Blog

  • Trouble In The Nursery

    After Mama Hen initially took to the chicks we bought her to round out her family, she decided the two little Midnight Marans were hers, but the Americaunas and Easter Eggers were not. For a couple of nights after the divider netting was installed, I could get them back under her, but after a couple of days, it was obvious she wanted no part of them and didn’t want them near “her” chicks. The 4 light colored chicks managed somehow to get on the other side of the net from her and the other hens were okay with that, but not motherly to them either. The divider net was pulled down so they had the run of the coop and for two nights, Mama Hen put her 4 in a nesting box with her and the other 4 huddled together in an adjacent nesting box. Fortunately, I guess, it has been very hot and they have done okay.

    Today, she urged her 4 little dark chicks out of the coup into the run and ultimately farther away from the coop over toward the relative shelter of the grape arbor and wood pile.


    She does her best to keep herself between the chicks and me, but I did catch this photo. I tried putting one of the Americana’s that is more darkly marked down near them and she ran her off and tried to peck her. And one of the very light Easter Eggers must have followed her out of the coop or fallen out of the coop and was hiding in the Comfrey plant nearby, loudly protesting.

    It looks like she will raise 4 and I will raise 4. The light colored ones are now safely in a large dog crate with wood chips, food and water in the garage.

    Next week the temperature is supposed to drop back to something more comfortable for humans and I may have to add one of the heat tables in there with them for a week or so. The 6 we bought seem to be of different ages. The Americana’s look like they may be a week older than the Easter Eggers and Midnight Marans, and they are almost a week older than the two she managed to hatch. The Americana’s are almost feathered out and have long feathered wings. When the Easter Eggers are about 6 weeks old, I will try to reintroduce these to the coop or put the dog crate out in the run or yard so the hens can readapt to them.

    Three of the chicks we purchased are going to the friend that gave me the eggs when they are old enough. And with any luck, the remaining 5 will add to our flock to be egg producers late fall or next spring.

  • Midwifery and Adoption on the Farm

    As previously mentioned, almost half of my flock of hens were killed off by predators this winter and early spring. A Coopers Hawk got a couple, a raccoon another couple and one just disappeared, all I could find was a pile of feathers. Then one of the Easter Eggers quit laying at molt last fall and never started back up over the winter or this spring. I didn’t know which one of the two, until about 26 days ago when one of them decided she was broody and there is no rooster here. Usually when they get broody, they are put in time out for several days with no nesting box and it breaks the brood. Since the flock was light, I asked a friend with a rooster if I could buy a dozen possibly fertile eggs from her. She offered them for free and they were tucked under Mama 24 days ago. On day 21, one cute little almost black chick emerged, then another dark, but gray one overnight. One other tried to hatch but died in the process and she still sat. It appeared today on day 24 that was all we were going to get.

    On our way home from an appointment in the city, we stopped at Rural King and purchased 6 nearly week old chicks to give to her in place of the eggs that obviously weren’t going to hatch. Two Midnight Marans, two Americanas, and two Easter Eggers and of course, I failed to take a picture of them.

    After preparing and eating dinner, while the hay team worked at teddering the hay that was finally mowed today, the coop was cleaned and a “nursery” built at the door end to allow Mama to get them old enough to go up and down the ramp into the coop that is a couple feet off the ground and then the fun began, trying to round them up and get them into the nursery with water and chick starter/grower and isolated from the other 6 hens and their laying feed. They have a space two nesting boxes deep and the width of the coop with one of the two perch bars exposed. That leaves 4 nesting boxes and the rest of the two perches for the 6 hens at night.

    Once I thought I had all the chicks moved, I shifted a very agitated Mama, who willingly adopted the 6 new babies to add to the two she hatched and one was missing. As you can see, I can not get in the end of the coop where they had been and was trying to find the missing chick through the egg door which further agitated Mama Hen as it opens all 6 nest boxes at once. The very quiet Easter Egger was finally located and moved in with her siblings and adoptive Mom. I left them to calm down, release the hens who had been penned up while the mowers were here.

    Here is Mama Hen with two of her adoptees, a Midnight Marans on the left and an Americana on the right. One of the little barn yard mutts that she hatched in the middle. The rest are hiding under her, wondering what on earth happened this evening.

