Busy

I was a very busy little person. 

My imagination was my favorite toy as a child. I pretended pretty much everyday until I was twelve-ish. I thought it would be fun to write a post about the things I would pretend when I was little. It should (probably) be a funny read, and also a place to write things down that I might not remember when I'm old. 

When I was really little, my older brother (Matthew) and my little brother (Mark) would play cats. Matthew was our owner, I would be a tabby, and Mark would be a persian cat. He ate marshmallows. Another time, we three would be mice who tormented the mean (human) aunt who came to live at the house. We were some clever rodents. 

When I got older, I sometimes passed the day saving civil war soldiers as they suffered gangrene and scarlet fever. This particular game I played with one particular friend (most of my games had a specific playmate), and each time we did it, we ended up getting sick ourselves (but recovered after an extremely dire case) or marrying one of the soldiers, or both. 

Other days, I would content myself by being a squirrel (named Blossom, most of the time), who lived in our walnut tree with her little brother (who happened to be my little brother), named Bud. We would gather food to store for winter, make food, and eat food. We had one track minds. There might have been the trauma of a hunter invading our neck of the woods, but most of the time we climbed in and out of our tree house, carrying wild onions, dandelions, random leaves, and flowers to be hung upside down or stored in flower pots. 

Oh, and there were many (many, many) times I would get together with one particular friend (or two others who shared my love for this game) and play...orphans. The Wilhelm house has been an orphanage countless times, each one ruled by a cruel orphan-mistress, who beat us, made us clean through the night, and only provided us with scratchy cots and thin blankets. I'm not sure why every mistress had to be unbearably awful, but I guess it gave us opportunities to be patient martyrs of orphans. 

I was sometimes a tiny person, who rode ants and whose country was at war (it was always at war). My friend was my mother. My father had usually died years ago (so we didn't have to worry about playing him), and I usually had a couple younger siblings. My pretend mother participated in some sort of ladies aid thing, I was either terrible or amazing in school, and we owned a store at the front of our house. 

I was a nurse, a squirrel (or a mouse. That happened a lot, too), a poor orphan, or a patriotic person the size of a bread crumb. I was busy.

Muesli

Muesli (/ˈmjuːzli/ or /ˈmuːzli/; Swiss German: Müesli [ˈmyəsli], Standard German: Müsli [ˈmyːsliː]) is a breakfast dish based on raw rolled oats and other ingredients including grains, fresh or dried fruits, seeds and nuts, and may be mixed with cow's milk, soy milk, almond milk, yogurt or fruit juice.  (from Wikipedia)

My Mom used to make muesli from time to time. And I'm not talking about dry muesli, I mean fresh, overnight-oats muesli. I didn't like it then.

And then, six or seven years later, I've been craving more comforting breakfasts. That's kind of hard to do when you don't eat grains. Oatmeal, fresh bread, and dutch babies are out the window. However, necessity(ish) is the mother of invention and there are many grainless versions of all those things cluttering up the web. I remembered the funny-smelling, porridge-like thing Mom used to make, and decided to give it a go. Behold, a muesli recipe to add to the collection!

Grain-free Muesli:

Serves roughly 3 people...odd number, I know

2 c. yogurt

1 apple, grated 

1 small carrot (or half a large one), grated

1/3 c. shredded coconut

1 t. cinnamon

Mix all the ingredients together in a large bowl and cover tightly. Place in fridge overnight. In the morning, serve in priceless china and top with nuts, raisins, and whatever else takes your fancy.

---

oh, and yes, I am eating dairy now! I can't handle a glass of milk (raw or pasteurized), but I'm eating more than my fair share of yogurt and cheese...and the occasional scoop of ice cream. :) Thanks to BB's, we have boatloads of all the grass-fed, organic, snooty yogurts at a cheap-o price. 

Greenie beanies

Green beans. Fat. Salt. An oven.

source

Yum.

Roasted Green Beans

originally from The Paleo Mom*

1 1/2 lbs. green beans

3 T. fat of choice (I used avocado oil)

1 t. salt (or half pepper and salt. Either way is scrumptious)

Preheat oven to 450. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Wash and trim green beans. Snap in half if desired. Place in bowl and toss with other ingredients until well coated. Spread on cookie sheet, place in oven, and roast for about 20 minutes. Enjoy!

Random Happy Stuff:

One of my brothers (who shall remain unnamed): "Do you think I am a good brother? I think I am a good brother. Do you think I am a good brother?"**

The above said Brother and I are kinda tired after watching How to Train Your Dragon. We were also...um...rather hyper this afternoon while playing Scattegories Categories. Good times.

Chickens will start laying in three weeks! I'll try to post a picture of the first egg, if I don't fry it first.

School starts in two weeks! I love school things (schedules, books, sharp pencils, knowledge). Then, around November, the novelty wears off and it's just school. 

Apples, kale, bananas, and grapes. nomnom.

*so apparently I could call these "Rachel's Roasted Green Beans" if I wanted, just because I left out the lemon juice?

