Yesterday Joel bought the boys a tent.

Today they decided to set it up.  The boys unpacked it

while Joel raked off a place to put it.  This was one of those tents with the poles already attached that only takes one minute to set up. The boys watched

as Joel unfolded the thing.  Of course, he got me to read him the directions.

At one point, he said, “I don’t understand what those directions are saying.”  Hudson pointed at the tent and said, “That’s because it speaks Spanish!” Are you smarter than a five- year- old?

This week, for reasons that remain a mystery, Peter (of Peter, Pauline and Mary)

slipped the surly bonds of earth and touched the face of God.  He was the rooster from the original pair of Malaysian Seramas that I had purchased several years back.

It seems that 2012 has not been the best year for ‘little’ chickens on this hill.  In the spring, Joe and Nidette gave me six Silver Laced Bantoms

in an attempt to save them from varmints that stalk their farm animals. They just might have fared better around Lake Charles because there is only one left…a rooster.  Actually, there were two until yesterday. They lived down at the barn, and until about a week ago, they lived alone.  It was then that they got four roommates.

These four Buff Orpingtons, who could probably  escape from Alcatraz, would somehow fly the coop, and they  had made it their mission to “work” Josh’s daylilies and Joel’s pansies. Needless to say, I had to do something quick before Josh and Joel put them in a pot.  I put them in lock up with the two little Silver Laced Bantams to which they probably seemed like giants. Yesterday, when I went to feed, the little Silver Laced hen had joined Peter, and when I opened the gate, the little rooster flew into my arms. I felt so sorry for him.  It was the first time he had ever given me a second look.  So I said, “Don’t you worry”, carried him up the hill, and put him in the cage with Pauline and Mary.

It was a match made in heaven.  Or maybe I should say… it was a match made because two chickens went to heaven.