    Now off to shower off the chicken coop cleaning dust and doctor the scratches from trying to move the hen and from the edges of the plastic chicken wire I was using to separate them off. Nothing like a little excitement on a sticky, hot evening.

  • The Garden begins to provide

    This week, the garlic was pulled and is curing in the garage. The late potatoes were planted where the corn failed and the pumpkins in the middle of that bed are growing well. The first zucchini were harvested, it is a compact variety and the squash are about 8″ long and an inch in diameter, so not likely to overwhelm. The green beans are flowering and some small beans are developing.

    This afternoon when I went to harvest peas for dinner, I realized that the vines were drying, so I began pulling them and harvesting the peas. After dinner, the rest were pulled. A couple hours of shelling peas, blanching, and freezing and there are about 8 or 9 cups in the freezer, added to about 5 cups of sugar snap peas, and a quart of carrot chunks.

    The first basket full.

    Headed to the freezer.

    Yesterday at the Farmer’s Market, a few quarts of peaches were purchased as we did not get any from our trees this year, and a batch of a favored Peach Sriracha sauce was made and canned for the shelves.

    We have a broody hen, she has been sitting the daily eggs for a couple of days. One of my friends has a rooster and gave me a dozen of her fertile extra eggs which will be tucked under her to see if she will raise some barnyard mutts to add to or replace my older gals, and maybe provide a rooster to help protect them.

    As successes and failures occur in the garden, and as I age and wish for easier gardening, notes are being made on the plan to remind me for next year. I will plant only sugar snap peas and will make sure to trellis them. The variety of shelling peas planted this year is advertised as free standing, but they were a tangle of 5-6 foot long vines, only harvestable by pulling the lot. It did make for a huge compost pile between the pea vines and the weeds that were hidden within the mess and between the bed and the comfrey. Next time I have a strong helper here, the pile needs to be turned. Last year the tomatillos and cucumbers were a mess, so this year the tomatillos are caged like tomatoes and the cucumbers have a trellis. I followed the Square Foot gardening plan which says a tomato plant only needs 1 square foot. I put 3 in a 4 foot row and 6 in a 4 X 4 square and they are too close together. Son 1 made an A frame trellis for his tomatoes a couple of years ago and I think that would help with spacing and harvesting later.

    I now have a 4 x 4 foot bed and a 4 X 8 foot bed idle. In mid July or the first of August, a winter’s worth of carrots, spinach, and chard will be planted there. I am going to figure out how to make cold frames or a mini greenhouse to cover the greens and the carrots will have a thick layer of straw layered over them when freeze threatens.

    The apple and Asian pear trees are heavy with fruit. The deer are beginning to come and nibble at the lower branch fruit, but there will be plenty too high for them to reach for us.

    This year, I pruned all of the lower branches from the grape vine so the vines are about 4 feet off the ground and they are heavy with fruit. I need to shield the grapes from the deer and then decide how the grapes will be used.

    It was difficult to get motivated on the garden this year, but it is nice now that food is coming from it. The last of the spring carrots and the second planting for radishes were harvested earlier this week.

    It will be nice if we get some potatoes and pumpkins to store, and carrots that can be pulled as needed this winter. Adding green beans to the freezer as they mature, and having greens in a cold frame or green house to have fresh will make it worth while. I’m still fighting a battle with the Creeping Charlie and to some extent the Smartweed, but less than a month ago.

    The riding mower was finally repaired and yesterday afternoon, the remaining grass was mowed. This week is true summer, with temperatures in the mid to upper 80’s and rain predicted only as scattered thunder storms. Maybe our hay will finally be able to be mowed and baled.

    Two days ago, I went to my friend’s house and helped them extract honey. That was a new experience and came home with a couple of quarts of very dark delicious honey.

  • Summer

    After a very cool, wet June, we have had two hot sticky days with no rain. More rain and cooler days ahead, but it has allowed walks without umbrellas or raincoats and being able to inspect my hives for the first time since I installed them. This is a very different experience than last year. The two medium boxes for brood on each hive are bursting with honey, eggs, and brood. So many bees. I added a queen excluder to each hive and a honey super on each in hopes of some fall honey. The sourwood is just beginning to bloom so they will be busy, the fields are full of daisies and since we haven’t had a mower in over two weeks, the lawn is full of white and red clover.

