Another Day

After the first two days of rain it stopped.  This is the way it usually goes.  Kind of like a lawn mower that's been sitting all winter: takes a few pulls to get it started.  Anyway, I've had time to catch up on some household chores.  Put up some more hat hooks in the bathroom and installed a piece of glass in place of a screen that got knocked out by the critters when they got excited.  It was  the lower part of a screened in area of our bedroom.  We can still see out but there'll be less work fixing screens. 
I'm in the midst of a 3 year plan to automate and simplify things around here so it's not so labor intensive.  It's labor intensive becoming less labor intensive. 
Amaranths water pick quit working.  The hose got brittle and snapped.  I replaced it with some 1/4 inch drip system hose.  Gave it a bit more life.  I already have plans for it when the pump quits working. 
As I was walking past my Buddha Hands tree I noticed it was covered with small white granules.  It looked like someone had sprinkled it with laundry detergent.  It turned out to be eggs of some sort.  I've never seen anything like it before.  Must be some specialized Buddha Hands Bugs.  None of the other citrus were affected.  I got a squirt bottle with some watered down dish washing soap in it and sprayed the bottoms and tops of all the leaves.  When I checked it this afternoon it looked fine.  Most of the eggs had fallen off and the remaining ones were easy to remove. 
The chickens are doing fine.  Haven't had any predators get in the pens since I fixed the wire.  We'll be having a bunch of new babies from three nests in a week or so.   Our nests all end up being communal.  You'll see 2 or 3 hens all squished into the same box.  There are plenty of nesting boxes but they like getting together.  The goose and the duck had that going on.  The goose layed  3 eggs but something got all   all of them.  When I checked her nest to see how her eggs were doing I discovered no goose eggs and 10 duck eggs she'd snitched from the duck.  There's no male duck so her eggs weren't fertile.
Well, that's about it for now.  Things are pretty layed  back for a while.  See you tomorrow.  Wally