On chickens and rainbows

This post opens with an end of summer chicky challenge.  Here are the chickens just driven from the garden, because they ate of the fruit of the tomato.  We were curious why our tomatoes were slow ripening, and it didn't occur to us they would totally consume any at the first slight pinkening.  So they are banned.  This makes them vulnerable to our wild predators.

But Sheila the Aussie Sheepdog has become reincarnated as a chicken herder dog.  In fact, she is so protective and caring, she actually crawls into our little secure chicken pen in the evening with the chickens.  They are a bit distressed at having a dog so close, but we came home last evening and found sheila and the 25 chickens asleep in their abode.


We decided that wasn't the best, and have insisted Sheila not babysit chickens that close.








End of summer also means we have come home from our camping vacation, this August, with Bonnie's two brothers and children and friends.  We had an awesome time in Colorado, hosted by Ryan, Mark, and Cassandra and Troy.  Our family provided the only grandkids, and only four at that, so they had adult attention.

It also means I start to school, neglecting farm and house building for mondays and Wednesdays each week now.  Here's thumbkin.  Or rather, where is thumbkin.

 My K kids also learn to coordinate eyes hands and ears with drumming and singing Indian songs.  Here we're giving it a shot. 

pow wow is over.  sorry, no picts.  I was laid out with both eyes impossibly burning from one of the worst hay fever cases I've had.  Our house, with its high tech fan, was the best place to be.  But that lasted only four days, ruining Crow Fair, but not ruining plum picking with Bonnie and a friend.

And it's also honey harvest time, with our friend the honey man from Lodge Grass, Rich Behlow.  He filled six gal jugs for us this fall.

We are urgently now trying to get our solarium done.  stem wall is poured, ready to install a "sunny john" moldering toilet, and the arched pipes to support the glazing.  And then it rained, but thank God the two inches of rain--unheard of this time of year--came after we had it poured.  Only now, it's a pain to back fill.

With the storm gone, the sun has now started to warm up the place again.  They had 3 inches of snow on the highway in Glacier Park.   So we took advantage of the mud and went to town to work on the house K and Dave will occupy when they arrive 2nd week in September.  So we are not bored!  Enjoy the picts!  And
See my blog Spirit and Dust for my column in the local paper: http://greenwoodback40.blogspot.com/