Eggs to hatch and the Schuyler Lake Truck Pull

One of our Silver-Laced Wyandotte hens decided that she wanted to hatch some eggs. She is not very good at the egg-sitting part—sometimes she moves to the other nest box and sits on the eggs in there—but for the most part she is sitting pretty and hoping for some young ones to come along. I have been taking out the extra eggs that are laid there when she leaves the box, and leaving the original 5 for her to hatch. With any luck we will have chicks in another week or so, although we're not sure that  they are being properly maintained by the new momma.

Today The Husband and I witnessed a bit of Schuyler Lake excitement—the annual Truck Pull to benefit the Schuyler Lake Fire Department. The Fireman's Field is our next-door neighbor, so we have actually witnessed this before, but from a distance. This year, Alan, our favorite mechanic, got us free pit passes figuring that we deserved them for putting up with the noise, dirt, and general commotion. We would not have gone otherwise, but it was definitely interesting, and we met several of our neighbors, all Seamons...

Alan's assistant, Tom, is apparently the star of the truck pulls. That is Tom's purple Jeep truck (who even knew there were Jeep trucks, much less purple ones?) in the photo. The Fire Department is responsible for wetting down the track with water from our shared creek, but even so, the dust was flying. And the beer was flowing...still is at 10:30 in the evening...

The family has left the building, and the Wild Wood

We had a great week of family visits with my mother-in-law Rita staying the weekend, and then 14YO Claire and 11YO Ella staying the rest of the week. That is Ella above, a self-portrait. The girls cooked for us, and entertained the crazy new dog and Sophie during their stay. Sophie and Dave the Cat slept with them on the night of the ugly thunderstorms. Everyone left us on Friday last week and none of us wanted them to go.

Wildwood is a crazy place to be on the beach ("at the shore") in the summer in NJ. The wild Woody dog is not quite as crazy as all that, but close to it. He is perfectly calm, willing to stay in his crate while I am gone (new job!) for 9 hours during the day, but then he gets this crazy look in his eyes and, with no warning, he jumps on the sofa, throws off all the pillows and cushions, and turns into the real WildWood. (pictures to follow)

And then he has these wonderfully quiet moments with Sophie, where you would think they had been buddies forever.

Surprisingly he is a perfectly well behaved boy off-leash. He always comes back when you call him, and he loves to run off excess energy at full speed, blasting through the creek and our wildly overgrown property. His belly is all scratched up from his wild romps through the weeds. On the leash however, he quickly learned to free himself no matter how tight I made his collar. That's why he's wearing the blue harness in these photos. I hope to lose that eventually...

Note to Dawn and Larry (Woody's foster parents): He is staying here forever—you are not getting him back. We love him too much! (even Sophie does)

Wild Woody calms down, and Ell's Kitchen

The Wood Man has been doing a good job of fitting in at Lester's Flat (yes, I am always going to call it Lester's Flat). He survived a party on Saturday with about a dozen people including the 2 nieces and a 4-year-old little lady named Lauren. He is getting along better with Sophie, as you can see in this blurry photo, and he even had some face time with Dave the Cat yesterday. Out on the screen porch, Brave Dave put up with the Wood Man's antics for about 2 hours while we were practicing our new commands: Be Nice!, Gentle!, Come Here!, and Leave it!

Claire and Ella have been entertaining Woody and Sophie, and also cooking for Aunt Kathy and Uncle Timmy. Ella made us some shrimp and swiss chard (in the photo) and then last night Claire made us some garlic and lemon panko-breaded chicken with broccoli and mashed potatoes. Right this very minute Ella is serving up some vanilla mousse that she made last night, but it didn't freeze in time for dessert. We are saving some for Uncle Timmy who is at work.

Ella also got a good start on her new blog—Ell's Kitchen. At age 11, she is going to be reviewing all of the meals that she eats in restaurants. A big fan of shows like Chopped, and with a father who is a chef, she is quite the little connoisseur of fine dining. Uncle Timmy gets kudos for helping her come up with the name. Once she gets it up and running, I will give you all a link to the blog.

Piggies and visitors

 Today we saw the most adorable creatures alive. We saw one-day-old piglets. In all, there were nine of them, all cute in their own precious way. Two of the nine were little runts, that barely squeezed into feeding time. We chose Carrot Top (lying down in the front with the red head and a black eye?) and the blackest one (far right) but we haven't chosen a name just yet for either of them.

Through all the chaos of the feeding, the pigs flipped and flew. If you ever doubted the phrase when pigs fly you'd think twice about using it the following time you get asked a ridiculous question. The mother feeding them was over 600 pounds! The three of us even held the littlest spotted one. It was great being able to see such a small creature up close, because I have only seen a small piglet as such in Charlotte's Web.

(written by Ella, the Visitor)      

This other photo is the Wood Man, who made himself at home on Rita's bed yesterday—from 10 am to 3 pm. Rita the Visitor sat and read the New Yorker to him. She even threatened to take him home, but at age 91, and looking like she weighs less than he does, we talked her out of it.

Welcoming the Wood Man and work

No chance we are returning this guy on Sunday...much too handsome to return. Plus, just kooky enough that he reminds me of the young Lester, a true knucklehead.

Sophie is not exactly sure she wants him to stay, but she is being stoic, persevering. I tried to warn her that Woody might have a not-so-positive effect on her nice, quiet, sleepy lifestyle; but I think she's trying to sleep even more so that maybe she'll wake up and find him gone. They'll both settle in soon enough.

Some NJ family are coming up today, so I have lots of cleaning to do to prepare. I just wanted to get this post up there before the mayhem ensues. The Toddlers & Tiaras girls from last year are staying with us for the week. Not sure that we'll have as many pageants as last year, perhaps they've outgrown the pageant life. (We can only hope!)

I had a job interview today for doing some graphic design for a local paper. I have the weekend to think about it. It's less money than what I am used to, but then I am older and slower than I used to be—NOT! We'll see...

Waiting for Woody

Here's the new boy that we are thinking about adopting—very handsome, don't you think? He is staying with a foster family in NJ, and his name is Woody. I think I like that name enough that we might keep it, but I haven't talked to The Husband about that yet. I am just happy that he agreed to getting another dog, because he wasn't quite ready. (I say look at the Lester smiling down on Woody from the top of this page. He gives his approval.)

I found out that the same day we lost Lester, one of my Flickr friends lost her rescue dog, Rocco. He was also just under 15YO. So now Rocco and Lester have no more aches and pains, and they have each other to romp around with in pooch heaven. I'll bet they are swimming in the lake together as we speak...

I am one of those people who thinks that you have to choose a dog based on their personality, and that you can sense that when you first meet them. Problem is, we have not met the Wood Man yet, and we have no idea if Sophie will think that he is as interesting as we do. I am picking him up in Amsterdam, NY next Wednesday. I can send him back to NJ on Sunday if he doesn't work out, but I am really praying that does not happen.

And he will have quite the first weekend settling in here at Lester's Flat—we have family also coming up from NJ, and are having a big party on Saturday. So that gives you 3 days to get with the program, Wood Man! Don't make me have to send you back!