To Do List Overload

Busy, busy, busy.

Wow, it can be hard to keep up with this blog during the high Holidays.  Here it is yom chamishi (Thursday) and I haven't posted since yom rishon (Sunday).  My apologies if you've come by every day looking for something new.  I'll try to do better, and it should get a lot better after this week.  You see, last night at sundown began the Holy week of Sukkot (Feast of Booths or Tabernacles) and we are expecting guests on Shabbat.  There has been so much to do in preparation.  Lots of cleaning and re-decorating and such.

Add to that the stuff that suddenly HAD to be done that wasn't planned for.  Like installing the new panel and dog door on the porch that also doubles as our Sukkah for the week.  Well, um, then Moxie couldn't quite comprehend the concept of a doggie door just yet and because she wanted in to the porch so badly, proceeded to tear through the screen on the other side of the door on the deck side.   Oh sure, I can chuckle about it now, but at the time I wanted to kill that dog.  So, I temporarily nailed scrap panels up all along that side of the porch to protect the remaining screen and went on to other things.

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Other things included dealing with the broody hen, "Pretty Face."  She needed a private nursery in which to set on the eggs.  Twyla blogged about this here.  -- Oh! A very cool thing is that, according to Sitemeter, Twyla's blog had a visitor from Lithuania.  Wow!

Anyway, I took the old corner cabinet that we had bought from the thrift store in the spring and had used for the original set of chicks as a temporary shelter before I built Arks I & II, and made this little nursery.  I already had all the materials left over; the screen, boards, paneling, and the foam board from the dehydrator project.  The only thing I had to buy was a pair of small brass hinges for the top door.  This whole project took about two hours out of the day.  On Tuesday night, well after dark I transferred the hen and the three eggs to the nursery.  It really is amazing how trance-like they are after dark.  But Moxie got too excited about what was going on.  After I had gone all the way back up to the porch, she raced back down the yard and stuck her nose up under the lid and stuck her head inside.  Not that I think she meant any harm, but she needed to learn very quickly that such behavior was not going to be tolerated.

It is also interesting to observe first-hand the patience and dedication of a broody hen.  You would think they would die of thirst and hunger for all the time they spend sitting on those eggs.  Fortunately in the hottest part of the day yesterday, I looked back down to the front yard from the porch to see the hen out getting water and scratching a bit.  She seems more than relieved to not have to share space with the other hens, even though they are in close proximity in their movable arks.

You probably noticed that the header of this blog has changed once again.  I want to keep it fresh and current with the season and what's going on at Beit Ben-David.  So, what you see up there is one of the little islands of crops in well decayed straw bales.  I set out cabbage, swiss chard, brussel sprouts (yes, I really do like them), romaine lettuce, butter crunch lettuce, and spinach.  I also planted a bunch of radishes in the back with more spinach. Then there are all the additional seedlings that are about a month behind the current plants that will need to be planted soon.

What has really eaten up a lot of time, and I do mean that in a good way, is the dramatic changes that we have done inside the house.  We have spent two pretty full days of just cleaning and re-decorating for this Holiday week.  And I was supposed to have moved the wood stove into position and installed the exhaust pipe by now.  May Adonai richly bless me to accomplish this before yom shishi (Friday) noon.  Other than having that done, the rest of the house is incredibly different and incredibly beautiful.  Twyla and I keep looking at it and each other and commenting on how great it is.  Of course, she gets most of the credit, being the real artist. I'm just the skilled handyman who can make it happen.  Not that I don't have a good sense for decorating, but I like what she does and she's so much better at it.

A view from the deck

Some of the trees are shedding their leaves now and it won't be long before I'll be struggling to keep up with gathering them for compost. I've still got screens to frame for the dehydrator.  There is always something to do and never enough time to do it.

Thanks for stopping by, and I'll try to have a fresh post up for you tomorrow.

B'rakhot Adonai!

Moshe