Monkey Business

The animals continue to be a source of entertainment around the Ordway home.  Two mornings ago while dressing for work our house girl Caterina called me to come and see the chicken.  I thought the chicken had entered the kitchen and I did not see why I needed to be involved in chasing it out.  In addition I was running slightly late and am not personally very interested in the chicken, therefore, I attempted to get out of the event.  Due to language barriers it was apparent there was no way around this.  So I followed Caterina to our laundry room where our guard JP was with the chicken.  “Dead” was JP’s response to our arrival.  And indeed it was quite dead.  We are unsure of the causes but as none of the Ordways were at home at the time of death we have pronounced it as unsuspicious. 

The intruder

Yesterday while getting ready for work I looked out my window over the backyard and saw one of our umbasambis attempting to scare off a monkey.  We have an avocado tree in our backyard so I think the monkey was coming by for some brunch.  He did not look particularly worried about the umbasambi as he processed to move from the fence to our avocado tree.  Unfortunately I was a little slow with my camera and was not able to capture the full scare tactics of the umbasambi but if you look close you should be able to see a monkey in the tree.  Enjoy.

Our perturbed umbasambi

Chicken News

Just over a week ago there was an addition to the Ordway house hold, a chicken who by a facebook vote has been named Beyonce.  The chicken’s stay with us was turbulent from the start.  Our two umbasambis were not fans of sharing their backyard with Beyonce and did not let her out of the corner of the yard for the first day.   Beyonce must have thought she found the upper hand when she decided to relocate to the front yard.  Much to her dismay Nala, our bunny, turned out to not be a fan of hers either.  For Beyonce’s first two days here she lived displaced and bullied.  The emotional turmoil of this seemed to be too much for her as we continued to wait for her egg contribution to the family.  While not having the energy to lay eggs she did have the gusto to further explore the property and we have had to chase her out of the kitchen on more than one occasion.  Beyonce made her distain of these occasions clear by her insistent bocking afterwards.  Between her not making friends with the other animals, constant clucking and home invasions it became clear if she planned to stay around and not on the dinner table something needed to change.  We even inquired if our guard – JP – could teach the girls how to butcher.  This morning Lucy – the Ordway’s youngest daughter – was the first to taste Beyonce’s egg.  True to form she has decided to lay her eggs in an inconvenient location.   I cannot say with any certainty Beyonce’s future with us will be a long one, her egg laying has definitely expended it but by how long is hard to say. 

Sewing projects

Designer Aprons

Presenting the designs to the class

Our sewing cooperative has now completed its second design challenge.  This may not sound like much of a feat for many but I feel they have grown leaps and bounds.  Previously they were not given the opportunity to develop their own design and patterns – at least not in the classroom.  Friday is homework day for Ibyishimbo; Thursday I left them with the challenge of designing and sewing their own apron.  Considering they did not know the purpose of aprons and had only seen one style in their life I was a little unsure what I would walk in to Monday morning.  I came in Monday a little leery of what I would find and much to my delighted they excelled at the assignment.  Previously we all designed our own unique patch pocket so each apron was decorated with a fantastic pocket as well as some individual detailing.  You can look forward to sampling the aprons in our upcoming spring catalogue. 

Reviewing their classmates' apron designs

Design critic