Gretchen...aka Bubbles

Bubbles has a new name and shall now be known as Gretchen! She's a Lakenvelder, a German breed and I really wanted a name to suit her heritage. Crazy, I know.

They are enjoying a spell of free range time in the flower garden and where the compost pile used to be. Finding fat, juicy worms is delightful. Crazy, I know!

Me and Lucy, my big girl.

Jonathan and Buttercup. (See her cup shaped comb?) We celebrated his birthday last week with a trip to Orlando. He knew we were going on the trip but didn't know that we were flying, his 1st trip on a plane! We surprised him the morning we left and got the biggest kick out of his reaction to it all. Fun for him AND for us! Hollywood Studios was the fav and we could've done both days there. Disney was good too and glad we did it but going back to a park again, Hollywood Studios will be the place, for sure.

Can't believe Jonathan is 10! Crazy, I know!

Mi Casa de Pollo

My oak leaf hydrangea was a Mother's Day gift a couple of years back from my son & daughter-in-law. Peter & Gloria's choice was most excellent, a gift that keeps on giving! Love it!

The chicken house is in place & the girls seem very happy in their new home. It's tucked into the corner of my garden, fits right in & I can see the girls moving about in the run while I'm standing at my kitchen sink. Love that!

We shortened up this side of the run, taking out part of the A-frame because of the plantings already in place. The path & pavers still need to be situated a bit better but for now, it all works.

The little girls, Bubbles and Buttercup are a bit camera shy. Bubbles has turned out to be a pretty good layer. I still feel a bit like a kid on Easter morning ever time I find an egg. Love'n being the chicken lady!

Chicks in the City

This was taken on Saturday and is our first egg!

Here are my new girls. They've been here almost a week now and I'm having so much fun watching there goings on and listening to their sounds. So far we've gotten 3 eggs, all from Lucy, the biggest hen. She's an Athen's Rare Breed. I actually witnessed one of the eggs as it was being laid and that was pretty cool! The coop is in place but still needs a bit more work and I'll be posting pictures as soon as it's complete. The other two ladies are Bubbles, a Lakenvelder and Buttercup, her name and breed. (Newsflash!!! Soon after I wrote this one of the smaller girls laid their 1st egg, didn't want to be outdone, I guess.)

Lucy has been my layer. She's a sweet girl who is easy to hold, fun to watch and can really kick up the dirt. They've had a hay day scratching around where my compost bin used to be!

Bubbles is a Lakenvelder and boy does she make a racket when you pick her up. Missing some feathers but hoping she'll start filling in soon.

Buttercup. See her comb? It's a cupshaped crown with a complete circle of medium sized regular points. Not too crazy about being picked up (yet) but a very pretty bird!

A Dirty Little Workout!

Do you workout on a regular basis? At home or a gym? Solo or with a buddy? Do you walk or run? wii fit, treadmill, swim, bike?
Having been a personal trainer and an aerobic instructor, worked full time in the fitness arena (YMCA!) for years I know the importance of cross-training, varying the mode of training. Also important when trying to lose weight is understanding calories in vs calories burned. One of the BEST training tools is a Polar F4. The great little device lets me know when I'm in my training zone, keeping me working out hard enough, not too hard, keeping track of calories and I'm writing down the summary at the end of the workout. Keeping a notebook or workout diary helps me with motivation and accountability.

This morning I went to the park with Cesar, walked and ran 3.75 miles. My journal entry for today:

time, 52 minutes, time in zone, 50 minutes, average heart rate 136 bpm, highest heart rate 156 bpm, calories 346. (I still have my core workout to do!)

My daily workout goal has been 500 workout calories a day. The workouts vary from walking & now running, solo or with one or two dogs, wii fit, Fitness Coach (another wii game workout) pilates, Reebok slide, stability ball, hand weights and bands. Lots of variety!!!

