Chicken Party Time

The last big chicken processing of '07 is quickly approaching, so I wanted to take a moment to invite all you fine folks to come on out to the Kuhlman Farm and give us a hand. We're hoping to have about 16 fewer hens laying eggs for us by the end of that day, so we need all the help we can get. As usual, every person that comes and helps will get a completely processed, ready-to-cook chicken as a thank you...and we'll be serving a non-chicken-based lunch for everyone too.

Who: Come one, come all
What: Chicken processing party
Where: Kuhlman Farm
When: Sat. Oct. 6 @ 9am
Why: 'Cause there's no way we'll get it done without your help

Please let me know if you can come so I can make sure we've got enough lunch for everyone. Thanks, and we look forward to seeing a bunch of you then.

Silver Lining

It is too hot. I'm about ready to pack up most of Ohio and move it north of Lake Superior. The leaves are changing color, but not because of any cold snap. It has just been so dry here, that the plants are going dormant for the season. - "Sorry folks, we're giving up. Try again next season."

On the plus side, Julia is getting better use out of her summer wardrobe. I was going through her closet and found one extra light weight dress that I had completely forgotten about. It had never been worn. But it was warm enough on Sunday that she could wear it to church.

And nobody got too cold at the church picnic on Sunday. The park was nicely shady. The kids and I didn't even need sunscreen. The small fry of the church decided that the sand volleyball court was actually just an ENORMOUS sand box, and they all had a blast. One of our church members brought a really friendly golden lab, and the kids though she was tremendous! And there was a really nice playset very close to the shelter. The church hired a square dance caller. Steve escaped to a volley-soccer-tennis-ball game before I could corral him to dance with me. Paul had to stand in for him. So Paul, Julia, Emma (also 3 years old) and I danced in little circles to the music. It was pretty fun.

For Grandma & Grandpa

Since Julia hasn't been walking real well for very long, most of the grandparents & other relatives haven't gotten to enjoy this fun time. So here's a little video for ya'll to catch a brief glimpse of the new & improved, mobile Julia.

smart girl

Julia's Vocabulary 9/18/2007
ffeur = flower
Daddy
doggy (often hard to distinquish from daddy)
deedee = baby doll
Pau = Paul
duck (kind of)
kack (what a duck says)
mmmmm (what a cow says)
mmmmme (what a cat says)
shuice (juice)
buh buh buh (banana)
bah bah (balls, block, Bob - it's a good multipurpose word)
Cah-ee (Carrie)

Those are the words she uses consistently. I swear I've also heard her say: water, please, up, more

She can, and does, walk quite well now. She can blow kisses, and she likes to wave. She can put objects into a box on command, and is able to come when called. She initiates wrestling time with Paul, and is promising to be quite a climber. She dances. Often her dancing consists of walking in a little circle while music is playing. The other night, I started imitating her dancing, and she giggled at me.

She picks up baby dolls and cuddles them. She picks up cups and drinks from them. She washes her own belly with a washcloth. She tries to brush her own hair.

Yesterday, she was playing with a toy dalmatian puppy, when she walked over to a poster of puppies, and pointed at the picture of a dalmatian puppy.

She likes to play with shoes. She likes to pull alphabet magnets off the refrigerator. She likes to shake her head, No.

She likes meat. Spicy meat. She is her father's daughter.

Egg on his face

Poor Paul.

Sunday morning the kids were hanging out in the kitchen while I started to get breakfast ready. By hanging out, I mean that Julia was strapped into the high chair, and Paul was bouncing off the cupboard doors.

I started breaking eggs into a cup, before pouring them into a frying pan to make eggs over easy. Paul wandered over and grabbed an egg, announcing that he wanted to break an egg too. I looked down at him and mentally evaluated, "He is still way too young for this. But it might be a good learning experience." So I told him to go get his stool.

The first egg he cracked pretty forcefully against the edge of the cup, then held the egg over the cup and clenched his hand into a fist. Remarkably, very little egg shell fell into the cup, and it made a salvagable scrambled egg.

Then I demonstrated for him. I showed him how to tap the egg firmly but gently on the edge of the cup, and then to gently pull the egg shell apart, letting the yolk and white fall into the cup.

Paul took his second egg, and tapped it very gently on the edge of the cup. The shell barely cracked at all. He started to squeeze the egg a little, and then turned his hand so that he could face the egg. Then he squeezed a little harder. Suddenly, there was egg exploding onto the counter and Paul's face and Sunday morning clothes. Paul sort of jumped back, and I laughed a little bit.

I cleaned Paul's hands and face, then turned my attention to the counter and floor. Paul skittered away and sat in his seat at the table, clearly trying to process what went wrong. I think he was a little shell shocked - so to speak.

