Great Great Great Grandparents

We are in Staunton, Virginia tonight, home of my great great great grandmother, Julia Ann Sowers, who married James Turner Barclay in 1830.  They lived in Monticello, where my great great grandfather John Judson Barclay was born.  Later, they lived in Scottsville Virginia, in this house, where we went this morning:

Dr. James Turner Barclay was a trained pharmacist, medical doctor, and the first minister of the Scottsville Disciples of Christ church in 1846.  Dr. Barclay continued his ministry and lived next door in the Barclay House until 1851 when he went to Jerusalem as his Church's first missionary.  


The church next door to their house (visible on the left in this photo)  is now the Scottsville Museum, which was unfortunately not open today.

Today is my last day at work!

And I'm going to be late....

More later!

Yippee!

One Tiny Green Egg Today!

I have been remiss in keeping this blog updated regarding the chicken population at our house.  The last time I posted about chickens, I believe, was last September, when we had our lovely Victoria, the big white hen, our little Mary, the little white banty, James the bad rooster who ran back and forth between our house and our neighbors, and James' two babies, the Things.

About a month after that post, I think, we lost our little Mary to a raccoon.  We finally figured out that the old bathtub we were using to water the sheep and goats was attracting the raccoons, and then the chickens were easy prey.  One day we found a pile of little black and white feathers that was all that was left of sweet little Mary.  So that left us with only one hen, Victoria.

We looked on Craigslist and found someone in Nehalem with 2 little Old English Game Hens for sale, and decided to try them.  A day trip to Nehalem and we brought home these 2 tiny little red hens.  They are smaller than banties, and as cute and sweet as they can be.  We named them Princess Eugenie and Princess Beatrice.  But we can't tell them apart, so we just call them The Princesses. It's really hard to get good pictures of them, but here is one sort of:    

These little hens turned out to be the sweetest little things ever.  They are super friendly.  They follow Rich around all day.  They are right there when we are digging in the garden so they can get worms.  They lay little tiny white eggs.

Bad chickens in the house: Victoria, The Princesses, and The Things.

Then the Things turned into roosters, and started following in their father's footsteps, literally, so we had 3 roosters running back and forth between our house and the neighbors.  Ridiculous!  We found a farm in Oregon City that took in stray roosters, and one day Rich loaded them all up in the car and took them to their new home.  We haven't missed them for even one second!

Then, we decided we would get some new babies in the spring.  Before we left for Panama we put in an order to pick up when we got back.  We got 10 baby chicks of assorted sizes and colors on March 10.
We lost 2 babies - one died one of the first nights, not sure why.  Another one was lame and we thought she might make it, but she didn't.  So that left us with eight, after two weeks.  The feed store had some Cuckoo Marans, which we had wanted but were not available at the hatchery, so we got two of those, hens for sure.  Then when they all got bigger and were out running around in the yard, one got killed by a dog that was passing by with it's completely irresponsible owner.  Rich hit the dog in the head with a brick, so hopefully did some damage.  That left us with 9 new ones and the 3 older ones.  Then 2 of the babies turned into roosters - Alfonso and Gonzalo, formerly Leticia and Maria Mercedes.  Alfonso Leticia was really obnoxious, and we found a new home for him on Craigslist.  Maria Mercedes Gonzalo is actually quite a nice little rooster who is actually learning to do his job of keeping track of his hens.

So we have zillions (it seems) of little chickens running around.  Everywhere we look there are chickens!

From left, Sophia, Margrita, Irene, and Gonzalo's tail.

Irene, Sophia, Raven, Gonzalo, and a Princess in the front.

Gonzalo, Margrita, Sophia, and a tiny bit of Irene

Raven, Irene, Sophia, Gonzalo and Tua

We have:

1 Red Auracana named Sophia.  She looks like Elizabeth that we lost last year.

2 Cuckoo Marans, name Juana La Loca and Tua La Loca

2 white banties, one yellowish named Margrita, and one mostly just white, named Irene.

One black banty with red feathers on her neck, named Raven.  She is a special little pet.

One grey banty with red feathers on her neck, named Christina.

Gonzalo the Rooster

Victoria

The 2 Princesses.

Victoria lays nice big brown eggs.

The Princesses lay cute little white eggs.

And today, Irene or Margrita laid a little tiny green egg.  At least we think it was one of them, because Rich thinks he remembers seeing one of them in the chicken coop nesting and cackling with the rooster fussing over her.  

More to come, we hope!

Taming the Sheep and Goats

We are a little slow.
We have had these 2 goats, Eos and Nyx, for 2 years, and the little wild miniature Cheviot sheep, Percy and Grizel, for almost 2 years.They kind of run wild back there in their big field.  We have used all manner of trickey over the years to catch them when we have to comb the goats, trim hooves, or shear the sheep.  They will come into the inner yard and their shed when we are feeding them, but very cautiously, and usually they hang back until we are headed back to the house.  When we need to catch them, they seem to know, and they won't come into the inner yard at all!

They have lots to eat out in their field, and we occasionally give them some hay as well.  So the little bit of grain we give them every evening is really just a treat.

To shear the sheep this year, we had to catch them late at night last Monday when Rich fed them.  We did this by attaching a long rope onto the second gate, and pulling on it from the patio to close the gate after they were inside eating.  We have been trying for a couple weeks to catch them like this, and it took this long. Then they had to be penned up all day Tuesday until I got home from work.  It took 2 hours to shear each one.  I did better than last year, though!