So why did I call the "A Dirty Little Workout". Saturday was a great day for gardening, my favorite activity and I was curious to see how many calories I'd burn during this activity. On this particular day I was making digging up grass, making a new bed and transplanting 2 rose bushes. Summary: time 5 hours, time in zone, 3 hours and 28 minutes, average heart rate 117, highest heart rate 145, calories...drum roll please.....are you ready for this? 1484!!! Ok, maybe it wasn't so "little"!

I have more pictures of my garden posted here.

Letter from a Law Student

Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters,

We've stuck together since the late 1950s, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know that we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and just will not ever agree on what's right. So let's just end it right now while we can do it on friendly terms. We can smile, shake hands, chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and each go our own way.

So here's a model separation agreement.
Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by land mass, each taking a portion. That's going to be the difficult part, but I'm sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy. Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate taste. We don't like redistributive taxes so you can have those. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. And since you hate guns and you hate war, we'll take the firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell. But you are going to be responsible for finding a biodiesel vehicle big enough to haul them around.

We'll keep the capitalism, the greedy corporations, the pharmaceutical companies; we will keep Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have the homeless, the homeboys, the hippies and illegal aliens. We will keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, the greedy CEOS and all of the rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and we'll let you have NBC and Hollywood.

You can be nice to Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer anybody that threatens us. You can have the peaceniks and the war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we will provide them with security. You won't have to worry about it. We will keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley Maclaine. You can also have the UN, but we will no longer pay the bill.

We will keep the SUVs, the pickup trucks and the oversize luxury cars. You can have the compacts, the subcompacts and every Subaru station wagon you can find. You can give everybody healthcare, if you can find any practicing doctors. We will continue to believe that healthcare is a privilege and not a right. We will keep "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" and the national anthem, and I am sure you will be happy to substitute in their place "Imagine." I'd like to teach the world to sing "Kumbaya" or "We are the world." We will practice trickle-down economics and you can give trickle-up poverty your best shot. And since it so offends you, we will keep our history, our name and our flag.

Would you agree to this? If so, please pass it along other like-minded liberal and conservative patriots. And if you do not agree, just hit delete. In the friendly spirit of parting, I'll bet you ANWAR which one of us will need whose help in about 15 years.

Sincerely,
John J Wall
Law student and an American

P.S. You can also have Barbara Streisand and Jane Fonda.

In a Happy Place!

It's been one of those glorious spring days here in Georgia! (This after cold & snow flurries Monday & Tuesday.) Easter is just around the corner ...my white azaleas in FULL bloom.

The "Mother's Day Red" variety is just beginning to open.

No make-up! Work clothes, garden gloves and sunscreen were the order of the day. Knees are the color of our Georgia clay but are oh-so-happy! Tomato plants, 5 varieties, have gone into their 4' x 4' raised bed along with some sweet banana peppers (seeds). Bush beans & squash are in another box. Those I started in my kitchen in peat pots.
The perfect ending to a perfect day? Watermelon I picked up yesterday! Watermelon stains will go perfect with my dirty hands & knees!

Oh Bother! April Freeze in Georgia

Calendar says "spring" but thermometer screams winter. Drop cloths, old sheets & table cloths, up-turned emptied storage bins & trash cans, even a rain slicker surrounds a near blooming rose. What lengths will I go to to protect the tender vegetation! Peonies have buds waiting to burst. Same with roses & azaleas. Hydrangeas have their leaves and are subject to damage if not protected. Lots and lots of hostas up and unfurled.

Cherry tree has already bloomed but Mr. C doesn't seem to mind.

The 2007 Easter freeze reeked havoc on all of the above so I'm not about to let it happen again!!! This too shall pass and the temps should rise during the day tomorrow. Yee-haw!!! My sweet hubby has made me boxes for raised bed vegetable gardening. Two are in place and half filled with some black gold from my compost pile. The back of my workhorse Suburban is filled with bags of soil conditioner, garden soil (the good stuff!) ready to worked in ASAP!

My kitchen has become my make-shift greenhouse with starter peat pots of vegetables getting a head start with some shop lights. Scott set up the video camera & got a bit of time lapse photography of their growth!

More garden pics from seasons past at maryhanks.com - "Welcome to My Garden".