Illinois...

[megpie021]

@SnootyHen & @megpie021
Wow. You two have been busy! We got a few storms, but nothing scary. I guess I've been busy too, but more the regular mom stuff. (None of mine are driving yet. That's a scary thought!)

My garden is producing like crazy. Tomatoes & squash took over. My youngest starts middle school next week. Tomorrow (bright & early) we're off to Springfield (state fair) where DS will present his computer programming project. He's so excited. Packed the car and baked my famous herb bread / sandwiches for the road. Poor chickens will have to stay cooped since we we're leaving before sunrise and home after sunset.

On a sad note, three families we know are struggling with Covid. One family had flu-like symptoms pass through the house and they're slowly getting better. The other two families have been in & out of the hospital and currently both sets of parents are hospitalized. Our family is fine and had no exposure, but it's a little scary for me with school starting next week.

Rsv is also going around like crazy right now. We had something three weeks ago. Covid, flu, rsv, all negative but our oldest who was our micro preemie and has chronic lung disease was nearly hospitalized. He has pre k starting this week in order to continue to get his pt, ot and speech and I’m terrified.

 

[SnootyHen]

@SnootyHen & @megpie021
Wow. You two have been busy! We got a few storms, but nothing scary. I guess I've been busy too, but more the regular mom stuff. (None of mine are driving yet. That's a scary thought!)

My garden is producing like crazy. Tomatoes & squash took over. My youngest starts middle school next week. Tomorrow (bright & early) we're off to Springfield (state fair) where DS will present his computer programming project. He's so excited. Packed the car and baked my famous herb bread / sandwiches for the road. Poor chickens will have to stay cooped since we we're leaving before sunrise and home after sunset.

On a sad note, three families we know are struggling with Covid. One family had flu-like symptoms pass through the house and they're slowly getting better. The other two families have been in & out of the hospital and currently both sets of parents are hospitalized. Our family is fine and had no exposure, but it's a little scary for me with school starting next week.

Good luck tomorrow!! How exciting!!! I have a few friends struggling with covid right now too. All of them were vaccinated which obviously causes a lot of questions and concern. The whole thing has just turned the world upside-down and I can't believe we're still dealing with this. Remember when we thought it would be a couple of weeks?

 

[BReeder!]

Freshened up the duck run with fresh wood chips (shredded branches and leaves actually). I am taking down a big maple tree limb by limb and all the ton branches get shredded or burned. The garden and birds benefit from the wood chips. Duck run has been muddy lately and started to smell fowl (pun intended). All this carbon rich fibrous material should help I hope. I'm risking it being harsh on the ducks feet, but so far so good.

 

[Faraday40]

It was a long day, but DS was very pleased with his presentation at the state fair. He earned Reserve Grand Champion out of all the computer projects. (He designed and coded his own video game.) Very impressive for an elementary kid to do that well. There's joy under that mask.




He worked very hard on several projects this year. As always, there was the crunch time right before they were due. But like every year, there's also that big sense of accomplishment after the fair. All the kids truly love showing off what they learned and sharing their knowledge with the judges.

I really like how 4H has given him many opportunities to explore technology. In addition to his chickens (science-related projects), he also tried out photography, cooking, and several types of art. Of course it's the experiences on computers, coding, robotics, etc. that really interest him.

We always joked that our silkie, MaiMai, was blessed with beauty (and not much else -like intelligence). The poultry judge agreed. This was our 1st year bringing a chicken. Due to the worry of bio-security and hassle of quarantine, we never showed. However, this was a "show and go" due to Covid. The exposure to other chickens was minimal, and we still did 14 days of quarantine afterwards before allowing the 2 hens to rejoin the flock. DS's Modern Game got a blue ribbon. Of course she would probably have done better if we brought her piano to play.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

Little one wants to feed CX by hand. I don't think she could feel them fast enough.

 

[WhyDoILikeChickens]

Also I made them a chicken tractor and my only goal was free. It looks like my goal was ugliest thing available but it was freeist thing available.
The wood is a couple old trailer doors. Chicken wire is from last year. Tarp on back is actually from an old tent we were going to throw away.

 

[BReeder!]

Chickens and ducks are well here. They have been enjoying garden waste lately, underdeveloped corn and over-ripe cucumbers mostly but some greens too. They've also been enjoying scratching and dabbling through the freshly shredded and spread mulch.

In other news, we have a wood like 2 ft high and 35+ ft long now. It's perfect for holding down weed fabric and suppressing grass and weeds where we intend to plant a bed of flowers along the garden fence. The wood pile will probably triple in size by the time we finish cutting the huge maple tree down out back. That's just three limbs so far. There's still three to go plus the main trunk which is roughly 30" in diameter. Lots of maple wood smoked meat and bonfires. Speaking of bonfires, our fire pit has been burning for over 24 hrs straight now. It calms down to a smoke over night and we keep it covered with the wire mesh cover to contain sparks, but poke the kids in the morning and add some more wood and it's ablaze again.

 

[homeschoolin momma]

poke the kids in the morning

Are you turning that boy of yours into a Pyro?
I couldn't resist....

 

[cavemanrich]

Speaking of bonfires, our fire pit has been burning for over 24 hrs straight now.

That partially explains why we are feeling the warmth of summer still. Everyone keeps claiming that summer is over. "It's not over till I say it's over"

Spoiler: Doing my part this end of Metro.

 

[Faraday40]

@Molpet
What are the chances of a 4 month old turkey surviving the night in a tree? (We have raccoon, owls, opossum, fox, and coyote.) My male could not be located until after dark. He's about 25' up in our catalpa tree. I grabbed my son's long 9' stick and banged on a couple branches (way too low to even come close), but the bird isn't going to budge. I called with my treat bucket- which got his attention - but only his head moved to look at us. If I attempt to climb or throw something or power washer, I fear injury. If not human injury, then a frightened, x-large turkey may come blindly tumbling out of the tree. I decided it wasn't worth the risk.

He's going to have one scary night. It's so odd because this year's group either puts themselves away or waits by the door until I tell them to go in. I didn't go out until 8pm, so perhaps if I found him sooner, I could have used the remaining daylight to encourage him down. My lesson learned. Hope he makes it.....


(@homeschoolin momma - I already know your bad luck.)