Happy June 28th!

Which in West Bountiful this year, is their version of the 4th of July, complete with parade in the morning, party at the park all day, and fireworks at night.

This day was also David's B-day, aforementioned, so the day was a childhood dream: Parade, new kittens, going to see the new Pixar movie Wall-E with dad, dinner at Chuck-a-rama, cake and ice-cream, presents for dad, play at the park, and fireworks. I told them to hold on to that day as the symbol of their childhood for when anyone asked them if they had a happy childhood. Ok, kids, you'd better say YES!

I know these pics are little, but I wanted a quick upload. Here are some images of the day:

The Cousins: Mark and Kim, some of their kids:

There was so much candy thrown at this parade! It was CRAZY. My cousin Josh (Kim's oldest) is home from BYU for the weekend, and was studying engineering during the parade. He was rewarded by someone coming up with a huge bag of candy and dumping it on his lap as a reward for studying--you can't see the candy (behind the notes), he was pleasantly surprised!The parade was complete with Darth!
The grumpilicious didn't have to watch the parade and emerged afterward, "Because it's my birthday and I don't have to do anything I don't want to."I kind of jumped on a whim while the older kids were at the movies and went picked up two free kittens, siblings, to be our farm cats. The black with gray stripes is a girl, Isabelle (Sophie named) The white with gray stripes (beautiful!) is a boy, Spike (Ben named).


David got a guitar and a Batman pillow (and Batman toys) for his b-day.

It has become a tradition that Ben design his dad's cake on the computer and print it out for me to copy onto the cake, I don't know that I did it justice. Here's Ben's design:

Here's the cake:

Happy B-day, old man! It was a fun day!

Oh, and here's that pillow I made for father's day:

Pics from Lucy's B-day

About three weeks too late:

Your Chicken Lesson for Today

Because you know you wanted one.

This Saturday we will go from 21 chickens to 11 chickens in The Great Chicken Massacre of 2008, so today I get to order more chickens from McMurray Hatchery so we will have more layers in the hen house in the winter. (There needs to be a lot so they can warm up together in the coop). So today I ordered a rainbow of new layers to spice up our current all-white hen menagerie:

(below "st run" means "straight run," which means just whatever comes out, non-sexed, usually half/half")

Top Left (and first chick on left, below) New Hampshire Reds - 5 st run

Middle Left - Buff Orpingtons (lots of thick feathers for winter!) 2 female, 5 st run

Bottom Left and middle chick: Black Minorca 2 female

Top Right: Buff Minorca 2 female

Middle Right: Barred Rocks 9 st run

Buff Orpingtons are good mothers, which means I won't have to buy or tend chicks anymore, unless I want a different variety. Many modern hens won't set. They'll lay eggs and wander off. In a commercial environment, setting tendencies are a bad thing--you don't want the hen to be upset when you take her eggs. You can sneak other, non-setting hens' eggs under a setting hen no problem, and she'll mother and raise the chicks as her own. Her chicks will make even better mothers than she was, because they are a generation raised by a mother, not just in a hatchery (or by me). Of course, the boys in the straight runs will be fryed up, except for whichever one I decide will be our rooster. I'm hoping to have a buff orpington rooster also, but I may change my mind.

So, I recently had cause to review my blog thoroughly (as aforementioned amusing security breaches gave me pause ---"What HAVE I been writing in my blog??") And I learned that I've been saying for months, "Soon the coop will be done." Well, guess what? The chickens moved in to their coop last week! It still needs the roofing material put on, but it will do for now.

BEFORE:

AFTER:
YAY DAVID!

Fancy doors on outside to get eggs! Nesting boxes inside!

The fryers are too fat to get up on the perches. Look how fat they are!! They are ready for the freezer. They've had a good, chicken life, unlike the chickens we've had in our freezer up until now. Sure, I have to see them die, but I know where my food is coming from, and I know it has been treated well.

Poor Roxy the dog can sit and see the chickens in their run all day. She's drooling.

Our pullets should start laying in September. Our next batch won't start laying until Christmas, and that is only if we keep a light on out there on a timer to keep the sun "coming up" at 5 every morning as the days shorten.

Yay chickens!

Happy Birthday to my man

David in 1990 - just before leaving for the mission. This is the pic I had on my wall for two years.

