hatched...

 

funny, 21 days isn't really that long at all--a mere 3 weeks. but when you're waiting and wondering and hoping for something... 21 days can seem like just about forever. our 21 days ended early this week, with two chicks hatched one night, one hatched the next morning and four more hatched the following evening.  a total of seven chicks--the 2 hens were sitting on 17 eggs, but there were a couple of different issues that i think led to a low hatch count. 

anyhow, there are here and they are fluffy! the kids can't get enough--practically every sentence begins and ends with something regarding the baby chicks. lucy insists on wearing only items with pockets, in order to take the chicks on rides. we are visiting them out in their coop non-stop from dawn until dusk. fun times. once they get a little bit bigger, i may actually be able to get some things done around here. until then, it's all about the chicks, man.

this moment...

our weekend is jam-packed, starting at 8 am tomorrow and not letting up until sunday evening. for now, i'm savoring the quiet, and finishing up the honey cake that the kids and i made a couple of days ago. it's quite good. especially when washed down with a glass of milk wine.

happy weekending!

we're expecting...

no, it's not another valley baby. more like 2 hens (formerly tree chickens) sitting on somewhere in the neighborhood of 16 eggs. this is our first go-round of hatching, since our roosters (lucky duck and easter) have just come of age. i can't say that they have a way with the ladies--they seem more like a pair of bumbling teenagers--but they are in fact fertile. the proof is in the eggs--we can now hold them up to a flashlight in a darkened room and see chickie babies kicking within the shells. totally amazing, perhaps not so much as feeling my own babies kicking inside of myself when i was pregnant, but certainly close. especially since the whole shebang with chickens takes a mere 21 days, and roosters don't even have penises. yah. the term miracle comes to mind every time i see a rooster pop on and off of a hen. the whole encounter takes literally one second.

we are counting days over here, waiting and wondering and asking ourselves if it's really this easy, if nature is really so complex and so very simple, all at once. stay tuned to find out!

smile, hudson...

             

yeah, we're working on it.  

:)

the friday flea...

last friday we woke the kids super early for a trip to a not-so-local flea market to do a bit of shopping. lucy and hudson don't seem to mind an early wake-up call. i roused them at 5:05 and they were in the car by 5:10, still clad in jammies and snuggled in blankets. they no longer go back to sleep, as they used to, on the 2 hour drive. but they do stay pretty quiet until the sun begins to rise. from then on out, they jabber back and forth and eat a carseat breakfast. troopers, they are. all this secondhand shopping business runs in their blood.

we didn't get too many photos from the day--keeping up with the kids is more than enough work for jeremy and i together, especially when we're distracted by piles of good junk. by the end of the morning, though, our truck was loaded down with lots of good things for vintage resale, as well as some treats for ourselves.  

the truck, precariously stacked, mid-load. the only thing not bought at the market is my mammoth stroller, which always seems to take up a lot of valuable room, but is well worth it to keep those with tiny legs in good spirits.

lucy has long been asking for a "baby carrier, with buckles." something akin to an infant car seat, i think. since we don't buy anything new, my kids are becoming pretty good at understanding the concept of keep your eyes open, you'll find it. a lot of patience required, no doubt. i have been looking for a certain kind of can opener for quite awhile, to no avil. patience, patience.

 

lucy's slight concern over not finding the baby carrier yet again was erased when we came across the 1950's wind-up baby swing. she's currently got it set up in her room, where it is taking up at least a third of the floor space. we'll probably resell it soon, but she's having lots of fun with it so far.

 

hudson's dream came true with the purchase of this push mower. jeremy was quick to remind me that it is not actually a lawn mower, but a lawn moo-er. ha. this was the one item that hudson has been looking for. whenever we're out around lots of plastic toys at the park and such, he's always one to find a play mower and push it around non-stop until we leave. no idea why. i'm not one to buy cheapy, plastic toys, but here and there i have to remind myself to balance my own aesthetic with what my kids enjoy. the mower was $1, a small price to pay for some huddie-happiness.

