Britesea - Living the good life in rural Oregon

OH my goodness! When it rains it pours! At least, if there is a good side, it came after DH is kinda able to take care of himself.

Back problems are horrible. I sure hope you feel better soon!
 
Feeling marginally better today, but I still can't sit at the computer for longer than an hour without everything clenching up again. They say things happen in threes; I hope so, with DH's accident, the Fire, and my back that might mean we are through with bad stuff for a while.
 
Thanks @Denim Deb, I was familiar with a couple of those excercises but not all of them!. I've been able to get up and do some light work yesterday and today. Maybe the excercises will help me get back on track faster.
We did get some rain @WendyJ, and I think it really helped the firefighters. The last news I got was that it was something like 90% contained, it's apparently old news now as all the attention is on other fires. At least we have clear skies again.

One of our Khaki Campbell girls is sitting on a nest of about 18 eggs! She's been taking care of business for about a week now. She started the nest during the fire when we were not home to put them away each night. Lucky, the drake, had been trying to get her interested in a spot among the irises under the living room window for some time. When I noticed a few eggs in there, I added a few that I had gathered from the coop just to see what would happen. And suddenly there were a bunch of eggs and by the time we came home to stay she was sitting on the nest and being very aggressive if anyone came near. I'm nervous about leaving her there as she has no protection other than the natural concealment of the weeds and irises there, but I don't want to disturb things. Hopefully since she's right under the open window we will hear if anything untoward happens and be able to save her. It would be really nice if she was successful in her mothering endeavor-- even if she only manages to raise one duckling. The following year she would have experience and maybe do better.

My friend showed up a couple of days ago to harvest the garden since I haven't been able to do so- half for her and half for us. She picked 4 nice cabbages, some beets and swiss chard, some cucumbers and summer squash, and an enormous amount of kale. We already ate the beets, cukes and squash.:drool I've been drying and freezing the kale and chard, and feeding some to the ducks every morning; hopefully I will be able to make sauerkraut from the cabbages. The peas and favas succumbed to the heat; I will be sending DS out there to start harvesting them for seed soon. I didn't get as large a harvest as I'd hoped from them because it warmed up so quickly. In retrospect, I probably could have planted them almost a month earlier than I did.
I haven't gotten anything at all from the broccoli which surprises me-- they are tall and lush, but not producing heads at all. Maybe I need more phosphorus in the soil? I didn't test the soil this spring.
 
Can you put some type of fencing w/a roof around her for her protection? You could leave it opened at certain times of the day so she can take care of herself, then shut it up the rest of the day.
 
Hi @Denim Deb
I was thinking about doing something like that, but I'm afraid she will stop setting on the eggs if I make any changes that scare/annoy her. Unlike chickens, ducks don't take kindly to change when they are broody. So far she is doing well-- I don't know if the fire drove predators off or what, but no one has bothered her since we returned to the homestead. I had left the yard open for them when we left, hoping that if the fire came through they would be able to save themselves by heading for the river (which is only about 100 yards away from them), and nothing bothered them during that entire time, but I know it's just a matter of time until SOMETHING discovers them again so I lock everyone else up at night.
 
Oh my! Take care of yourself! I hope that you're feeling better by now.
Cool on the broody duck! I hope that she's able to take care of some of them, that would be lovely!
 
Suzie Duck is still going strong. It's a hoot to watch her when she decides to get off the nest. She first covers the eggs with extra grass and such, all the while doing that funny almost-like-a-purr that ducks do sometimes, then dashes off at full sprint to the feed, gobbles up a couple of mouthfuls, then over to the water for a drink, maybe hops into the basin for a quick bath, then back to the feed for another couple of mouthfuls and a drink, then back to the nest... all of it at the fastest run those silly little legs can manage! All the other ducks get out of her way because she will pinch their necks or bottoms if they don't.

I'm finally back to as good as my back ever gets, and catching up with housework, bills, and everything else that the menfolk are apparently unable to do.
I made shepherds pie last night, using ground beef instead of lamb (which apparently makes it a cottage pie instead) and carrots and peas, and topped it with a mixture of mashed potatoes and mashed turnips to reduce the carbs. It turned out very tasty. Add a salad of tomato and lemon cukes, and some white corn I got at the farmer's market, and a dessert of peach crumble and everyone was very happy that Mom is back on her feet.

Today I want to make sauerkraut with the last cabbage (we had the other one baked with pork chops earlier), and I have all the ingredients to can up a batch of pickled peppers. Eventually I will try fermenting my pickles instead, but one thing at a time.
 
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