Mill Hill Meadow: It's the Country Life for me

Hello friends ~

Spring fever is alive and well around here.

I worked outside all day yesterday, as the weather was so nice and mild. I believe our high temperatures for the day were in the mid-60-degree range.

We cleaned windows, and we've begun cutting back the ornamental grasses.

I leave them for winter interest and cut them right back in the spring.

Some splits have been promised to neighbors, so after they are all cut back then in May, perhaps April, I will split them.

The girls have been laying beautiful eggs for us.

We have 6 fluffy butt hens, and an average of 4 eggs a day.

When it's especially cold and windy, we can collect as few as 2 a day.

That's when the girls get 'the talk'.

My husband reminds them to earn their keep, and not become soup pot chickens. It's all in jest of course, but of the two times that they've been given 'the talk', sure enough, the next day we have more eggs to collect ***smile**.

Noah's Ark.

The above ark, with the red roof, I found at our local D.I. (close to us, but not in our town)!

Let me just say, it was meant to be! We had stopped by the D.I on the way to get our taxes prepared and they were having computer issues, so they couldn't complete a sale. As D.I. is a non~profit thrift store, I offered to pay the manager the asking price in cash, and then they could complete the sale later on in the day, once the computer system was up and running.

I paid $8.00 for the ark and about 5 wooden animals inside.

Later, once I had a chance to get a good look at the ark, I started cleaning it and noticed that it had a business card tacked to the underside of the ark, and it was signed and dated.

Would you believe that the crafts~woman that made the ark was from our town?! And, she is actually the second counselor in our bishopric's wife?!!

What are the odds?

It was made in 2015.

My husband called her to see if she happened to have any extra animals and would she be interested in seeing our ark and painting some animals for our ark?

We met and she let us pick out the animals that we wanted; we wanted to pick out animals that our four yr. old grandson can relate to.

She sells the ark and nearly 80 animals, plus Noah and 'Mrs. Noah' for $400.00.

Considering the cost, it quite caught her off guard that someone would donate the ark to the thrift store.

A week later and approx. eighty dollars later, we picked up our ark and newly painted animals. We didn't get too many more animals, but just the right amount for our Grands.

This was the first request that she has ever had to paint additional animals, and she also did some minor repairs and repainting of our ark.

Her cousin is a doctor and has one of her arks in his office and he called her to replace some of the animals that had been 'poached' from his ark, but other than that, we are the first people that have ever requested new animals for our ark.

We will be keeping our Noah's ark here for all of our Grands to play with.

The lady that makes the arks is busy with orders for 6 more arks. She never advertises..... just by word of mouth she receives orders.

We often go for rides. We have a quiet life; a country lifestyle all the way!

Old houses, wildlife, country vistas,putter~butting, etc. it's all perfect for me!

In a neighboring small town, there is this beautiful pioneer-era house made with cut blocks of lava rock.

The house is nestled against the hills, and deer are often seen sleeping and grazing on the property. I will try to remember to get a full picture of the house and post it soon.