What We've Been Up To, or Why Rubber Chickens Are Funny

* WARNING, pictures may gross you out. But at least you cannot smell them. Just saying.

The lovely Abby at Sugar Creek Family Farm invited us out to help with chicken preparing. Good times that. I'd helped with this chore as a kid at Deedle's farm, but Dearest had never even seen it done. We are all about hands on learning.

So, chickens are calm when you hang them upside down by their feet.

Feathers come right off after a scalding dip. That's the part that smells. Really smells yucky.

Dinosaur looking feet snap right off. You know, I never really thought about that part before.

Wee tots hiding under native lean-to. Cute toes. They mostly avoided the carnage of the day. Despite Lil'Bugs exclamations of, "We'll eat them!"- I think some of the visuals upset her. She's learning too.

Me? I held the baby. Thank you Blueberry! Hey, I'm good with fruit. Fruit is not bloody, does not smell like wet feathers, nor does fruit come pecking at the carnage bits of its tree brothers. Shudder. Apple anyone?

Then, I was blessed with the chore of laundry. I washed the chicken blood spattered clothes three times, frustrated and grossed out that a spot on Dearest's work jeans just wouldn't come clean. Until I realized it was a paint spot. Red paint from our parlor ceiling. Gah. The same red staining paint that has plagued me in recent times into thinking I had a rash. I am never using red house paint ever again.

Place

Ultimately, I believe what Wendell Berry says in his last poem in A Timbered Choir: “There is a day when the road neither comes nor goes, and the way is not a way but a place.” That day has come for me. The way to a more sustainable life indeed is a place.

Wow does this passage speak to me right now. I was blog hunting for similar families in our new neck of the woods. She's up in South Dakota (Google is weird sometimes), but I love the poetry of this passage, both in the actual poetry quote and in her response.

Falling

Fall is here. I just noticed. Last Spring I took the time to pay attention each day to the unfurling of the tree foliage and I intended to meditate the same way on the color changes this fall. We haven't had a cold spell and it still feels like summer to me. So it goes.

We are very busy around here. Sarah came to take photos and share chocolate yesterday. Much to my chagrin my dog jumped on to our king size bed and pushed all the blankets and sheets to floor. He was upset I had closed him in the room when company arrived. So I had spent the effort making the beds for naught. Gah. Tornado Tot did the same thing to her own room. And I was making apple butter. I wonder why I bother making the beds first thing in the morning if all they do is rampage my efforts.

Oh yeah, it is in case we get a Realtor showing up with prospective buyers. Okey-doke, I'll keep at it. We've been on the market 3 weeks and had 7 families look. Not so bad really. The next open house is early October. I hope to have the laundry room done by then.

Anyway, things are moving forward here on all fronts. Canning is getting done, house is clean, photos taken, slugs cuddled (yeah, it's a Lil'Bug thing), and we are all happier than ever.

The energy and excitement being generated from the farm acquisition moving forward is amazing and contagious.

Size 14

Clothing sizes have always baffled me. What's the point if even the actual size varies from brand to brand. Gah. Add that I am uber petite in height and finding comfortable clothes that fit without having to be altered is just a nightmare. Remember me trying to find maternity clothes? Well, now those don't fit, which is a good thing, and I needed a decent pair of well made jeans.

I refuse to pay 70$ plus for women's jeans that don't fit. Often it ends up being even more. Since I'm not pregnant I don't get to give in and buy another pair of expensive jeans. I started lamenting that they don't have adjustable waists in adult clothing like they do for kids.

:)

I used to be able to buy boys jeans with elastic waist bands. Well, I'm not really built for that in the hips anymore. Yesterday at Target I stumbled back into the boys jeans section and it was as if a light shone down. Holy cow, I'm a HUSKY boy shape now! AND these jeans have adjustable waistbands! A one year warranty! Lots of pockets! Very well stitched, heavy denim.

Best part. 13$.

Better part. They fit. They really fit. No elastic waistband. Button and zipper fit. Next month, when they go on sale, I'm buying 2 more.

It is so sad that the same fitting charts used for children and men are not applied to women's clothing. It is even sadder that the price is so jacked up for women's clothing that doesn't fit and falls apart when worn hard. I'm not worried about chipping a nail, I'm worried about my jeans ripping (well, not now I'm not).

And no, I am not embarrassed to yell out, I'm a size 14 husky! How about this: I'm a meat eating, healthy woman, mother of 2 daughters who will also wear boy jeans. So ha.