Crazy Busy

That's what it's been around here. My Mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and her husband came to visit this past weekend. I've started merchandising & doing electronics demos. Yikes...that's intimidating! But it's a little money.

We've also had overflowing strawberries! I wish you were here so I could give you some berries!

Other than that, I don't know where the time goes in the summer. Here I had to make a few phone calls & it's too late. (on the list tomorrow).

Other than that...have a great day!

New Life...

Sunday; it was cold & rainy around here. My husband had gone to see his Mother for the weekend & I had to feed the animals. I was cranky...in a mood...when I went out to the barn to find that the momma mallard had hatched her eggs! She ended up with 15ducklings! ...but they're all pretty nervous around people & snuggle under momma to stay warm. I got this pic of her and one baby, the others were too shy for the camera & I didn't want to upset her further. The whole discovering that she'd hatched her babes made for a more uplifting day to be sure! We've had chickens "set" on their eggs around here before, but the chickens have never been very successful.
The mallards--on the other hand--more so. Fun stuff...

A little windy around here....

We woke up to seeing this outside our bedroom window. Literally half the tree blew off! This is technically the second time we've lost a major limb on this tree; the first time was the December ice storm of '08. Needless to say the clean up is easier when you are not trying to drag branches through the snow & ice.

Lawnmower AGAIN!!!

My poor husband...he has been trying to get the lawnmower fixed. He finally got it back together and started cutting and the blade broke. He thinks there's another blade at the lake...2.5 hrs away.

In the meantime, he cut the dandelion forest with the rough cut mower...really an attachment to the mini Ford tractor...which is meant for cutting field grass. Hey...it looks a WHOLE LOT BETTER! Maybe it means I should drive north to the lakehouse to pick up the lawnmower blade and mow the forest of grass there, eh? Yes...a drive north to Michigan might be just the ticket!

Baby Mallards

We have a couple mallards & a peking duck in our barn. The mallard lady duck laid a bunch of eggs. Our neighbor does a thing where he hatches eggs in an incubator & now we have baby mallards! We bought the first mallards from Murray McMurray for like $4.79 each. (yes you can buy mallards!).

These wild little things are SO CUTE! They hatched this past Thursday so they're 3 days old in this photo. They don't like humans even at 3 days old. They were scurrying around wildly after I held one with this "INTRUDER! INTRUDER! ALERT" kind of run!

It wasn't all a bummer today...

I finished a basket! I'd bought the pattern more than a year ago! I just about gasped when I
realized how much I'd paid for the handle..$4.80!!! Yikes, I should have bought that second
box of basket supplies at that garage sale! Live and learn!

Anyway, this is the mini Cherokee Cross Tote. It's not stained yet, but I like it lots. I love
making baskets!!! I need to make more...my hands are blue from dying the reed! Well, my nails are at least. And...about the photo--the basket is symmetrical; the camera angle was funny & I've only got GIMP on this computer...which I'm not all that familiar with. You get the idea!

My husband is off to the neighbors to pick up the ducks they hatched for us from their duck eggs.
Photos of that coming soon...maybe on his blog; view from bippus

Always something!!!

The riding lawnmower broke. The mowing deck just dropped down on the left side. We have a push mower, but we have way too much land to push mow. My husband tried to cut the grass with the Ford mini tractor with the belly mount mower, but the thingy broke on that as well...the rubber strap that makes the blades go! Sheese...I don't know what it is! My husband called the John Deere dealer & they had him buy a new automatic clutch thingy...but now it's still making a goofy noise & we have to replace the belts. (not sure why he didn't just buy the belts while he was there--the neighbor had given him one & maybe he thought that would work?)...anyway. Our grass looks AWFUL! ...lots of dandelion heads sticking up all over. Hope this mower thing gets fixed on Monday!!!

The good thing is that my husband & son are fixing it themselves. In the old days (before unemployment), we'd probably just have taken it into the lawn repair shop & paid about $400 to get it repaired. It's great that my almost 16 yr old son gets the opportunity to see how things work. He sees the frustration as well, but it's a life skill!