Macey May (and more)

Introducing... Macey May!

Jon's oldest brother, Brent, has been a grandparent for awhile now-- "little" Brent and Brandon are teenagers. But this is his first granddaughter, and his son Nathan's first child.

Macey was born May 25th, weighing 7 lbs, 1 oz. She was 20 inches long.

Both mom (Shana) and baby are doing fine.

I haven't met Macey yet, but in this photo it sure looks as though she has red hair! Of course, there's no telling what her "real" hair color will end up being, but it's clear she's going to be a little beauty.

Congratulations, Nathan and Shana!


After our return from West Virginia we began planting the garden. It's just about finished; all we need now are peas (but those grow fast).

We're doing a few things differently this year. We expanded the garden so that our rows would have more spacing (crowded plants were a real problem last year). We also planted more corn; last year's harvest barely lasted us through September.

Another change is actually a bit of an experiment. Jon laid down landscape fabric over where he planted tomatoes and peppers. He cut x-shaped slits in the fabric for the plants to grow through. We're hoping this will cut down on the weeding, but we thought we'd better not try it on the whole garden till we see how it works out with the tomatoes and peppers. I'll let you know the results as the season progresses!

Another experiment involves the 12 baby chicks now peeping away sweetly in our backyard. They're yellow, soft, and adorable. But before you think "isn't that sweet", let me explain our intention is to raise these chickens for meat.

We explained this up-front to the kids, so they hopefully won't form any strong attachments. We have no intention of eating our original six egg-laying chickens; those are pets to us. The older ones are at least seven years old and may not even lay eggs anymore. We get 3-4 eggs a day when the chickens aren't molting, which just about covers our egg needs.

Our plan to let the older chickens retire peacefully was threatened last week when a fox decided to visit our yard.

It happened in broad daylight. I was sitting at our computer by the screen door when a chicken ran clucking by. It was being chased by something. Coco and I ran outside and saw the fox. We chased it away, but not before it injured our best egg layer, Pumpkin. She was missing a few feathers and had a limp, but there was no open wound and she seems to be recovering nicely.

After talking to our neighbors we learned that Johnne's chickens' egg production had suddenly dropped, which typically means the chickens are being stressed by a predator. So she had kept her chickens cooped up for a few days prior to our fox attack, hoping they would stay closer to home than they'd been. The sudden lack of available chickens at her farm was no doubt a factor in the fox's decision to visit our home.

Before running away, the fox stopped and turned, looking right at me. I told it to "Get!" and then added more quietly "Don't eat our chickens." The fox seemed to be interested in me and what I had to say. I said my piece, and it turned and vanished into the underbrush.

I couldn't help but think of a book Susan had me read last summer, "A Language Older Than Words". Without trying to explain the whole book, the premise was that animals and people can communicate with each other if they try. Think my words to the fox will work, Susan?

It's been at least a week, and still... no fox.


Johnne gets new chicks every spring, so Jon had her order a few extra for us. Of course, I got the word they were coming during the week, when Jon was gone, so had to make preparations myself. I covered the sides and roof of our summer chicken coop with tarp, and laid wood shavings down on the ground. I rigged up a reflective lamp to warm the coop, and bought the other supplies we would need. We waited excitedly; they were still in the eggs, and would be delivered to us by mail as soon as they hatched.

The first few days you have to keep the chicks very warm (90 degrees the first day, then 5 degrees cooler for each day after that, until 70 degrees is reached). When the chicks arrived Thursday morning, it was wet and cool outside (only 62 degrees-!). Our little reflector lamp hardly seemed up to the task.

So we brought them inside the house. Emma eagerly suggested her bedroom as an ideal place for chick storage. We put them back into the box they arrived in, brought their food and water inside, and set them up with a lamp and space heater. They were toasty warm in no time.

By Day 3, however, Emma's room had a distinctively unpleasant aroma. Clearly it was time for the chicks to go back outside.

They've been in their outdoor coop ever since, and seem to be doing just fine. They certainly eat a lot! They'll grow quickly, and in a few months will be ready to be butchered. We'll probably take them somewhere to have that done.

Our horse is back! For the past month Macy has been staying with a horse trainer, learning how to be rode.

Emma can ride her now (with close supervision). She's a small horse so they don't recommend anyone over 150 lbs ride her (that rules out me and Jon). But she's perfect for Emma.


This weekend we went to Cornell to visit Jon's parents. While at their house, we saw these horses walking down the road with their riders.

Leila loved walking around Grandma Jane's house, looking at all the flowers. She especially liked seeing her smiling reflection in the gazing orb.

Grandma Jane served us snacks and we visited. Then we all headed over to the Care Center, to visit Grandpa Bud.

He was happy to see us, and we were happy to see him in such good spirits. He's in a wheelchair now, but uses his legs to walk himself forward in the chair-- and can actually get around pretty fast (he snuck up on Leila a few times). Jane is doing what she can to see that he gets physical therapy and visits him daily. Twice a week she bakes treats for the Care Center staff, so they're both pretty popular there.

Hope everyone is enjoying their summer so far!

Take care.