A Visitor in the Chicken Coop

No - it was NOT an egg....
Jordan went out to collect the eggs and when he opened up the chicken coop door, he was face to face with this 5 foot SNAKE!!!  Even HE admits that he was shaken at first - ran in the house and while getting his gun, yelled at Del to come out and help him.  Between the two of them, they got the snake out, and then Jordan shot it with the shotgun.  Del held it up to show how big it was but otherwise, they threw it out into the creek.
I freaked.  Jordan sent me the picture in a text and I decided right then and there that I would no longer be going out to check the chicken coop by myself.  Freak out!!!  I hate snakes - probably more than anything.
I don't do snakes...ever.

A New Friend

This is Alana.  A single mother of three wonderful children - a widow - young, vibrant and beautiful.  And my friend.  I've been in the ward almost two years now - and we have been acquaintances in the ward and at times, even a little more friendly.  But we've never really 'connected' until now.
I am the first counselor in the Relief Society presidency.  Alana is the 2nd counselor.  And over the past 6 months, since being called, we have started developing a very comfortable friendship.
I admire Alana and the person she has become and and continues to become since the passing of her husband, Jack, over three years ago.  This has been a very difficult trial for Alana - one that has left her very lonely, heart broken and overwhelmed with the raising of three very heart broken children as well. She's trying to understand what the Lord wants her to do, while mourning what she had known as 'safe', 'a family', 'home' and 'eternity'.  To her, most of that is now changed, if not 'gone' all together.
My role in our friendship?
I think it's to help her move on.  She's been stuck - for three years, in the 'moving on' process.  It's not that she wallows in her situation, she just hasn't known how, or been able, to grasp the fact that things are different now.  She doesn't feel that she 'fits in' to the Mormon family image anymore.  I want her to know and understand she does, more than ever...
And I love her children.  They are good, although they have their struggles; especially the oldest, Andrew.  He was his father's sidekick - shadow- best friend.  It's been a terrible blow to each of the children, but especially Andrew.  And he's taking it out on his mother.  Andrew always felt it was 'him and his dad against the rest of the family'.  The perceptions of a child.  But he clashes with Alana, and she knows it.  So there is a drama there that both Del and I are trying to help with - both with Alana AND Andrew.  Del is now their home teacher, which we are both very pleased about.  It gives me an even BIGGER excuse, (although not needed), to spend time with someone I already want to develop a better friendship with.
But it's not just a one way friendship.  Alana has many wonderful qualities and attributes that I admire and would like to develop more fully in my own life.  She makes me feel young and energetic.  She is one of the hardest working, independent and self reliant women I know.  And she's a down to earth, fun loving, country girl...and I love that too.
Well, I could go on and on...but I'll post more about this later and as things continue to grow and progress in our relationship.  I'm hoping we will become fast and durable BFF's...

And Our Chickens Are Laying!!

How do I know they're from OUR chickens??
First of all, the brown ones are a different color than the brown ones we have been getting from our neighbors chickens....AND...there's a white one.  Their chickens don't lay white eggs...ours do.
And even though it's super TINY, I appreciate the effort our sweet hen made to lay the first white egg.
She should be proud.
Hope this is the beginning of a long a very productive relationship.

Emerson Enjoying Some Summer Fun

Dad gets Emerson ready to go out swimming in the back yard little pool.

Baby pool with dad.

Three generations of Lott Men at the Ward Party the other night.

Emerson has a BFF in Addison Burton.

Addison likes Emerson's bracelet toy.

Enjoying more sun with dad.

Nana got a turn to hold Emerson at the ward party too.

Emerson got to go visit his cousins, Preston and Madison, over at his Aunt Kylie's pool.

