Chickens

I am under the impression that chickens really aren’t all that smart. We added on to our chicken coop so there would be plenty of room to make happy chickens and we also fenced off a portion for them to have day time play. In the morning we go out and open their little door to let them have some freedom out of their coop, it’s like recess. Well, a rooster flew his coop and can not figure out how to get back in. He has been on his own for several days now. Seems to me, he is not so smart if he can’t just reverse what he did the first time. He stands on the outside of the fence looking at all the other chickens. You know he wants inside with them, but he doesn’t attempt to fly back into the chicken run. I’ve tried to coax him into an open door, but he is too afraid of me to accept my help.

But not all chickens appear to be so mentally challenged. We at one time had a “pet” chicken. Not by our choice, we were chosen by the said chicken. As I’ve said before, we have had several batches of chickens that have gotten eaten by wild critters. One batch we had a couple of years ago was disrupted one night. When I went out in the morning to feed the chickens, I thought I had lost all of them, until a lone bantam came out of the woods. I could not figure out how this little chicken got out of the coop, but she did and she survived the attack. Smart chicken, right? Yes, but the story does not end there.

As the sole survivor of her flock, we did not put her back into the coop only to meet the same demise as her sisters. We let her free range and roost up in a chosen tree at night. Well, chickens are meant to be in a flock. They do not like to be alone and this chicken proved that. She started to incorporate herself into our family. She stayed on the back porch with the dog and cats. She ate the dog’s food. We even found her in the kids bathroom one night roosting up on the shower curtain. She somehow managed to get in when either the kids or dog came in (Dottie used to open up the screen door with her nose to let herself in). She even spent the night in the laundry room a few times without me knowing it until the next morning. She finally chose our front porch to be her roosting spot at night, right on top of one of my plants. I started calling her CC for Crazy Chicken.
CC and Dottie Dog on the back porch.


CC by the dog food, and she did eat it.


CC roosting on top of the shower curtain.


Quinn holding CC.


We eventually got more chickens and having “secured” the coop, reintroduced CC into the new flock. She even took charge in showing them how things were to be done. We let them out during the day and at night locked them back up in their coop. CC would lead them into the coop at night. It was so funny to see this little chicken leading them all in.

The story ends on a sad note. What we thought was a secure coop turned out not to be. A wild critter started getting in at night. She was the first to go as if she sacrificed herself for the other chickens. I was sad that she was the only one taken that night. Eventually we lost the other ones. This is why we started over with a new coop. It’s no fun to lose your chickens.

Family and friends told me I should write a book about CC’s adventures. I can see in my mind’s eye a children’s series about CC. But until then, blogging about her will have to do.

***UPDATE*** OK, I went outside to take a picture of the chicken addition and the chicken run. I was thinking as I took the first picture, “wouldn’t it be funny if that rooster was back in with the other chickens.” I took a closer look and sure enough, there he was. I couldn’t believe he was ruining my story! No, really, he just made it a happy ending. And I am happy that he is back in the flock.

Chicken Run. This is when I noticed that we again had three roosters back in the flock. They are in the middle behind the tree.

Three roosters by the door that lets them out into the chicken run. The middle rooster is the one that finally figured out how to get back in with the other chickens.

More Kid Follies

OK, it's time for a more upbeat post. I'm doing better and haven't cried in several days since Dottie passed. I think I'm on the mend. But here a few cute things the kids have said or done recently.

• Ethan took a sesame seed off of his hamburger bun and said, “Mom, if I plant this, it will grow a hamburger.”

• After telling Alex to do something, he muttered, “I’m the only one who ever does anything around here.” He kind of sounds familiar. Hmm….

• After Ethan gave me a kiss good night he said, “I’m glad you don’t have spiky cheeks. Dad has spiky cheeks.”
  
  Here is Anna pulling her shirt up over her head. I think she looks like a flower, the kids say she’s an elephant.

A happy heart makes the face cheerful... Proverbs 15:13

Dottie

Yesterday was a sad day for our family. Our beloved dog Dottie died. I wasn’t expecting to be so grieved by her passing, but I keep remembering her and tearing up. I’m also carrying guilt over how her life could have been better. You see, she came into our life BC (Before Children), when Dom and I had not even been married a year yet. So she and her sister Maggie had been our children and we spoiled them. Once our “real” children came, the dogs got a back seat in our life. I’m sure that is normal, but now that Dottie is gone, I feel we could have treated her better, that she deserved better.

