Oh my..

I have so much to write about - and cannot even figure out a good place to start.That is the sunset from last Sunday...it was prettier in person, but this picture isn't too bad.

Fresh in my mind is the DMV contest, of which my friend Mel is the reigning champion. I wish I had seen this earlier - I am POSITIVE that my van would win, hands down. The entries are awesome. You can go see for yourself at Tales from the Motherhood.

We have gotten our garden planted! There are a couple of things we still have yet to add - like peppers and tomatoes - but they can wait a bit longer. We planted 5 rows of corn, 2 rows of green beans, a row each of red, yellow and white onions, half a row of broccoli, a row and a half of brussels sprouts, a row of lettuce, half a row of carrots and a row and a half of okra. We also planted 6 hills of each - cucumbers, squash, zucchini, and cantaloupe and 4 hills of watermelon. YUM....it is going to be a LOT of work. I am ready for it. :)

Here are a few pictures of the garden. I *hope* to update them as things begin to grow.

The garden would not fit into one shot - so I took three. :)

I also planted strawberries - they are so cute. And sure to be yummy...if I can keep the kids out of them!

I have a new hibiscus tree, and cleaned out all the nasty overgrowth and junk weeds that were occupying the old bathtub in the yard. I struggled with even leaving the old tub out there ... it is so WT, but I ended up keeping it. I threw a few seed mats down that I had gotten from fundraisers, and weddings, etc. I dont have any expectations for it, so maybe a flower or two will pop up and surprise me. I planted a couple of bleeding hearts, that the boys promptly tromped on, and 2 baby clematis. Hopefully, they will grow up the old windmill base and cover it....again, a little bit WT.

The rabbits are doing well. I have decided to not breed them anymore until fall. I thought they could use a break, and I did not feel it would be very nice of me to stress them out in the heat. I do actually have 4 that are bred, but will have their litters weaned and out before the first of June.

We have a lot of chickens. We had a pretty good laying program going, until the Beagles decided that they liked to kill and eat chickens. We lost 4 laying hens, a rooster, 3 pullets, and then had an accidental chick death. We will not press charges, but if we did, Braden would be convicted of manslaughter....at the very least. :( Poor little chick. We have about 26 broilers that will be ready soon...that should be an experience. We have 83 pullets that we have raised from chicks. I am going to try to sell some on craigslist, but the rest will be great layers in the fall and next year. I will at least have the murdered chickens replaced.... so sad.

Baxter is the chicken killer. Hard to believe he could do such a thing with a face like this...I am supposed to be finding him a new home, but it makes me too sad, so I am going to declare that I will go through a form of PPD if he moves away. Wish me luck, I doubt Jeremy buys it. I dont know why we cant just build some sort of doggy play pen for the puppies while the chickens are out during the day. Actually, I just got an idea - and I may be building that myself. I will let you know how it turns out.





I love this picture of my difficult child. He is having a really hard time right now. I have been on the phone with the clinics and the doctor and the therapist all damn day. He has been suspended from school for 2 days for hitting another child. He does not really care that he cannot go to school - or that he missed a field trip today. *Sigh* Lord, grant me the serenity......