That Pigeon is one "lucky duck"

Last Thursday we had an almost "deja vu" scary moment w/ the hens. Josiah was noticing how all the hens were on the back deck hovering around near the back door. He was calling everyone over to come and look at it. I was moving laundry from the washer to the dryer, barely noticing what was going on UNTIL.... Josiah thought he would go outside and look at the chickens. Well, my sweet son, and his not always astute 7 year old brain didn't notice who ELSE was standing at the back door wanting to go and see the chickens...Jackson!! As soon as the door opened, out flew Jackson chasing after the birds. Jeffrey immediately noticed what was going on and went screaming out the door. I perked up instantly and started out the back bedroom door while Jeffrey went out front, all the while *I* was screaming "WHO OPENED THE DOOR? WHO OPENED THE DOOR?" I had visions of a Gloria all over again! So as I headed around back I saw Jeremy lunge and almost get Jackson as Jackson is trying to get one of the birds. Seeing Jeremy on that side of the house, I went to the other. As I got around the front, I see Jeffrey holding Pigeon (we call her "Pidge") and Jeremy holding Jackson. The story from the boys was that Jackson had Pidge in his mouth and Jeffrey gave him a swift kick in the side, which surprised Jackson enough to let Pidge go. She was alive, whew! The only problem was she couldn't walk on one of her feet. Other than that, she didn't seem injured. We took her to the coop and put her in the nesting box, prayed for her and gave her a homeopathic remedy (actually we put the remedy in the water. It's not easy at all giving a chicken a little round pellet!) She stayed there for the rest of the day and we kept hoping things would improve.

The next day, she was a little better, but still had to limp and hobble around, not really using the foot at all. She stayed pretty near the coop, but she was out and about. We were kinda thinking she may just have to live her life "onefooted", which is better than the alternative...not living!!

But the next day, she was walking with some weight on it and today she moves around almost as well as all of the others! The exception is that she doesn't run well. Ever seen a chicken RUN?? It's pretty hilarious! Well, Pidge HOPS! She puts both feet on the ground and HOPS. And she's getting pretty fast!

Praise God, THIS chicken incident had a happy ending! And HOPEFULLY Josiah will really understand what Jackson thinks of those chickies!
Josiah holding Pidge...this was before that fateful day!

Pigeon is the black and white one in the back.

OK, so it's not going "invitation only" on the 5th...

But it will soon. Tasha and Celleste, could you please send me an email (mldagerath @ earthlink.net) or leave a comment w/ your email addresses? Thanks!!

Oh, Poteet, it's not so sweet...

In these parts, one of the largest and oldest festivals around is called the Poteet Strawberry Festival. HEB even makes an ice cream about this time of year that is made w/ Poteet strawberries. It's THAT famous. Well, one of the things we really wanted to do this year was go to it. I mean, what can be anything but great about a festival that honors one of our favorite fruits, or foods for that matter. We figured there would be lots and lots of yummy strawberries to taste. So, we put it on our calendar. It was last weekend, and we planned on heading out there on Saturday to enjoy some of the festivities. When we checked the website, we were amazed at how huge this thing is, but we were looking forward to going and doing some fun things. Well, Friday night, at about 7, Michael read in the paper that admission was FREE on Friday night! How did I miss that???? We'd had an exhausting day doing things away from the house, but the idea of saving $40 in admission fees alone was enough to propel us into high gear getting ready and hitting the road for the 35-40 minute trip to Poteet. When we were about 10 miles out of Poteet (a town of about 3000 people), we started seeing stands set up to sell strawberry shortcake, chocolate covered strawberries, the usual festival fare of smoked turkey legs as well as tacos and fajitas. We thought that we interesting until about 4 miles away from the festival we saw the reason for their existence....we saw nothing but tailights...bumper to bumper traffic at 8pm at night on the way to the Poteet Strawberry Festival. We could see the ferris wheel and other lights from the festival so we knew this was festival traffic, but Michael estimated that we were probably 4 miles from where we PARK, and then would probably have a hefty walk after that. OK, change of plans!! We turned around and found a stand (this stand was actually a church) serving tacos, and gorditas...
Had a quick bite here...then headed to...

