Musings by Melissa

I don’t know about where you live, but the mosquitoes are terrible here.  Usually I can run from the safety of the house to the van and only 2-3 will sneak in the van.  A few minutes of swatting, and the van is clear.  Not this year.

The other day I killed a dozen mosquitoes after I had gotten in the van.  A dozen!  Gross! 

I prefer not to use pesticides, especially now that we have chickens eating our grass.  But enough was enough.  And I headed to the local drugstore for some mosquito spray.

One would think the spray would be near the door, since most people are terribly annoyed with mosquitoes this year.  But no…  I had to ask for it.  And then I was given a list of directions that was longer than our trip planner for our last vacation. 

“Go down this aisle until you see the stuffed animals.  Then go right.  If you pass the toothpaste and the over the counter acne pills, you know you’re on the right track.  Turn left when you get to the end of that row, and the mosquito spray will be on the bottom shelf behind the dishsoap.”

Argh!

Thankfully I’m pretty good at following directions.  And so, when we venture into the great outdoors of our yard, we smell lovely, and remain relatively itch-free.

Happy swatting!

The week before Mother’s Day I saw an ad in the paper for something I’d really wanted to see.  “The Sound of Music” was coming to a local theater for a couple showings!

Yahoo! 

Those of you who know me, know that “The Sound of Music” is one of my all-time favorite movies.  And who wouldn’t jump at the opportunity to see the movie on the big screen and hear Julie Andrews singing fill the theater?  Talk about better than a panasonic home theater system!

We weren’t disappointed!  The facial expressions were so much better than on our little television.  So many details were evident that I had missed before, even though I have seen the movie more times than I care to admit.

We took Wayne’s mother along to celebrate Mother’s Day with her.  She was very pleasantly surprised.  It was a great way to spend the afternoon.

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens…

No, I don’t have it.  Poor Justin does, but he’s well on the road to recovery now.  Last Friday it was all over his precious face.  His eyelids, cheeks, and chin were covered, as was a spot on his hand.

Normally I wouldn’t have fretted too much over it, but vision is a precious thing, and I’d hate to mess up one of our kidlets’ vision.  So, I took him to the doc.  So, he’s on some meds, and it’s clearing up.

But, it was only the first week of May!  If he keeps this up, it’s going to be a long summer.  At first, I thought maybe he got it because a chicken was in a patch of it, and he snuggled on the chicken.  But I’m thinking he may have commando-crawled through it.  Today I spotted him and Carl in the back field, on their bellies, trying to sneak up on the imaginary enemy.  Hmmm…  That could be where the poison ivy came from.

I guess when they go out to play war from now on I’ll have to make sure they first put on a mud mask so the enemy can’t see them and so the poison ivy won’t come in contact with their skin. 

Hey, they’re boys… I bet they’ll go for it!

A few years ago I managed to obtain a nice pair of winter boots for myself.  They fit perfectly and kept my feet warm and dry.  I loved them.

But then, our oldest son grew up, and guess what?!?  His feet became the same size as mine!

One day while he was looking for a pair of boots, he discovered my favorite pair.  Since they were black, he put them on.  It was “love at first step!”  And I watched my favorite winter boots go out to play!

So, I did what any self-respecting mother would do!  I went shopping. And I found myself a new pair of favorite boots.  However, these are definitely womens boots! The bottoms are black, but the top six inches or so is pink!

I thought to myself, “Ha! I fixed him!”

But then, my daughter started to grow…

And I think you know the end of the story.

Anyone want to go shopping?!?

It is no secret that my parents enjoy stopping at garage sales.  They often find bargains for the grandkids.  My daughter loves horses.  We don’t have one, but she still loves them.  And by going to garage sales, my parents have found her a great deal of fun horse equipment.  She’s got the boots, the hat, and the helmet.  She’s got horse pictures, horseshoe decorations, and horse books. 

Well, the other day, my parents told her and Justin that we’ve got about everything we need for a horse.  ”But where would you keep it?”

Without missing a beat, our youngest replied, “Under Alicia, of course!”

Too funny!

A few months ago I decided that our microwave took up way too much room on our countertop.  So, I banished it to the garage, wondering if we would be able to function without it.  And knowing that if we needed it, it was only a flight of stairs away.  (Our garage is connected to the basement.)  We did fairly well, but there were times when I missed having it in the kitchen.

