I’m Addicted

If you’re reading along, you are no doubt shaking your head, rolling your eyes, and probably sighing, thinking, “Here we go again. Will she never stop? Someone needs to do an intervention.”

Ya, I know I’m addicted. It’s just not a “problem,” as far as I’m concerned.

Last Monday, I added silkie chicks to the brooder. Can you see me doing the happy dance?

A pusher friend of mine knew I was going to order silkies, and suggested she knew a feller that had some silkies and regularly had them hatching out. She contacted him, and sure enough, he had 4 silkies- 2 white, 1 silver, and 1 black.

You may remember me ranting about wanting white silkies, which is how I ended up with my 2 boy Sultans when I came home with 5-toed bantams last year and 4 buff silkies. Turns out, we totally fell in love with our buff silkies, too.

This year, I had planned on getting buff silkies, in addition to blue, black and white. I was going to order them from the hatchery, and they would be here mid-June.

Then, my friend told me about this gentleman, and I thought, if I could get them locally, that would be better. Plus, I wouldn’t have to get as many.

Because he charges more for the blacks and had silver hatching, I thought I would substitute the silvers for the black silkies. So. He let me know what he had, and I dashed off to go pick them up.

I came home with 2 whites and 1 silver silkie chicks. Squee!

These chicks hatched, as I understand it, within days of each other. Here is one of my white ones. You can already see her crazy hair. We named her Mo.

 

You can see her black skin peeking through; one of their unique, defining characteristics.

 

 

 

I love that round little poof!

This next fluffy baby is Silver.

 

 

 

According to the American Silkie Bantam Club, “The colors which are recognized by both the American Poultry Association  and the American Bantam Association are White, Black, Blue, Buff,  Gray, Partridge and Splash.” I’m trying to track down which category my silvers fall into. Two things I’ve learned about silkie genetics are that I don’t know anything and they’re confusing.

He said he’d have 12 more hatching out in the next two weeks. Since I wanted 6 and came home with 3, I would wait for 3 more.

Yesterday, he let me know he had 2 more white and 1 more silver hatch. We made arrangements, and I went out to get them today. I didn’t bring the 2 whites home because I want an even number of each color, to up my chances of having a girl in each color. That means I have 1 more silver one to get, if it hatches out next week. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Even though I won’t have buffs this year, I am thrilled to have the silvers!

I can’t wait to round out my silkies! I will say- things are starting to feel more “normal” instead of “new,” and most of that, I think, is due to the peeping coming from the brooder. ♥♥♥♥♥

 

 

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I’m _______

Obsessed.

Strange.

Cuckoo.

Bizarre.

Insane.

Uncouth.

Demented.

Sick.

Nuts.

Happy.

Euphoric.

Bitten.

And those are just the single-word descriptions. I may have to make a new category. Because, you see, even though I *know* this happens every single time, whether I plan it or not, I continue to repeat the deed because I am, quite simply, addicted.

I am pretty sure if someone was mapping my brain at those times, the pleasure center would be lit up like a Christmas tree, and you could see those neurons firing the message to send out some oxytocin; maybe even some prolactin. {And it might be contagious, too, so watch out! }

Wednesday afternoon, I headed to Tractor Supply to get a stock tank and horse feed since they were out on Tuesday. They told me they were getting bantams on Friday, so on the off-chance that they got some silkies, I figured I’d get a stock tank since the brooder didn’t make the move.

The stock tank would be fine, and we can reuse it for the horses when we’re done. It’s a good stop-gap measure.

So there I went, mostly to get food for the horses. You know you have to walk by the chickens, yes? 

I spent close to 2 hours there, talking to people about chickens. There was a very nice lady who had just gotten some, and she was taking pictures, trying to figure out which breeds she had gone home with. We started talking, and pretty soon, we had covered all kinds of things, particularly coop design and the space requirements per chicken. {A good rule of thumb is 4 sq ft per chicken; large fowl.}

I talked to some gentlemen, as well, and suggested they all go the Backyard Chicken website and forums. The forums have all kinds of sections, including starting chicks, breeds, predators, and coop design. Really. If you are thinking about chickens, start there. SO many people are willing to share their plans with you it’s not even funny. You won’t regret it!

I spent all that time jabbering and then realized Hunny was going to be coming home soon, so I needed to skeedaddle.

I was in the parking lot on the way out when I realized I had forgotten to get the stock tank. *sigh*.

So, Thursday, I headed back to get the stock tank. And, I wanted to check the time that the bantams for sure were going to be getting there. Turns out, they had literally just gotten there. They let me come back an hour later, after they had time to get warmed back up, and pick through them.

No silkies.  

