a new hobby

i can't help it. it started with wanting to live outside a somewhat urban environment, then the yard drew me to it by gardening (I blame Barbara Kingsolver also), then somehow we heard about having chickens, and now canning. never in my life did i imagine that i would be canning food! tonight i canned 4 jars of cherries in wine. Bill bought an awesome book that we read within the week it arrived in the mail. it's 'well preserved' by eugenia bone. i know the jars of cherries won't last, i tasted them before i put the lids on and i'm already dreaming of how it'll be on top of a mound of ice cream, add a piece of brownie... yum.

busy sewing

i love this sign. it's a house number along a street in my neighborhood. why did they make this? there is a number on the mailbox, so they didn't really need it. it's such a collection of nuts and bolts, paint, and metal scraps. kind of like a catch all from the work bench table in the garage.

new hens in the house

yesterday through a friend of ours, we found an ad for 18 week old chickens for sale. we jumped at the chance to build up our laying hen gals. striper was our lone chicken before the 8 other hens came along. you can see striper up on the brick ledge. if she gets too close to the other hens, she gets pecked. poor thing, we've turned her world upside down.