Genealogy

Back in November I really got into genealogy and have really been enjoying finding things about my family. My mom’s family has been difficult, and I grew very frustrated so I stopped with hers. I find if I walk away from it for a while, I will usually find something I missed later or someone else will find something and I can find more THAT way. I should really start again with hers and see what else I can find. Hmmm...
My dad’s family I have researched back 16 generations on his dad's side. The earliest event I have found was a birth in 1502. I have found when the Burts’ came to America from England . The most exciting thing I have found was a copy of a will from 1617. It reads:

The will of Henry Burtt of Harberton (co. Devon), clothier, dated 10 Jul 1617. To the poor of the parish of Harberton 30 sh. To my son Henry and his heirs and assigns, my close of land situate in Harberton Ford, called by the name of Racheparke, together with the house that John Tummells now dwelleth in and the house that George Causie and John Pearse now dwell in and the house that Andrew Pearse and Edward Adams now dwell in, as also the orchard, nursery, herb gardens, backsides and other appurtenances belonging. To the said Henry, my son, the mansion house of that land commonly called Crobers Land which Thomas Wood now dwelleth in, together with the sheep pen, orchard, herb garden and bakehouse, during the term of his life. To my said son Henry L100 to be paid within a year after my death. Isett, my wife, for life, one chamber over the shop, called the forechamber, with the bedstead and bed that I use to lie in. My wife shall have yearly during her life, L6 13s. 4d. issuing out of the land or tenement called Crobers Land; and the executor shall find one to attend her, during her life, sufficient meat, drink and firewood for her own use; and if my said wife do dislike her diet and do leave it, then my will is that she shall have L3.s 8d in lieu of her diet, out of the lands aforesaid, for her life. To my said wife and son Henry the half of my household stuff equally divided between them; and the other half to remain to my executor. To Raddegan, my daughter, L60, to be paid within three months after she shall be of the age of twenty-one. To Allies, my daughter L40, to be paid at the age of twenty. To Agnes, my daughter, L40 at the age of twenty. To Elizabeth, my daughter, L40 at the age of twenty. Whereas I promised my son-in-law, Chrispine Saunder, L40 at his marriage, and because he is not yet paid, my executor shall pay it. Also I promised him other L20 when my daughter Johan, his wife, for the term of her life or for fifty years determinable upon her life, should be assured of that tenement that Thomasine Saunders now dwelleth in or of some other as good, then my executor shall pay him L20 towards the same. To Joseph Saunders and Samuel Saunders, my grandchildren, L5 each. To my brothers' and sisters' children 2s each. To every one of my godchildren 12d. To Nycholas Hyans, my apprentice, 30s., to be paid at the end of his apprenticeship. Residue to my son John Burte. Witnesses: Will Huxham and Thos. Colton. Proved 19 Sept 1617."

"Inventory, taken 10 Sept 1617 by Thomas Colton and Paule Symons and exhibited 19 September 1617, includes apparel, L8; cloth and yarn, L102; money L70; 93 sheep,L31, 32 lambs, L6; other farm stock; an estate in certain grounds, L61; an estate in house, meadow and garden, L20; two pairs of lumbes, warping pins, raggles, quilt torns, and one spinning turn with sleyes, l2.10s; brass pans, cauldrons and pots, L10.13s4d; for household cloth already made, L3; 13 silver spoons, L3; desperate debts, L140; total L602.7s.9d (Archdeaconry of Totnes)."

I love the way it reads.