This blog is named after a very old-tyme song David and I considered "ours" in high school, "The Old Black Magic Called Love," with Louis Prima and Keely Smith. Listen here:



Still very relevant, if I say so myself. David says he agrees with Ned, his friend 2 weeks his senior, that 37 is indeed very different than 36, as the fears of aging have given way to acceptance of inevitable death.

Love you, David---I'm loving the spin I'm in!

Good things come in ugly packages

I admit this is not generally true, but true in this case. After reading this article in the LA Times about analysts' projections of life when oil hits $200/barrel (in the next 6-12 months--that's $7 gas) I can see first how crippling it will be to lose something our daily life is so dependent on as well as why more extreme environmentalists are applauding the higher prices.

Oh no! Without cheap oil we will have to:

• Bring manufacturing back to the United States from China!
• Start to keep our money in our own communities by buying goods and services locally!
• Be unable to cheaply eat oil-derived food additives and preservatives (see coal: fun and yummy)
• Have to pay more for our inane practice of moving our food around the world and country!
• Have to eat foods in season!
• Pay more for the oil-derived chemicals we use to pollute our products and homes!
• Over the next few years, adjust from sprawling, anonymous commuter towns to more insular communities!

Oh no!

This is all overly-simplistic, of course. This process could be very ugly and devastating on a personal level, especially to those required to do long commutes to support their families. Maybe we can't do it and it will be irreversibly crippling. But whatever steps we can take to lower our dependence on cheap, imported products, processed oil-based food, food shipped from far-flung places, etc. etc., the easier this forced change will be for our family.

Read the article--it's an interesting mental exercise, and apparently is becoming quickly an actual fact of life.

Funny Story

You all know I'm an open person, and my last post was evidence of that. My last post also had the name of the company I've been interviewing with. Also, the company apparently has Google Alerts set on their name, which is actually probably a good idea.

Although my blog has not been searchable until recently because my audience is small and rather private, I made it searchable a few weeks ago because some folks were complaining that they couldn't find it if they didn't have the link handy.

All that comes together to make a really funny story, which you all can probably figure out on your own.

So, Andrew, welcome to my blog. And thanks for giving me the job anyway.

The Real Tuesday

I so appreciate your supportive comments. It really has helped today. I interviewed with another 9 people today--2 higher-ups together, three of the creative team I'd be on together, and then the four other members of the team together. I liked everyone and they liked me. The first meeting, with the President, took a little more than my average friendliness. I eventually broke him with my explanation of why I liked the company. Apparently they were his reasons, too. He was much more engaging after that.

The company is Access Development. My briefest description is that they have a discount network of over 200,000 merchants, including big name folks like Target and Eddie Bauer, and restaurants and such. They sell use of this network to large groups and companies under the client's own brand, for example, the Arizona Teachers' Union Discount Card. Then the teachers carry the card around and use it at the places they regularly shop. Merchants get loyal customers, companies and organizations make their employees/members happy, businesses reward their customers, and the cardholders get things cheaper. So it's not a really hard sell--everyone gets something they want, this company just brings them together.

I talked to two more old bosses today--that's such a trip! My boss from 12 years ago (that I worked with for less than a year) was very nice and said he'd be very complimentary--apparently he's a national laboratory bigwig based in Maine now. And then good old Joe Edward from Sprint--always good for a laugh. Those references were both set up for calls tomorrow.

Before I left today the man who would be my boss, Andrew, asked if I'd be around tomorrow for him to call "in case there's anything I'd like to discuss with you." He and the other management folks are going to a management retreat at noon and I get the vibe he wants things wrapped up before he leaves.

So, my guess is that I'll get a preliminary offer tomorrow. Or, they will call me on one of my answers to a question I got today and throw me out of the running all together--I can't explain, but I've got a little fear that I may be caught in a deliberate omission of fact. I have worked to be very honest with them while not sharing additional info that, although related to my business life, I really didn't want to discuss. I have a completely valid answer for them if it comes up, but I don't know. So, I'm betting tomorrow I'll be hired or prematurely fired.

After the interview I came home and just felt like my world was shaking. This would be such a big change, coming so fast, and so different from what I'm doing or what I thought the answer to our problems would be, so at odds with the identity I'd imagined for myself, and with so many spiritual and logistical challenges. Plus I was a little anxious about my evasive (to put it kindly) answer to a direct question.

