Ducks on a pond...

Four ducks on a pond,

A grass-bank beyond,

A blue sky of spring,

White clouds on the wing:

What a little thing

To remember for years

To remember with tears!

~William Allingham

Well in my pond there are now five ducklings swimming! The three hens kept moving eggs back and forth between them and I was worried we wouldn't get any ducklings this year but on Friday, they slowly started to hatch. Then regardless of who hatched which ones, all three mothers decided they were theirs and if one hen goes outside the other two follow leaving the rest of the eggs alone.I have to remove those ticking time bombs today. I also now have three hens setting. And they are very protective of the eggs. Don't believe me? Take a look at this face....

She means business! In other fowl news, the broiler chicks are almost fully feathered and are hogs. They will be leaving the premises in early July and I am already counting the days.

In between the VFW BBQ, the VFW Memorial Day ceremony, the Girl Scouts trip to see Indian Jones and the usual chores, we helped a friend rip apart the kitchen in her house. The house has been in her family for four generations and was once a boarding house. The ceiling was plaster and lathe (what a mess!) But under that were these awesome beams. They had a name on it and I think I remember reading that it was the mills mark. These marks are all the same so that might be true but they look to be done in pencil. Another cute find (for me at least as I like looking at times gone by) was this wallpaper behind the upper cabinets we took down. She thought of leaving the beams exposed but decided to drywall the ceiling. The wallpaper is gone now too but will be replaced with an apple theme.

Huge strides have been made in the garden. The greenhouse garden has been tilled and planted and excess plants passed on to a neighbor. Also, Mom made an investment...a Honda mini tiller. The larger tiller is too much for us to handle and this one is small and able to go between rows. As my luck would have it, it started raining on the ride home so we have yet to play in the dirt with it! Now I have only to finish planting the large garden and then I will have a slight breather before the heavy weeding and canning seasons hit.

We have been canning some more. Today, we made two batches of strawberry-rhubarb jam. (Sis, just think a slice of homemade bread, toasted to perfection with butter spread from crust to crust and a big old glob of this jam. I didn't want you to go without so I ate a piece for you! Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did!!!)

Not much is happening in the fiber area. I finished the poncho but I bound off the neck to tight and I have to rip it out and re do it. Plenty of fibery idea's but no time or energy to follow thru. As fast as time is flying by it will soon be fall and I will be back in the knit/purl groove