BUT. They did have other, four-toed, feather-legged bantams. Tractor Supply has a minimum of 6 chicks to take home……..

You can see where this is going, can’t you? You might think I would be thinking, “I just ordered 40 large fowl and 15 guineas the other day. I know I can order the 8 in the breeds that I want and get them here in June.”

Ok, I admit I was thinking that.

Louder than that voice, though, was the one whispering, ”You haven’t had these kinds of feather-footed chooks. Look, aren’t they cute? Look at how small they are! Awww, they’re so fuzzy! Aren’t they cute? And there’s only 6 of them…….”

Because we haven’t built anything yet, I thought, what they heck- let me text Hunny and see what he says. I explained to him that I would have to end up with 12 bantams total because I’d have to get 6 more; or if they didn’t end up getting any in, I’d have to order 12.

I could hear him rolling his eyes.

I did mention, though, that bantams are so small that you really need 2 of them to make 1 large chicken, so you could get more with the same space.

Struck down again by chicken math!

So we dug through and picked them out.  There were exactly 6 feather-footed bantams.

I had no idea what they were. Naturally, when I got home, I got down to business, researching to see if I could identify them.

I think I might have a clue what these cuties are.

I think {and certainly, I am no expert} that this is a Black Cochin chick. I think I have maybe two them. One I’m real iffy on, because he’s somewhere between this one and the other suspected Barred Cochin chick. I’ll show pictures of them last.

This little cutie I think is a Buff Brahma. If feather sexing works on this breed and is the same for others, this baby is a girl. I only have one of them, but she is pretty zippy and is very, very active and busily trying to fly and get into everything. Her tail feathers have grown since yesterday. What a riot!

Rounding out my set of 6 are these plumpers. You can see how they have a fuzzy yellow tush and more yellow on their bellies. They all have a similar wing pattern, tipped with yellow. These actually look a lot like our Barred Rock chicks did.

The one I question is not as yellow-y as this little bug, but is not quite as solid as the chick I suspect of being a Black Cochin.

At this point, it’s a waiting game until they start feathering out and we can really tell what they are. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to have chicks again! There is just something about hearing their little cheeps that brings a smile to my face.

I’ve also continued to be amazed at how fast they grow! You can literally see them growing tail feathers and getting their other feathers. You can see their egg tooth when you first get them, and watch as it gets picked off or worn down and disappear. And I have to laugh at them digging and scratching; doing all the “big kid” behavior, when it’s not something that’s been learned by watching other chickens.

Already, we’ve had some races {where they race and try to fly but end up just zipping all over} and we’ve had some hockey, when they thought a piece of shaving was a bug. They are hilarious- it really IS ‘chick tv!’

It’s been another unexpectedly busy day. At this point, I’m just tired.

So now you know. I’m _________.

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Euphoria {Otherwise Known As: Return of The Chicken Math}

I’m tellin’ ya, it’s a drug. A heavy- hitting, fly -to -the moon, squee-all-afternoon kind of drug that leaves you high and darn near breathless with euphoria.

Raise your hand if you are nodding along because you know what I’m talking about. {I’ll pretend I see you }

When we moved, as you may remember, one of the primary criteria for the new digs was the ability to have chickens. You may also recall that we ended up with horses instead.

Hunny finally got tired of me whining decided that despite the chaos, it was ok for me to order some chickens. I had been looking online for a while and came to the realization that it was going to be a few months out before all the breeds I wanted were ready to ship.

I spent the entire morning shopping. While I generally despise shopping {as you know because you’ve been reading along all this time} the only kind of shopping I don’t completely hate is- {wait for it……} shopping for chickens.  There is something about checking out your breeds and then finding the best dates and prices on them.

This time, we were going to do it right, without falling victim to chicken math. Every time I’ve gone to buy chickens, I’ve fallen prey to it. Literally every. Single. Time. {Like, the time I Almost Did Something Bad and then ended up with Babies anyhow…….}

This time was going to be different, though. “Why,” you might ask? Well, we’re in the country for one thing, and for another thing, I was planning on getting more than the 23 I ended up with last time.

So you see, there was no reason for chicken math to creep up on me this time because I was already going to get as many as I wanted.

I spent all morning shopping online, and had my breeds and quantities picked out. The only real issue was that I couldn’t get them until the end of June, which is, well, meh.   

I thought, “Gee, well, as long as I’m down at tractor Supply, I’ll ask them how their shipping works. After all, the hatchery I talked to this morning would mix large fowl with bantams with no problem.”

So I asked. And they told me no. No biggy; I can order my silkies in a smaller quantity.