It all began when Dom and I, along with Dom’s niece, Jessica, went into a pet store in Elmira, NY one day 12 years ago. We were not intending to buy a dog. We said that we wanted to wait until we had a place with a yard before doing that because at that time we were living above our restaurant in Watkins Glen, NY. Our back yard was a parking lot and our front yard was the main street in town. We didn’t think that would be fair for a dog. But you know the story, we went into that pet store and fell in love, with not one dog, but two! I had been wanting a Lab and Dom had been wanting a Dalmatian. The pet store had both! The lab looked so adorable with her blue eyes and white stomach. I still remember her in the corner of the store looking at me with those blue, blue eyes, and I fell in love. Of course Dom wanted the Dalmatian, but I remember holding her in the pet store, and she curled up on my lap and fell asleep. From then on out I was hers. She claimed me, and she never really was Dom’s dog, she was mine. She only ever wanted to be near me, everywhere I went in the house she was my shadow. And normally, she was just in my way and annoying (reason for my current guilt).

But on the way home from the pet store, we were discussing what to name them and Jessica came up with Dottie. We liked it and it stuck. She had wanted to call the Lab, Coco, but when Dom’s mom took one look at her she said, “no she’s not a Coco (a very popular name for Chocolate Labs), she’s a Maggie." And so she was.

It was hard having the dogs in the apartment, just like we thought it would be. Soon we bought a house just a block away from the restaurant that had a nice big yard for the dogs. That first year was an adventure with those pups. Maggie loved leather and ate every pair of shoes I owned that were made out of it. I had a set of books that had belonged to my grandparents. They were the one thing that I had wanted to take from their estate after my grandmother passed to remember them by. Well Maggie got a hold of one that had a leather cover and ate it. I still have the book, minus the cover (At least I thought I did. Upon writing this I went looking for it and can‘t find it. I‘m afraid Dom might of got a hold of it and tossed it thinking it was no good. Hmm…). It’s the one thing I miss from her puppy chewing days (and maybe more if I can‘t find it). Dottie on the other hand loved my canvas shoes. So between the two of them I had no shoes left except maybe the ones on my feet.

The house where we lived barely had any grass and the first winter we had the pups the weather was unseasonably warm. So any snow we got melted right away and so the ground was always a big muddy mess. We would put the dogs out and immediately upon their return inside we marched them to the bath tub to wash their feet. They got so used to this they automatically went straight to the tub when they came in. One time they came in and I didn’t need to wash their feet so I didn’t march them to the tub. But later I realized that they were “missing” and went looking for them. There they were both patiently waiting in the tub for me to come wash their feet. Precious.

Dottie loved bread! I could not leave anything on the counter in the bread family and leave her in the house alone and expect to come home to find it again. So I got into the habit of always putting the bread in a safe place. During writing this I was baking bread and as I took it out of the oven, I thought “I need to put this someplace where Dottie can’t get it before I go outside to help Dom with the chicken coop (we are adding on)." Of course the stark reminder of her no longer eating my bread came to mind, a sad thought. When Dom came home last night after I had already dug a hole for her and I hadn't covered her yet with dirt because I wanted to give him the chance to say goodbye, I went outside to be with him and looked in the hole and there was a piece of bread beside her. I said, “who put that bread in there.” I was of course thinking Anna or one of the kids did it, and Dom said, “I did.” So she is buried with one of her favorite things.

Dottie turned 12 years on June 10. Maggie’s B’day was just two days before and they were both born at the same kennel. They were truly sisters. We had to put Maggie to sleep about 4 years ago before moving here. So when Dottie was dying, I told her to go be with Maggie. Quinn asked me yesterday if dogs have spirits. I told him I really don’t know, but I hope she is running in an open field chasing a rabbit with dear old Maggie dog.

We love you Dottie Dog and we miss you.

***********************************Maggie too!

Widgets

Yesterday I spent my time searching the web for widgets. What's a widget, you say? Wikipedia says "A web widget is a portable chunk of code that can be installed and executed within any separate HTML-based web page by an end user without requiring additional compilation." Clear? Basically it is something cool to add to my blog to spruce it up a bit. Dom had the boys out in the gulf yesterday for more scalloping with a friend of Dom's and his two sons, so Anna and I had a day alone at home. It was quiet here! So I spent my time on the computer instead of more vital household duties which will always be there to do tomorrow or the next day, and the next day...


