What’s keeping you going through all of this pandemic and quarantine and hoarding of everyday supplies? We are holding on here. Going a bit stir crazy, perhaps. It’s the little things that keep us going. We have our own little things that keep us going and then some that we enjoy together. Thought I’d share some little things with you this evening.

One of the biggest little things this week was the arrival of our first set of chicks for the summer. The majority of them are meat birds, but a five out of the batch are layers. At the end of the summer we will have 15 new layers in the flock. Aren’t they precious? The chicks are always, always cute! After they loose their fluffy cuteness, we begin to remind ourselves that they are meat birds, we try not to get attached.

One of the little things that I’ve tried to enjoy more, is cooking. We’ve had some pretty good food lately as we continue to attempt to empty the freezer and defrost it before Sue butchers the first set of meat birds. I’m hoping to try a couple of new things soon.

Today I picked up full boxes of little things that I hope to turn into some big thing tomorrow. At the POWWOW (Produce on Wheels With-Out Waste) today, ended up with a full flat of mixed cherry, pear, and grape tomatoes. As you can see, they are beautiful! A full flat, though! Plus, everyone was also given a crate of Roma’s, 5 clam-shell vegetable containers of on the vine tomatoes. 6 red bell peppers – kinda going to pot, but definitely still usable, way too many jalapenos, a few butternut squash, grey squash, yellow summer squash, and zucchini. Oh! and a bag of navel oranges. Quite a nice haul for a pre-paid price of $13. I took these photos after I pulled out a some bags for a few neighbors who were interested. We kept the most gone bell peppers, but gave the others away. Out of what is left, together with the generous gift of yellow onions from our neighbors, Elise and Lance, my goal is to make salsa tomorrow! Had the over the phone lesson in water bath canning from mom while looking for a few canning supplies at Walmart. So, maybe after some on-line searching, I’ll be ready to give it a go. Also want to try to make Sue some Marmalade. We’ll see how it goes and let you all know.

While exchanging tomatoes, peppers, and eggs for yellow onions, Elise let me know that they have baby owls in a nest by their house. I asked if she had been able to get any photos yet, and she shared them with me! I think they count as “little things” – the owls’ story has been helping Elise and Lance get through things this last week. She graciously e-mailed copies to me and gave me permission to post them here today. I’m so happy to be able to share them with you. I’m leaving them larger so that you can get a really good look at them.
   

Aren’t they precious? Sue said, “That’s fine, but they can’t eat the chickens.” I agree. I still think they are cute. Look at that fuzzy little bird-brain head in the last photo – awwww. Those little things would be helping me get through this crazy time too.

Finally, one of the little things that we both enjoy is watching the all the bulbs, plants, bushes and trees wake up from their long winter sleep. The Mimosa Trees and the Mesquite are just now starting to leaf out. The wild flowers are still blooming beautifully and the Black and Honey locust are just now blooming. The apple tree at the dinky house bloomed abundantly and now, I hope it’s going to set tons of apples this year. Our Walnut tree is putting out catkins like crazy, but it did the same thing last year and no nuts ever set. The Mulberry Trees are starting to set fruit as well! We had a gorgeous Easter bouquet of different iris and lavender with some other filler stuff. I think you know about our love for flowers, especially mine, since I’ve been inundating you with flowers.  Well, today will be more of the same.

There ya go! Sometimes it’s difficult to ID the wild flowers; see those purple ones top left? Can’t find ’em in any of our books and my wildflower ID app can’t find it either. The next one on top row is our east bouquet, then evening primrose, some mini-narcissus, Black Locust, Peach Iris. Pretty stuff around here.

So, next time we’ll do some update on the egg production. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!