Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers out there on this special day.

The love and devotion of a mother is a very special thing.

Birth and Rebirth?

A few weeks ago, Francine, our new blue splash Orpington went broody.  She looked like this:

Three weeks later, she looked like this:

The only difference is that there was a faint peeping sound coming from under her wing.  I checked under her wing and... got pecked a whole bunch of times.  After the pecking stopped, I found this:

On another note, there might be a rebirth of the birds.  Yes, that's right, the Baltimore Orioles have the best record in baseball.

 

Hopefully, both the Orioles and Brett, Francine, and our new little chick will continue to have a good summer.

Good Friday

In the immortal words of Ice Cube, "I got [sic] to say it was a good day."  I had the day off work, so I slept in until six, and then I made pancakes for breakfast (like Ice Cube, no hogs were injured during the making of my breakfast).

After that, I ran some errands in the morning, "didn't even see a berry flashing those high beams," (although admittedly, I don't know what the that means, so it might have happened, and I just didn't know it) got back home and mowed the yard, and then spent a relaxing day with my wife. 

It was Opening Day and the Orioles beat the Twins 4 to 2.  Thus, the O's are in first place.  That probably also means that I should stop paying attention now and just assume they had a great season.

I also did a little spring cleaning in Coop D'Etat, so I let the chickens roam about for a while.  They enjoyed the opportunity to explore the yard.  On that note, I am sad to report that I both Eunice and Matilda passed away.  That was rather upsetting, but it has been a while, so I added two more hens to the flock.

We have Esmeralda, a lovely blue Orpington.  She's a big girl, and probably weighs more than Little Brett.

Then we have Francine.  She is a blue splash Orpington.  The breeder from which we purchased them said that she survived a fox attack early in her life.  Although she is a peaceful bird, she must be pretty tough.

When I was done cleaning up in the coop, I decided it would be nice to share an apple with the birds.  Here is Francine coming in for a look at the apple:

She seemed to enjoy it.

Camilla decided to stand watch over the apple for a while...

but she shared with the other chickens.

Here is Camilla and Beatrix enjoying their apple while Brett and Ezzy go off exploring:

They are a good flock of birds.

After that, I played fetch with the dogs for a bit.

Then I took Kana out for some training in the pastures.

I noticed that the apple tree is getting some blooms.

The cherry trees have lots of buds, and a few are just about open.

I ran Kana around quite a bit.

She finally had too much...

so we just sat down and took some pictures.

Incidentally, "[t]oday I didn't even have to use my AK" (which is somewhat accurate, except that it implies that I own an AK, and I don't actually own any weapons of any sort).  Indeed, it was rather peaceful and we just sat out in the middle pasture until the sun started to set.

"I [have] to say it was a good day."

So sad...

I have been way too busy lately and as a result, I have completely neglected the blog.  Of course, I am currently grieving the loss of someone very important to me so I had to do some online mourning.  I speak, of course, of the loss of Dale Horvath.

Oh Dale, the zombies might have taken your life and a substantial portion of your small intestines (and I think I saw a chunk of liver in there too), but they never took your humanity.

Poor, poor Dale.  He was my favorite of the "survivors," and it was painful to see him disemboweled by that nasty old zombie.  I of course blame Carl Grimes.  I hate that kid.

Godspeed Dale, you will be missed.

If you have no idea what I'm talking about, then you are quite obviously not a nerd who reads comic books and watches AMC's the Walking Dead.  Poop on you.

Now that I've broken my dry spell, I will have to provide some further updates about things on the Bully Hill Farm... which thankfully is not burdened by the troubles of the zombie apocalypse.

Misery

Whilst running and playing the yard, Petunia sliced up her foot.  It was a pretty bad cut, so we had to do the far too familiar run to the emergency veterinary clinic.  Poor Pea is sporting a few staples in her foot and sadly she has a little hardwear to go along with the staples:

Woe is Pea.

Baseless Accusations

I don't really watch the news much.  My therapist recommended that I avoid news coverage after the whole "Y2K incident."  (I'm doing much better, thank you.  I now understand that just because our computers are "talking" to eachother, they are not necessarily planning the demise of humanity.  Still, you can obviously understand the confusion, and really people should have thanked me for looking out for their best interests.)  Nonetheless, I keep hearing people talking about sexual harassment accusations being brought against Kane.  I'm here to set the record straight.

First, I like to call her Kana now.  I believe I have mentioned that previously, so please take note.

Second, I think that the whole thing is being blown way out of proportion.  OK, she might have used the "P-word," but that was completely reasonable in this situation.  And sure, there are some photographs, but they are being taken out of context:

I mean, clearly James Van Der Beek was asking for it they were just playing around.  Just two kids having fun.

So, now that I have explained this all thoroughly, I hope we can put these terrible and damaging rumours to rest. 

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.

Feeling warm and fuzzy

Now that fall has set in, I've noticed a distinct change in the equine beasties.  They have all started to get in their thick winter coats.  Gino is growing his little donkey-fro again.

Ellie has started to change colors again for the second, third... maybe fourth time this year.  I can't seem to keep track of her molting cycle.  She goes from chestnut to strawberry roan and back a few times a year.

Ellie develops a wonderfully thick pelt in the fall.  Whereas Ellie is always quite huggable, she is especially so when the weather gets cold.

The other great thing about fall is being able to enjoy the great outdoors.  It is wonderful to get out and see the leaves turning colors while the weather is still temperate.  While I was out driving around the other day on my vespa, I came across this gentleman while he was out for a brisk ride with some friends:

He was obviously a bit annoyed, shocked, and slightly bemused at the sight of me taking his picture.  Still, Big George turned out to be a decent fellow.  He actually gave a big cheesey smile for the next picture, but it was out of focus.

Still, it's good to get out and enjoy the world.  You never know just who or what you might see.