Dave Stands Alone

It rained so hard Friday night, I was sure we were going to have to cancel our plans for Saturday. Butchering day is unpleasant enough without holding it in a torrential downpour. The rain stopped around sunup, however, and we were able to proceed. The four of us—Jeryl and Elysian came to help, too—did 27 birds in just under two hours. We had eight, Jeryl brought 16, and Elysian had three juvenile roosters. We should have had nine, but I missed one of the New Hampshire Reds hiding in the coop, so it gets to live another year unless it dies of old age, first.

Dave is now the only rooster in our coop. I am a bit concerned about being down to one. I said to the husband that I might have to hatch out some eggs next spring so I have a possible replacement if something happens to Dave. Baby roosters learn how to be good roosters by watching the big roosters (there is an important metaphor there), and I prefer to train mine up from chicks. For now, though, I will enjoy the peace and quiet of a coop without a lot of excess testosterone. Dave is in charge and taking excellent care of the hens.

No doubt the neighbors will be grateful that mornings will be quieter without roosters crowing in stereo.

I am always glad to have that unpleasant but necessary task over and done with. The sun was out by the time we finished, so the husband lit off one of the slash piles. I went to the sewing room and finished my neighbor’s pillow shams. She chose some really lovely fabric:

I also worked a bit on another project, Vanessa Goertzen’s Goody Goody Binding Kit, using Sheri McConnell’s modifications. Sheri made her version slightly bigger and did a YouTube video to go with her changes.

The outside is some turquoise fabric that I quilted onto Soft and Stable (yes, it is Disney princess fabric, but I liked it, so I used it) and the inside parts are being cobbled together from leftovers. As nice as the Mini Poppins bag is for toting my EPP supplies back and forth to sewing, I want something more compact and streamlined for traveling further afield. This looks like it will do the job.

And I cleaned off the table that holds the Q20. I can’t quilt on that machine until I do something with the projects that have been piled there all summer, including the Slabtown Backpack. That one stalled mid-stream. I looked over the pattern again to figure out where in the process I am, and I’ll start working on it again soon.

The husband brought me a pair of insulated Carhartt coveralls that need a replacement zipper (the zipper is missing an inch’s worth of teeth). A zipper isn’t hard to replace, unless it was put in as Step 2 of a forty-three step process of building a pair of Carhartt coveralls. I’m going to have to remove snaps and release seams in several places just to get the broken zipper out, let alone replaced. These overalls are not cheap to purchase new, however, so I will probably make an attempt.

I finally have a week on the calendar with nothing pressing scheduled. No appointments, no events to help out at, no meetings, nothing. We’ll see how much I can get done around here before the big holiday push begins next month.