    The shelf unit I put on the front porch with houseplants has a Wren nest tucked between pots. I think is was a practice nest as it hasn’t been occupied. I will leave it for a few more days before I remove it.

    Walks have had some wildlife to see, yesterday a box turtle who didn’t seem to like the attention it was getting and today a caterpillar that has been parasitized with several eggs on it’s back.

    The garlic pulled was brought in to the garage and hung in bundles to cure for storage. The garage smells very garlicy now and will until the leaves dry and the skins dry.

    Since we live in a log home, we have had annual problems with Carpenter Bees. They drill holes in the facia boards and lay their eggs. That is less of a problem than once they hatch, the woodpeckers peck at the wood to get the larvae. This year the woodpeckers have been relentless, so we purchased 4 owls with a bell and mylar strip and hung them in strategic places hoping that they will discourage any more early morning pecking and stop the damage they are doing.

    The month is fading away, July and August bring harvest and processing, a busy time.

  • Living local

    As I re-read Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable Miracle, a book I reread every couple of years, it re-dedicates me to live locally. We have the best Farmer’s Market I have ever shopped. They are open April through October on Wednesday afternoon and on Saturday mornings year round with more vendors. During winter, there are fewer vendors, but still some products are available including storage vegetables, eggs, meat, breads, and cheese. Each spring, I plant a garden and we have an orchard with 4 kinds of fruit trees and 3 kinds of cultivated berries, but other than tomato sauces, peppers canned and dried, tomatillos for salsas, and cucumbers for pickles, I don’t grow enough variety or quantity to supply us year round. This year, in support of the vendors, I decided to buy extras of items that can be blanched and frozen for winter use. This week was the first week of making these extra purchases and I came home with extra Sugar Snap Peas, celery, and carrots. The peas have been getting added to the freezer for a few weeks as I had extras and are coming to an end. The celery sliced for Mirepoix, the carrots sliced for soups and stews. Herbs are grown here in the garden to be dried and others in the Aerogarden for fresh use. Meats and poultry are available year round so don’t have to be stockpiled. One farm, in addition to beef and eggs, grows corn for meal, oats for oatmeal, and wheat for flour. Being able to watch my flour ground and bagged, unbromated whole wheat with bran is wonderful.

    A bag was brought home, a loaf of artisan bread started last evening that was baked this morning. What doesn’t get used immediately will be frozen so there will be flour for bread this winter as well.

    The finished bread is a little more dense than I had hoped, it was a new recipe that I will tweak in the future.

    After putting the produce away and some frozen, dinner prepared using plenty of fresh vegetables from market and garden to make a salad, a little garden time was enjoyed. This week has been so wet, it was nice to be able to get in there, weed a little, pick berries, and pull the 34 heads of garlic to cure in today’s sun.

    All but two are large and full and this should be enough to last us the year. The fall garlic seed needs to be ordered.

    Soon there will be peas from our garden to enjoy and freeze. And the beans are beginning to have blossoms, the first zucchini is forming, tiny peppers and tomatoes are developing. The apple and Asian pear trees are heavy with fruit to be enjoyed raw or made into sauces later in the fall.

    There was cheese purchased, Garlic Chive Chevre that was enjoyed on the salad, and a weekly treat of a bouquet of flowers from our friend’s farm.

    Keep it close to home if you can, better for the environment, better for your health.

  • Spindles

    Hubby says I have an addiction, not to alcohol, drugs, or other dangerous harmful substances, but to beautiful wood, especially wood that can be used daily.

    This basket holds 5 Jenkins Turkish spindles, 4 Finches, 1 Wren, and a social media friend who lives on the West Coast was able to travel to Black Sheep Gathering, a festival in Oregon this weekend and proxy shopped for me today to add a Pear wood Wren to the mix. There are 4 top whorl drop spindles in the house as well, two that get used when dressed in Colonial garb and presenting fiber use in Colonial times, one that was gifted to me but is so light weight I have trouble keeping it spinning, and one purchased to help support a Ukrainian artist.

    These beautiful works of art are used daily. For a year, they spun the wool to make the breed blanket in 2021.

    This year, the wool to knit the Shetland Hap shawl.

    And now, working through about 30 ounces of Jacob/Alpaca blend and Shetland/Nylon blend that will become a sweater when I settle on a pattern. Both of those wools can be seen in the basket above and the plied ball of them together that will be the yarn for the sweater.

