Ah, summer's coming, or it least it feels like summer's coming. Things are blooming, bumble bees are buzzing, and the insects have begun to roil above standing pools of water. I, however, have--for the last several weeks--done nothing but sit on my sore ass.
I just finished the first draft of my book. (19 chapters, 65,000 words.) It's laughably rough, and I'm not exaggerating when I insist that it could take me another six months of editing before I think it's in presentable shape. I've been working double-time since the draft is due in a couple days.
Anyway, I finally got off my butt and did some work and took some pictures around the Abbey. This is a red bud tree. This one is owned by a neighbor of David's down the hill.
The Abbey has a small creek running through the woods.
These are called "May apples." Supposedly they will have berries come late summer.
David has a rocky cliff, good for reading and contemplating.
You can see the fishing line that I tied above the fence. Much to my chagrin, we had another hawk attack. I have no idea how it dodged the wire, but luckily no chickens were harmed.
We got two new chicks. We were hoping that one of our three adult chickens would adopt them, but Patience and Chastity (the dark chickens) showed no interest, and Ruth (the red one) did nothing but peck one of them on its head. They have their own cage in my room.
Mr. Groundhog is back. We assume he has been hibernating in his hole since October.
We have a large garden now, so we needed to construct a fence within the fence to keep the chickens out of our crops. They're allowed to stay on the orchard side, where they can't do too much damage.
I also planted 25 asparaguses in this bed, which was a couple day-job since I had to dig a two foot hole, as asparagus have long roots.
Here's Chastity, enjoying a dirt bath.
Ruth, for whatever reason, will pose for hours on end if I have my camera pointed at her. I won't call her "photogenic," but she seems to like having her picture taken.
5 comments:
There really is such a thing as "pecking order" and without their true mother, those chicks are probably at the bottom of it. Their best chance at living is to keep them separate from the others until of equal size to the other chickens.
What are you going to name them?
Anon--I guess hoping that one of the chickens would mother the chicks was wishful thinking. Now, they're in a cage by themselves in my room.
Anon--Not sure. I think we might name this generation of chickens after favorite Hollywood actresses. David and I have crushes on Helen Mirren, so perhaps that's one chicken covered.
So are you done with school and just waiting to graduate in the spring?
Anon--good question. I should have been more clear. My project draft is due tomorrow, but I'll get comments and corrections back afterwards, plus 3 more weeks to revise it. Everything will wrap up on May 14, when I graduate.
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