Genealogy can be very addicting. When I am on a roll, it’s like crack. I can’t seem to stay away from it because I am always afraid I won’t be able to find what I have found ever again. My family suffers, dishes pile up, and the kids start crying because I hog the computer. Neither understands it, but hopefully someday when they find all the information, they will appreciate all the times mom stared cross eyed at the computer or squealed in delight when I got a lead! =-)

Mother's Day

What a great Mother’s Day it was! I got up early…way before any of the rest of my family was awake. I sat in the silence, listening to the rain softly fall outside. It was wonderful. Did I mention how QUIET it was??
We got our garden planted. YEAH! Next I am on a mission to find straw to mulch it with after my plants get a bit bigger. This is our first year for this spot, and the grass is horrible in it. I have spent hours and hours pulling grass out, and the very next day I swear it’s back!! I think I am going to be battling this all summer long, but am hoping I can get it mulched and at least cut back on some of it. The potatoes are looking so good!! T is even into gardening this year, and planted some broccoli in a tub all of his own to take care of. Not real sure if that grows well around here though. He is also growing a cabbage they handed out at school!
We spent a good part of the afternoon at the farm. E and K are remodeling the farm house, and discovered a nest of baby owls in the rafters when tearing out some of the ceiling. I think they decided, after a majority vote, to leave them there till they are off on their own, and then secure everything back up so they can’t repeat the cycle. This makes me very happy as I was afraid that if they were moved, their parents wouldn’t take care of them. We are kind of goofy about owls in my family, and I am happy they are doing this instead of “getting rid” of them. They are really beautiful creatures…who found a very nice, warm, safe home for their babies....till the big guy with the ladder came along!
I went treasure hunting today while I was out there. I came home with a couple of old wash tubs, some really cool pails and a neat bowl to plant flowers in. Most of them will go out in the garden to “pretty” it up a bit. I wonder what my Grandad thinks of me planting flowers in the pail he put all his nuts and bolts in. Now I need to get to Protection to fill them up with some flowers.
The baby buns are all grown up. One has already left for his new home, and two others will be leaving this week. That will leave us 4. J’s got a pretty good idea which one he wants to use to show.
I can’t believe school is almost out. I am ready for break from the schedules and homework drama, so I am sure they are too!! Now, just need to find enough stuff around here to keep them busy and not fighting with each other!

Friday Thoughts

Well, it’s been a week since the infamous chicken slaughter at the Bruckner house. The two birds that survived, Chirpy and Tyson, are both almost back to normal. Tyson received a bit of babying—she had a chuck taken off her back, as well as an injured leg, but it all seems to have paid off. She’s back with the rest of the flock now only limping a small bit. I am really missing Nugget from our original flock. She laid green eggs. The guy we got her from was excited. He had a green egg layer a couple of generations back, but hadn’t had one since. They were a really pretty olive green shell. =-(
So we have 10 new birds, and before I list the new names, please keep in mind that my BOYS named them!! They are: Butterscotch, Jack #2, Wren, Bella, Torak, Vanessa, Burpy, Cena, (as in John Cena, the wrestler), Chicken Little, and Batista (again, another wrestler).
The baby buns are going to be weaned this weekend, much to their mom’s relief. I tend to humanize our animals, and every time I see her all spread out in the cage, with all these little babies jumping around on her or trying to nurse on her, I swear she looks at me with the “Please just take them…I need a break” look. There are 2 out there I am anxious to see how they fill out and do when they are older. One has some really nice dark points on him. We have lost 2, having 7 now.
D’s going to be busy this weekend. We started finishing our basement so we can put a family room down there about a year and a half ago. The first major step was getting the dang thing cleaned out, as we had never cleaned it out, and the guy who lived here before hadn’t either. Then we had to put a hole in our living room floor so we could put in stairs. The stairs that lead down there before are HORRIBLY steep, and have tiny little step. So, D made our new stairs nice and big, not steep, with in opening you could set a car down into if you wanted. And then it kind of stopped there for a while so we could save up more money and figure out exactly what we wanted to do down there. We finally have it all figured out and he’s been busy ever since. I’m getting excited! There was so much wasted space down there I can believe we hadn’t used before this!
Still haven’t gotten our garden planted. I am getting frustrated! Our potato plants are looking good though.
My Poppys in my front yard should be exploding soon. Poppys remind me of my grandma. She died when I was 9. She was THE country woman. She always had beautiful flowers, she sewed for us, and the baked the most amazing cookies and bread. And cherry Kool-aid. I miss her even still to this day. I would love to have her advice on gardening and my flowers. She also raised my dad and his four brothers and sisters and didn't kill any of them so parenting advice would have been most welcome too! She loved birds. Especially owls. In fact, I think, in weird, freaky kind of way, that its super cool that a pair of barn owls have taken up living in the old farm house. We've kicked them out,and patched where we thought they were getting in, but they always find a way back in. Maybe they are just suppose to be there. Anyway, I always smile when I see a red cardinal in my yard because she would always stop and point them out to me. And Blue Jays. And Orioles. I remember I always thought they were called Oreos. HAHA
Have a HAPPY WEEKEND!

