So our day started off early with Ryeleigh desperately wanting outside first thing.  She must have seen something out of the bedroom window.  Next thing I know she is freaking out over a peahen in the garden.  She was howling very loudly and grabbing the rickety fence with her teeth trying to find a way in.

I caught Ryeleigh and put her on the back porch, with her practically screaming in protest. I am sure the neighbors loved this at 6:45 of a holiday morning.  I had to get Tom up to help me get the peahen back to the barn.

Then came the animal chores.  The white midget turkeys are sure developing.  I decided that they were big enough to move to a pen in the barn.  Hopefully they will stay in the barn and not become eagle food.  I am most worried about the one female we have as she is smaller.

So then I moved the Narragansett turkey poults out to the “pheasant pen”.  This is their first time on greenery for us.

I moved the 25 hatchery chicks out to the pheasant pen too.  I figured if I moved the turkeys in first and then moved these chicks in that they would not attack the turkey chicks like they did before.  So far my plan is working.  Here they are slowly emerging from the kennel I moved them in.

The turkey chicks did not seem to care.  A peahen is checking them out.

And more chicks emerged into their new home.

With the “weasel-proof pen” now available, I moved the 16 hayloft chicks and their mother into this space.  It is a much larger space for them.  The hen is so protective, we were getting attacked daily changing their food and water.  Hopefully it will be safer for all of us this way.  Here they are just being moved in and a  little freaked out.

So then I did the garden chores.  And guess what?!?  We are barely knee high!!!  Honestly I am happy to have any corn growing this year after our “spring”.

Tom picked the Rainier cherries.  The birds had left us some.  I then picked some pie cherries as well.

And with the pie cherries, I decided to make a pie.  It seemed appropriate for the holiday.  I used the recipe in my old Betty Crocker cookbook.  I used up the last of my lard though so then chopped up more pig fat to render.  Here is the pie.

I also made Pancho’s sauce for BBQ ribs.  The recipe is on the last photo of my Shortsnorter post.  I didn’t have much fennel seed though, but I remember this was really fennely before so it is probably for the best.  Here is the sauce.

And Tom is using it in smoking some of our pork ribs.  They are looking and smelling amazing.

Now we are hunkered down in the house with our dogs in the afternoon, watching the Mariners and listening to the bombs that our neighbors are exploding in the air.  It is like a war zone again.

Happy anniversary of the Continental Congress approving the final wording of the Declaration of Independence.