Strawberry shortcake. Michael and the boys said it was ok. The cake was supposedly good, but the strawberries were FROZEN! Go figure, I mean we've crossed 3 counties to take Fresh, famous Poteet strawberries and we get FROZEN and paid way too much for it!!

Then right down the road, I saw a fresh fruit stand where they were selling watermelon, pineapple and strawberries. I thought this would be great, BUT the produce was overpriced, and the strawberries (which didn't even look good) were from MEXICO! Not feeling so good about eating those! I'm wondering if the strawberries at the festival are actually from Poteet. Maybe I'm just naive!

Here's Jeffrey w/ a pineapple. Sorry about the blur!

The boys didn't mind at all turning around and going home. They got food! AND they watched a movie the whole way there and back. It was almost like Michael and I were on a date b/c we didn't hear from the boys the whole time. We had a complete conversation!! Nice!!!!!

We pulled into the garage and I was getting out and reached for my purse. It wasn't there. I asked the boys if they could see it. Jeremy said "Mom, did you get it out of the seat at the fajita place?" I didn't remember until that point that I had taken my purse out of the car. Major sinking feeling!! We came inside and called my cell phone, but no one answered. Then we looked on the internet for the number of the church and called, but no answer. Let me tell you, we were SOOOOOO glad that we'd stopped at the church, b/c they at least had a phone and a higher chance that my purse wasn't stolen. Well, my sweet and wonderful husband got back in the car and drove BACK to Poteet. Right after he left, the church called back (thank goodness for Caller ID!!), I explained what happened and they checked outside. My purse was still there!! They held onto it and Michael picked it up about 10:15 and got home about 11:00. Man, he's good to me!!

While he was gone, the boys and I got ready for bed and did our family devotional/family meeting that we try and do each night. Josiah didn't last. He fell asleep....

Seriously, JUST LIKE THAT!! He was even snoring! I had to get a picture of it or he wouldn't have believed it!! Thankfully, this wasn't Michael at the steering wheel!! :-)

Coupon cutsie

About a year and a half ago, I got a virus. It's one of those symbiotic kind of viruses, the kind you're glad to have. Like probiotics. Bacteria in your gut that makes you healthy, instead of sick. (Side note: Take probiotics! They're REALLY good for you!) Anyway...my virus....saving money with coupons! It's more than a hobby..way more. Would it be an obsession? I don't think I'd call it that (Michael might, but I wouldn't! :-)) But I've saved literally hundreds of dollars over the last 18 months or so and found a thrill that never gets old! I mean, who WOULDN'T love to walk out of a store knowing they just paid YOU to take an item home because it was on clearance AND you had a coupon??!! Excuse me a minute while I calm my breathing down. I get so excited just thinking about those times!

Well, over the time of my journey into frugality, a faithful companion has been there, tagging along in my purse...I call her, Sweet Blue, my coupon organizer.

She started off as an "add on" purchase when I bought Dave Ramsey's evelope system and she's been there every step of the way. But, Sweet Blue can no longer contain the volume of coupons that now grace my purse. So, she's retiring and welcoming in the newby...

Isn't that cute! It's actually a photo box that I got at Hobby Lobby today (50% off of course). I think it will do the trick. It has twice as many dividers as Blue and much deeper pockets. This afternoon, I printed labels for the dividers, took out the coupons from Sweet Blue and made the transfer. Here are the coupons from Blue...

Here are the coupons that were just in one huge ziplock bag in my purse....

Now here's the new gal, ready for action.

Sure, she won't fit in my purse, but I can just set her on the seat of the shopping cart and pull coupons as I need them. And now I can even carry a smaller purse!

