On May 8th, we had what some people are calling an inland hurricane. It brought a large tree down in our yard that landed on our deck, near enough to hitting the house that it pushed the sliding glass door in the dining room open. The tree had 3 huge trunks and all three came down in one instant into our back yard.

It flattened one of our duck houses. Shown here looking to the base of the downed tree, showing all three trunks of the tree with the middle one crushing the duck house.

Nearly every home in our area suffered some kind of damage. Our claims adjuster came by yesterday. He said that his company processed twenty total losses this week. I suspect the other companies had many more. Our power came back on Thursday. We were without power for 144 hours. Six nights. I'm beginning to restock the freezer, but right now after throwing out all that meat and frozen foods, I can't quite stomach buying very much. It doesn't seem very appetizing. I told Eric yesterday that we're becoming something like "normal people" eating out every day!

After this experience, a lot of our neighbors and friends are getting generators. We won't be getting one. We've decided that the best preparedness is having lots of fresh water in storage which we had for this power outage. We also already have a camping stove which we put to use. The other thing that we should get is a kerosene heater. The weather after the storm was gorgeous, but if it had been chilly for those 6 days we could have been miserable.

Orchid Show

Here are a few photos from our visit this month to the Orchid Show...

Hunt for the White ones

This is one we found in Olney, Illinois several weeks ago:



This one we found in Kenton, Tennessee last week.

This is the result when you ask a certain 12 year old boy to snap a photo. I kinda like it! This is me and my dear hubby.

We've had some beautiful sunsets this month. It was hard to pick a favorite.

Optimum maximum

(Thomas Brooks, "The Unsearchable Riches of Christ")

Christians serve a wonderful Master.
They serve Him who is . . .
all ear to hear them,
all hand to uphold them,
all power to protect them,
all wisdom to direct them,
all goodness to relieve them,
all mercy to pardon them.

They serve that God who is optimum maximum
—the best and greatest. God has within Himself
all the good of angels, men, and universal nature.
God has . . .
all dignity,
all glory,
all riches,
all treasure,
all pleasure,
all delight,
all joy,
all beatitudes.

God is . . .
goodness,
beauty,
power,
wisdom,
justice,
mercy, and
love itself!

God is one infinite perfection in Himself!

"He has all—who has the Haver of all." Αugustine

Lake on the Campus


Road in front of our home.



Campus Lake

.
.

Autumn Photos

Good morning!!! How are you?? It's great to see you today.

When I sit quietly in the morning, the sun brightens the room and this is how I see it through the east window by my chair.



And when the sun goes down...this is what I see...



Good night. Sweet dreams! Thank-you for spending a few moments with ME!!

Well! Look at you, still faithfully looking at my blog even though I haven't posted anything for the whole month of June. You're too good to be real. These are some photos from me and Eric's recent walks around Campus Lake at SIU. We especially enjoyed seeing the young buck lounging by the side of the lake. He never did seem to catch a whiff of Gretchen, who was walking with us. He was relaxing and enjoying the cool breeze coming from the Lake. Gretchen never saw or smelled the buck either.

I hope you're enjoying your summer!!

More Adventures at the Hennery

Always excitement with all our fowl. The excitement ranges from a stalking fox, new birth, death and even romance. As for the romance: we introduced a new rooster to our flock of widow hens this week. He'll probably be given a Russian name because of the way he kicks his legs out straight when he walks, like a Russian soldier. We used to laugh at the way Jeff ran, but this guy is hilarious. He gallops, or maybe it's a skip--whatever--it's makes me laugh. God is good to provide us with crazy beasties to make us laugh, even on our gloomiest, saddest days. Everyone should be blessed with a Hennery! Henneries work like Prozac for depression! There are dangers with Prozac as well as with Henneries, like the other night when I flattened a wire cage when I fell on it in the dark---owie!! That danger wasn't mentioned in the "insert" when I got started with hens! Our new rooster has Japanese heritage, the farmer says he's a mix. I'll post a picture someday---it'll keep you coming back to check for a photo!!

Concerning the people who live here at the Hennery, we've been busy! Eric went away for a few days to help his mom. We'll be happy to see him home today. Last weekend Eric and I celebrated our twenty-second anniversary---this is the best year yet! We had an enjoyable get-away weekend without the kids.

