I’m Attractive

 … to mosquitoes. I just went outside in the smoke filled air thick with humidity. The rain stopped long enough for me to go out and take my first picking of spinach from my vegetable garden and even though I had earlier spritzed myself with bug repellent, I was swarmed and attacked. 

I have a constant supply of no- name benedryl ( the little pink ones). The itching and swelling I get from mosquitoes, black flies, and deer flies is unbelievable and unbearable. 

We had a good day of rain yesterday and again on and off today. Weeding will be a big part of my life in the next few days. 

My new hens are still very skittish. I think only one kind of chicken is laying so far but unfortunately the eggs have very brittle shells so many of them are unusable. New layers sometimes lay eggs with imperfect shells and I really hope this improves. They receive layer feed which has appropriate levels of calcium in it, so that shouldn’t be the problem. Also, the silly girls sit at the top of a ramp and lay their eggs, thus causing them to roll down the ramp and sometimes break. Ugghhh, can’t wait until they’ve figured out the laying boxes.

Anyway, I am most likely all done teaching for this school year. The final day is this Thursday with Friday being a PD day with teachers in school but no students. 

I’m looking forward to the next two months of gardening, preserving my harvest, reading ( check out my “ reading list” pages), and spending time at the pool. Oh, and collecting eggs, too!