Lisa Zahn

In lieu of Bill's great speech last night...and yes, I'm still a sucker for good oration. And I always say "if it's worth my father-in-law forwarding an email, it's worth letting everyone see it." This is too good!

At Vicki's on Sunday, I got to see the parents and siblings of our hens (and indeed we know they're all hens now, since one of their siblings is quite obviously a rooster and looks very different from the girls). You would not believe the size of that rooster! He's the more golden-colored guy in with all his women. He's quite a sqawker--giving me all kinds of noisy grief for hanging around his coop. The older hens are quite a bit darker, also taller and skinnier than our hens so far. I wonder if ours will get as dark as their (potential) mommas? So far they're still lighter, like their daddy and siblings below: Right in the center is the rooster of this flock. You can see he has a much bigger comb than the rest. The rest look just like our girls. I wonder if they miss each other? All are the Rhode Island Reds breed.

I spent yesterday afternoon at Lake Koronis in Paynesville with my W.E.T. friends (that stands for Women's Enrichment Time, folks!). We mainly hung out on a blanket and ate our amazing potluck meal. I made the bruschetta with french bread rounds that you can just see in the basket. Yumm-o! We also had curried pasta/tuna salad, homemade bread with homemade blueberry jam, tortilla wraps filled with cream cheese and shredded veggies, homemade monster cookies, watermelon and strawberry lemonade. It was all we could do to move afterwards! Bruschetta is basically chopped tomatoes and basil leaves with a couple of cloves of minced garlic, a couple tablespoons (or so) of olive oil and a tablespoon (or so) of balsamic vinegar, with salt and pepper to taste. So easy! I didn't even parboil or skin the tomatoes as some recipes call for. We've been finding lots of ways to eat the sweet and tender tomatoes that are ripening in the garden. This year we have grown (with much success) three...

I realized it's been a week since I posted anything here. It's been busy. I am the annual garage sale coordinator for my neighborhood and yesterday was the 3rd Annual Lake George Neighborhood Neighborhood-wide Garage Sales day. It was a blast! Out of a neighborhood of about 700 homes, we had 25 "official" sales and many, many more who hadn't signed up but were riding on the coat-tails of the advertising the rest of us did. (I have mixed feelings about that. The more sales, the merrier the "atmosphere" around here, but then if everyone had chipped in the $5 that 25 households did, just imagine the advertising possibilities!). Anyway, the weather was cool and sunny and it felt like a festive, fall day with a few sales on every street. We sold a few things, some big most small, but our main money-makers of the day were my Amish Chocolate Chip Cookies and George's blueberry scones. I made a batch of 3 dozen large cookies and after the family swiped a fe...