Isaac's high school graduation ceremony is this evening. He made it! The baccalaureate ceremony was scheduled for Sunday, but the town was hit with tornado warnings and so it was post-poned until last night. Only a third of the kids and only a few handfuls of parents attended. I didn't find the sermons all that inspiring. The choir sang beautifully--that was the best part. In closing we sang a hymn together. I was surprised by their hymn selection: "I'll Fly Away." Is that an odd selection, or what? I thought it strange, but Becky and I enjoyed standing next to each other and belting out this fun song from our childhood.

Miracle in my front yard

God's plan is to turn these pink flowers into juicy blackberries.















The bees are here as part of the miracle. There are lots of bees, lots of pollen, there has been plentiful rain. There will be fat juicy sweet blackberries.

Jeff

We have very sad news here at the Hennery. Our beautiful Rooster, Jeff was hit by a car. My nephew blames it on a teen-aged driver, though I doubt that anyone actually saw the guilty party. Not a happy day. Our glorious, sleek, protective, wonderful rooster, dead. His bright red head, suddenly pale and lifeless. His hens now scattered without their leader and cranky with each other, though they don't understand why. I shall declare that he was the very best rooster ever. Never fear, we're in search of another grand leader for our flock. Beginning interviews today!


















These photos have nothing to do with Jeff. I was out buying a new camera when Jeff met his end. He wasn't so picturesque by the time I got my camera home.

Here instead are three of our four kitties. First, Nakita, then my blind kitty, Brit.
And the last one is Sylvia, our soft and cuddly huggable kitty that everybody loves.

I'm still learning how to use my new camera. I've made a lot of mistakes, but that's part of the fun of a digital camera. I may get so snotty about my beautiful photos that I might refuse to post them for fear someone might steal them, ha ha! I'm not that snotty yet!!

Happy Mothers Day!

Candid Camera

I am so naughty for posting this photo. My oldest son and youngest don't like to have their photos taken and I can never get them to cooperate so I can get all three in one photo. I took this photo with a digital zoom from the same kitchen window that I caught the grosbeak earlier this week. I think this photo is precious. I don't know why they were lined up like they are, each with a chicken, it looks like they're up to some mischief, doesn't it?

They're all standing in the duck pen where I think the hens were getting inside the duck house (quacker box) bothering Ping and her 3 new Indian Runner babies. I think they are uniting to rid the hens from their improper place. I couldn't resist capturing their unintentional pose!



The way they're standing makes me think they're thinking about a chicken flying contest or something.

Left to right---Isaac, graduating from High School this month; Niel, finishing 5th grade home school; Quinn, Sophomore in college.

Last week on May 2nd we started seeing this Rose breasted Grosbeak at our feeders. He and his mate are still hanging out around here and today I caught him with his finch and cardinal friends in this fuzzy picture. (I don't have a zoom lens and this is taken through a rain-spotted window, that's my excuse.) Today I pulled out my bird book and found a note to myself that on May 2nd 2007 there were four Grosbeaks in our yard. That's pretty amazing to me that they know our calendar! Smart birds. Also on that day last year I noted that a flock of Indigo Buntings arrived. Last year on May 18th we noticed a pair of Scarlet Tanagers who ended up building a nest in the pine branch above the van parking space. We're hoping they return this year too---they were fun!

Good Girl, Scare Snake!! This black rat snake was outside the duck house this morning waiting for Niel to let him in to have some eggs for breakfast.




The pictures below are Ping on her nest with Fred her constant companion guarding her. If you can see a brown chicken egg in with the white duck eggs beneath her, we didn't put there. Evidently one of the hens thought Ping wouldn't mind at all as long as she's sitting.

The other photo is the three guineas that the boys gave me for Mother's Day. The lightest chick will be pearl colored, the medium is supposed to grow up to be "purple" and the darkest one is supposed to be a typical brown guinea.

Wordless Wednesday

This is the third year Ping has set. The first batch completely failed. Last year she hatched the twins, Fred and George. This year her eggs are due to hatch on May 3rd. Today Mr. Blacksnake raided her nest and now she has only 5 eggs left to hatch. If we could figure some way to keep the snakes out she would appreciate it. After the twins hatched last year we were able to put them into a snake proof pen, but it's a little hard to manage after she begins setting.

The tulips are blooming!