Beans, Beans, the More You Eat

These are, of course, GREEN beans - our third picking.
The plants are being thrashed and trampled by the chickens, but they are thriving enough to produce this amount like every other day.  Between the chickens and the weather, we have lost like 10-12 bean plants.  But we still have some strong and healthy plants, but our chickens are trampling more and more of them every day.  I just don't know how to keep them out of there.  So, for now, I will keep picking until there are no more to pick.  Hopefully, we'll be able to get another 5-6 pickings that will give us a good amount to can.  Right now, we've given a lot away and the rest, we have mostly put up in the freezer.  The rest, we really need to can for storage.
Wish us luck.

The Rains Came and the Wind Blew...

...and our corn was leveled to the ground.
The storm came Sunday night/early Monday morning.  And this is what we woke up to.  Del spent over an hour last night trying to upright all the corn and fortify it with dirt, only to have it windy again today and once again, level some of them to the ground.
Disheartening?  Of course.  Del says we need to plant them deeper next year.  I'm hoping we can still salvage something THIS year.
I picked beans last night in ankle deep water from the rain.  Now, we need some good warm days.

I'm a Jolly Green Giant

I've been patient - prayerful and very very hopeful that we would find much success in this years garden. Well, the time has come for some harvesting of our hard work - mostly Del's hard work, but I have helped enough that I feel ownership in our efforts and success.
The chickens left most things alone for the first few weeks, but once they figured out there were more than just bugs to eat out in that there garden, they started picking it apart.  They ate the rest of our strawberries, but only after we had picked enough to enjoy and then freeze some.  Then, they found the corn.  Oh boy, did they have a hay day with the corn!!  They ate down the first row almost to stubs - and had started on the second row before we finally convinced them we WOULD shoot them if they continued.  The most interesting of all things is...they will follow me in the garden wherever I seem to go.  If I'm checking out the tomatoes?  Sure enough, they decide to check out the tomatoes also - then on to the potatoes?  They are right on my heels.  And they don't just tip toe through the garden...they seem to have a real plowing motion to them...just barrel right on through whatever might be in their way.  A little frustrating but I try not to complain too much as our garden seems to be almost bug and insect free.  Two edged sword.
Last week, Del did some picking of the beans.  There were a few that were ready but not enough for a FULL picking.  He picked enough and dug up some of our red potatoes for two nights dinners and they were so yummy!!!  I was excited for the green light for this week to do the initial picking on the green beans.
Of course, I've been sick for just about a week now.  Started last week on Thursday - head stuffed up, sinuses, ears hurt, throat...the whole thing.  Right ear infection, left ear bulging, sinus infection and ulcers in my throat from all the drainage.  An antibiotic and other helpful meds and I thought I would be fine.  Dr Henao went out of town this whole week and so I thought I would have time to get better.  I stayed in bed ALL last weekend - I mean - solid BED - slept all the time - ate hardly nothing at all, no church, no leaving my house, no anything.  Then I tried to go to work Monday and felt - BLEH!!!!  So the doctor decided to add MONO to the works...No wonder I was so tired.  But no new medicines as I was already past the contagious stage and I had been on antibiotics for 5 days already.  So, since Dr. H was gone, I decided to go ahead and take this week off also as a vacation week.  I hate wasting vacation days on getting better, but gotta do what ya gotta do.
So, this week, I have slept a lot, been doing a jigsaw puzzle, some Relief Society work, reading and finally today, I got up at 6:00am and for two hours, I picked beans.  It was great!  What an initial harvest we have!! Then for two hours, I snapped the beans, cleaned them, took some over to the neighbors and then put the rest out in the fridge.  Del and I will can them on Saturday - we should get about 16 quarts.  Del says we should get about 10 more pickings just like today's.  I was tired - probably did too much for my first day of energy but I don't regret a minute of it.
The potatoes are coming also - the onions - tomatoes will be a few more weeks and then the corn should be another month or so.  The neighbors chickens continue to lay their eggs in our coop but our girls should be laying by the end of the month, if we're lucky.
So, the Harvest has started.  And I have a very full and grateful heart.