#and nature vs nurture if u couldn’t tell

[deadite-central]

I don’t want to do any further ado on this one as the upcoming battle has been something I’ve been excited to talk about FOR SO LONG so let’s just get right into it

I’ve said in the past how I used to despise Bellamy in Jaya and seeing him get one shotted by Luffy and then Doflamingo was a joy. After spending time with him in Dressrosa though, everything is flipped on its head. What Doflamingo is doing is needlessly cruel and Bellamy himself genuinely doesn’t believe he deserves better. His fight with Luffy now is in a completely different light than the Jaya one, and that’s just masterful storytelling

Luffy seeing a friend of his be put through this completely disregards following Law’s plan, and immediately jumps at the occasion to beat the shit out of Doflamingo. And OH MY GOD FINALLY Doflamingo gets the first actual real punch landed on him. I said the same thing about most main saga villains, the first punch Luffy lands on them is always so so satisfying

And now I can finally talk about Doflamingo himself, and I’ve been waiting for this for so long you have no idea. Doflamingo is a villain shaped almost completely by his past, the more of his backstory we uncover, the clearer it becomes what made him the vicious monster he is today. Being born a Celestial Dragon, he was able to experience being treated like a god, in an environment where the more egotistical you are, the more you are rewarded. And then suddenly all of that was ripped away from him. Even worse, after Homing made the stupid mistake of bringing his angry ex-noble kid into town, the witch hunt for the Donquixote family started, resulting in Doflamingo meeting Trebol and the others, and killing his father. It’s no wonder he believes people are vicious by nature, where everything in his life at that point has pretty much proved it. Almost everything, but to that in a moment

Doflamingo and his family have been hurt beyond anything humane by the common folk, who you can’t even blame for jumping at the first occasion to hurt Celestial Dragons due to their experiences, none of that changing the fact that no child should ever go through any of this, and it doesn’t matter if Doflamingo was screaming about murdering people when he was a kid, because in no way does his behaviour justify being tortured, having his mother die of sickness due to their situation and having to become the provider for himself and his little brother. And when that angry kid finds an outlet for his emotions thanks to Trebol, finds an environment that treats him like a god, it’s no wonder he grows up to be who he is

Which brings us to Law and his backstory. Incredibly terrifying and tragic, gruesome in a way that the anime censored it, he lived through a massacre witnessing the death of not only his family but his entire nation. Law takes a similar outlook on the world as Doffy when he was a child: people are vicious, the world is cruel, and I want to hurt as many as possible. The difference here is that Law has Cora. The younger of the brothers, who was much more shy and kind as a child as opposed to Doflamingo, pretty much abandons his government assigned duty to try and help this child. In just a few months Law is shown unconditional love, even if he doesn’t quite know that yet, and shown that there are kind people, even those who don’t know you that well, which completely disregards Doflamingo’s outlook on everyone being vicious. That’s why it makes sense when Cora doesn’t shoot the gun, but Doflamingo does. The Donquixote brothers (and Law by extension) are incredibly tragic to me and deserving of their own post, but oh god does this entire situation make me cry everytime

This post has already been going on for long enough so let’s skip through most of the fight, as a lot of it has been talked about, and get to one of my favorite moments in it: when Law’s plan fails and he lays on the floor accepting his fate, Luffy steps in, stops Doflamingo and has one of the coolest stare offs with him. This moment right here is the absolute culmination of all the excitement I have leading up to my favorite fight in all of One Piece, because good god is Luffy vs Doflamingo is going to be phenomenonal