Murphy's Law

I haven’t blogged for a little while, and I have heard about it from my mom several times, so I thought I would sit down and write for a bit.
Honestly, I just haven’t felt like sitting down and blogging something happy or funny. Things have been kind of rough over the past couple of weeks. However, I really enjoy writing and reflecting, so I think this is exactly what I need to do!

So, anyway, it seems my household is following Murphy’s Law:
"If something can go wrong it will.” Friday was the very worse. 2 of our neighbors dogs got in and killed 6 of our 8 chickens. Keep in mind that these were mostly T’s chickens, and Friday was T’s birthday. The man the dogs belonged to was super nice about the entire thing, and paid for everything to be replaced and treated-- we had to take Dan’s white giant bun over to the vet. The dog got under her cage and pulled her toe mostly off and I had to run her over to the vet so that they could clean it out, finish removing the toe, and then stitch it all back up. She’s been nicknames “Nubs” as she looks like she’s permanently doing that little “rock on” hand sign you see everyone doing. It was all a very sad and horrible experience for everyone. But—we did get the chickens replaced, and Eric and Kim bought the boys each a new chicken too, so we have more now than we started with. It seems so stupid to me that I cried my heart out over chickens of all things, but I sure did.

As I mentioned, T’s 9th birthday was Friday. He got a rock tumbler from us. He is geeky about rocks, so this was a hit and we already have a load of rocks going in the laundry room. Man, those things are noisy! It also came with some key chains, and stuff he can make when he gets his rocks done. He also got a quite a bit of cash, and took some of it and bought his very first BB gun with a scope, so he thinks he’s the bomb. We went to the school carnival on Saturday, and T walked out of there with 54 cans of pop!! Soda is not something that is bought for my kids a lot, so this was a super big deal to him!

J’s doing good. His baby buns are almost 4 weeks old, and we will be weaning them next week. We did have to put one down today. There was a baby who stopped growing about a week ago, and suddenly started having problems, so I don’t know if mom stepped on his head or if he just had something wrong with him, but he really seemed to be hurting and was so weak. His little runt boy we didn’t think would make it has almost caught up with his siblings. They are super cute right now—little white poof balls that make me laugh. I could sit out there for hours just watching them run around.
Anyway, back to J, he’s got a really bad head cold right now and had been feeling pretty nasty, but think he’s finally feeling better.

D got the grass planted several weeks ago and by golly, there is baby grass growing out there!! =-) We were hoping to get the garden planted this week, but with the weather it didn’t get done. I also think he talked about tilling the spot up one more time before we plant the rest. Our potatoes are poking up though!! Hopefully this week we can get it all planted. I have 27 tomato plants needing to be in the ground! YUM!

Eggzilla

Yesterday we had a surprise out in the chicken coop. Our hen Tyson laid an ENORMOUS egg! This egg would probably been the equivalent to a human giving birth to a 15 lb baby with no drugs.
Anyway, it turns out; this is our very first double yoked egg. The internet says that these eggs are 50% bigger and wider than normal eggs and would have meant twin chicks in an egg. (They never hatch though.)
That egg is so big it doesn’t even really fit into the egg carton. The egg we used to compare it to is just a tad smaller than the large eggs I buy at the store.
Holy Moly.

