Summer is Finally Here in the PACNW

I've been hearing about the blistering heat in the eastern and southern sections of the United States, but her in the Pacific Northwest, it has been cool, rainy and windy. The last 2 days it has been beautiful and yesterday it got up to 92 with no wind. It's absolutely gorgeous outside. I was stuck inside most of yesterday trying to get some things ready before I head off to my new job on Wednesday. I canned up some corn, made ranch chicken in the crock pot and froze it in 2 containers, BBQ'd chicken for dinner and will freeze the leftover, dried some apricots, did 5 loads of laundry, and looked over upcoming lessons. Today, I am going to spend some time outdoors after church, that is why I'm writing now in the morning hours, so I can enjoy some sunshine!

Tomorrow I will carpool with my husband and drop him off at work and then head over to the school where I will be teaching. I got some great decorations on Friday from our Vacation Bible School. Most were being thrown out in the trash and I snagged them to use in my classroom. They are great, with a "God is wild about you" theme. I have a lot of old materials and things to box up from the previous teacher and hope to organize books and lessons. Then on Tuesday, DH is joining me in the class to help decorate, set up a line across the room for artwork, and other manly jobs. The school is almost 100 years old and that painted cinder block, so I'm sure the acoustics will be interesting. My husband pointed out that the same day I interviewed and was offered this teaching position, offering envelopes arrived in the mail from our church. Coincidence?

Rooster update: Well, our flock of 17 pullets has turned out to be 16 pullets and one cock. Yesterday I heard bloody murder coming from the chicken yard so I started yelling for our dog, Cooper. He was just sitting there and looked at me like I had gone mad. "Sheesh, mom, I'm just lazing around here. What's the emergency?" "Oh, sorry, Cooper. I should know better than to think you would go after one of our chickens." We had trained him with a shock collar when he was young because he did go after and catch our chickens. He has learned that is not a good choice around our homestead. Turns out our young Buff Orpington cock was trying out his method with the pullets, who weren't about to have any of it. And when old Diablo, the barred rock rooster saw what was going on, he came charging at the cock with such a fuss and vocalizations, I didn't know what had got into the chickens. Those two were skating around each other and having a little show of domination. Later, I heard more commotion, but this time the young cock was attempting to service a pullet out of sight of the rooster. He came charging out of the hen house to put that cock in his place. Yes, it is interesting times at our place in the lives of chickens. I predict the rooster will be in the stock pot this week. I will keep you posted.