For those who don't visit my actual web page because my post is emailed to you, you should stop by Bella to check out my new widgets. There is one that has a cool moving picture with a scripture verse overlay. The picture and verse are supposed to be changed every month, we'll see. At the very bottom of the page is another one displaying a bible verse, which is new every time you visit or hit the refresh buttom. The verse can be changed to a few different translations by clicking on the preferred translation at the top. You can also look up a particular verse, but it takes you to a different web page for that. :( I also added a place where you can sign up to receive my posts by email, well not exactly. The widget I was trying to use for that wouldn't work, so I used what blogger offers and it doesn't exactly let you use just your email, but a reader or homepage instead.

So if you have nothing better to do, stop by Bella and check out my widgets.

July 4th Weekend

We had a nice mini-vacation last weekend. We went to Carabelle, FL. Scallop season is upon us and Dom loves any reason to get into the water, especially when it comes to seafood. So we planned on taking our 20 year old boat out into the gulf for some fun. And since our boat is not so young anymore, it gives us some "trouble" each spring when we haul it out to clean and start the engine, which usually doesn't start. Dom has his work cut out for him each year in trying to figure out what's wrong with it. He changed the batteries and oil and whatever else and it seemed to be in working order. Friday, we packed up the truck and Dom started up the engine on the boat to test it out and it kept cutting out on him. Dom picked up the phone to call around and got a hold of one guy who told him to try and remove a certain switch. Dom did that and it worked. Yea, the only problem with that meant we wouldn't have reverse, but hey, the boat was running and we could manage without reverse.

This picture has nothing to do with our vacation, other than I took it when I was packing. The kids have this "thing" with pushing off their mattresses and walking on their box springs. This has resulted in holes punched through the thin material surrounding the box spring. Anna crawled into one of the holes and Alex came to tell me about it. I couldn't resist the urge to grab the camera. Silly girl!

Here's her head peaking out. Who knew I would be finding enjoyment from those holes.

Here's another picture I couldn't resist taking. The boys like to pack their back-packs with a few toys to take with them on vacation and Anna went and got hers to pack too. She looked so darn cute with her back-pack and hat on.

Here's finally a vacation photo of the hotel we stayed at. It was nice because it had its own marina and we were able to park our boat right in front of our room. I think our room was the third from the left on the second floor. This is the view from our boat after we pulled out of our slip. Remember that we don't have reverse, so getting in and out of the slip is challenging.

Here is a another view of the hotel and marina.

Here's Alex, Quinn, Ethan, & Anna enjoying a ride in the bow of the boat.

On our way out into the gulf we stopped at a restaurant that you can access from the water. You can see a little of Dom tying up the boat.

Here's our boat tied up at the dock where we stopped to eat at the Pirate's Tiki Hut.




We noticed when we ate at several restaurants there, that they had no windows. They were built like screen porches. We couldn't believe that they didn't need air conditioning, but it was very pleasant. We also were not bothered by mosquitoes! A true miracle in Florida!

We headed back out in our boat after a good meal. This is when our boat engine started to overheat. Ugh! Dom turned it off and started pouring buckets of water over it trying to cool it down. We turned our boat around to head back to the marina and traveled very slowly trying not to over exert the engine. It was hot all the way back, but sometimes when watching the temperature gauge, it would go down, like it was trying to cool down. Dom figured it could be the water pump or the thermostat that was bad. So we went back to the hotel to await the fireworks that our waitress told us about. The kids had wanted to stay out in the boat to watch them, but that wasn't to be and wouldn't have been anyway since our night-time lights weren't working on the boat. But we figured we would see the fireworks from our hotel room.

And we were right. We had an awesome view from our balcony. Here is a picture that I wasn't sure would turn out, but it did. It was great to be able to watch the fireworks without having to fight a crowd or traffic to do so. The show was short, but at least we got to see some.

Dom noticed Anna holding up her blanket-bear to watch the fireworks, so Dom helped her out by holding up her doll too. How cute is that?!

Here's Quinn enjoying a cookie sandwich while watching the fireworks. He took two fudge stripe cookies and put a chocolate chip cookie in between the fudge stripes and declared it a cookie sandwich. Quinn loves his food!