 

hudson fell fast asleep as jeremy secured the load, but this little girl was all smiles. she requested the camera in order to take a photo of jeremy and i, which turned out not in focus but i think she did a pretty good job! i like how you can see the puff of sleeping hudson's hair in them.

 

 

my steal of the day was 3 pairs of jeans--two pairs of 7 for all mankind, and a pair of joes for the rock-bottom price of $25 total. for this mama, not buying new can prove very difficult in the clothes department for myself. finding a trio of designer jeans in my size at this market was extremely unlikely--i could not believe my good luck. it does prove, however, that if you wait long enough, you will eventually find it. patience, patience. a very good reminder.

 

what are you looking for?

my splurge...

 

it probably comes as no surprise that i have got a thing for vintage kitchenware. however, last weekend i stunned even myself by dropping $15 on a vintage hand mixer at an estate sale. truth be told, hand mixers are not such a hot item--especially priced so high. there's no doubt in my mind that i could have gone back the following day and gotten it for much cheaper, or even for free. but i was caught up in the moment--a vintage hand mixer! in aqua!! and it works!!! and into the box it went.

this post would be much cuter if i showed pictures of the kids and i mixing up some fresh cream, right? sadly i have no cream until farmers market tomorrow. i used it to help thin out some applesauce i had cooking on the stove, but i forgot to add lemon juice to the pot and the whole bunch of it turned a very unappetizing shade of baby-poo-brown-green as it cooked down. not good. definably not photo-worthy. and hardly even edible, actually.

here's to whipped cream, tomorrow.

they're growing...

 

like all good babies, these turkeys seem to do nothing more than eat, drink and poo. i suppose they sleep as well, though we never see it because they're super skittish--the moment we are in the vicinity they pop up and appear on guard. perhaps they're just trying to make sense of us--the naked, shrieking toddler wielding sticks. the dog that stands on hind legs to sniff the coop, barking in earnest. the girl that dons rain boots brings with her a big cooking pot, which she overturns to make a  comfortable seat mack-dab in the middle of the shavings-covered floor. yes, we are a lively bunch.

at any rate, they've grown and as such, have been awarded a new, bigger coop, complete with perch which they took to immediately. books state that they're ready to be let out into the world at this point, for short trips, to forage and explore. 

yeah, i don't think so. maybe next week. i am not currently in the mood to climb trees.

made...

nothing to terribly difficult, and nothing that's not been done many times before. but yesterday, late in the afternoon, while dinner cooked on the stove, i found myself making a small pile of hair clips. the difference, this time, is that little lucy helped--choosing and cutting the ribbons, picking out her favorite buttons--holding each up to the light and commenting on its merits. this one 'parkels! 

we were fighting a loosing battle--there was only a tiny bit of glue left in the gun, enough for exactly five clips, just as i had so wisely predicted. otherwise she would have put to use the entire stash of buttons, as there wasn't a single one that she didn't love, for reasons was intent on listing. 

crafting with my girl. accesory crafting with my girl, that is. just the start of many fun things ahead. and my boy? well, he busied himself with unfurling about 10,008 yards of ribbon. fun of a different kind, for sure. 

a "someday" gift...

last week at a garage sale a little dolly caught my eye. she had terrible bedhead and appeared to dressed kind of in tatters--i thought to myself, oh, lucy doesn't need another dolly, and prepared to leave, but just as i turned a little thing caught my eye. it was a little doll-sized washbucket, i think, and had the name ginny written across it. curious, i riffled through the box a bit more and came up with a handful of shoes and sweet teeny outfits. picking up the box, i asked how much, prepared to talk myself out of an expensive vintage dolly set, but the kind lady said $5, and that includes her little wardrobe box. 

sold.

 

the wardrobe with the sweet vintage decals worth the five dollars, at least to me anyway. i consider the rest of the stuff just icing on the cake.

 

the insides of ginny's closet a bit on the disorganized side. never mind, we are about to fix that. first, we must find and extract baby ginny.