Later, I sent him upstairs to tell his daddy what had happened. Paul communicated clearly enough that Steve thought to bring down a change of clothes for Paul when they returned.

I know Paul is going to do well in the kitchen. This experience may have been a little unsettling, but, really, I'm impressed that he handled the eggs as well as he did.

Oktobeerfest 2007 Invite!

Fall is in the air. The days are getting shorter. A slight chill is on the breeze. The nights are getting cooler. The trees are beginning to turn. The birds are gathering in preparation for their journey. It's almost time for the third annual...

OKTOBEERFEST
Make plans now. You will not want to miss this beer-tasting event, where there will be:

• Beer
• Bratwurst
• Bonfire (notice a theme here?)
• Blues Jam

Oktobeerfest
Mark your calender (and RSVP)

• When: Friday, October 12, 2007
• Where: Kuhlman Farm
  
• Time: 6:30pm - ???
• Details: The party is outdoors and in the barn so dress appropriate - including shoes that can get muddy!
  

Here's how it works:

• WE supply the Barn, Brats, Bonfire, & Blues Band.
  
• YOU bring a 6-pack of a carefully selected beer for the tasting (homebrews & rootbeers welcome!)
• You leave one bottle at the judges' table and put the rest out to share.
• There will be token prizes awarded for the best beer in several categories, but mostly it is an opportunity to sample some beers you might never have tried and to have a good time with friends while doing it.

Hope to see you there!
RSVP BBQKing95@aol.com

Fun Kid Shots

They don't look like trouble at all, do they...?

As Paul would say, "I can't know it"

Out with the Old...

We managed, with the help of some of the neighbor girls, to process all of our old laying hens this past Saturday. After going out the night before to see an amazing concert, what better way to continue our anniversary weekend fun than a good old fashioned chicken processing. As you may recall, we had 7 old hens still around from our 2006 flock. We were keeping them for our egg supply until the '07 flock started laying. Well, they've started laying a little bit ago and I've been chomping at the bit to get back down to just 1 coop to manage. So thanks to the Crockett girls for giving us a hand and for the rest of the Crockett family for watching our kids for us for the morning. And thank God for the great weather on Sat. and that the whole event went smoothly. Now we just have to figure out when to schedule the fall processing where we cull the '07 flock down by about 15-20...stay tuned!

Night out

Steve and I don't get out much. We haven't been to the theater to see a movie since '05. (Wallace and Grommit and the Curse of the Wererabbit.) (And no, we didn't have Paul with us for that film.) A couple of our friends were recently incredulous that we hadn't ever been to one of the local restaurants.
"But it's right here in town!"
-"Going out to eat isn't really easy or a ton of fun for us right now."

So it was a big deal that Steve and I got to go out for a concert Friday night. Good friends of ours traded us a night of babysitting and fed our little nippers and tucked them in bed. They must have done a good job because when Paul woke briefly at 4:00 a.m. to have his covers pulled back up, he also asked for Miss Sarah. "Honey, she had to go home to take care of Gideon."

Steve and I picked up some fast food and drove to Cincinnati's Coney Island. There at Moonlight Gardens, Over the Rhine held the kick-off to their new tour. They just released a new album, "The Trumpet Child."

The concert and the album started with "I don't want to waste your time with music you don't need..." I've never thought about "needing" music like that before, but something about it struck a chord with me that night and I started to cry. There were several times during the evening when I felt like the band was dismantling me, reaching deep inside, reminding me of old friends and new love, and scraping the plaque buildup off my soul.

They have a drummer with them now, Mickey, who is a bit of a magician. And when their bass player, Jake, pulls out his big upright bass, you know the music isn't so much going to hit you, as to go through you. It's better than a day at the spa.

I've always enjoyed Over the Rhine's sound. And it stuns me that they keep putting out albums of original material that I really like. Their tunes span genres - rock, jazz, blues, folk, hymn. And their words are smart, poignant and often just fun. I highly recommend the new album to folks.

Bergquist and Detweiler have done it again.

Colossal

Colossal, giant, jumbo. These are all words that different seed companies use to describe their biggest & tallest sunflowers. Allegedly, sunflowers baring these names can attain heights of 10-12 feet or more with heads at least a foot in diameter. It was with these claims in mind that we planted a section of sunflowers of this ilk. I had visions of this great wall of green, at least 10' x 10', with these massive bright yellow & brown heads smiling down at us. However, unless my wife and daughter have both suddenly become giants among men, this picture reveals the results of our efforts...one lowly sunflower whose height & head size are both smaller than my 14 month old Julia. I'm sure the unusually hot & dry weather this summer had nothing to do with it.... I guess if a stunted sunflower is the worst thing that comes from the drought this year, we don't have so much to complain about. Besides, its a good picture of the girls.