The next morning, Dom called a boat parts store (lack of a better name) to see if they had a thermostat for the boat. He figured it had to be the thermostat and not the water pump figuring that if it was the water pump it would have just not worked, period, not try to work and then not work off and on. So Dom went down to this store which was just around the corner from our hotel. The guy had a part that would work, but wasn't the exact replacement, since our boat is so old and they no longer make the exact part. Dom came back and put the new part on and presto, it worked.

So here we are back in the boat looking for a good spot to stop and gather scallops. Scallops like to hang out in the grassy spots.

But before we found a good spot, we had to run from some storms that were brewing. There was just scattered storms and we were able to steer around them.

We found a little private beach to enjoy while waiting out the storms. I really wanted to stay at a hotel on the beach, but since we didn't, I got to enjoy this beach without any crowds. That was nice.

Here is our boat hanging out while we were enjoying the beach.

"Our" island wasn't completely private, as there were some houses on this island

We finally spotted a good spot for scalloping, as there were a lot of other boats in this area. And we knew they were diving and not fishing since they had their dive flags up.

Here is Alex and Dom scalloping while pulling along Ethan on the inner-tube.

Here is sweet little Anna hanging out with me in the boat while Dom and Alex were out scalloping. I was trying to enjoy reading a book, but in the confined space with Anna and any boys that chose not to be in the water, it was challenging for them not to be completely bored and not bother me. :)

Quinn wanted to fish, but the fishing line kept tangling up and then I had to abandon my book to try and untangle it. I couldn't figure out how to get the pole to stop doing this and Dom wasn't around to ask since he was in the water. So Quinn had to quit fishing, since his mama was "drain bamaged."

Eventually our boat got reverse back. Dom had greased up the switch that he removed the day we left for vacation and replaced it back where it belonged and it started working again. This made docking much easier.

We had a pleasant little get-away lasting only three days. Carabelle turned out to be a tiny little town with hardly anything there. There was one grocery store and a couple of restaurants and that's about it. It is a boating community, so there were several marinas. Alex wanted to know why we kept seeing the same people everywhere we went. LOL! That's how small the town was.

Mom

I just posted my "winner" and was reading it over and realized I never included a picture of my mother. I said I was mentioning everyone who was at my wedding and who reads my blog, but somehow I forgot to add the most important person.

If you only knew how long I have been working on this post, you might understand. I started at 8:00 am and it was 2:00 pm before I finally posted it. I won't go into all the details of why it has taken that long, but it has. And I think it has fried my brain a little. :)

This is my step-father, Bill, with my mother, Diane.

I love you Mom! Congratulations!

And The Winner Is...

Mom! Congratulations! You are the lucky winner of recognition on my blog! Oh, I know you must feel so honored. But contain yourself, really. :)