I actually needed a blessing from David to calm down. The blessing said that I needed to move beyond the difficulties of the past, that the opportunities that were coming were from the Lord, that I would be given the strength to take on the additional responsibilities and that I shouldn't underestimate my resources or abilities as I go into this. I did feel better, but still a little overwhelmed.

I spent the rest of the day weeding--over 3 hours, and I only did the little garden. The big garden I can weed more with a hoe, so it should be quite so labor intensive. Even though it is something that I'll have to do again every week, I enjoy it. So much of household life is like pushing the rock up the hill only for it to roll back down and be pushed up again. But somehow, the weed thing doesn't discourage me as much as, say, the dishes thing, or the feeding everyone three times a day thing.

I've got to make a menu plan for my family tonight. I have faithfully made and followed different menus for my family so many times in the past eight years, that I can't believe that I'm starting from scratch yet again. I'm ready for bed right now.

Since I pretty much know the group of people who read my blog, I just want to say that I appreciate you letting me dump on you and that you actually take an interest in my life--I feel supported when I talk to you guys on the phone and know that you know what is going on and care. I love that via the blog I am still connected to great folks like "Nordy" (when are you coming to Utah?) and that it motivates me to keep a journal better. Hail the blog!

Tuesday

For you bloggers, do you ever have a day where you go to title your post, and realize really there is no theme to your day or any thoughts therein? Thus, Tuesday. Nevermind that it is Monday today, for when I wrote the title, I thought it was Tuesday. There it remains.

The company I interviewed for contacted two of my references today. I got to spend a half hour on the phone today with the boss of all bosses, the long-lost owner of my soul, who now has my blog address (for the pictures), but he knows that it is not an insult to say he owned me in those days, but fact.

It was fun talking, like visiting a past life, being able to step right in like it wasn't seven years later.

After the references, they called to set up a final interview, but really it sounds like a meet-and-greet: with the team I'd be working on, the president of the company, and probably the lady who vacuums the floors at night--it's a very thorough company.

I dealt with bills, phone calls and household stuff (not the dishes, of course, although the pile is egregious) until I took the kids swimming with my mom. It was fun, although at this stage of my life, swimming means trying not to drown while carrying two excited and wiggly non-swimmers around, and maybe one swimmer on my back. We got a snack at Paces and came home and had pizza with maw/paw in law and showed off the garden. The kids are sleeping hard.

I found a 101 read-aloud story book at the DI (my new favorite place to buy my children's practically disposable clothing) and have been reading to Ben and Sophie each night from it. I feel bad that with all my talk about education and literate children I've been so flaky with this. I'm really enjoying it.

Tommorow I'll be weeding and weeding--things are out of control out there--that old phrase "growing like a weed"--I just never fully understand what that meant!

Busy week

Four generations! That lady with hardly any wrinkles in the middle? Yep, she's 88. Let me tell you about granny's skin care regimen--sheesh! I can't, it's a state secret anyway.

I look like my dad in this picture, which is very, very disturbing to me, but everyone else looked cute, so I'm swallowing my pride and putting it in.

The chickens are getting so big! Here's Lucy at sunset, following me around while I took some pics of the fatties.
All the chickens are the same age, and some of the fryers are girls, so it is not a gender thing here, all about breeding. Fryer's on the left, laying hen on the right (and bottom). Although you can see the bright red comb on top of the fryer, so it is a boy. The girl fryers' combs are pale and smaller, and there are none that I've seen yet on on the layers.So here's the West garden all going green! And Lucy. The hose and my bag of compost make it unkempt, but hey, we're working here. Far left row from front to back, two acorn squash plants and four varieties of potato, beets in back. Middle row front to back: chard, carrots, onions, peas, tomatoes. Right row is all squash and beans with corn in the back.

This is my tallest corn. I just weeded it three days ago, and you can see it is already being overrun, so I'll be on that tomorrow. It's the Sabbath after all.

Here are the tomatoes on the West garden side, they are all of a sudden growing fast, they must like this warm weather we've finally been getting this week.
Saturday was so productive, the coop is almost done, everything was weeded, I thinned the corn (but cheated and took all the extra plants out and replanted them somewhere else). There was organic pesticide sprayed on all the fruit trees, grapes and berries. I still need to thin the fruit on the fruit trees. I am stressing over my compost and going to get some professional advice on that at the garden center this week.