[aquaquadrant]

the last htp chapter was an absolute rollercoaster of emotions. i just finished reading it (1am currently) and i will be up for a minimum of 30 minutes thinking about it before i’m able to force myself to go to sleep. i was (figuratively) on the edge of my seat during the entire fight scene, so scared that they would manage to take tango back to hels. even though bravo ended up back there, good for him that he’s finally breaking free of atlas and doing his own thing! i also freaking love the line at the end, about how if bravo couldn’t have the sun, he’d learn to love its shadow instead. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa it’s so good!! thank you as always for writing this, and i can’t wait for the next installment :D

if you don’t mind entertaining a quick question: the longer bravo was in hels, the more he acted like hels players, and vice versa with tango (as far as we can tell). therefore, how much of hels players being terrible people is a nature thing, and how much is genuinely a nurture/environment thing? i know bravo was relieved that at a code level he was different from the hels players, but in my mind there’s definitely an element of “we make each other worse” throughout hels. do you know how much of an influence nature vs nurture has for this? no obligation to answer of course, thank you for reading my ramblings!

hehehe THANK U i’m glad u liked it.

and that is the question, isn’t it? i’ll just say that it’s important to keep in mind that each character is only working with the information they have, and how they interpret it. no character’s pov is without its own bias, and no narrator is 100% reliable.

[phoebehalliwell]

I've always wondered about paige meeting a witch/darklighter hybrid? Because she is big on nurture vs nature but how would she react to someone who half of their existence is deadly to half of her? But at the same time they are both half witch?

okay but like!!!!! literally Literally we meet a fucking darklighter season 1 whose sole purpose was to knock somebody up like light magic has all these rules to follow but who’s setting the rules for dark magic? the source? the source doesn’t care oh no there are more evil babies in the world aaaa ?? it was the same thing with hecate it was the same thing with the manticore hell it was probably the same thing with cole. evil loves having lil half-mortal babies it stands to reason that the idea of an extra power boost from having a kid with say a witch (or hell even a warlock or any other mix up of the two) would only be a plus. it stands to reason that the girls should have run into So Many splits like. Especially darklighters!! given that we were literally told there’s like darklighters who specifically exist to just knock other people up (which also. girl what. boo.) i mean honestly? honestly? i don’t even think we need a hybrid just straight up someone with a mortal mother and a darklighter father like that alec/daisy situation who was raised by his mom for the majority of his life until his father found him and took him (maybe killing mom who’s 2 say) and tried raising him as a darklighter. but it’s like. you know. he was raised for the most part as a human kid and yes he had some powers teleportation and then like. instant kill. but like. those aren’t well no teleportation is but instant kill is not a fun power especially if you’re just supposed to be a normal dude!

and then i’ve talked about this before (this is where i would link the post If I Could Find It i searched for. 30-40 min. i do not know where it is. aaaaaaaaa.) i don't think darklighters are born with any innate imperative to kill whitelighters or anything, the same with demon warlocks etc. i think it's all a cultural thing like killing the most witches makes you like. idk you know popular celebrity within ur faction. like uhh u drive a whole bunch of whitelighters to suicide ur fuckin steph curry of ur darklighter clan the man can't miss. So. if we have a guy let's name the guy let's pick a name that means darkness. kieran!! okay so lil kieran was raised by mom and knows very little of his powers, and you know mom knows even less she doesn't even know his father's name. But!! mom is a future whitelighter, she's just a bit wayward at the moment, so her whitelighter cloaked her so that she can raise her son in peace n safety. but oh no!! mom's dead. and the cloaking on kieran was only an extension of mom's cloaking so now he's out in the open n here comes dad. and you know we'll say kieran's a bit of a fucked up kid nobody's perfect so like. he's never really quite fit in anywhere and he's always been terrified of his powers but when his dad offers him a people like him who understand him who can better hone his powers (we'll say he's in highschool) he's like this is lit!! and i get a crossbow! and he's always kinda taught that whitelighters are the enemy they're these abominations souls reanimated by the elders as weapons, stacked w powers, they can never move on, and they just have to behave as pawns to the elders whims. bc like. this kid was raised human he really doesn't get hunting whitelighters for like sport so his dad tries to keep him a little bit sheltered from the true nature of it all thinking that once the kid is older, once he gets the taste in his mouth he'll come around. so kieran spends ages 17 to like 23-25 underground in the underworld learning about darklighters learning about the lineage he's from but there's like. like he's a smart kid. and he knows there's something they're not telling him. so when he hears talk of two of his peers going on a hunt, he kinda tails them just to see what's what, only to see them maim a witch to kill their whitelighter, and who should their whitelighter be if not kieran's dead mom. and they leave both the witch and the whitelighter for dead bc like. kieran's mom can't heal with the poison in her veins it’s a slow working poison so they'll both be cold as the grave in 24hrs. and kieran like runs up to his mom like a) you're alive?!? b) you're a whitelighter?!!?!! and c) you know like what the fuck. because that's his Mom. she couldn't have like. told him. left him a sign. and you know like heart to heart blah blah blah and the witch is over here kinda saying like hi?? darklighter? what the fuck? and kieran's like aaaa because he can't help all he can do is like kill and the witch is like doesn't matter bring me a map and a crystal and using kieran's mom's blood scrys for the nearest whitelighter like u should be able to sense them go bring them to us and maybe i won't vanquish you, a threat kieran has literally never received, and quite frankly the terminology makes him a little bit uncomfortable.

