Things I want to tell you

Today I've just got some odds and ends for you: some random things that really don't warrant a full post by themselves, but that I still want to tell you about.

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I've noticed something about the way I put on shoes, or at least the way I put on my chicken boots.  I keep telling myself to pay attention when I'm putting on other shoes, but I never do.  I store my chicken boots on the doormat in the garage.  Those boots step in chicken poop, and while I'm pretty sure the poop gets rubbed off by the time I get back to the house, I don't want to step into the house wearing them.

I am so happy with my chicken boots.  I use them all.the.time, even when I'm not tending chickens.  They're just so comfortable and convenient, plus waterproof.  Everybody should have some.

There's about an 8 inch step down from the mud room to the garage floor, and I step down into my chicken boots.  But here's what I noticed: I have to step down with my left foot first.  Because of the proximity of the boots to a wall, it would be easier to step down with my right foot, moving the right boot to the right, and then stepping down into the left boot, but I just can't do it.  When I step out of my chicken boots into the house, I have to step up with my right foot first.

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We are filling our swimming pool.  We fill it slowly, a few hours at a time, so as not to stress the well, but it always feels a little like a race against time, because we can't really put any chemicals in, and the water isn't filtered, until it gets to be about 3 1/2 feet deep.  So we're filling slowly, so we don't stress the well, but as fast as we can, to prevent debris from dropping, algae from growing, and frogs from laying eggs in our pool.  We just committed mass tadpole-icide when we cleaned the pool--I don't want to have to do it again.  The frogs live in the lining of the pool, where the poles meet the top ring.  It is no trouble at all for them to drop down to deposit their genetic material.

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Speaking of frogs, we've been sleeping with the windows open for the past several days to cool the house off, and those frogs are so LOUD!  Holy moly, they're loud, and they never stop.  But the other night, we had the frogs singing to each other, plus some kind of bird.  It sounded just like Hazel honking, but it was right outside our window.  It was funny, because it sounded funny, but it was also kind of disturbing, because it didn't seem like there should be that kind of noise coming from that place.

That is not a frog, but it probably makes loud noises outside windows, too.

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Speaking of kind of disturbing, I saw a black bear walking across our back yard the other night.  She was little, but not a baby, so perhaps she was kicked out of the den when a younger sibling came along.  She was heading away from the chicken coop, and didn't appear to notice the girls.  She also started loping when she heard my voice, so that was good.  And of course, the sliding glass door to the back porch, which she must have passed within feet of, was open that night.

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Our strawberries are producing like crazy, and as of now, the only thing eating them is human (yay!  Although I feel like I'm cheating fate a little by not deploying my bird and rodent counter-measures as of yet).  And those strawberries are so delicious.  Organic, too.  Everyone should grow strawberries.

And...I think that's all for now.