I had a 3.5 hour job interview on Friday for a full time job in marketing for a company in SLC. The position has been open for four months, and I sent them a resume on Monday, they called Tuesday, we did a phone interview Wednesday, I put my portfolio on the web for them Thursday, and then I did the crazy interview (one room, two interviewers, two breaks, three water bottles), and they said when they are ready to make an offer they start reference checks.

Well, they are having me schedule the reference checks for Monday and Tuesday.


It was so weird rehashing my whole life with them. It will also be weird talking to my old Sprint boss--immesshed, educational, intense and all-encompasing are the words that come to mind of my time being what he called his "work wife." A very different time, and that corporate life is such a very different world. But, it was one I was strangely happy and relaxed in on Friday.


David is getting a bit more work from the company he's been with for three years. Last month we thought they'd dried up completely, but now it looks like it will keep us going a big longer. We are still actively looking hard for a regular position for him also. Between the two of us, we will be able to execute a 7-year plan to put our lives back in a good place. I have talked to my Bishop and other trusted counselors and feel very relieved about this plan. I know that being here in Utah will make things easier for the kids.


Plus, this wonderful woman I was working with when I was deciding on doing a day care, she lives three houses down and runs the sweetest little 8-child, all-girl day care complete with French and ballet. I told her I likely need to be on her very long waiting list, and she said she will have an opening in late August and I'm officially on the top of the waiting list as far as she's concerned. That is a huge relief for my concerns about Lucy.

Well, it looks like after all the many, many doors we've pushed on and keep pushing on, one is opening. It is not the door I thought would be the right one for us, or that I thought I wanted to be the right one, but I can see that right now, it is a miracle that it seems to be a very timely solution for us.

Anyway, I'll let you know. Maybe my references will let the cat out of the bag about me and there won't be an offer after all.

But if so, then I'll be a working full time farmer with four kids. That will make for a lot of interesting blogging which I will never have time to do. However, I really like the company and know I'd be good at the job. Plus, paychecks are nice.

PS--if you click on the link about my dad above, you'll learn that he was in fact one of the inventors of the PC. Cool huh? But he's dead now. And he was nuts.

This is not a political blog

That said, I was sent an article today from my dear friend Jane that perfectly sums up why I, as a fiscally/foreign-policy-wise/socially conservative person, am campaigning for Obama. It is an endorsement from the White House counsel of two previous republican presidents. It's not very long, take a look:

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/convictions/archive/2008/03/23/endorsing-obama.aspx

I am constantly adding to my political sidebar, but I will try to keep my actual blog less offensive to you people who still think McCain has deep personal ethics or cares about the unborn or the traditional family just because he has an elephant by his name--whoa, getting a little snarky there! Sorry, I'll try to keep it civil.

I'm confident he'll win. But let the record show that I fully understand that either candidate, including Obama, may completely blow it and destroy our country even more--you never know with politicians. But, can we hope a little? YES WE CAN.

Ice-cream over blogging

I'm drowning my woes in ice-cream these past two days, not blogging. Gotta go, my bowl is melting.

Back to the baal of sweets . . .

Oh, I did join Mormons for Obama today--there must be a few of my readers who will join me, (although I know you're in the minority?)

Fathers' Day

Because yesterday was Fathers' Day, in our house that means I have to do whatever David wants, so last night that meant watching Dark Shadows with him and not blogging.

Saturday should have involved more weeding than it did, but definitely some gardening was done, and I have many mosquito bites to prove how late it was when I finally had to go in from lack of light.

I'll take some pics of the plants and chickens soon--they are both growing like crazy. Now it is finally heating up I think they'll grow faster. The potatoes are defintely the biggest, although the Yukon Golds are not so prolific as the red and russet.

I learned the "grape" vines I found and put on the rameumptom, as well as others I thought may be grapes around our fence are all creeping virginia--that look like grape vines when dormant, and do set berries (for use by the birds). It looks like it will be very pretty in fall. We have tons of some kind of mint, which I suspected was catnip and was right, I so wish it was spearmint!

I'm planting a lot of corn, and with all the flooding in the midwest, I'm glad about it. However, my first planting several weeks ago I thought I was smarter than the instructions. I hate thinning, it feels like such a waste, so I just planted one every foot, like they are supposed to end up. Well, I later read that corn has a low germination rate, plus I think some robins got to them just after planting, so I ended up with 10 plants in my 10 x 4 area in the West garden. This is bad for pollination, which I'll have to do by hand now. I very carefully transplanted them into a group (they were spread over the patch) and replanted more, 4-6" apart this time as instructed, and as I did in the big garden. I need to quit thinking I know better in things.

