Life Goes On...

 The Covid lockdown officially started yesterday here in the US.

So we've stocked up on people and animal supplies, now just to go into near-100% hermit mode. I've traded in my perfume for the oh-so-alluring scent of Lysol and Comet. Sanitized is the new sexy!

This coming Saturday I'll set eggs in the ReptiPro incubator for a planned hatch date of April 11th--because if ever the world needed Chickam, it's this year, dammit. We'll be hatching all eggs from our own flock, although I'm hoping to get a few buff Brahma eggs from a neighbor...fingers crossed!

Although given what our girls are offering us these days...

Strange days, indeed.
Rafe, my youngster Russian Orloff rooster, found the tiny egg out in the chicken yard, he called the kid over and drew her attention to it by clucking at it in a most concerned way. I'm just glad Rafe is finally getting his rooster thing goin', he was a slow starter.

We were going to run the camera on the adult flock last weekend--I had a cabbage on a string all ready to go--but the weather ruined things. We'll try again this coming weekend, because...yeah, the world needs some chicken-y distraction these days.

Meanwhile, we had about two weeks of lovely warmish spring weather, which fooled my plum tree into blooming--something it hasn't done during the last three years. Then this weekend we had a sudden, three-day snow/wind storm.

Yup. Snow on the blossoms. The ones the wind didn't just rip off the tree, that is.

Yeah...I didn't actually tear my hair out,but there was much grumbling as I stared out the window at the storm lashing my tree around.

We'll see if it fruits this year. This particular variety is a self-pollinator, and I had gone out with my dry paintbrush to play pollinator the day before the storm hit; since I have yet to see a bee or wasp so far.

The water drops do look pretty, though, I'll give it that.

Lastly, the Northern Lights afghan I was making is basically done!

Okay, so I got a little carried away on expanding the size of it, it's roughly 71 x 52. I also used a basic ripple pattern rather than the one that came with the kit, and plan on edging the long side edges with a single row of a simple shell pattern, just to give the edges a finished look.

Since I made it bigger, I ran short of yarn and had to order more, but I wanted an afghan that was both wide enough and long enough, dang it! Nothing's worse than trying to grab a couch nap and having to fuss with positioning an afghan so your toes don't stick out.

Anyway, that sucker's warm.

Happy Easter!

The bulbs in my front yard are finally coming up...

And my plum tree is blooming!  Maybe it'll fruit this year...

 The chickens were happy to see the sun...

Cam posed nicely.

Cam also reminded the banty boys who was boss. The Head Roo calling lesser roos for food like this, especially when he has nothing, as Cam does, here, is a major diss--he's treating them like hens.

Tingle climbed in the kid's lap and gave her a snuggle.

The weather had cleared long enough this afternoon to have our Easter egg hunt, which the kid still enjoys...

 

Though sometimes finding the eggs can be difficult.


Luckily, Dusty is happy to help. She picked up a red one and followed the kid back across the yard...

Being a Cocker Spaniel mix and a soft mouth, she held the one she found very gently and gave it up when asked.

Good girl!

Springtime Romance

It's springtime in the chickenyard, and everyone is getting properly twitterpated.

Cam was having wind issues today, it blew up his tail and made him look like a big ol' flower...

 Then he got it together and faced INTO the wind...

He eventually went out walking with Tater Tot. Cam and Tater Tot are having a bit of a romance right now, he escorts her around the yard while she keeps up a running commentary. He listened very attentively to everything she said.

That is all. 😊

Mutant!!!

Found this in my front yard today...it's a double-headed blanket flower! 

I figure I'll save seeds from it and plant them next year...save seeds again...plant again...lather, rinse, repeat.  Then in a few years I'll have my very own mutant flower ARMY and will take over the world! *insert evil laugh here*


You can do that with flowers, right...?

Highway 395 In The Spring

Tossed the kid in the car and took her south for Spring Break for a few days to visit her relatives.  The ridiculous amounts of snow we've had in the Sierras was evident at the Crestview rest stop near Mammoth, which up until now was resoundingly closed due to a 20 foot high wall of snow blocking the entrance and entombing the place.

This time they'd finally managed to get a snowplow in there and clean the place out, at least enough to unearth the buildings and for vehicles to get into the parking lot.

Lots of snow still surrounded the place, tho!

Note the shed on the left for scale...

Also had the kid pose next to the local glacier for scale.

The thing just went as far as the eye could see in a huge horseshoe encircling the rest area.  Looking at the layers and seeing each storm's snowfall was fun.