and you know where else should the crystal land if not south bay social services, and you know kieran really doesn't know what he's looking for he's never hunted whitelighter so he was never taught to sense them but evidently it's in his power so he gives it a shot but like no. what's he even looking for? he has no idea. so instead he just runs up to this raven haired woman about his age like fuck it do you have a phone. and paige is like ??? who do you need to call who are you here for what are you here for do i need to grab you any forms and kieran's like fuck it if you go to this address you'll find to people in mortal danger. they need help. and then like. bolts. and paige is like what the fuck!!

and you know blah blah blah they manage to save the witch but they can't save the mom bc they don't know what poisoned her and it kinda makes the papers Because It's Fuckin Weird especially because the mom already died?? this woman literally must have faked her own death five years ago only to die from an unknown poison in a san francisco apartment. and then you know blah blah blah within a month or two it's revealed paige is a charmed one! a witchlighter! and then comes the reveal of darklighters and their poisoned arrows and paige is like wait. i've seen this before. and describes you know the scene with the witch and the woman and leo's like. i should name the mom. soleil. leo's like that was soleil she was a whitelighter, and piper's like wait why were you there, and paige is like i don't know there was this guy who told me to go to that address to save them and then like ran away, and piper and phoebe are like that's fuckin weird. and he approached u specifically? and paige is like yeah he pushed his way across the office to get to my cubicle. and piper phoebe are looking at leo like what does this mean what does this mean, and leo's like idk. and meanwhile kieran's trying to break from the darklighter clan but he knows he can't get out unless he's cloaked. so he goes back to try to find the witch he saved to ask her to cloak him but she says she doesn't have that power and he's like okay well who does and she's like only a whitelighter does and he's like okay could u find me one and she's like r u fucking joking. you want me to get a whitelighter here just so u can kill? and kieran's like what no i'm not i want out that's why i'm here i don’t wanna be a darklighter anymore, and the witch is like that's not a choice you have it's in your blood now the only reason i'm letting you live rn is because evidently you’re soleil’s kid she was a good woman i trusted her but i don't know you. and i don't trust you. and if you orb in here again i swear to god i will vanquish you. just so we can get you know a solid dose of light magic not trusting kieran, not based on his actions (hell even in spite of his actions) but purely based on his lineage.