    He mostly was kidding me, as I have been an easy on the budget wife, I hate to shop, I don’t have my hair and nails done, I love to cook, I wear very little jewelry. But I do love my spindles and the calming effect of making yarn on them.

  • Poor Planning

    Times 2. Yesterday while driving into town, the low tire pressure warning came on the fancy electronic dashboard of the newer CRV. The car did not come with a spare, just a tire pump that you plug into the outlet in the console. This was the second time in two days the warning had come on. Having pumped it up in a parking lot the first time. We again stopped in a lot and pumped up the tire and drove to the dealer repair shop to have it checked out/repaired. Unfortunately, we arrived just as the entire shop went on lunch break and the service advisor warned us it would be about two hours because they had all just gone on lunch and there were scheduled appointments to be done as well. We really had no choice as it was obvious that there was a problem with the front tire. The dealership is in a busy, basically industrial area, but we walked off between the industrial park and a small neighborhood and wandered up and down streets for 2 miles of our daily 4 mile walk then sat in the dealership waiting area for the duration, a total of 3.5 hours to pull a nail and plug the tire. Next time, I will try to better schedule our emergency.

    This did allow me a lot of spinning time, as usual attracting much attention as to what I was doing and conversation about what I would do with the yarn.

    We did continue our walk on a nicer trail to finish the remaining 2 miles once we were done and since it was now late afternoon, used a free pizza coupon to share a small pizza and salad for an early dinner.

    Last night’s and today’s knitting has me within 1/4 of the last lace row of the Hap shawl on which my spinning is resting. Once that row is complete, there is only one plain knit row and the stretchy bind off, which adds a stitch for every two you bind off to give it the stretch, so that should take me a good bit of time. Hopefully, it will be finished by tomorrow evening and can be soaked and blocked to shape.

    Today’s poor planning was to actually believe the weather app that indicated that it would be mostly sunny today and tomorrow, so I mixed up another gallon of soapy white vinegar and resprayed areas in the garden paths that the first spraying didn’t fully kill off and then around the outer perimeter of the garden to spray the Smartweed and Creeping Charlie to keep them from migrating back into the garden. We then left to run a couple of errands and take a wood’s walk only to run into light rain on the way home, so probably wasting a gallon of white vinegar this morning.

    This wee one was so close to the house just before we left this morning.

    We recently discovered a park across the road from the river park where we often walk along the trail on the river’s edge. The two parks are joined by a walking/biking tunnel under the road and the park is fully wooded with both a paved bike path and several unpaved walking paths crossing a creek on two wooden bridges. Walking this park gives us 2 miles and then we walk back to the river park and do the second 2. It makes a very pleasant walk.

    Milkweed on the edge of the open meadow.

    Virginia Day flower on the edge of the trail in the woods.

    Virginia Day flowers on the edge of the trail in the woods.

    One of the two tunnels, this one is the rail tunnel between the parks that allows cars into the river park. No photo of the corrugated metal walking tunnel under the road.

    So, the moral is to plan our emergencies in order to not wait long hours, and to not trust the National Weather service app.

  • SeeSaw days

    Typical spring here, hot and humid one day and chilly and gray the next, but the garden grows. Except for the corn. Out of 4 rows in a 12 X 4 foot bed, only two seeds sent up blades. We were due for thunderstorms a couple of days ago, so the bed was reseeded. This may be the last time I try corn. Year before last, there was nothing, last year some came up, but the harvest was pretty paltry for the space it consumed. The only year that corn has ever been “successful” though marginally was the year of the popcorn.

    The seed starts for squash, tomatillos, pumpkins, tomatoes, and peppers were all successful and are doing well planted in the beds. The cucumbers failed on first start, but there are several strong seedlings putting out secondary leaves that are currently being hardened off and soon they will be planted in the last bed.

    The motivation for the garden has been hard to come by this year, and since I am currently unable to be out in the sun due to a chemo cream use on my face, I have to heavily cover with mineral sunscreen, wear a huge hat and limit my exposure. Sunburns as a kid camping with family, as a young adult working as a lifeguard, have come back to haunt me. Usually, anything found by the dermatologist is zapped with liquid nitrogen, but this time is wasn’t in a place they want to spray. At any rate, early or late, very protected sessions are being done. As an adult, I wear long sleeves nearly year round and always wear a hat with a brim when we are out walking. Sun damage from years ago revisits as we age.