Friday's a big grocery shopping day, so we'll see how she does!

RSVP....please please please

At the request of my sweet hubby, my blog is going to be by invitation only starting on April 5th. Sooooooo, if you want an invitation to read it, please leave a comment w/ your email address or send me an email (mldagerath @ earthlink. net -taking out the spaces) and let me know your email and I'll add ya to the list. I really love writing this blog, and I love that there are people who read it. So, the only new thing will be that you have to use your google id to sign in to read it each time. I hope that's not a problem!

So, let me see lots of comments!!!

It's getting WILD around here!

Remember the opposum from the garage? Well, he showed up again on Saturday night. Jackson was outside that evening, just hanging out. He likes to do that after dark. He doesn't want to come in until the middle of the night. But GUESS WHO has to get up in the middle of the night to let him in??!! So, we (I) always make him come in before I got to bed. Anyway, Saturday night about 9:00 we went out to see if he was ready to come in. He wasn't so we left him out for a little longer. About 9:30 we heard a bark, just one, outside so we figured he was ready to come in. Michael went out to get him and then yelled "Hey, Jen come here quick!" I went out there and saw THIS...

Michael said he almost stepped on it going out to get Jackson. Nasty stuff, huh! Jackson was looking at us like "Am I in big trouble for getting this thing?" I looked at him and smiled, "Good boy!" Now I'm sure he's totally confused, but I told him, "Possums OK, Chickens NOT OK" He said he understood! :-)

Michael said to get a picture of the opposum just in case it was...well, playing "possum". That way we could prove to the boys that it was really there. So here's the up close and personal.

Man, that's ugly! And know what, 20 min later when we checked, it was GONE! Playing possum indeed! He did a great job of it. It even convinced Jackson!

And then on the way to church yesteday morning about 10 min from here towards town we saw a coyote walking around near the highway. Close enough to get a decent look at. The boys thought that was cool.

And THEN on the way home from church, pretty close to the gate of our property was a FOX. Right beside the gravel road. It stopped to look at us and we all rolled down windows and got a good look at him. And, told him NOT to eat any of our chickens! We were very thankful that we had left the girls (and boy) in the coop during church! They were all still alive and well when we got home.

It's really pretty cool to be out where "the wild things are" (especially when the "wilds" aren't cold-blooded!!)

Garden 2009 begins

Yippee! What a fun time of the year! Planting a garden!!!!!!! Dreams are wild, visions of fresh veggies dance in my head! I thinking longingly of dirt under my fingernails and the smell of spring and summer! Today was that day. The start of the garden. I even got a gardening unit study off of homeschool freebie of the day that we're going to look at!

This year we tried something different, knowing a few more things than last year. Like how much like concrete the soil is here, really! How much deer and goats simply adore fresh green young plants. How frustrating it is to spend time building a gardening spot and planting and weeding only to get a little harvest before something comes by in the night to the Dagerath buffet. So this year, it's container gardening for us. We already had the containers. There are lots of sizable pots here that used to house live plants until....well, until we moved in! I can tell myself it's because we've been through one of the driest years on record, but we all know the truth! I never think to water plants! Which is why our aloe vera is doing so fabulously! :-)

We moved all the pots we could find to a spot by the house and it's "fenced" off by a section of fence that we used to keep around the chicken pen before they were all "free range" (or free game, as the case may be....may they all rest in peace). So, now all we have to do is fill them even more with soil. I'm thrilled to have discovered that in the woods not far from our house is lots of lots of beautiful soil. Composted by God himself. Lots of leaves and dead tree branches, etc. have made the soil dark and rich. I'm going to put the boys on the task of loading some in a wagon to top off the pots.

Now the last task to do is pick the crop. We're thinking green beas, sugar snap peas, tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, maybe cantelope, lettuce and OF COURSE cilantro and jalapenos! Any other recommendations???

Here's all my men moving pots.

And this will be my garden spot for the year.

GROW, GROW, GROW!!!