A sad, sad day...

We lost 9 meat chickens last night... I must have been a weasle... it was able to get into the cage where the chickens were not able to get out. Only 2 weeks away from butchering day... Not only a sad monetary loss, but sad for the birds that didn't get to serve their purpose. 6 were hauled away by whatever the critter was and 3 were left strewn about in the cage. We are now down to 14 birds, when we started with 25. I hope the critter doesn't come back tonight, now that he knows where "the goods" are. We'll leave Oliver (the gaurd dog) outside tonight... and probably all summer now... hopefully he'll catch him, or deter him at least.

Cute feet?

I had a friend come over the other day. We have known each other for years and years... we were talking about exercising, as we have both signed up to do a sprint triathalon (NOTHING near the distances of a true triathalon) this August. She has recently been running. She asked, "Sara, do your feet get real ugly when you start running?" It took the briefest moment of my looking at her in disbelief for us both to burst into laughter, her realizing WHO she was asking such a question to and me pondering a day when my feet were ever NOT "real ugly"!!! =)

First of all, I don't ever really remember not being a runner... even when I was very young my mom even used to have me "go run around the house a few times" to burn off some energy (or just give herself a moment of sanity). But secondly...just look at these feet!!! I have actually had MULTIPLE people (complete strangers!) come up to me with sympathy and concern in their voice and ask "what happened to your little toe?" or "awwww..how did you lose your toes?"

My feet are...... well... this photo was after mowing the lawn barefoot...(not the safest thing, I know...mom, pretend you didn't read that)  the green staining hides that the right big toe is purple from being squished...probably in soccer, but can't say for sure, I may have just tripped...My feet have been through a lot... I have had toe nails turn GREEN before falling off, I have had trainers drill into my nail to release the pressure of the blood build up, only to have them accidentally keep drilling into the flesh underneath the nail (ouch! and in case you were wondering, DOES cause an "old faithful" spouting affect), I I have hiked down mountains barefoot due to quarter size blisters on my heals, I have endured years of shin splints due to ridiculously high arches, I have stunned many with my ability to run accross black rock, walk on barnicles at the beach and even go days without putting shoes on.... I have often found myself ashamed and hiding my feet at those darned "shoes off" houses where everyone has BEAUTIFUL pedicures and polished nails (some even with gems adorning their nails or rings on their toes)...or catching another person's gaze as they see my feet out in the open and don't quite know what to say...you know...to the poor girl who had her little toes chopped off...

 Believe it or not, these sandles are actually "flattering" to my feet... Birkinstocks, Teva's and the like...you can't even SEE ANY of my little toe! (You can FORGET about dress shoes/sandles! They highlight it the worst!)AND THEN you have my second toe that stands a full HEAD (I CAPS that because, really look, the tips of my toes are like ET's fingers with a ball at the top!) taller than the big toe...not to mention even the THIRD toe is longer than the big one... it was as if... as if... my little toes gave all their growing energy to the other toes.........so to my dear friend, Connie... a public response... "no, my feet did not get "real ugly" when I started running, they just always have been..."  oh well, if I ever lose a pinky, I won't be completely outd'a luck!..

From Seed...

Here are my Tomato starts! These are the cherry tomato's. I just planted about 6 of them in the garden last weekend to see how they adjust before setting them all out.

Basil... I have never grown Basil before but really want to can speghetti sauce this year from my own stuff, so I am trying it out.

The tall one is a Brandywine Tomato and the others are cabbage, brocolii and cawliflower. I have had to re-start so many things since I lost about 50-60 starts to what I believe was a mouse that chomped the leaves off or dug out the dirt. They particularly liked the cantelope... every time the two leaves appear, within 24 hours, they are gone! UGG... I need to set traps. They must know they are save from the chickens and cat in there (yes, chickens will eat mice... I didn't know that either... but I've seen it!). I have also read that peppermint deters mice, so I have planted some which will take over that area around the green house by next year and hopefully the mice won't be a problem then. Any other ideas???