so blah blah blah kieran start spending more and more time above ground and just trying to subtly distance himself from the clan which his father can sense and quite frankly like yes is concerned but is more just like. pissy because he's making him look bad, especially the fact he's gone this long without a kill it's making him look weak. so his dad's like fuck it we're going hunting together and now it's like. obviously non optional. you're gonna kill a whitelighter or you'll you know get the boot lose the only people who could possibly understand you so you know it's kieran and dad above ground and he's teaching him to sense for whitelighters teaching him what the skill is and kieran's actually picking it up quite well and honestly. honestly? he might make this kill. he can't survive alone. he doesn't even know who he is. and his powers are calling him loud and clear to a whitelighter. meanwhile paige is out on a mission with like piper and leo and immediately drops everything breaks from the pack starts running because there's that guy!! and kieran realizes that the call is coming from the raven haired girl. and that his dad is right behind her lining up the shot.

and so you know act now think later he grabs paige and they disappear into a cloud of black orbs and reemerge right behind his father and kieran calls his crossbow and shoots his father. in the shoulder. it's intentional. kieran has great aim. and he won't kill. and his dad's fuckin pissed and honestly about ready to kill the both of them when piper rounds the corner and blasts him to bits. and well. now kieran's definitely left with no family. so he says a quick apology to paige and orbs out. and piper and leo are like that one was a darklighter too!! and paige is like no no u don't get it. he just saved me. and they're like He What? why'd you follow him into this alley in the first place? and paige is like that's the guy! the guy the soleil & witch guy who told me to save them. and leo's like a darklighter working to save a witch and whitelighter? that's not right. paige i trust you i don't think you're lying but i don't think you know the whole story. he's a darklighter. they're evil. and paige is like then why did he save me? why did he save the other witch? why’d he try to save the whitelighter? and piper's like for all we know he's the one who shot her you saw his crossbow. and paige is like no this isn't right there's something we don't know here. blah blah blah they go to the original saved witch who informs them that while kieran is a darklighter he's soleil's son and paige is like !!! i knew it! he's an innocent we're meant to save him. and piper and leo are like respectfully, paige, no, that's way too dangerous. bonus round if piper's pregnant here pre- orb shield knowledge. and leo's like paige he can't help it it's nature it's just who he is. he can't be good. and paige is like why. why not. and leo's like he's half darklighter. and paige is like yeah and i'm half whitelighter. and piper's like fuckin yeah babe that's The Point he's a danger to us. and paige is like no the point is if it's all so predetermined if there's no fighting what we're born as they why was i awful. why was i a brutal cruel evil miserable child? you don't know me and you don't know the things i've done (pushing back the paige dead parent reveal for later) and it doesn't matter that i have literally angel blood i was terrible! there was nothing in my nature that held me back from that vicious side. i chose to grow. i chose to become the woman i am today and every morning i wake up and chose that it's not some predestined halo around my head it's me waking up every day and choosing to fight for the good in this and you know what i think he's part of it.

[rasgullababy]

GNG week roleswap!

So here’s my roleswap AU. It is uhhh. It makes me feel a way :)

Also it is kind of long hah a

The pics above have snapshots of the kids in stages of their life: 8, 12, and 17. Yang has an extra for when she is 16, because it’s plot relevant.

Let’s start at 8.

Mercury Xiao Long is loved. He is raised in a house with a father and an uncle and a sister, and he loves them all a lot. He’s never known anything else. At 8, he already wants to be a huntsman, and he starts styling his hair just like his Uncle Qrow (“Who’s like, a badass huntsman. Don’t tell dad I said ass, okay Ruby? You’re not supposed to know that word. It means butt. I’m gonna be a badass huntsman though, so it’s okay for me to say it, but not you.”)

He and ruby go on tons of missions together. Their latest mission involved a creek near the house, a rock, and a very frightened Nevermore (it was qrow.) Tai’s blueberry pancakes are his very favorite food, and he just barely grew back his second tooth that he lost, but like, it still looks kind of funky.

Ruby thinks it makes him look badass, though, so it can’t be all that bad.