A little further south things had warmed up a bit. We stopped off at Tom's Place to admire the trees and rocks..and the trees *in* rocks.

Gotta love cool and weird rock formations...

Tom's Place.  Hasn't changed a whit (except for paint color) since it was built in 1919. Very cute spot and well worth a stop.

Right next to this parking lot is Rock Creek. It was flowing well although pretty much tea-colored due to Spring snowmelt.  The little bridge in the background was calling me, but it seemed to be on private property so we didn't explore.

We tried to drive up the road to Rock Creek Lake, but the gate at the trailhead was still closed and locked.  Next time!

We did get to suddenly come across a herd of deer smack in the road.  They just looked at us so I slowly went around them, yelling at a doe as I did, "Hey, get outta the road!"

Her response was to throw her head up and start out after the car like she was gonna teach me a lesson and either kick my butt or throw herself through my windshield.  Possibly both.  No thank you, we hurried up the road.

We made Bishop and stopped for lunch, taking it to our favorite park to feed the ducks.

Yeah.  Right.  Ducks.

Seagulls as far as the eye could see.  The ducks were around, but mostly made themselves scarce.  Unlike this guy, who seemed to be a professional-grade beggar.

...and he was very vocal and LOUD about it. When I called my husband to check in, it was hard to hear over the incessant pitiful seagull cries for more food. You had to time your conversation for when the little dude was inhaling for his next round of "EEE EEE EEEEEEE!"

Even when he was walking around he was yelling about how he was starving, criminy.

Yeah, poor guy is skin and bones.

After getting badly suckered by con-artist birds, we continued south...and drove through the little town of Lone Pine...where either they're soured on tourists or are planning on being Ground Zero of the coming zombie apocalypse.

It was like a set piece for a Roger Corman film.

Oh well, at least the bees are happy with highway 395's amazing Spring bloom!

Spring Is In The Air!

OK--so actually, technically Spring is in the ground.  Hey, whatever, the bulbs I dug last year from my mother's house and transplanted into my front yard--daffodils, lovely bright red tulips and delicate little muscaris--survived both my brutalist guerilla gardening and the winter and are starting to make flowers!  I planted them in an area where there are already bearded iris creeping over from the neighbor's yard, so over the years they can go nuts and fill in the space, I'm not worried about them spreading.  As a matter of fact I think I'm days away from my neighbor knocking on the door asking for some bulbs!

I already have hollyhocks, California poppies and dwarf snapdragons from my mother's house that I started from seed practically the first week we moved in 5 years ago (first things first, after all!), they come up beautifully every year.  The lilac starts I got from her yard last year are starting to bud out, so it's good to know that they made it, too!  Now if they'll just flower...

The tulips are still tight buds but should progress in a few days, so no pics of them yet--but the muscaris are getting a great start!

The mini daffodils, again, give 'em a few more days...

But hey, I officially have my first flower! 

 Every time I look at the flowers I got from my mom's house it gives me a wonderful, warm feeling; I'll always think of her when I see them...

Our weather is still giving us at or below freezing nights, but at least for the next few days our daytime temps are supposed to be in the low to mid 60's--best part, no damned wind. 

A chance for flowers to actually stay on the plants, yay!

Spring Is Bustin' Out All Over...

So the landscaping we put in last year is really taking off...

The pink dwarf flowering almond is especially gorgeous and seems really happy.

They're beautiful things, I'm really glad we put in three of these!

These petunias reseeded from last year, the kid's school grew them for the town's hanging baskets that line Highway 395 through the center of town, they smell amazing.

Both the Lavender Twist contorted redbud trees are blooming with tiny, snapdragonlike blooms.

The Showtime crape myrtle is gearing up...

And out in the future vegetable garden, the Sugar Tyme crape myrtle tree is being stupendous!

But all is not happy in Chickenland today.  Shake, the tiny Belgian d'Uccle, decided to get jealous and take personal offense at Alice the Barred Rock following me around as I took pictures, and picked a fight.

At first Alice politely ignored her, but you can only take so much of a microhen pulling your tail and growling and talking trash at you. 

Alice stares at Shake as if to say, 'You sure about this, little bug?'

She's sure!

Zip stands by, unhappy at the fight and growling, warning these two she's gonna break this nonsense up any second.

Luckily Alice ends things by jumping and sitting on Shake, who wisely decides to retire from the field of honor and runs off.

Meanwhile in the coop, Burger thinks it's too warm to engage in such silliness and cools off.

And egg laying goes on full steam in the nest boxes.

It's SRO, line up girls!

Pie voices her displeasure at being at the back of the line, however.