Mellow Yellow

Mellow Yellow, Donovan's song from 1966 (regardless of "true" meanings) comes to mind whenever I feed banana skins to the chickens.  Pulled into long, narrow strips, banana skins are their favorite treat, and they were happy girls yesterday.  If one has chickens, there's not much left for a compost heap.  Joel has even made a special trip up the hill to bring the little girls carrot tops.

Mellow was a good word for yesterday.  Before and after NASCAR, that is.  "Our" drivers were neck and neck at Talladega, Dolly's driver beating mine to the finish line by two one-thousands of a second!  How's that for a photo finish?  Yelling encouragement (like they could hear us), Dolly and I upset the dog and cats, and we both collapsed, exhausted, when the race was over.  Talladega never disappoints. 

It was too nice a day to stay inside and we needed to regain our composure, so we took a turn around the deck and sat and watched the dozens of hummingbirds at the filling stations.  I'm back up to three feeders, filled once a day.  The tiny dive-bombers swoop so close, I'm sure I'm going to get drilled in the ear one of these times by a near-sighted hummer.  Reluctant to return to the house, we went out to inspect the chickens again.  I could put a bench out by the pens and watch chickens for hours.  They are such busy creatures, sociable by nature.  Even the free rangers chatter and gossip as they scratch in the leaves.  One of my goals for the day was to get the lettuce seeds planted, so we wandered out to the point, accompanied by the inspection crew, Bessie and the cats.  The garden hose, unused for the last few years, was a bit of a problem.  Laughing, we took turns trying to get the danged thing attached to the faucet.  How many people does it take to screw on a hose?!  Even the oriole came to see what the fuss was about, sitting on the fence by my shoulder so Dolly could admire his bright finery up close and personal.  Getting the lettuce seeds watered in, we moved on and prepped another barrel for planting.  Chores don't seem difficult when chatting and laughing with a friend. 

My biggest grin of the day came as I stepped out to tuck the critters in bed...it was raining!  Not a lot and not for long.  Just enough to prove that Dolly hasn't lost her touch.