps Pippi was passing the condition through her milk.  So we decided that with Pippi's twins, we didn't want to take any chances.  We have bottle fed them from day 1 and need to continue to do so until they reach about 3 months of age.  (We keep bandaids on Pippi's teats so the twins don't try to nurse.)  They seem to be thriving.

We all love bottle feeding Fred and George.  (Though I admit I'll be glad when I don't have to do the night time feedings anymore.)  The little goats love us and are extra friendly, always hoping we have a bottle in our hands for them.  The way to a goat's heart is through their stomach.

I need to get a picture of Tabby bottle feeding.  She quickly learned to feed both goats at once.  :)

On another note, Hunter has recently developed an interest in chickens.  Before he never really liked them after they grew out of chick stage.  He thought they were "boring" because they didn't have motors or use electricity.  He's now having fun holding them and says he "loves" them.

Field trip to N.C. Botanical Garden

Last Friday, we met our field trip group at the North Carolina Botanical Garden in Chapel Hill.  (It is a part of the University of North Carolina.)  The gardens are a conservation effort to grow flowers that are native to N.C.  Our group took a guided tour through several sections of the gardens.  These sections were divided up to represent the different parts of our state:  mountains, piedmont, sandhills, and coastal plain.

We live in the piedmont area so it was neat seeing wildflowers growing that the kids and I have recently identified, growing in our own yard or along our road, such as sundrops. 

The guide was a little too wordy for my children's taste, but I found most of it interesting.  (Why do we appreciate learning so much more when we are adults?)  Tabby just wanted to be left alone so she could take pictures.  She does a great job with her photography and is planning to post some of the pictures she took on The Goat Chick tomorrow, for Wordless Wednesday.

Here is Solomon in front of a plant called "Solomon's Plume":

The N.C. Wildflower of the year is called "Fire-pink".  (I got a free pack of seeds from the gardens earlier this year, but have not planted them yet.  Sigh.):

This plant was very funny to us since we have goats - Appalachian False Goats-Beard:

Nice display outside the educational building/gift shop:

Hunter's favorite part (besides spotting sprinkler systems tucked into flower areas) was the big sculpture made from twigs/branches:

Our tour did not include the herb garden nor the carnivorous plants area.  So my kids and I went through those before we left.  I love using herbs for many things and would love a big herb garden one day.

Venus flytraps and pitcher plants:

Another Solomon plant!  Solomon's-seal:

Water lilies and lily pads!

". . . Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin;  and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." - Matthew 6:28-29