Where IS That Pot Of Gold...?

Yesterday we had a sudden, unexpected thunderstorm, and had a nice double rainbow to go with it! The view out in the front yard was quite different from the back:

 You can just see the secondary rainbow to the right of the main one.

 ...and the end ended in my chimney!

And from the back yard:

...and once again, it ends on my house!

Meanwhile, the chicks have started doing that weird snakey-head-use-your-sisters-as-a-pillow thing...

 Chicken neck-braiding.

If you don't like doing that, why just pal up to your little sis and show her you love her by protecting her in any way you can.

Oh Good, More Rain.

I just can't say that and sound sincere anymore. And I love rain. But really...Mother Nature, are you listening? Enough, please. The snowpack is good, the lakes are full, the lawn is lush, the car has been rinsed clean. We're good here. I think that Texas is most likely still (or again) on fire, could you send a little their way? Thankyouverymuch.

Besides which, the chickens look like drowned rats and are NOT happy. When they aren't happy, they blame ME.


The "Before" version of Phoenix:

Phoenix soaked and embarassed:

Oh NO!!! Don't take my PICTURE!

New Year's Eve...

Today was rainy, so it consisted mainly of mopping up tracked-in mud from the kitchen floor--although it is such breathtakingly ugly early 1970's Harvest Gold linoleum that mud actually improves it. We also had to bring in one of the Silkies and all three Polish chickens for a session with the hair dryer, they were soaked to the skin and looking especially pathetic. Since crested poultry all have the same non-Darwinesque trait--a hole in the top of their skulls through which their brains protrude--wet crest feathers on their heads weight their head feathers down so as to cause brain injuries. This is thanks to dumbass humans breeding the birds for bigger and fancier head crest feathers. So when it rains, in come the Silkies and Polish chickens to lounge in the house, get their feathers blow-dried, eat snackies and watch TV (the 'Twilight Zone' marathon). Today two of the Silkies had the sense to stay in the coop and remain dry.

Tonight we will have our little family New Year's Eve party, complete with sparkling pomegranate juice, party hats, noisemakers and confetti poppers, plus a few leftover Fourth of July tidbits. We're celebrating at 8PM our time so N. can participate, then she's off to bed for a few hours till we wake her again at midnight to stand on the front porch and bang on the good Revere Ware stainless steel pots with wooden spoons (family tradition).

Tomorrow we take down the Christmas tree and pack away all those wonderful holiday baubles until next year. Normally I watch the Rose Parade during the tree untrimming, but because years ago the Rose Parade folks struck a deal with the local churches never to have the parade on a Sunday, no parade till January 2nd--on which day it is supposed to rain VERY heavily. It always feels very weird to take down the tree without the parade going in the background. We'll each write our memories from this year on the tissue that wraps the ornaments, and read the comments from previous years aloud to each other as we do so. N. will write her own comments beginning this year.

I also prune back all my rose bushes at the beginning of the year, which always makes them look like wretched little sticks but does them good in the long run...sad since this time of year I get my best roses--no sunburned blooms like in summer.

Whatever your New Year's Eve tradition is, have fun and celebrate safely and in style, Happy New Year!

Unwilling Backyard Archeological Digs

Well...digging into the dirt in our back yard has proved...um..."interesting", to put it politely.

To put it another way, who in the HELL throws broken glass, metal pull tabs (NOT pop tops, mind you!), broken dishes, et all, into their OWN YARD?!

The recent howling rainstorms and resulting standing floods managed to absolutely kill every blade of grass in our back yard.

Last year:

 

After the flood! 5 inches of standing water, which stayed for 4 days:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the drainage channels, which did NOTHING to improve the looks of the yard:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bushes and trees are still alive thank Heavens, so there is still SOME greenery. During the floods we had to go out into the rain and dig ditches to channel the water away from the buildings and the chicken coop so the flock wouldn't drown. We came up with lots of weird stuff such as the broken glass and metal, but also some cool stuff--Cracker Jack prizes (intact!), 21 marbles (so far), plastic cars in neato swoopy '30's designs, and numerous small toys. I already have a Kist soda bottle (handpainted logo!) and a small glass Bayer aspirin bottle that my chickens dug up years ago sitting on my kitchen window shelf. We figure that either the people who lived here used the yard for a trash heap, there was an incinerator out there (we've found hunks of melted glass) or, we (ulp) live on an old landfill. We already know that the previous homeowners liked to butcher their own pigs--they buried the remains of 14 (that we've found to date) in shallow graves of 6 inches of earth, wrapped in black plastic trash bags (why???!!). So the 'previous homeowner as land-befouling gross polluter' is the front running theory.

Anyway, since none of the grass grew back and the back yard looks like Mars, a session with a rototiller to prepare the way for new sod is in our near future. It promises to be a frightening/weird/cool/eye-opening/disgusting experience.

I can't wait to see what THAT produces...hmmm, come to think of it, didn't that guy's wife die while they lived here...?

*gulp*