Walkin' in Memphis

Yeah yeah...cheesy title. But that's what I was doing yesterday...actually, it should be titled, "Walkin' in Memphis and Spendin' Some Money." I'm back now after a little break from the Homestead. Sometimes you just need a break, and sometimes the opportunity presents itself. Last week I was getting a little overwhelmed with the garden beds, and then I had a chicken disaster. Yep. I'm down from 14 Eggers to 12.

One night last week I went to check the garage, and just walked out to see how the chicks were. OOOOHH NOOOO....one of the little doors was open. OPEN??? I SWEAR I closed it...but apparently the spring catch didn't "catch", so I started counting chickens. I got up to 12...crap. Upon inspection of the yard about 40 feet away, I found a pair of little chicken feet...a Buff Orpington was no more. I was also missing a Barred Rock, but no signs of it. No feathers...no nothing but feet...which means usually one thing - DOG. And I just happen to own two already confirmed chicken-killers.

Note to brothers - I need NO snide comments concerning Lucy and how any kind of Chicken Karma has come back to haunt me...so zip it...I don't need your lip.

Well, I was pretty darn upset...I lost the one Buff Orp chick at 2 days old, but that wasn't NEARLY as tough as losing two 7-week olds to a predator. I mean...the work, the worry, the hassle of getting them to this age...it's not that I'm especially attached to the chickens...they haven't exactly reached "pet status", but they do count on me not only for food and water, but to keep them safe, and I blew it. Dogs will be dogs, but not checking that the latch wasn't latched securely lays blame squarely on me.

I'm pretty much over it now. I did get extra in case of an incident like this (I really thought it would be a coon, a hawk, or something like that), so for the time being I'm not replacing the lost chickens with new chicks. Mostly because new chicks = three weeks of nearly constant vigilance, and the house smelling like a barn again. But I've increased my vigilance to avoid this happening again in the near future.

So for my mini-break, I went to visit my old parkie friends Kristyn, Randall, and Kendra over at Lake Charles, and on Friday I went on the Big Memphis Plant Hunt with Kristyn, Corinne, and Corinne's really cool friend Melody. We went to a fundraiser for the Memphis Botanical Garden, several nurseries, and topped it off at the Bonsai Nursery. It was awesome. It was amazing. It was a near-religious experience punctuated by Marden's uttering of the words that make every woman's knees go weak - "use the plastic."

Luckily for our bank account I'm not like most women my age, or that plastic would have been rendered "Maxed Beyond Recognition" within short order. But I surscribe rigidly to putting no more on the card than we can pay off when the bill comes. Darn responsibility. If not for "responsibility", in addition to limited cargo space, we'd be in trouble.

Despite "responsibility", I did make quite a haul. Everything from hard-to-find heirloom tomato plants to crepe myrtles (I bought 6, but two for mom), a fire bush (last one in the whole nursery), various herbs, rare hostas, some perennial flowers (including a really nice clematis), and some annual daisies. Anyone who knows me the least little bit knows I'm a SUCKER for daisies. I got two bunches of the ones pictured at right...the white African Daisy.

The Bonsai Nursery was really the kicker. WOW. There are no words for some of these trees...check this one out! None of these were for sale, but those that were in this size range were topping $4,000. Nope...that's the right amount of zeros. $4K smackers. However, if I were a bazillionaire and had the know-how, I'd have a few. As it is, I think I'm going to have to be content with the "practice tree" that Corinne gave me for free which is on it's last legs (er roots), that I can practice bonsai techniques on. Like I have nothing else to do...but I've wanted to get into bonsai for at least ten years when I bought some bonsai books at a garage sale. Ok, let's face it...really since The Karate Kid. If I can just successfully re-pot this ficus and keep it alive for a little while, MAYBE I'll feel brave enough to drop $25...POSSIBLY up to $45...on a nursery bonsai.

So I'm going to sign off tonight with a couple pics, one of Team Meaty enjoying one more week, and one of Team Piggie (Whitey and Petunia) snoozing in the shade. And a bonus picture of Farmer Marden on Buford the blue Ford tractor.