What a nice day.

Today was such a nice day. The kids actually slept in till 6 am, which is a rarity around here. Then they happily watched PBS in the bed with me and let me lay for an hour. Yes folks We finally found the sweet spot for both sets of rabbit ears in the house so our digital converter boxes actually get PBS! This is one of the highlights of the summer. We have satellite on our main tv in the house, but the play room tv and our master bedroom tv just have over air converter boxes. Neither of them got any channels to speak of, just three channels of CBS, which is great in the evening, but the ONLY channel I wanted to get was PBS. And now after many placements and the addition of a new set of rabbit ears, BOTH tvs now get PBS, except on rainy and very overcast days. This has been a blessing, truly.

My day started with a whisper and was pretty mellow all day. I cleaned, sewed (I have a custom order from a repeat customer, I have had the fabric for weeks now and just haven't had the time to get to it, till today!), cooked and then had a lovely dinner with a cousin who lives near by. It was very nice. The kids went a bit wacky after dinner, but when don't they, and it was a very nice visit. Then Mr. T, myself and my cousin all sat out on the deck, watched the deer and ducks, and talked till the bugs got to bad to take any more. It was very relaxing and mellow. I hope tomorrow is just as pleasant.

The ducks are going into a molt. RATS! Feathers EVERYWHERE! I missed my window for culling, this kind of stinks. I should have butchered last week, but I was a bit over scheduled last week and it just didn't happen. So they all get a lease on life for another month or so, but then we will have tender delicious roast duckling, and I am super excited. The only down side is the adult duck are also in a molt and their egg production is way down. I maybe get one egg a day...which really isn't a down side, we still have 3 dozen in the fridge, so about the time we are through those they should be producing again.

RAT got his stitches out yesterday and had his post OP check. His incision is all healed and honestly I can hardly even see where it is, it is amazing! And our family practice doctor, who I am loving more and more every time we see her, is just fantastic. It literally only took 45 seconds for her to remove the stitches. RAT barely even noticed she was touching him. MAT was more bothered by the whole thing I think, he was very nervous, but in the end was in awe of how easy and fast and painless the removal was, as was I.

The only real downer of the day is our canopy has died. I woke up this morning to a crumpled mass of twisted wreckage and fabric in the back yard. It was a gift from my parents at our wedding reception, and it has been well used over the last 4 years. It was already in less than perfect shape before today, but sadly this time it is unrepairable. I am not sure of what exactly happened to bend it into the heap it is in, but it is beyond help. Too bad. We will move on and we will recycle what we can. All in all it probably outlived its life, the way we used it, a couple years ago. I think we can build something out of wood and reuse the canopy fabric, and the idea of this is actually exciting...Though I think Mr. is slightly less excited about it, since he will be doing the building.

On a super fun note Mr.T has found a big newish diesel truck, that we can afford! It seats six very comfortably, has four doors and will be great in the snow, since we live in the snow capitol of the state now, snow mobility is very important. His work is going well, we very much hope this company will be a home for him. He will officially be a journeyman in two weeks. It seems like he has been an apprentice FOREVER, and really he has, five years is a long time in our lives. All is good.

Things are looking up, no one has been to the hospital this week, we are getting strawberries, which incidentally MAT thinks are too sour and wont eat and RAT who is the anti-fruit kid eats like there is no tomorrow, so really no complaints from me this week. The squash will be ready by the weekend and we have wee little tomatoes on half the plants. I cannot wait for more fresh homegrown veggies. There is nothing like growing your own produce, it is bliss.

Oh I have a really delicious Swiss chard Ricotta cheese pie recipe I will put up tomorrow. It is great for breakfast or a light lunch/dinner.

Life is very good here, I hope it is there for all of you too!