7th Anniversary

7 years ago, I married my best friend at my favorite place in the world (my college campus).

Today, we celebrated by having Jon's mom watch Connor while we went to see "Chernobyl Diaries", had a nice early dinner, then went for a river side hike at Deep River Co. Park.

10 Year College Reunion

I had my 10 year college reunion last weekend. 10 years. How is that even possible? It seems like our 5 year was just last year!

Le Fer Hall

Class of 2002 at lunch (9 in attendance)

 Saint Mother Theodore

Church of the Immaculate Conception



Pete took us for a nice wagon ride around campus.

Alpacas

Class of 2002 on the marble staircase

Horses at the barn

Oager and Milford, these guys were here when I was.

Me, Erika and Melissa by the fountain

Reunion Banquet



Bikes and Pie

Connor is learning how to ride his bike!

He's doing pretty well with it. He keeps looking down at his feet instead of looking ahead, but that's ok!


I made my first rhubarb custard pie for Mother's Day. I love rhubarb. I adore rhubarb. You have no idea. I have had a hard time finding plants this year. I finally found some at Meijer over the weekend on clearance. I bought three and will be planting them today or tomorrow. I found rhubarb stalks at Meijer too. They weren't very fresh, but still yummy.

Here is the recipe. This makes a 9 1/2 inch deep dish pie. I had left over rhubarb and pie crusts so I finally used my ramekins for what they are supposed to be used for. I filled the bottom of two with rhubarb and make up some more custard, topped with left over pie crust from the lattice crust.

And Then There Were Two...

I lost my beautiful new Speckled Sussex pullet today. My mother came out today and when we left around 10:30, all three were fine. When we got back around 1:15, I didn't see anyone. I didn't think much of it because Ruby might have been laying and the grass was so tall, I figured I just couldn't see the babies. I went out a bit after 1:30 to check on them, and saw the feathers... Best we can figure out is that something snagged her through the fence, slashed her neck and side, then she fell out of reach and it left. Ruby and Sprinkles were quite freaked out and hid for hours.
We do have raccoons here, but I've never seen one during the day. We have opposums in the area, but I've never seen one on our property. Our neighbor has a cat that he lets out, but I don't know if it would go after the chickens. The hawks could not have gotten in the pen.

*sigh*

New Chicks!

I picked up two chicks from my friend today. They are 8-ish weeks old (waiting to hear exactly how old).

This is Splash. She's a Speckled Sussex. She was sexed at the hatchery.

The black and white one should be a Plymouth Barred Rock pullet. She was part of a "bin clean out" mystery batch. The hatcheries sometimes offer a mystery group when they have extras. Her name is Sprinkles. I'm hoping she is a she! I'll have to get better pics tomorrow. If she is a he, he will be going back and we'll switch out another. I cannot have a rooster here.



Ruby was fairly accepting of them. This was Sprinkles' first time outside ever! When I went to lock them up for the night, they were hiding under the sawhorse. They came running and cheeping when they saw me. I had to put them in the coop. They'll get the hang of it eventually!