Mister with all five of his grandbabies.

Last Saturday was Mosaic's family day.  Mosaic is the company that Gary's daddy works for.  They do alot for the men that work for them.  They have the spring family day, and in the fall each year, they give every one tickets and food vouchers for a Ray's game.  Dad's been there since Gary was small, and they have gone most years to the get together.  This was the first time I went.  I'm thinking we were in Alabama one time, and sick another time or two, and then of course we were in Gainesville this time last year.
















They had alot for the kids to do.  They had a great almost new playground, that Gary and the rest of the sibs all complained about.  Things along the line of "why didn't they have one of these when we were kids" or "this would have made it way better when we were coming."  It was a really nice playground, and in addition to all the regular play things, they also had a basketball shooting game and a bounce house there for the day.  The big kids played basketball some, while the little kids played on the bounce house.  Lilli as always had no fear, she was the first to scale it (even with no one for her to have watched), and she convinced Britt to come along, even though he wouldn't have on his own.  He got stuck at the top and Momma had to come and rescue him.


















Brystal and Lilli both chose to be a princess, so they had crowns painted on their foreheads and glitter put on the cheeks.  Julia picked cherries for her hand.  Britt once again did something that he probably would have never done, if he hadn't watched Lilli go first.  He decided he wanted his face painted too, and choose Spiderman.  (The one and only superhero he knows, and he can't stop talking about, which is just a little ironic when you think about it.  He has no idea what Spiderman does or anything about him, except what he looks like.)  We had a great time, though I for one was wore out and hot when we left to go home.  The kids must have felt likewise because after a quick bath they took a 2 hour nap.

The Sunday that we came back from Alabama was a crazy busy day. We left my parents around just after 10pm central time, and made it to our house at 15 till 10am eastern time. We had just enough time to bath, change clothes and load back up in the car. Staying focused during church was a little of a challenge with our two squirmy kids and Lilli sitting with us that morning. Plus we were obviously tired. Thankfully Grandmaw Bea and Poppa J offered to take the kids to their house for a few hours that afternoon so we could get a nap in. Britt asked after me a few times, but he settled down and was really good for them, thank goodness. Gary and I got a 3 hour nap, and then we were ready to go again. 

After Britt got done showing his cow, we headed up to Alabama to see Grumps and Ahna. I wanted to show a cow too, but when I snuck under the fence to get into the arena Momma caught me and yanked me back out. Maybe next year.
We spent a busy week with Grumps and Ahna. It started with pancakes, and having them all to ourselves on Saturday while Momma and Daddy caught up on sleep. Then Sunday we had church all day, but that was ok, because it means that everyone got to hold me all day long. Then on Monday, Ahna was out of school, so Grumps took off too. That day we got to play in the house, and watch movies, and go dig around in Ahna's flowerbeds. On Tuesday, we spent the whole day with Grandmother and Granddaddy's house while everyone else was at work. Granddaddy got us some ice cream that afternoon and then we went to the park. On Wednesday we went to school to visit Ahna and I had fun with everyone I met. Britt was a little grumpy, but everyone loved me. Then we went to see Momma's friend that I am named after Ashley, and her new baby. Britt decided that he wanted to take her home with him. I liked her, but I don't think I liked her that much. On Thursday we went with Grandmother to go meet Aunt Melanie and Maghen for their hair appointments. That was fun. Then that evening we went to the Park and Momma talked with Kristi and we played with her kids. On Friday we ate breakfast with Grandmother and Granddaddy and we picked up some leaves for Grandmother before Grandma and Aunt Rachel and Emily came down from Tennessee. We had fun all night, and then on Saturday went to the park and Emily read to me.

Momma told you all about the lamb show yesterday. I loved the lamb show. I keep asking Momma when we can go back and see the lambs, so I can hold them and pet them. But, she says I have to wait till next year, whenever that is. Even better than lambs though, was the cows. Sis. Kelsey told us that they do the same thing at the Breed show. So on Friday we went back to the Strawberry Festival (the lamb show as on Monday). It was raining when we got there, and I had gone to sleep in the carseat so I was a little cranky, but when I got my cup of milk the whole world was right again.

We really enjoy going to the Strawberry Festival every year. Gary loves the food they have the Wisconsin Cheese that we wait all year to eat. (There was another, new WI Cheese booth there this year, but we went to the good one, the original.) They have Polish dogs, and Italian dogs, they have Philly Cheese Steak, and Gyros. There are funnel cakes which I adore and Elephant Ears that Gary savors. Then of course you can't pass up the 400 ways to eat strawberries while you are there. There are shakes and ice cream, there are chocolate covered and in a shortcake, there are just plain berries and sauces and jams. I'm starting to get hungry all over again just thinking about it.

I read somewhere probably on Backyard Chickens (one of the best websites ever), that if you want to have consistant meat birds or steady egg layers that you should hatch new eggs every 18 to 24 months. For most people that means you set some eggs in the incubator or hope to have a broody hen either every year or every other year. We are hoping to start selling some eggs at Granddaddy Garland's road side stand, and I'm looking into selling some hatching eggs as well. Additionally we would like to try to have a few good enough quality birds for Britt to be able to show birds in the Strawberry Festival. For these various reason, we sat some Marans eggs in the bator back the end of February. Unforunately the night the egg turner was taken out the temp spiked up over 110, and none of the eggs hatched. I broke them open today to see how many developed. Seven were fully developed, 2 more quit developing fairly early, and 5 were not fertile. We've made some adjustments, and today another 20 eggs went in. I've never washed the eggs, because washing them takes away their first line of defense in keeping bacteria out of the egg and the developing chicks, but come to find out some people do wash them, and infact almost all hateries wash their eggs before incubating. We have 13 washed eggs in and 7 nonwashed eggs. Additionally of the 13 washed eggs, they recommend that you wait no more than 10 to 14 days to begin incubating the eggs. Some of the 13 have been in there a little more than 2 weeks, so that may further drop our hatch rate. At any rate we are hoping for some more chicks in 21 days.

In other news, tonight, we, I mean I became the happy owner of 6 more hens: 1 Barred Rock, 1 Columbian Wyandotte, 2 Speckled Sussex, and 2 Cuckcoo Marans. After the initial squabbling, they seemed to settle down together. I need some more chicken names. Anyone got any suggestions for the letters R, W, S, and M?

The weekend after the Fellowship Meeting was over, Daddy and Britt went to town to get some more chicken feed for our chickens while Momma and I stayed home to do a little housework. (I was very helpful you know, I used my monkey to dust the bottom shelves while she worked on the higher shelves. Daddy came back and said with each bag of feed you bought, you got a free chick. So we all loaded up and went down to the Ace Feed Store, and Momma picked out two Americauna chicks, that will lay green eggs when they get bigger. We named the darker one Alma, and the one that looked more like a chipmunk we named Aurora.

We've been on a bit of a vacation around here. Both of the blogging and the physical variety. It's been a busy month since I last checked in, and hope to update about a few of our happenings. First we had the Fellowship Meeting which was unbelievable blessed. If you weren't here, all I have to say is you missed out on one of the best meetings ever. Then of course we had the Florida Strawberry Festival, which in my opinion is one of the absolute best parts about living in Florida (along with no real winter). Yesterday we just got back from a week in Alabama with my family, which we always enjoy. In between all of that we put some eggs in the bator, planted a garden, and did some spring cleaning.