rainy day ramble

Ahhh a couple days of  rest are upon us as we are getting some needed rains today and tomorrow. I wandered about a bit this morning between the rains and it was absolutely beautiful out. It was all dark and gloomy but  the birds were singing and the green colors were  brilliant. The flowers were blooming and the veggies, I swear I could see growing. Unfortunately along side the veggies I could also see the weeds enjoying the watering.

I had entirely good intentions of making  some cheese and yogurt  today as well as  making some poison ivy soap and being creative, making something  fun, useful and worth posting about. But, once I got up  and around and moving I changed my mind and decided to devote myself to nothing but what absolutely had to be done. Besides, my poison ivy is itching n scratching, the kink in my back is getting kinkier and  my muscles are having  a few issues so I deserve a break(insert evil grin here).  Sometimes my lack of motivation and enthusiasm is astounding even to myself.

 First thing this morning, ok not exactly the first thing, but within the first couple hours of our day I went to feed the chickens  and even  though I know the new ones are door hangers I swung open the door to greet them and say  good morning and 6 of them came charging out the door at me.  Great, I barely got my eyes open  and have a half dozen loose birds  out n  on the run, me with 2 coffee cans of food in hand, big white dog is trying to  catch them gently (haha) and the stupid small black dog so excited about chicken for breakfast he cant control himself and manthing over yonder at the goats feeding them.    I try and grab feet, feathers and wings and managed to snag  five before I realized  that it would be much easier if I set the feed down  and then caught them.  I holler to  the manthing who is in his  water shoes as the small black dog and the big white one chase the  poor little chicken over the bank and through the woods. Manthing somehow  managed to  grab the chick  from the black dog with no damage  other than a good scare and then I watched while he tried climbing the  bank in wet leaves, water shoes and chicken in hand. I think he got a lil bit annoyed on how entertained I was   by his  struggle so I helped him out n took the chook because I am nice like that .  Ain't nothing like a relaxing, raining Saturday morning.

Sometime after the near chicken fiasco I went out to the front porch and heard a loud buzzing sound. I thought  it was either a very large bumble bee or Japanese hornet but when I looked up it was a hummingbird. I opened the door more for it to go out but it was being persistently stupid and trying to go out the corner of the porch. After a few more futile attempts to talk  the hummer  out the door I tried to coax him while standing on a bucket. I guess my talking to myself and the scraping of the bucket finally got manthings attention  enough that he came to help me snag it up and set it free.  I caught him once  n  he escaped but  went right back to his silliness of trying to get out  the corner. Manthing was finally able to get him and set him free but in the process I was able to get a fairly decent picture of him.

in flight pic

This bird was the yellow color you see. He was quite brilliantly colored with the yellow and black  that wrapped around its underside. Its chest was white and it didn't have the other little patch under its chin so was  a female I believe.  Its beak was straight and it was definitely a hummer. Even for a hummingbird it seemed quite small so possibly  a juvenile. Thing is we have no yellow hummingbirds in Ga. I searched online a fair bit  and the only thing I have found  is the possibility of a young ruby throated hummer or that  it was covered in pollen. We both  handled this bird, no pollen was left on our hands and if that was all pollen it sure was an intricate pattern.  Maybe it is a mutant or an exotic hummer(and was thoroughly confused on its whereabouts) or maybe we have a new species. I don't know exactly what type of hummer she was but it sure was pretty.