So after that insanity, I finally had a brilliant idea!  The grain is a treat, so let's treat it like one!  They only get it if they come close and eat while we are there.  We open the gates, put our plastic lawn chairs right there, put some grain in a bucket, line up their bowls, and put just a little grain at a time in the bowls.  We started thursday night, and Eos was the only one brave enough to eat.  Friday night, Percy and Grizel got some, plus Eos got some corn chips that she ate out of Rich's hand.  And last night those 3 were a little braver.  Nyx is still hanging back.  She wants to come get some so-o-o bad, but she is just too shy and nervous.  It's kind of funny, because usually she butts everyone out of the way and eats her fill before letting them in.  The hair on her spine stands up on end, and her tail is straight in the air.  But I bet within a few nights, she will be right there. She can hardly stand it!

Our plan is to do this at least a few times a week all year, and then they'll be so tame they'll be easy to catch at combing and shearing time!

Newberg is Happening!

We went for a walk downtown last night. Friday night. Not an Art Walk Friday. Walking through town, we could hear live music coming from TWO separate venues.  The Coffee Cottage, of course, with it's little crowd of regulars.  And then, where else?  First Street Pub.

  I think it used to be the little pool hall.  Now they have live music on weekends.  Allen's band played there last weekend.   You can't see it very well in my stupid little video - I didn't know how to do the video thing right on my iPhone.  But it gives you the general idea....    

Also new in Newberg is  Voodoo Martini, Newberg's newest wine bar.  More than a wine bar. They must have martinis too. 

We haven't been there.


Lots of other wine bars downtown.  So if you haven't been to Newberg for awhile, you might want to come for a visit.

We're in the News Again!

This beaver dam is in the creek that goes under the dip on our street.  When I was walking to the gym last night they were filming the video associated with this article.

Be sure to look at the comments and read the letter from Pennsylvania.

So stay tuned for any updates.  Save the beavers!

It's Raining in Boquete Panama

 We have been in Boquete since Saturday afternoon.  We finished at our language school in Panama City at 12:30 on Friday. Then we took a cab to the bus station and right away got on a bus for Santiago, in the Veraguas province. After at least a 3 hour bus ride, we arrived in Santiago which seemed like a bustling town. We spent the night at a silly hotel (La Hacienda).  It was right on the InterAmerican Highway, so not close to downtown, which was sort of disappointing, as we might have enjoyed seeing a bit of the town. We were tired, however, and the hotel was pretty nice. They supposedly had Mexican food in the restaurant, so we ordered chile rellenos. They were midwestern housewife green peppers stuffed with hamburger. I sent mine back and they brought me one stuffed with cheese. Edible, but not a chile relleno!  Good coffee in the morning, then a cab to the bus station to catch the bus to David.  Different bus station than the one we arrived at the night before. We got out of the cab and hustled on to a smallish bus for a 3 hour trip to David.  When we got there, right away we found the buses to Boquete - old refurbished school buses from the US.  Another hour and we arrived in Boquete mid afternoon.  We saw a sign on the side of the road for our hotel, so asked the bus driver to stop and let us out there. We only had to walk about a block.

Boquete is REALLY nice. We were surprised at how nice it is.  It is not overrun with gringos - it appears they all live up on the hillsides somewhere and sort of keep to themselves.  I need to take some photos of the downtown tomorrow morning - just realized I don't have any.  Our hotel has beautiful grounds and a toucan who would not let me take his picture this morning. 

Yesterday we did a great tour up over the mountain on dirt/gravel roads to the Bocas del Toro province and a cacao farm run by Ngobe indians. It was amazing.  Maybe another post about that later.

Today, we left Boquete about 11:00 am and took a cab up the hill aways to a trail head to hike up to a waterfall. It was about a 2-3 mile hike up to the waterfall - took us a couple hours.  It was an amazing misty cloudy day - probably typical cloud forest. It was just astoundingly beautiful.  We had directions and a hand drawn map of where we were going. We thought we had come to the wrong place as the trail sort of ended in a pile of logs and rocks, but we kept going, picking our way over the rocks, and then all of a sudden saw the waterfall.  I just tried uploading my photos to Picasa, but the internet connection is too slow. 

Here is one.  The photo doesn't do it justice. The waterfall was barely visible through the mist.

All day we could hear the illusive quetzal but never saw one. 

When we were done with the hike we decided to walk the 9 kilometers back down the hill to Boquete. It also was wonderful. The road went past small farms and coffee plantations.  It was a great hike - saw way more than we would have in a cab. 

Then we went to Bistro Boquete for dinner and cervezas.  It started raining while we were in the restaurant. Walked back to the hotel in light rain, and now sitting on our balcony playing with computers.  Rained harder while sitting here. Now the frogs are singing. In the morning there are a zillion birds chirping and singing and flying around the yard here. Red ones, blue ones, yellow ones and hummingbirds.  Hard to get photos.

Anyway, more posts later about the rest of the trip. Tomorrow afternoon we do a coffee tasting tour, going to three small plantations.  Then Wednesday we go to Pedasi, down on the Azuero Peninusula, for 4 days.  It will be a long bus riding day.