**well, he did accidentally delete this post while I was writing it. So...maybe? ;) (just kidding, I do love you, -------)

Update #6

(As this happened a week ago tomorrow, I guess I'm not exactly on top of the chicken updates, am I?)

The Free-Range Adventure, Which Is Not As Terribly Exciting As It Sounds:

On Sunday evening we were dining al fresco (steak and green beans and chimichurri and chicken and cheesecake and berries and I'll shut up) with my sister's family, when Dad suggested opening the "free-range portal" and letting the chickens roam. I wasn't very excited at the prospect, and it seemed kind of silly in view of all the grass they had in the run still. I relented, however, and opened The Portal.

Only six came out in the end. These brave souls explored the hydrangea beds in back of the coop (hydrangea is toxic to chickens, but the girls didn't touch it), hung around the compost, and made a mess of their straw (it's in a box underneath the coop. We blocked up after that).

Not the best picture, but there you are.

Since then we've let them out twice. Not a big favorite, but they've been spending more time outside in their run, even if it is hot. Yay!

Update #5

So it's been a while. I've been rather busy with various thing (and maybe a leetle lazy). Sometimes I feel like a chicken with its head cut off, running around and forgetting what I should be doing. Maybe this summer isn't going to be as relaxing as I thought.....

Anyway, here is an extremely late update on the girls. They went out for the first time about four or five days after we moved them. We were going to wait a week, but then I needed to clean the coop. I couldn't do that with eleven curious chicks crowding around me!

 

      

What's all this!

We had to forcibly remove some. It took them a few days to figure out the ladder, and it was just yesterday that they started to come out all at once. Usually there were two left in the coop.

As Dad said, "Hey, where's Betty going? I'm coming too!"

At half time during the Argentina-Bosnia and Herzegovina game (we are such wild soccer fans, don't ya know*) I thinned the kale and let the girls have a go at the seedlings. They loved it!

Sorry about the silence. I'm trying (note the word "trying") not to put too much pressure on myself to write a post. I have an idea for one, but don't expect anything till after this week. I'll be busy practicing for Honk!jr, which you should all come and see. Find details here.

Also, happy Father's Day to my wonderful Daddy! Thanks for letting me get chickens and for building the coop!

*not really. Mom just grew up in Argentina, so we had to cheer them on. Gooooo Messi!

And this our life, exempt from public haunt,

Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones, and good in everything. 
I would not change it.

-"As You Like It", act II, scene I

Yesterday (Sunday) my family took a little trip into Delaware. We visited Winterthur, a public garden and mansion-turned-museum. If I remember correctly, the Du Pont family (yes, related to the Du Ponts of Longwood) lived in the large mansion during the early 1900's. I like the history of that time period, and whenever I go to Winterthur I have this longing to be transported back to the days when the Du Ponts still lived there (in a swishy gown and long pearl necklace, of course).

The three photos below were taken last year, but it gives you an idea of how grand the house is.

The gardens are lovely, especially the Quarry Garden, which was an actual quarry at one point. When we visited, primroses carpeted the marshy floor in bright colors. 

There's a little stream that runs through the Quarry Garden. I loved watching the crisscrossed ripples it makes and the tiny waterfalls that trickle down from overhanging rocks. There's just something wonderful about streams, rivers, and even the ocean.

We also toured a lovely little peony garden. I love this kind of flower.

Hey! That's not a peony!

And we must always stop to pay a visit at the fish pond! 

Also, does anyone else feel themselves become strangely poetic when they're surrounded by beauty? I had some of the silliest and most random thoughts yesterday! Such as, This stagnant pool isn't the same as the stream. It is water, but it doesn't go anywhere like the stream. It was in much more poetic wording, though. :)

All in all it was a lovely day. Picnic in the car, beautiful scenery, and my family. Oh, and an elderly lady with an English accent at the end. ;)

Update #4: the Big Move!

The girls are out! We moved them on Saturday and they've settled in nicely. They were all pretty calm during the move, just hunching down in the cardboard box and cheeping quietly from time to time.

Not quite sure what to make of it.

Can you spot the smiley face?

They have to stay in there for a week (so they know it's home) before we can let them out into their fancy-pancy run. We'll see how long it takes for the grass to turn into dirt....

Up next: Adventures in beautiful Winterthur.

"Anything for chickens!"

Six days ago, a lady from the post office dropped off a box. The box was peeping.

Guess what was inside?

Yup! We've got ourselves eleven chicks! They are funny, curious, and (of course) adorably fuzzy. The picture below was taken today.

 

And here's the coop...well, sort of. Construction just started on Saturday.

 

A little back story on the peeps. Last May I suddenly had the idea of getting a few chickens. I don't remember exactly how it came about, but later that evening I started researching. I researched and earned money all summer, fall, and most of the winter. Here I am, almost a year later!

That's it for now, at least until the next update. Also, any name suggestions for the coop? I was imagining something like Hartfield, Longbourne, or Uppercross Hall. :) 

(title is a quote from Dad while he was building the coop.)