For Fathers' Day, I'd spent the week doing a very homey cross-stitch pillow for David's present. I'll have to take a picture, but it was a reference to an inside joke between us about the Book of Mormon story of the great missionary Ammon in Alma 18-19, where King Lamoni is converted and collapses, overwhelmed by the Spirit and what he's heard.

1 And it came to pass that after two days and two nights they were about to take his body and lay it in a sepulchre, which they had made for the purpose of burying their dead.

2 Now the queen having heard of the fame of Ammon, therefore she sent and desired that he should come in unto her.

3 And it came to pass that Ammon did as he was commanded, and went in unto the queen, and desired to know what she would that he should do.

4 And she said unto him: The servants of my husband have made it known unto me that thou art a prophet of a holy God, and that thou hast power to do many mighty works in his name;

5 Therefore, if this is the case, I would that ye should go in and see my husband, for he has been laid upon his bed for the space of two days and two nights; and some say that he is not dead, but others say that he is dead and that he stinketh, and that he ought to be placed in the sepulchre; but as for myself, to me he doth not stink.

You can finish the story here - but David has always thought this was the sweetest love story, that everyone else thinks he stinks except his wife. He applies the scriptures to himself. The pillow says in my neatest cross stitch possible since I haven't done it since the 7th grade:

To me he doth not stink . . .

Yesterday we went up to my in-laws ward because my Paw-in-law was speaking in church and I was asked to sing "O My Father." (click for history) Earlier in the week I found out the original tune Eliza Snow had chosen was "Gentle Annie" by Stephen Foster, so I found an SATB version at Day Murray Music and sang that version--everyone seemed to really enjoy it, it has that sweet, "Shenandoah Valley" vibe to it. You can hear a clip here of what I sang, if you click the second track--this whole CD is highly recommended.

We had a BBQ with David's parents and sibs and it was all very pleasant. My Paw-in-law is my only Paw, and he's a good one.

Happy Fathers Day to my sweet man. To me he doth not stink.

Drink no liquor and we eat-- but a very little meat

Only in times of winter or famine? I know I'm not one of those Mormons (although I have been for stints), nor do I know any. Still, meat is expensive and this article is a rational guide to simply cutting back a bit, not necessarily throwing out the whole hog.

The Minimalist: Putting Meat Back in Its Place

Guess what, I'm trendy!

Check this!
When Money Is Tight, Banking on Gardening

My little princess is two!

Can you believe it has been two years since that crazy whirlwind move/birth/hospital commute? Remember the days of Carepages, which turned into my family journal email and then succumbed to the blogosphere? It seems like another lifetime ago.

Check out Lucy's beginnings HERE. I keep meaning to order the Carepage book so we have a hard copy--hopefully I'll do that before civilization collapses.

Anyway, here's a sad reminder of that day (she's holding dad's hand):

She is just a treasure, worth thousands of hospital commutes, but thankfully only required 9 weeks worth. All my thanks to my loving Heavenly Father for this precious gift to our family.

Inspiration

Please order a free seed catalog from rareseeds.com--wow! If this doesn't get you excited about growing a little food next year, nothing will, and it's not too early to start planning. You can buy a $4 packet of seeds, find a 5' sq patch of ground, and grow yourself your own 85-150lb watermelon! Or you can just have a fabulous container garden. It is just a fun, relaxing read, I'm already excited about next year, and learning about all sorts of things I can plant in fall!

I had a sick chicken last night and was sure she was going to die. She was totally lethargic, limp when I picked her up (they usually fuss something fierce) and rather compliant when I fed her water, milk and a bit of colloidal silver (seriously, get some of this for your emergency kit for water-purification and antibiotic purposes). She slept in a box in my bathroom and this morning was perky, mad when I tried to pick her up, and happy to be put back out with her other friends. She actually ran directly up to one of the roosters, and they nuzzled--weird, huh? Aw, chickens and their little feelings.

Settling into a night of talk-writing

I'm talking in Sacrament Meeting tomorrow. My topic is the Law of Sacrifice, and I just so happened to have given a lesson on that in Relief Society not so long ago. That gives me a good start, but I'll be up late turning a discussion into a lecture. How lazy am I?