Yang Black knew how to keep secrets. That’s why she changed the subject loudly every time her friends asked about her home. That’s why she said nothing when she stayed awake to see him stumble in every so often, covered in blood. But this time was not like the others. Her mother was gone. Had been, for two days now. So had he. The thing is, Yang Black thought she could know her father. She thought that the very least she could rely on him for was safety. She was so dumb. So stupid. Why was she so stupid? She was trembling, on the floor. She didn’t know her father. She didn’t have her mother, anymore. And he had taken away every bit of her old life, piece by piece. Made her gather her school supplies, the crafts that littered her room, the hair ribbons she made with her mother. Took them and burned them in the fireplace.

“Training starts tomorrow,” he said. “I’ll make sure that you’ll never be like her.”

And that was what had her sitting in the corner long after he had passed out drunk in his room. She would never be like her mother. What did that leave her to be?

12 years.

Mercury Xiao Long is surrounded by idiots. They are so stupid! His dad makes fun of him, and his uncle laughs under his breath at him, and his sister is the WORST part. He knows better than them, though. He’s getting in touch with his real self. He’s an artist, and they’re all dumb as shit for thinking they can laugh at him, okay? God. They even gave him a stupid fucking curfew. Home before 9! He is twelve years old, hello? He thinks he is going to run away from home. Then they’ll see his face on his new album cover, and every single girl in the stratosphere will want to be his girlfriend, and then they won’t laugh at his hot eyeliner.

You literally can’t change my mind that if mercury had a normal childhood he would go all the way, ass first into this phase. Just saying (also i’m telling you that around the same time in canon yang had her lmao XD random! phase. Again. You can’t change my mind)

Yang Black has only herself. She’s been training, though. Training hard. Despite the punishment. She wasn’t going to give him a chance to be mad at her again. She would train until he had no choice but to stop. That’s what she told herself every punch she threw at the bag, as it was coming off its hinges. Her hair was in a braid, today. He had pulled it yesterday, and torn a whole chunk out. But she couldn’t let that happen, see? He had taken away everything she had left of her mother. But memories, he couldn’t take away. No matter how hard he tried. And the memories of her mother brushing her hair, tying it up in little braids, laughing with her and being with her could not leave her mind. And so her hair is what she hung on to. So she kept it braided, out of the way, for today. Maybe for as long as it took, to grow as strong as she needed to be. And when Marcus Black crossed the line for the final time? The bag fell to the ground with a thud, as if to punctuate her thoughts.

She would finally let it down.

16 years.

Marcus Black had crossed the line for the final time. It was over now, it was done, and her hair was down. There it lay, on the floor, next to the man- the corpse- who had put it there.

When she woke up without an arm she didn’t know where it was. She knew where her hair was, though. She knew where her father was. And he had died long ago. Today was just the day that he had crossed the line.

When it was done she flicked the house into a blaze, burning it down like he had burned her old life eight years ago. “I never will be like her,” she thought. But thankfully, she did have something left. She would never be like him either.

Her head felt lighter without the weight of her memories hanging behind her. Lighter still, when she turned around to see a girl masking fear, like the one she had been, and a woman with fire in her eyes, like the one she was now.

“Tell me, Yang, are you anything like your father?” She would make her own memories now. She would grow again. And this time, she would not be controlled.

She smiled, wide and incendiary.

“No. I’m alive.”

17 years.

I’m not going to write like a paragraph or anything like that but I will put down my ideas for their interactions and basically how they are at this point, based on the background they have!

-Mercury is super duper very much protective of Ruby. As his 15 year old sister who showed up in a school full of people older than her, Merc’s big brother instinct kicked in late and with a passion. (Ruby thinks it can be annoying but she’s glad of how much he cares)

-Mercury is very, very snarky. His snark has been cultivating his whole life. He’s real good at it now. Comebacks master? Here he comes.

-Very flirty. But not like, edgy flirty like he is in canon. Now he’s like finger guns flirty. But he’s like, you know, chill about it, obviously.

