The Prom

Jacqueline's Prom was Friday. We had begun planning for the Prom months in advance, having purchased a dress and building from there. One of our cousins who lives close by did her hair, nails and makeup. She looked great. She was very excited about the Prom, and I'm very glad she was able to attend this year. If she had skipped it this year I'm not sure she would go next year. Daniel, her boyfriend, is going into the Army and so who knows where he will be at Prom time next year. Although I took a few pictures before they left for the Prom, I am anxious to see the pictures that were taken by the professional photographer.

We had some concerns about the Prom being canceled or postponed. There was severe weather in the area during the day on Friday and in fact there were several tornado warnings issued for some of the surrounding areas. The bad weather moved out of our area in plenty of time to allow the Prom to proceed as scheduled, thankfully. We had some very warm weather all last week, but after the rain came through temperatures fell quite a bit. Several nights last week saw us sleeping with fans on and or windows open. Overnight lows since Saturday night have been in the 30's with frost or freeze warnings each night. It got down to 31 last night and tonight it's supposed to be almost as cold. Things are slowly beginning to moderate however, as tomorrow nights overnight low temperature is expected to be in the 40's.

I'm sure this cold snap has been a problem for crops again this year. Hopefully things won't be quite as bad this year as they were last year. Last year this area lost many crops due to a freeze. There were fruit trees that had already begun to set fruit. The fruits of peaches, pears and figs were about blueberry size when the freeze hit. Of course the freeze killed those fruits for the year. While we don't own any fruit trees I know a number of people who do. Where yields in previous years might be measured by the bushel, last year those yields were non-existent or measured by the handful. Orchard owners who had enough trees to take their crop to market still couldn't have made much of a profit, despite the high prices paid by the consumer for the few fruits that did manage to survive. Farming has always been a gamble, some years the odds are just higher.

Dogwood blooms and baby chicks

The dogwood trees are in glorious full bloom. Other trees are beginning to put forth their leaves. Patches of white can be seen in many locations because the dogwoods bloom before the rest of the trees produce their full summer foliage. Redbud trees are still in bloom but some of them have begun to put on their leaves as well. I'd bet my bottom dollar that the person who first named the Redbud tree as such was a man. No woman would look at the color of those beautiful fragile flowers which this tree puts forth and call them "red". Of course, the name "lilac" was already taken and few men care for the subtle differences in shades of color. I'm not trying to sound sexist. It's been my experience that where a woman sees pale blue, aqua, royal blue and midnight blue, she is able to adequately describe the difference in shading where a man will simply call them all blue.

A couple of week ago, one of my hens hatched out a clutch of eggs. When she went broody I allowed her to sit on 10 eggs. Seven of those ten hatched. A few days after they had hatched one of the chicks died, cause unknown. Last night when I put the chickens up for the night, I could only find 5 of the remaining 6 chicks. I am unsure what happened to the sixth little chick. I looked for it's body to no avail. I hope the chick didn't discover a hole and manage to squeeze thru it. If this is the case it is possible that others may also find such a hole. Another possibility that worries me is that I was unable to find a body because of the body was eaten. A snake can get thru quite small openings. We have killed several snakes over the years in the chicken house. These are chicken snakes that have gotten into the chicken house to eat the eggs. I've never had a problem with them getting chicks because usually when I have chicks of this age, they are kept closed up in the house and not allowed into the pen. The hen is a good mother and is very protective of the chicks, but she wouldn't be able to do much against a snake.

Jacqueline had her spring concert yesterday. It was very good. Lasted for a little over an hour. I really like the band director and think she has done a great job with our band. She started a chorus last year and so now the concert also includes selections by the chorus as well as featuring the band. During the band performance Jacqueline had a solo on her piccolo. She alternated between flute and piccolo during the other pieces of music that the band performed. I'm not sure how it is decided which instrument will be used, unless some of the songs do not contain parts for the piccolo.