how it flies

Time does have a habit of doing that.

I sit here on Monday after a busy weekend looking forward to a week full of all sorts of different things.

The chicks continue to grow and get real feathers to replace the fluffy down. Right now they're in an in-between stage with a bit of both, they're getting little combs on their heads, and they have taken to escaping their little pen. So, job #1 for this week: make sure no more rats get into the coop and make them their little living spot. Apparently we should separate the males and females as they start to mature, else the cockerels (boys) will spend time chasing the pullets (girls) and neither will grow as well. So, the one stall needs to be divided into two. D and I took a look the other night and being the great engineer-type guy he is, he took my "if we do this, and this?" which was accompanied with much hand-waving to try to illustrate the idea in my head, and turned it into an intelligible drawing from which he could pick up supplies.

We've been clearing brush from a fence line after finding one of the new laying hens missing and following a trail of feathers to a thicket. That makes two attacks in daylight since May, so the critter's (fox or coyote, we think) hideout had to go. A couple evenings of work took care of the brush, though the log pile it grew up around is still there. Hopefully we've gotten the predator to move away from the buildings a little more.

Time also flew from Saturday, when R was dropped off for a week at World Changers, and yesterday, when she walked into church with them looking as if she'd grown overnight. By the end of the week she'll look about 20 at this rate. She's having a ball and today they start working on projects around the city. A service we put on for the group last night had about 250 of us in an outdoor amphitheater overlooking Parliament Hill last night, singing and worshipping together. Wow. Tonight I go to help out in the kitchen to make supper for them after their first day's work.

This group is amazing. About 200 teenagers from churches all over the Eastern States and Canada come to a city for a week and do service projects for charities. Operation Go Home, the Salvation Army, and a couple of women's shelters this week will be having construction done for no labor costs, just these kids and the adults who come along to supervise, all of whom are giving up their time and effort to help out. Apparently they have different groups in different cities all summer long. I love it.

We're hosting a party for families from D's work on Saturday, so there is much outdoor tidying to be done, mowing and working in the garden. Had our first beans from our plants this year. Quick steam with butter and salt. Mmmmmm. I wait for that every spring. The blackberries are ripening, I was swiping raspberries from some wild canes as we cleaned up the brush the other day, and the girls keep stealing peas from the garden. Now it feels more like summer.

Today is cleanup inside, planning this week's farmer's market canning, setting up an outdoor run layout for the chicks' new home, changing tractor implements so I can mow the grass, and from the looks of things getting the girls to rescue a froggie who is swimming around in our pool.