-He has a strong sense of justice and revenge and literally doesn’t let a single thing go without being paid back (be it revenge or vending machine money)

-His fighting style is still kicks. But it’s less lethal than in canon. Still precise, but he doesn’t have the exact deadly precision that he did. He makes up for it by being a lot more versatile, as taught by Tai and Qrow. He used to study fighting styles a lot, so he knows a lot of different styles and uses the unpredictability to his advantage. Honestly, it’s like, kind of his brand. You literally don’t know what he’s going to pull next.

-Loyal to his friends. Gets concerned for them and won’t admit it too easily, but he’s not as open with ANYONE as he is with Ruby. So it’s harder to get him to open up if you’re not Ruby. In other words everyone has to use her as a translator sometimes when he gets mad at them.

-He doesn’t get mad that easily though. Honestly he’s very chill. Like that’s the only way I can describe it.

-But he squares up at any threat to his friends or Ruby.

-Yang can get scary, man. She mostly is like, you know, explosive and when she loses her temper, it gets scary.

-But the difference with this Yang is, that anger is like, both genuine and not genuine. Like. She’s very very much in control of her emotions. At first glance you believe she is what she is: a smug, explosive boxer with short hair and a flirty demeanor.

-But then you dig. And Mercury digs.

-And then he can’t tell what she is, but all he knows is that she’s not what she says. It’s a facade that hides something massive. He doesn’t know what it is, but he’s torn.

-Because one. He feels the need to protect Ruby and his friends from whatever this sinister person is. He doesn’t trust it, it’s so shady.

-But two. And this one is weaker, but it’s strong enough to keep him there. And it’s only growing. He’s got this curiosity about her. He wants to know what it is about her. He wants to see her genuine.

-Maybe once, by accident, she may have let it slip. One piece of real emotion. Anger, or bitterness, or a great, great isolation. Maybe a complex mix of it all.

-It’s different from what he’s seen his whole life. It’s a completely new world. So he keeps coming back.

-And she keeps giving him this smug face.

-And there’s more but it’s late and I’ll brainstorm later but that’s just the mood it’s giving me right now so like.

Here u go lol

(I love this prompt because it made me thing of Yang and Merc as characters a lot and like the nature vs nurture aspect and it totally brought me like. A lot closer to them. After gng week i may turn this into a real fic and clean up those pics up there)

@gauntletsandgreavesweek welcome to late ramblings

[benjamingarden]

This Month On The Farm: May 2018 - Kitchen Reno & Chick Updates, A Whistle Pigs Wind Tunnel, Jack's New Bath Mat, and More!

If you’re just tuning in, this is a brand new ongoing series in which I document each month of our lives in our transition to a simple, homemade life on a modern homestead. We ditched town and moved to the country in 2008 and we blog about both our successful and not-so-successful ventures in homesteading, switching to natural products, and embracing a whole foods lifestyle.  Check out the entire series here.

Oh, the weather.  It's been quite a blend of beautiful days, a sprinkling of humid days, and a day here and there of rain (also deemed a beautiful day - particularly to the garden!!).  While April ended up being one of the warmest on record, May was a bit cooler than normal overall.  It was a lovely month though and we were even able to get the garden in early and without row covers to keep it warm.