Well, a year or two ago we took out the dishwasher.  We used it a couple times when we first moved into this house, but I prefer to wash dishes by hand.  And besides, that space could be put to better use.  So, we store a stool there so our youngest can help me in the kitchen (and so that I can reach the top shelves in the cupboards!).  Wayne also keeps his lunch box there.  But that still leaves a foot and a half or so of “dead space” at the top.

Enter… the microwave!

So, this morning Wayne found a nice piece of scrap wood in the barn and he built me a shelf.  It’s not a drop dead gorgeous shelf, but hey, it’s not like he’s making television stands that people will be looking at for hours on end!

But it’s a nice looking shelf, and it’s working nicely.  The microwave is now back in the kitchen, resting comfortably in its new home under the counter.

Well, we did it.  We butchered our first chicken.  It wasn’t the prettiest job in the world, but Earl is now simmering nicely in the crock pot.  And I’m pleased to report that all the other chickens in the hen house are now getting along nicely.  Yahoo! 

We should be getting an email any day now to let us know that our four new baby chicks are ready to be picked up.  Ahhh… to have babies in the house again! 

We got quite a bit of snow last night.  But it was blowing so hard that I have no idea how much actually fell.  Some areas are up to my waist and some are only shin deep.  But that’s in the driveway, which had already been cleared numerous times this winter.

Because of all the snow, there are plenty of odd jobs around here.  In addition to the chicken responsibilities, the bird feeders need to be kept full, the driveway shovelled, and the porch and deck cleared off. 

But I enjoy those kinds of jobs.  I enjoy getting outside when the wind is whipping the snow and it stings the face.  It’s calm now.  The sky is a bright blue, and West Michigan is digging out. 

Our digging is done, so now it’s time to relax in a hot bath with a cup of hot chocolate.  Ahhh….   I love winter!

Well, it finally happened.  One of our chickens is being picked on by the others.  It was bound to happen.  They are chickens, after all.  And chickens are known for pecking each other to death if they see any blood.

I’m thinking what happened is that Cotton picked some of the feathers off her legs because she was bored.  The others saw the blood, and began attacking her.  By the time we realized they were ganging up on her, her little rump was empty of feathers and bleeding. 

We whisked her into the house, found a box to keep her in, gave her a bath in the kitchen sink, and wrapped her in a towel to dry her off and get her warmed up.  Then she and Wayne took a nice nap on the couch.

We’re using a form of Blue Kote on her sores, but when we put her back in the coop, they still attacked her, even though the taste of the Blue Kote is supposed to discourage that.

So, what we’ve done is put some chicken wire around one of the nest boxes so that she can spend some time in the coop every day, but her “friends” can’t attack her.  I’m hoping that this will break them of their habit of pecking her.  It will also give her time to heal.

But because she’s confined to a nest box, and because it’s cold outside, I feel like we need to bring her back inside to eat, drink, and sleep.  (After all, she’s missing all her feathers on her backside!  Talk about nippy!)

And so, I find myself making many trips back and forth to the chicken coop each day.  But that’s okay because I’m no longer wondering what are the best diet pills?  I’m getting some decent exercise just putting on all my winter gear and walking back and forth with a chicken under my arm!

Our oldest son has wanted to take flying lessons for a long time.  He knew they would be costly, and he knew if he wanted to do this, he’d have to rais his own money.  Since he was quite young when he started, he couldn’t go to any of the local businesses.  (Seems like there are child labor laws against such things…)  Since he didn’t have any riches, he couldn’t go to on of those buy gold online places.  So, it took some brainstorming to come up with a good “job” for him.

He listed out what he had … bicycle, dog, computer, books, a big field, time, etc., and he started with that.

We came up with the idea of a newsletter.  This was almost two years ago.  And he’s been in the publishing business ever since.

It’s a small-time newsletter.  Although because we have dear friends who live in Kenya, it is international.  ~smile~  It’s about six pages every month, and it includes articles on what we’ve been doing, how to use a computer more effectively, interesting websites, funny sayings, book reviews, favorite recipes, etc.

He’s learned a lot about layout and graphics.  He’s also learned a lot about writing and a bit about accounting.

If you’re interested in helping a now-14-year-old earn money for flight school, let me know, and I’ll get you a sample copy.  A yearly email subscription is $12.