    Peas are heavy with blooms and though they are supposed to be a free standing variety, they have toppled all over each other. Soon, peas will be harvested. One of the varieties of spinach is bolting as is the lettuce. The beans are up. The tomatoes, peppers, basil, squash, and tomatillos have been mulched with clean straw, thanks to a friend that was able to get me a couple of bales yesterday. Part of a bale was used to clean the hens coop, a few flakes as mulch and the rest set back in the dry garage for further coop cleaning and garden mulching.

    Now if I can just get the paths under control, figure out how to kill off the smartweed and creeping charlie, I will be happy. As it is upper 70’s today and tomorrow with bright sun, the paths were all sprayed with white vinegar and dish soap. If that shows any level of success, it will be repeated until I win, vinegar is cheap and safe. A truck load of wood chips would be great to have, to put about 4 inches between all the beds. The other frustrating area is the tall grass that grows up the welded wire fence. The line trimmer can’t get under the fence and if it hits the wire, it breaks off the trimming line. I don’t want to use chemicals like Liquid Fence, nor do I want to take down the fence and reset it an inch or two off the ground so I can weed under it. I envy neat gardens with no weeds, no grass in-between beds, no fence needed to thwart the deer, groundhogs (saw one today in the yard), and free ranging chickens. Perhaps the electric mesh type moveable fencing that can be moved away, allow mowing, then re-set would do the trick. I already have the 6V charger. Maybe if the vinegar trick works and I can get woodchips, cardboard can be slipped under the fence wire, heavily mulched on both sides out maybe far enough to keep an edge would work.

    The bees are again protected from the resident bear. A new battery for the 12V charger was ordered and installed. Tested on the deck, it showed a strong charge, so it was taken back to the bee yard, rehung, and attached to the electric fence wire. When it was turned on, it showed only marginal charge on the fence. Because it was a new solar charged battery, it was left alone to charge for a couple days and still only marginal. This morning, the piece of line that connects the wire to the charger was replaced and the fence is again hot. Hopefully, 12 V will deter the furry beasts.

  • Different types of challenges

    There are fun challenges, physical challenges, financial challenges, personal challenges, mental challenges, and many more.

    We face various challenges daily with different mindsets. Sometimes our challenges require us to buck up and tough it out. Sometimes our challenges overwhelm and send us spiraling downward. Or upward when we overcome them.

    The social media spindle group to which I subscribe offers monthly challenges. Some have definite guidelines, others are to set your own and then strive to fulfill them. This past month, the challenge was to spin color, it could be your favorite, one you don’t like, one that is new to you. I had be given a two samples from a braid of Rambouillet wool. They came with two new spindles, one I won the lottery to be able to purchase, the second, a gift from hubby for our 45th anniversary. One sample was browns, whites, and teal, the second was just the teal. I reached out to the indie dyer from whom the Jenkins (spindle maker and his wife who does all the labelling, marketing, and packaging) had obtained it. She was able to send me a 4 ounce package of just the teal, a color I generally lean toward (my phone case, some accessories, etc).

    All month long I have been spinning this wool, mostly on my smaller Jenkins Finch style Turkish spindles, a little on my Golding drop spindle with a lovely inset of Sunflowers, painted by a Ukranian artist. The month is coming to a close and as of yesterday, there was still about 1/3 of the package of wool to be spun. Several ounces into spinning it, I no longer cared for the color and the wool, a breed I had only sampled before reminded me too much of another breed I don’t care to spin. Basically, wanting to just quit on it.

    Yesterday, the local spinning group to which I below, not just the couple of neighbors that I spin with weekly, held it’s annual front deck spin in hosted by one of the members and her DH. This all afternoon event includes a pot luck lunch and in addition to the regulars that can attend the one afternoon a week meet up, folks from as far away as about 4 hours, who many of us know from retreats, also attend. An opportunity to see some friends only seen a couple of times a year is wonderful. I had been looking for a small travel spinning wheel, and the couple from 4 hours away had one they were willing to part with. They brought it with them yesterday for me to purchase.

