We got 0.25” of rain last night, and it’s still coming down. I harvested the mammoth sunflowers yesterday before the rain started. I had so many sunflowers that they wouldn’t all fit in the wagon, and I had to carry two.

This afternoon when I went home for lunch it was raining. As I walked up to the trailer, I noticed that the girls were standing out in the rain. My first thought was 'stupid chickens', but as I got closer I realized that Gertrude was OUTSIDE the pen! They were trying to get as close to each other as possible, so they were huddled together on opposite sides of the fence. I put the dogs inside. Surprisingly they didn’t realize there was a loose chicken. I changed into some shorts, knowing I was about to get wet. I opened the gate a little and attempted to 'persuade' Gertrude inside. Everywhere Gertrude ran to get away from me (basically circles around the pen), Hazel was right there with her. The trick was to get Gertrude to the opening before Hazel, so Gertrude would go in, rather than Hazel going out. After only one trip all the way around the pen, somehow I coaxed her inside. She was SO excited. She ran straight up into the top of the tractor. I went in and got them a piece of bread that I meant to give them this morning, and they went to pecking it. This all happened in about 5 minutes. WHEW! Crisis averted.

I went inside and made myself scrambled eggs from our next door neighbor’s chickens, a couple of slices of toast from the bread that Jean and Phil made last weekend, and some of Dad’s pear preserves. YUMMY!