THE "TO DO" LIST...

Summertime and the living is easy.... for Winslow Homer that is...our summertime to do list here at Dog Trot Farm is quite lengthy...there is a chimney to clean and wood to stack...carpets to steam...a pine floor to be laid... and a new kitchen window to install... there is trim to paint and a porch too...let alone vegetable and flower gardens to tend...sometimes the days just don't seem long enough... and now there are issues with my girls. Since the death of Pip the hierarchy in the coop has changed... changed for the worse that is...this lovely lady...

and her twin sister....who were once meek and mild...

have become down right evil...

the target of this behavior is Iris...my sweet... lovable buff...whether it be in the coop or in the yard it makes no difference Iris is their target. I removed Iris from the coop thinking she could possibly be ill...but after two weeks of living apart... there is no evidence of illness... she is accepted by the other hens...her appetite is fine as is her laying...so with reluctance...I have no choice but to give Fern and Phoebe away. It is either a new home or off with their heads and into the stew pot!
Below is my treasure... an old zinc tub. My husband was my walking campion on the day I happened to spy it...well off the trail and in the bushes..."I suppose you want me to go get it" "why yes" I said. DH pulled it out and I said "oh... look it has drainage holes...I already had a vision for it's purpose..."no...those are not drainage holes...those are bullet holes." Needless to say my husband carried the old zinc tub two miles back to the car... with no complaints... and by evening I had found the perfect location...... one person's trash is another person's treasure...

and to show my thanks...I made his favorite summertime cake...Martha Stewart's Strawberry Sugar Cake.

topped off with a "dopple" of whipped cream....thanks honey, you're the best...!