Tuesday, June 17, 2008

the little red hen


Great morning, huh? I don't know for sure where you're all from or what the weather might be out your window, but here in central Illinois-it is beautiful, temperature wise. I've had far too much sun these last couple of days competing with the weeds in my garden, so today-(well for most of the day), will find me inside...cleaning. I'll wash all the rugs and lay them on the porch banister where the Labs might leave them alone...although the pups feel compelled to pull and drag down anything that resembles a chew toy.

I must get the room ready for my little french friend coming Thursday. I am an advocate of opening the windows wide at night and closing them in the morning, keeping out the humidity, holding in the coolness. I don't generally run the air conditioner, hope my little European friend doesn't mind. I'm not sure of the temperature fluctuations in his part of the world, but I don't believe they use air conditioning like we do here in the states. We'll see...I hate to give away my hard earned dollars to the utility company, especially this year...I really don't know how folks do it. Keeping cool at all costs...nope, not for me. I'd rather invest in a wood stove for the winter and try to keep my propane usage down...again, I don't know how folks do it, don't know for sure how I'm going to fare -I'm a bit worried about the sky rocketing costs of everything. I think many would be amazed at how little I spend for groceries, I'm like the little red hen, putting away all the produce I can for winter months...and mostly what we eat these days stems from what's in season in the garden. Eggs stretch my food dollar the farthest- omelets laced with fresh herbs and cheese. So good. So cheap. Except the feed for the chickens is just about out of my budget. Sure would like to grow their feed...haven't found much details on the net for that little gig. Any farmers out there doing this practice? Sure would appreciate some info. Ok...not much on my mind today worth sharing, hoping for a good day for all. Take care-

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I got way too much sun too on Monday. I had the afternoon off and thought I'd put on my little bikini top while I worked in the flower beds. I'm a lobster now!! Time to get Granny's old vanilla remedy out :) Never fails.

Love, Rhi

Anonymous said...

by now your french friend is here for one glorious summer. the conviviality delights me. you hoeing in french, him learning your poetry. sounds like the start of a really great summertime flick: little red hen goes parisian.....nah, there's gotta be a better title than that.....

Lorrie said...

I feel your pain in the utility bill department. Here in sunny Florida, I can't hack going without the A/C as often as you can, I'm sure, but believe it or not, we've gone without air more nights this July than ever in my life. I chalk it up to having a 1925 house with 23 windows (in less than 1,400 s.f.!) designed to create air flow throughout; combined with ceiling fans and, oh yes, lots of rain from the Lord above to cool things down.

We're making plans for a fall garden, due to rising food costs. And the eggs we don't eat, we're selling to friends. But the price of chicken feed is making it hard to reach profit status with our little egg production.