In the meantime, my oldest daughter had found another cool looking breed that she though would be neat to have. And I thought, “No biggy; I’ll just order a few of those and tack them on to the order.”

Are you laughing yet?

Come to find out, yes, there’s a minimum order of 25 chickens. BUT. You have to order the breeds in quantities of 5. I called Hunny and talked it over with him before I did anything. And bless his heart, he was fine with it!

Initially, I was going to have a total of 31 without the guineas; 8 silkies and 23 large fowl. Because I was not going to pay megabucks to have the 90% accurate DNA testing done, the silkies were going to be straight run.

When it’s straight run, you can figure on about a 50/50 mix of boys and girls. So, in reality, that means we would only end up keeping 4 silkies, unless I could con talk Hunny into breeding and selling down the road. {Keeping my fingers crossed, but not holding my breath!}

So, in reality, that would put me around 27 chickens, which is a good amount of chickens. 

One other thing we decided on was getting guineas. Now, you may be scratching your head and wondering why, since we would have plenty of chickens.

Guineas are great at getting bugs. So are chickens, but the specialty of guineas is ticks. And, they will eat the bad bugs in the garden without eating the garden {I’ve heard- we’ll see- I’m a bit skeptical on that one, though}. While I’ve heard guineas are messy and loud, they are very good at alerting to predators and other unannounced “visitors.”

Another primary reasons guineas are such a good thing when you live in the country is that they will help control the snake population. I could do without snakes, so this seems like a win-win to me!

One of my bigger concerns is that because they roam, they might get chased by hunting dogs and then shot. In theory, this land is off-limits, but since we’re new and some haven’t figured that out, we’ve seen hunters from the hunting club out here. I don’t remember if I wrote it up, but there was one set of hunters in the front pasture with my HORSES that went and dragged a deer carcass right in front of them and my daughter who was out there. Ya, things are going to change next year!

We’ll have to see where we land with that.

I did a lot of looking online, and I finally ordered 15. Tractor Supply had a minimum of 25, and I just do not want that many.

Which ones did I settle on? I ordered 5 of each:

Lavender guinea:

Royal Purple guinea: 

and White guinea:  

Now. Onto the chickens!

I actually did not order silkies today. Tractor Supply is getting bantams on Friday, so I’m going down there first thing in the morning to dig through them like we did last time. Hopefully, they will have a good variety, or else I may order the ones I want in a few weeks. That would put them here late June.

I did, however, order 5 Buff Orpington pullets.

The two big yellow chickens were our BOs, Butternut and Daisy. Butternut was the flock mistress, and would protect the chicks from the dogs. She would even peck Little Dog, who learned she didn’t like having her nose poked. Butternut was huge, and it was awesome to see her fluff her neck feathers out.

This was one of my absolute favorite breeds because of being a dual-purpose breed: good for meat and eggs. {We don’t eat our friends, though. }

They are good all around- good in confinement and heat and cold tolerant. It’s also listed as a “Recovering Heritage Breed” with the American Livestock Breeds Conservancy.

Blue Andalusian.   I got 5 Blue Andis, too.  After having our hearts broken saying Goodbye, Dear Jasmine, I vowed if I ever got the chance, we would get more Blue Andalusians, but all girls {pullets}. So we did.

Andalusians are a “Threatened Heritage Breed,” and they are simply gorgeous! They are medium layers of nice white eggs and are heat tolerant.

If you’ve seen pictures of my eggs before we moved, you will no doubt know that none of my flocks are ever complete without Easter Eggers. EEs are commonly found at hatcheries listed as Ameraucanas, but because they come from hatcheries, they are actually Easter Egges. This is because hatchery birds don’t meet the breed standard all the time; some of them are rumpless; some are muffless and/or beardless, and of course, some of them lay brown eggs.

Out of our last flock, we had one that laid a brown egg; two laid olive eggs {yay for olive eggers!} and the rest laid the typical blue/green eggs.

They are SO cute as chicks because they look like chipmunks!

EEs are an all-around great chicken- they do well confined and are a cold and heat tolerant breed. I can’t say enough good about this breed. I settled on ordering 10 of these girls.

As I was choosing breeds, I was looking for a balance of egg color. I, personally, like to see a nice variety of egg colors in the carton. A very nice brown egg layer that is something special to look at is the Silver Laced Wyandotte.

SLWs are another breed that are cold and heat tolerant and do ok being confined. While I was happy to see that this breed is listed as “Recovering,” it didn’t deter me from ordering 5.

Before getting chickens, I had no idea the wide variety of colors chickens could come in. I admit to going a bit hog-wild this time.

One of the egg-colors I have always drooled over was the really dark brown chocolatey eggs. 