we've been eating a LOT of asparagus lately

herb box on the back deck

potato plants

The Garden The dehydrator has now taken it's summer position on the pellet stove.  We leave it there all summer and the first part of fall so we can throw fruits and veggies in as they come in season.  It's annual reappearance actually came about a bit early this year to ensure apples didn't go bad.  I had a few apples from our local orchard that were starting to go past their prime so I wanted to slice them up and dry them out.  So, it's all set for it's first in-season produce which will be strawberries! I did restrain myself on the garden and did not plant as much as I would have liked to.  I'm a sucker for seeds!  I really wish I had the time to plant it all as it's so gratifying to nurture it to harvest.  Instead, I resisted the urge and only planted sugar snap peas, spinach, kale, tomatoes (a LOT of tomatoes.......), peppers, broccoli, cauliflower, lettuce, zucchini, green beans and cucumbers.  Most of our garden will be for putting up.  Green beans, spinach, sugar snaps, broccoli, kale and peppers will be frozen, what cukes we don't eat fresh will be transformed into pickles and canned, and tomatoes will be made into sauces and salsa and canned as well as canning them as whole tomatoes and diced tomatoes.  This is if the critters stay away - I did not plant enough for us AND them...... We have a small asparagus bed as well, which we will be expanding.  We are going to add more once the harvest is complete for the year - should be over next week.  Our blueberry bushes are still small so we'll be picking at a local field again this year.  I removed our strawberry plants last year because I just couldn't keep fighting the critters for them so I'll be picking those at a local field as well in another week or two.  We'll also do u-pick for winter squash rather than growing it this year.  Our pear tree is looking good so, fingers crossed, we shall see some delicious pears, and our elderberry bush will produce a generous amount of berries that we will need to make time to dehydrate (so we can make elderberry syrup throughout the winter for amazing immune system boosting). Our farmer's markets will keep us in supply of the remainder of veggies & fruit. Rhubarb is in season right now.  I don't grow it, however, we're able to buy it at our farmer's market.  I've made Strawberry Rhubarb Pie (using up some of our frozen strawberries), and super moist Rhubarb Cake.  I also plan to make and can a few rhubarb recipes for use this winter. I was thrilled to be able to weed and mulch our flower beds.  Well, I have 3 to go, but it's almost completed.  I haven't had time to do this in a couple of years and it looks really nice.  We added a few plants too, just to bring a bit more life to the front yard.  I also moved my zucchini plants to the front yard.  I'll be interested to see how this works.  We've struggled with squash bugs for 2 years so I'm hoping that moving them 1/2 acre away will help. Whistle Pig vs. The Wind Tunnel Ground Hogs, a.k.a. Whistle Pigs (I like this name better so I'll be using it) are quite bountiful in these parts.  They are cute little things who completely terrorize my garden from time-to-time. I haven't seen any this year, although I continue to keep a lookout, knowing they must be around.  I've seen wild bunnies, but no whistle pigs.  Until last week.  I was walking up the driveway to retrieve the garbage cans.  Although we've had whistle pigs live in our front ditch before, it didn't even strike me that there could possibly be one there.  Until we almost collided. I had grabbed both the recycling can and the regular trash can, but the recycling can was falling over.  As I leaned into it to catch it, a whistle pig whizzed by me at top speed, narrowly missing my leg.  I jumped, causing the recycling can to fall into my leg and lodge the can's edge into it before I was able to grab it and keep both it and myself standing up.  My leg hurt a bit, my heart was racing a bit, and I headed up the driveway, pushing one can and pulling the other. I shared my near collision with J who shared the same concern that I had.  It's likely to get hit by a car if it stays in the drainage pipe in our ditch.  Every single year, for the past few years, we've had a whistle pig hit and killed.  We're assuming they were the ones who took up residence in the drainage ditch.  So, it was decided that J would try to relocate it.  Off he headed to the barn and came out holding the have-a-heart cage in one hand and the leaf blower in the other.  Leaf blower?  What is THAT for?  I followed behind him, inquiring about the tactic.  His thought process was to blow into one side of the drainage ditch and leave the trap at the other end.  This way, when he runs out, he runs right into the trap.  Oh boy, I said silently.  I just don't think this is going to work. The leaf blower was turned on and the wind went through from one side to the other.  Leaves came out, a few sticks came out, a random piece of trash came out, but no whistle pig.  He tried it again.  No whistle pig.  I suggested that the poor guy was probably traumatized and wouldn't come out for days as J began to start round 3.  He finally agreed and gave up on the wind tunnel theory. We haven't seen the little guy again.  I'm not sure if he packed his little whistle pig suitcase up and left on his own or if he's just hunkered down waiting for Armageddon to come to an end.  Only time will tell.

 a work in progress......