 

ah, there she is, with lovely open & shut eyes and hair that's just a bit wild. clothed in a bathrobe, an obvious complement to the well-mussed hair. ginny came with a nice wooden bed to sleep in, complete with mattress, pillow, coverlet and satin blanket. plus a chair to accompany. very plush.

 

 

an array of outfits for all seasons and occasions, including the tea party dress, the back-to-school dress, the band majorette dress, the riding outfit, the woolen winter dress and overcoat, the mexican fiesta dress, the swimming suit (modest, and complete with beach towel and cover-up) and my very favorite by far...

 

the wilderness outfit. to accompany this piece, a sleeping bag and washbucket.  prepared for anything, little ginny.

 

of course, every outfit needs a hat. 

 

and every outfit needs a pair of mary janes. 10 pairs should be enough, right? in every color, plus multiples in basic black and brown? but don't forget the other footwear... 

 

if i had this much fun with baby ginny, just imagine what lucy will think. someday.

this moment...

sharing is caring! i have got about 20 pounds of these apples to do something with. haven't decided what yet. i also haven't found my corer/peeler/slicer that makes preparing the apples so simple. it's in a missing box full of kitchen stuff--i'm about to put out a hefty reward if i don't find my can opener soon.

happy weekending!

super simple snacking...

the kids have been going easy on me. first of all, they've been napping--napping well. secondly, every day, their after-nap snack request is as follows: fishing for oats! we want to go fishing for oats!!!

fishing for oats requires very little in the way of tools or preparedness (this is good because i am still missing a box of kitchen essentials). one must simply gather up a couple of spoons, a tub of peanut butter and a jar of uncooked oatmeal. stand back and let the kids have at it--a scoop of peanut butter on the spoon, dipped into the jar of oats. and all of a sudden, we're fishing.

it's simply amazing how little kids need to be truly content. and shame on me for trying to switch it up a bit--hudson and lucy both gave me the side-eye when i offered a dish of minced fruit. "uh, we fishing for oats, mommy. not bananas. not plums. and for sure not blueberries," a straightforward lucy informed me through a mouthful of peanut butter. "but you can give us some chocolate chips!"

go fish, kid.

 

*pb is listed as a common choking hazard. so watch the kiddos while they fish.

this moment...

happy weekending!

gobble, gobble...

we are finally in our new (old) house, unpacked and settling in further every day. the deal with moving, of course, is that it is both mentally and physically exhausting. we had the ability to move slowly, over an extended period of time, with a couple large truckloads of essentials at the tail end. not sure if this is actually a better way than throwing everything into boxes and trucks at once--it kind of extends the pain and the process. either way, we are home now. home, where we will be for a very long time. waking up here everyday is a little celebration. i am excited to show all of it in time.

the first step to really being home, of course, is to start living out all of the dreams that our old house and its location would not allow. please allow me to introduce the turkey poults, who joined us here on monday afternoon.
there were 7 in all, 3 got passed to very good friends who have aspirations similar to ours. the other 4 have taken up residence in an old chick-raising coop that was already on the property. we're hoping to get a pair to mate, but only time will tell on that. the rest will be dinner at some point--perhaps not thanksgiving as they are a bit young and a heritage variety slower to grow than the industry-standard broadbreasted white. truth be told, i'm more nervous about the ones that we'll raise to adulthood and keep than the ones that we are raising for food. a trip to the turkey ranch taught me two things: turkeys are big and turkeys are loud. the daddy of the babies we bought was taller than hudson and about 3 times as wide. he buried his head in my dress and mumbled things about going home now, mama. i felt a bit in over my head as we drove away from the ranch--lucy had begged and pleaded to hold one on the way home, and two blocks in on the drive, the little bugger kicked loose and went flying about the car. i pulled over, we collected ourselves and restarted for home, noting that three week old turkeys are a lot stronger physically than three week old chickens.

there are lots of lessons to learn. thankfully we have a wonderful place to learn them.