    A new challenge, plying the wool spun all month on a wheel I had never previously used, outdoors in the chilly breeze. It took a little while to get the tension and ratio right for the fine, too soft almost threadlike singles of the spindle spun wool, but it was accomplished, hopefully with enough twist to be good yarn.

    And once home after spinning more on the spindles at the event, a bit was set aside to fulfill the last week of the challenge and the remaining wool is being spun on the new wheel to be plied later today or this evening. It is spinning to the same yarn weight on the wheel, so there should be a nice, light weight, large yardage, 4 ounce skein when the two are combined. It may get set aside until the color again appeals to be to made into a project, or the skein may become a door prize or gift exchange item for a later event.

    This project has presented several different types of challenges, some self imposed, some imposed by other reasons, but it almost done.

    Next month, a more preferred fiber for spinning will be chosen as it will be a practice for the Tour de Fleece challenge in July. Our group doesn’t compete in any of the larger Tour de Fleece challenges with other groups, it is just a “for fun” challenge within our group with some prizes at the end. I will definitely pick a wool with some color variation and of a breed that I enjoy spinning. Rambouillet is now added to the list to not spin again in the future. I definitely don’t prefer the very soft, shorter fibered wools. I want a bit of substance in my spin.

  • Be Local

    There are variations of bumper stickers around to remind us to keep our money close to home, to support local businesses, local farmers, local crafters. I particularly endorse this mindset. When we eat out, we try to go to the local restaurants, yes, they do have to purchase some goods trucked from many miles away, but many also support the local farmers and purchase their goods when available. We do a weekly trip to the local Farmers’ Market, where they can sell nothing grown more than 50 miles from it, so all meats, eggs, vegetables, and fruits are grown locally. The meat vendors prescribe to the practice of pasture raising their animals and do not use feedlots to “fatten” them up before processing. The produce vendors practice organic methods of growing, even if they don’t all go through the expensive and arduous process of becoming certified. Many of them do use big hoop houses to extend the seasons, so often, greens, radishes, and pea shoots are available long before and after my gardens can provide.

    Every couple of years, I reread, Barbara Kingsolver’s book, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, of her family’s one year adventure to only eat what they could grow or purchase from local farmers. It helps me to renew my resolve to try to keep it local. We aren’t as dedicated as they were, continuing to purchase fresh fruit and frozen berries out of season that has been hauled from Mexico or California during the off seasons. But we do have an orchard with 4 different fruit trees and 3 different berries to enjoy in season as well as Wine berries and wild blackberries growing around the hayfields of the farm that can also be picked when the hay is mowed and you can get to them. This year, it was harder to get going on the garden for some reason, though it is now all planted. I am currently rereading her book to jump start my motivation to stay on it. The loss of nearly half my hens in the past few months was difficult, but the remaining 7 are providing enough eggs for daughter’s family and our use.

    As I go to deal with the hens in the morning, I walk along the north edge of the vegetable garden and note the first asparagus tips emerge, then the daily or near daily venture in to cut the ones that are 6 to 8″ tall. This allows me to walk past the garlic and see it’s progress, and up past the peas, spinach, carrots, and radishes. The other side of the asparagus bed are the beans. This morning, a large handful of asparagus was cut and the garlic had scapes, so they were snapped off to bring in as well. This sent me back out with scissors to cut the large spinach leaves with the idea that sauteed garlic scapes and spinach would be a delightful addition to dinner. I will also enjoy some of the asparagus (not hubby’s favorite). With an egg for my protein, that will be a wonderful dinner if a healthy starch is added in the form of brown rice, sweet potato, slice of local whole grain sourdough bread, or even a baked or roasted white potato. He will get some meat with his. It doesn’t get any fresher or more local than this.

    The asparagus will soon come to an end so they can grow the tall ferny tops to provide the crowns with the necessary food to provide us with stalks next spring. When the weather gets consistently warmer, the spinach will bolt and it too will end until a fall planting can be made. The second crop of radishes is up, the peas are flowering, the beans are sprouting, and all of the starts planted out a few days ago are thriving. It took some self motivation to get going this year, but the garden is providing and will continue on for the next few months. The Farmers’ Market will still be visited for vegetables I don’t grow, meats for hubby and visitors, and an occasional loaf of sourdough bread or chunk of local cheese. We strive to be local, and are thankful for the garden, orchard, and local Farmers’ Market that is the best one I have ever visited.