LOTS of yardwork today--everything is in the two gardens except for just a bit of space for subsequent plantings of beans, carrots and corn in one week and two weeks. Then a brief pause while I attend to the fruit trees and read up on canning and find a deep freeze.

Then total, tomato-covered chaos.

Mom planted irises in the front yard today, since my whole attitude since starting the gardens has been "I have a front yard?"

I'll let you know how the talks go.

Am I prepared?

I love crazy talk. I love picking through crazy talk and finding the little gems of truth, or of more crazy. It's because my dad was a crazy genius conspiracy theorist--and I mean CRAZY. While still a little kid, I was raised on debates around the four horsemen of Revelations and the identity of the Beast--like it was mother's milk. My dad was always swinging between religious zealot and self-proclaimed apostate prophet. Ah, childhood.

So can I tell you I am all about orthodoxy? It's my form of rebellion.

So, when my sweet friend tells me about a crazy alarmist prophecy email she got, I was all, "send it over, I love that stuff!" By which I mean, good for laughs, nice to see what the crazies are up to.

This one was some quotes in the family journals of a dream a mid-century LDS prophet had, which was alarming but not alarmist, but it was spread heavily with the interpretations and bold tweakings of his grandson, and then added to heavily by the emailer himself. End result? Don't you know, there'll be an inevitable, major war on American soil between the election and inauguration. Didn't see that coming.

First of all, who cares? If you follow the counsel of the prophets to be prepared temporally and spiritually, who cares what happens when? If you read the scriptures at all you know the latter days aren't a picnic, so boo hoo and get your food storage and have Family Home Evening.

Second of all, now we are for sure safe because I put it on my blog, which everyone knows jinxes it, so--no war.

But, the crazy talk did remind me I have an empty water barrel outside that needs filling, and I did forget to do my semi-annual food storage inventory at conference time (because my house was full of Pasadena scouts). So, I guess I'll get on that before the election. Gotta love the crazies.

In closing, something we should be paying attention to, probably more than the crazies:

Gordon B. Hinckley, 2002:

Occasions of this kind pull us up sharply to a realization that life is fragile, peace is fragile, civilization itself is fragile. The economy is particularly vulnerable. We have been counseled again and again concerning self-reliance, concerning debt, concerning thrift. So many of our people are heavily in debt for things that are not entirely necessary. When I was a young man, my father counseled me to build a modest home, sufficient for the needs of my family, and make it beautiful and attractive and pleasant and secure. He counseled me to pay off the mortgage as quickly as I could so that, come what may, there would be a roof over the heads of my wife and children. I was reared on that kind of doctrine. I urge you as members of this Church to get free of debt where possible and to have a little laid aside against a rainy day.

We cannot provide against every contingency. But we can provide against many contingencies. Let the present situation remind us that this we should do.
…

I do not know what the future holds. I do not wish to sound negative, but I wish to remind you of the warnings of scripture and the teachings of the prophets which we have had constantly before us.

I cannot forget the great lesson of Pharaoh's dream of the fat and lean kine and of the full and withered stalks of corn.

I cannot dismiss from my mind the grim warnings of the Lord as set forth in the 24th chapter of Matthew.

I am familiar, as are you, with the declarations of modern revelation that the time will come when the earth will be cleansed and there will be indescribable distress, with weeping and mourning and lamentation (see D&C 112:24).

Now, I do not wish to be an alarmist. I do not wish to be a prophet of doom. I am optimistic. I do not believe the time is here when an all-consuming calamity will overtake us. I earnestly pray that it may not. There is so much of the Lord's work yet to be done. We, and our children after us, must do it.

Let's get to work!

12 Food Additives to Avoid

A quick lesson in the what and why without my smarmy remarks.


http://health.msn.com/nutrition/slideshow.aspx?cp-documentid=100204508&imageindex=1


My comments on the election I've posted in my sidebar for your long-term consideration. ;)

Still alive

Just busy, tired and have a sick baby.

The big garden is half planted, should be done by Saturday. It's raining today.

Last night I went to put the chickens in (kind of late, I was gardening until after dark), and three hens were missing. I was so bummed. But they were there in the yard waiting for me to let their brothers and sisters out this morning. I was SO relieved.

Please pray David gets a new job very soon. I can't say I'm thinking about much else right now.