We had some friends over for dinner tonight and Irene held the bantam chicken pretty much the whole night.

Blood

The time came for the two largest chickens to be slaughtered.

The girls were actually pretty into it.

They watched the whole thing and even plucked a few feathers.

We had a feast with Adam, Matt (who helped with the slaughter) and Bethany.
Thats the chicken in the middle there.
He was really tasty.
For some reason I was worried that it wouldn't be good. I was wrong.

 Sunday brought the first of this season's GOS concerts, which was held at the UMC church around the corner. Evangeline really wanted to follow along in the hymnal.

Its that special time of the year when its not too hot out and the bugs aren't really here yet.

And we've got more robins. The are ugly.

Did we tell you that we're trying to do away with the pacifiers?

Baking Bread

I hate to admit this, but I just read (listened to) another Michael Pollan book. Cooked is about four different ways of cooking. One chapter was all about bread. So of course, I had to "get into bread" for a while. I've also "gotten back into fermentation" right now. We'll see how long these things last, but anyways, I've been cultivating this sourdough starter, and we're baking another loaf. They like to help and Evangeline likes to look for the yeast working. This is much more satisfying than brewing, because the yeast works right away, and you get to eat it the next day, rather than stare at it in a glass jar for a month first. They're actually really good at stirring new flour into the starter.

Happy Πάσχα!

We celebrated the paschal feast in sincerity and truth this weekend.

The Easter Vigil continues to grow, both in attendance and size of fire.

This was the best one yet.

 Aunt Jessie, Grandma Becky and Baba came too.

I think the pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

The day was beautiful, adorned with alleluias, wonderful Easter dresses, flowers, and plenty of laughter.

Current Events

chicken update

Okay, I promise there is a photo of a human being that you care about in here.

I put the new chickens in their outside box spring coop for a while today. They loved it.

We're going to eat these two chickens.
But you know, most of the chicken you eat doesn't get to peck around and eat worms.
I don't know how many chickens I eat a year, and we're probably not even making a dent in that at all, but I like the idea of giving them a nice life before I eat them, rather than having them in some chicken shed and letting someone else do the dirty work of slaughtering birds who never saw the light of day.
The weird thing about all of this is that I still totally love Chicfila.

The old guy meets the new kids.
I was a little surprised no one got killed.

This buff orpington seems to be the one that likes Evangeline the most.
This is a good thing because we're not going to eat this chicken.

I moved that black pot and uncovered a big anthill.
The old chickens came and devoured them, but the little guy wanted to see what was going on.

That didn't last long.
But again, no one got killed.

Wintry Mix

So Greensboro is in an official state of emergency.

Much of the city is without power, and this will not be restored until Wednesday.

Our electricity remained intact.

We've had some powerless houseguests the past two nights.

The storm was pretty crazy. Lots and lots of heavy ice that just stuck to the trees.

The tree in the driveway was shedding branches left and right, so I decided to move the cars.
About 3 minutes after, this branch fell right where the windshield would have been.

Those telephone lines didn't survive, and are now laying in our driveway.

We took a stroll down to church to see what was going on there.

Then today we headed up the mountain for Aunt Carol's 60th birthday.

The kids abandoned cake and ice cream to stand attentive at the opening of presents.