Kitchen Renovation/Projects Well, it's not done.  We still have painting left to do but everything else is completed.  For now....... I have one final project on the calendar for next year which is to open up the wall a bit more between the kitchen and the dining room.  Because of this, we made sure we had extra hard wood flooring of both the dining room (that was installed last year) and the kitchen (the kitchen is a vinyl "hardwood" flooring). We absolutely LOVE the larger window, the countertops, the stove, the backsplash, the sink, the faucet (who knew I would love a faucet?) and the flooring.  Love, love, love it all.  The window is only inches taller than the previous window but it feels even bigger!! I will share more photos once it's completed. We are hoping to go through the garden shed in the next week.  This isn't a huge project, although I'm sure it will be time consuming.  The garden shed has, unfortunately, become a catch-all building and because this "catch-all" will be going away this year, well, we need to go through it.  Anytime you need to go through things and assess "keep", "sell" or "give away" and then box up the "keep", it seems to take more time than one would expect it to, doesn't it?  It's not, for the most part, my stuff, it's mostly J's, so I'll just be there to help organize.

the chicks are getting big!

The Coop Girls The "littles" are getting so big!!!  They are so sweet.  It's really enjoyable to watch them as they figure out what their wings are for, as they realize grass and bugs are delicious, as they learn to roost, and as they see and react to new things in their world (seeing the dogs for the first time was quite scary for them - something, I swear, they chatted about all day long). The big girls stand and glare at them.  Actually, only a few of the big girls do, but it is really funny to watch.  They are so disgusted by them and their cute little chirping - you can just read it on their face.  Egg production is up, however, and that's a good thing. We continue to get jumbo eggs about twice per week.  Still not sure who's laying these marvels, but we love to collect them.  It's always fun to see their shape (one actually looked very much like a football in shape) and size.  About a month ago we switched them to a new Certified Organic feed from Green Mountain Feeds.  They seem to really like it.  It's non-GMO and soybean free.  We are able to get it from our local feed store which makes it very handy.

Oliver

Jack

Emerson

The Dogs + Jack Oh Jack.  A guy who discovers new obsessions from time-to-time.  He has a new one.  The new bathroom rug.  He believes it was purchased for him and gets very upset when anyone else dares to step foot on it.  He's a guy who loves texture so, apparently, I selected a nicely textured rug.  I bought a second one once we knew we liked it.  This way it doesn't get worn out so quickly.  J joked that we should give one of them to Jack and put it upstairs so we can once again use the bathroom in peace and without his attitude. The dogs are doing well.  They LOVE the sunny weather so there can be more outside time. More time to supervise the school buses, UPS man, and postal delivery guy.  And any white vehicles.  Oliver hates white vehicles.  I have no idea why, he has since we adopted him.  There is also some construction going on a few properties away so anytime the back-up beeping starts he jumps up and listens.  Our previous Fed-Ex guy used to back up our driveway when he would deliver to us.  It's been about a year since he's left our route but Oliver still remembers this and waits for "Mr. Mark" to come and visit him.  The poor guy is always disappointed.  So, back to napping he goes.

The Business Although it's not technically summer, to us this is the start of our summer season so we are in full swing!  We are trying to keep production running smoothly.  We start our second farmer's market next Wednesday.  It's a market we did two years ago and loved it.  Last year we were too busy to attend.  Since we are now both working for the business we can pick it back up again and we are thrilled!  It's a beautiful market.  It lasts from June through September, making it a nice addition to our week.

How was your May?

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This Month On The Farm: May 2018 - Kitchen Reno & Chick Updates, A Whistle Pigs Wind Tunnel, Jack's New Bath Mat, and More! was originally posted by My Favorite Chicken Blogs(benjamingardening)