If you have read the comments (and yes, Mom and Alisha, I added your comments!) my mom correctly said that I fell out of the swing, although she didn't trust her memory. Your memory is correct though, I fell. My MIL decorated that swing and from the picture above, you might be able to tell the lace and flower vine that she wound up the ropes. But what you can't tell is she also padded the seat with batting and lace. Any of you who have been in a wedding dress similar to mine know that there is a lot of material hanging down around the waist of the dress. It's padded as well. I went to sit down on that swing and I couldn't feel it beneath me and whoops, I went toppling right out of the thing. And I'm sure you would love a picture of that wouldn't you? Well I don't have one. I remember telling our photographer "don't you dare take a picture right now." And he didn't. But here is one he did get.
Yes, I am stuffing my bra! The photographer was taking pictures of my bridal party in the back of my in-laws house and he was privy to this moment. I had on this corset type thing with garters to attach my panty hose. Well those garters were pulling down my corset thingy and it was no longer offering enough support up top. Sorry if that is too much information. But anyway, I used a few select tissues to help out with that situation and Flash the photographer (isn't that a cool nickname) snapped my picture!
Later Flash asked if anyone had some tissues for sweet little Rob who was sniffling (he is in the back right of this picture, trying to stay close to his dad). Flash looked directly at me when saying this! Ha! Ha! :)
This next picture shows you our ceremony. Dom's dad (who has been in the construction business for 40+ years) had all these benches made for people to sit on. I used to have a couple, but with all the moves we've done over the years, they got left behind during one of them.
Here is my sister, Alisha, and her husband, Roger, with their two children Aaron and Lindsey. Aaron and Lindsey were one of the pairs of ring bearers and flower girls I had. I had two of everything really. I had two ministers, they were husband and wife, and two ring bearers, two flower girls, two maid/matrons of honor, two best men, then two attendant's on each side. I think that's it...
Here is my dad walking me down the aisle. I was looking down trying to keep my tears in check. I didn't cry on that day, but when my chosen song (from Somewhere in Time movie) started to play to signal me down the aisle, tears started to well up. I got them in control and was good the rest of the day.
Here is a picture of the harpist and flutist we had play "my" song. I didn't understand why Dom's cousin was sitting up there turning the harpist's sheet music until later. You see, it was a very windy fall day in upstate NY, windy enough to blow the leaves from the trees which my FIL started to rake up. When Flash got there he told them to stop raking them up and to put them back. LOL! Anyway, when the harpist arrived she was refusing to play because of the wind. Dom's cousin Michelle and Dom's sister Malissa told her she was going to stay and play. Michelle said she would sit beside her and hold her sheet music so it wouldn't fly away and since Michelle could read the music, she was able to keep up and turn the pages when needed. Michelle saved the day! I would have been very disappointed if I had no music to walk down the aisle too.
Here is my friend Jenny (who had a good guess on my comments) with the photographer. Flash took pictures of my bridal party with their significant other and Jenny had left her soon to be husband back home in OH, so Flash had his assistant take a picture of himself with Jenny. Flash was a great guy, very personable and a great photographer. I love all my pictures he took. And Jenny is my BFF. We've been friends since the 5th grade, so that is about 25 years.
Here is my brother, Jeff, with his wife of one week, at the time, Sandy. They got married the weekend before Dom and I in OH. It was a very busy couple of weeks for my family, but it worked out. My mom and sister came up from FL to OH for Jeff's wedding and then over to NY for ours. And of course Dom and I went to their wedding (I was one of Sandy's brides maids) in OH.
Here is a picture of Jeff and Sandy coming out of their church after they were married. My brother is the "funny" one in the family. I mean he is always cracking jokes and stuff and I think he and Sandy are "swimming" out of the church. Just being their usually "funny" selves. You guys can correct me if I'm wrong. Just leave a comment!
Last, but not least is my friend Rebecca and her DH, Joe. I met Rebecca while working at Video Express in Melbourne, FL. She was soon to be married when she started working there. When Dom and I were married, she and Joe were living in NJ, so it wasn't too far for them to travel to our wedding in NY. They are back in FL now, just like Dom and I. Miss you Rebecca!
Here is Dom's Dad, Henry, and his mom is in the back, Nancy. Alisha mentioned in her comment that she remembered Henry in a sling. Yes, he was. A few days before our wedding, we had gone out to dinner with Dom's parents. Afterwards we stopped back at our restaurant (Fireside Coffee Shoppe and Restaurant) for something and Dom's dad walked in the back door and fell through the trap door to our basement. Dom had left the door open and it was dark in the restaurant, so Henry couldn't see it was open. It literally was just a hole cut into the floor with hinges attached to the piece that was cut out to make a door. Henry took quite a tumble and broke his collar bone. He's fine now, although you can still see where he broke it because there is a bump there. I would advise never to leave a trap door open that leads to a basement!

This is a picture of our restaurant, Fireside Coffee Shoppe in Watkins Glen, NY at Christmas time the same year we were married. We later added the "and Restaurant" to our name because people were confused and didn't know we were a full restaurant as well. The restaurant was on the ground level and the second story was an apartment where we lived. So we literally lived at work! We owned and operated the restaurant for about three years before moving on to other ventures. The ironic thing is that building (which we no longer own) is now a rent-to-own store, and Dom has been in the rent-to-own business for about 9+ years now...
Here is one last picture. It's my favorite picture of Domenick. He had just gotten some grapes off the grape vine when Flash captured this picture. He has an ornery look on his face which is an expression that I sometimes see on the face of our oldest son.

Well, I hope you enjoyed this little walk down memory lane with me. I wanted to mention all the people that were at my wedding who are also readers of my blog. For all those who weren't there, I hope you weren't too bored! LOL! :)