So, I have now blogged about rabbits, chickens, and now eggs. It’s safe to say it doesn’t take much in this world to amuse me!

The Easter Joke

So, since March, when we got our chickens, I have been scheming up the best prank ever to play on my boys. D and I were going to dye some special Easter eggs, sneak them out to the chicken coop, and when the boys went to go get eggs on Easter: SURPRISE!!! hehe I was pretty sure that J would know it was us, but thought we could at least convince T that the chickens laid colored eggs just for Easter.
So, everything was going great. D snuck out, hit them in the coop.
We were just ready to head up to bed when I noticed that T had stuck a note to the Easter Bunny in his basket.
Dear Easter Bunny, Would you please leave some colored chickens eggs in the chicken coop. Please Please Please Please?? That would be such a good surprise. Have a Happy Easter. Love, T
Oh great. So, I don't get credit for the most amazing joke I have ever come up with...the Easter Bunny gets to take it all. (I'm still not sure if he just wanted eggs HIDDEN in there, or REAL colored eggs that the chickens had laid.)
But it was still funny. D heard T scream clear inside the house, and I am pretty sure our chickens won't be laying ANY eggs, colored OR not, for a LONG time. T's screams of joy probably scared them into egg hibernation.
I guess he won't be believing in the Easter Bunny forever so I should enjoy this fun while it lasts.

Kansas Weather is NUTS!

For the record, I am SO SICK of cold weather, snow, and hurricane force wind I could just SCREAM!!
So anyway...
..it’s not even 7 pm and I am sitting here in my pj’s, enjoying a glass of wine. A REALLY big glass. I hope no one comes over unexpectedly!

We had a great weekend. J’s birthday was on Saturday and we had some of the family over for a small BBQ. J wanted Guitar Hero so that’s what he got from us. He made off with a pretty good wad of cash, as well as some ankle weights he’s been wanting, and some other stuff, I just can’t remember. (Must be the wine!) I think his favorite part was though was sitting and listening to my dad. He was in a story telling mood, and some of these stories he had never heard before. He couldn’t believe his grandfather was so crazy and silly back in the day. Dad got worn out and didn’t stay for very long, but was nice to have him over for a bit. He doesn’t leave his house much these days.

D got the grass planted so I’m crossing my fingers grass grows soon. Since he’s tilled it up I’ve had to dust twice as often!! UGH!!

T has decided he wants to go out for baseball this season. You have no idea how excited I was. He has made so much progress this year. This is the very first time he’s wanted to play baseball. He played football, but I think he feels “safe” with playing football because he’s hidden inside his helmet and pads.

J’s bunnies are doing super. We are still bringing them in at night and taking them out to mom in the morning. They finally have fur, and are almost ready to start opening their eyes. He does have one in the litter that seems to be the runt. He is half the size as his brothers and sisters, and never seems to have a really full tummy, no matter how much we step in and give him extra feedings with his mom. I’m not sure what will happen to that little guy, but J’s trying everything he can. He’s 11, with his very first litter of buns, so the whole “sometimes that just happens” spill really seems cruel to him.

I am so ready for spring. REAL spring. Spring with no snow or cold wind. I got our seeds for our garden a couple of weeks ago, as well as a dormant Bleeding Heart plant. I love those things!! I had one for many years, and when D chopped down a tree in the front yard, he killed it off and it never came back. So, I have my new one planted and started inside, waiting for the weather to warm up. It’s already got some nice shoots coming up. I also started some Sweet Peas. I’ve never grown them before, but fondly remember my grandmother having them. She planted hers so that they would grow up her clothes line poles at the end and I always remember smelling them. Not sure where I am going to put them, but I'm excited to smell them and pretend I am 5 years old again..even if just for a few seconds!
Hope everyone has a great week!!