YUMMY!!! Marans lay these eggs, so I got 5 Cuckoo Marans. I was particularly pleased, because Cuckoo Marans look a bit like Barred (Plymouth) Rocks, and since we weren’t getting any, I knew my middle daughter would be thrilled, because her favorites were the BRs. 

As I was thinking about breeds, my daughter noticed the Silver Lakenvelder, and I remembered that it was also listed as a “Threatened” breed. I thought, “I’ll just add a few of those” and that’s how we ended up ordering 5. The Lakenvelder lays a nice white egg and does well in confinement and is heat tolerant.

One of the more interesting and unique chicken breeds is the Silver Spangled Hamburg, also known as “the polka-dotted chicken,”

When I discovered these a few years ago, I swore I’d get some if I didn’t have to order a boatload. So, I ordered 5. The Silver Spangled Hamburg is on the “Watch” list. It lays a white egg; does best free-ranging and is heat tolerant.

So. Let’s recap:

Brown egg layers: Buff Orpingtons (5), Silver Laced Wyandottes (5)

Dark chocolate eggs: Cuckoo Maran (5)

White egg layers: Blue Andalusian (5), Silver Spangled Hamburg (5) and Silver Lakenvelder (5)

Colored eggs: Easter Eggers (10)

Regular math: 23 large fowl + 8 silkies= 31 + 8 guineas= 39. {I probably would have rounded to an even 40.}

Chicken math: 40 large fowl + 8 slkies + 15 guineas= running afowl of 63 birds!

Ahhhh, my loves, I’ve been waiting!

**pictures courtesy of Google, My Pet Chicken, Meyer Hatchery, Feathersite, Backyard Chickens, etc etc

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Without a head? Really?

Being the fan of chickens that I am, I couldn’t turn down the opportunity to read about Mike, The Headless Chicken, who lived for 18 months after an unsucessful attempt to be eaten for dinner and then was taken on the road by his fortune-seeking owners.

Initially, this strikes me as something too impossible to be true. I mean, how did he eat? How did he survive not running into stuff? How did he know where to roost at night? How did he escape predators?

The ‘proof’ that the town of Fuita, Colorado has a link on its town website for Mike and has an annual festival? Well, that doesn’t make it true. I mean, for goodness sakes, Roswell, NM has an annual UFO festival, even though it’s not linked on the city website. I’m pretty sure we can’t equate festival = real.

Nonetheless, I was so compelled by this take that I decided to go looking researching.

Of course, there’s a Wikipedia page for Mike. Knowing that Wikipedia doesn’t accept any first hand accounts (and why not? I mean, they really ought to think about not accepting anything that doesn’t have first and second-hand resources! Look also at the bit on journalism………….) gets my hinky meter going, mostly because it’s commonly known that second-hand information is heresay, which isn’t generally admissible in court.

So, then I thought I would check Snopes. Nada. Although there was a reference on the discussion boards there, there is nothing written up about Mike. Poor Mike. Not worthy of urban legend status according to Snopes! 

I did, however, hit the jackpot when I stumbled across this article from the Denver Post where Mike had thrown his hat, er, head into the presidential ring. Using “It’s a No-Brainer” as a campaign slogan for the “Free Range Party ticket” was genius!

It’s linked to Time Magazine, which had taken several pictures, including Mike being fed by syringe. Honestly, I’m not sure how Mike managed not to aspirate. And cracked corn? 

Anyhow. While this seems fantastical, early evidence suggests it’s true.

You tell me: true or hoax?

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Garden Salad

There’s nothing better for lunch than a fresh garden salad, is there? I, personally, am excited that spring is nearly here. I’m looking forward to planting the garden again, and hoping something grows this year. 

I’m especially looking forward to the goodies that come out of the garden, and are a staple during the warmer months. And I’m not the only one.

I’m particularly thinking about the most common kind of salad eaten during warmer months: grass.

Yes, indeed, my girls are looking forward to their fresh, garden grass salad.

I think it goes without saying that you can’t give them grass that’s been sprayed with chemicals. Right, y’all? No chemicals. And don’t bother with the Roundup on the weeds, either. Nope. Pluck those dandelion buggers out and “recycle” them!

I know some people who eat dandelion greens; however, I’ll save the spoiling for my girlies. They ♥♥♥ dandelions in addition to grass. They can eat most kinds of weeds, and if nothing else, it keeps them busy for hours on end. Come fall, they also like eating leaves and pumpkin rinds, but I digress. 

Last year, when J (15) was out mowing in the backyard, he noticed them pacing along side of him in the run as he’d make his mowing passes. While initially he thought they were just watching him, he soon came to learn they were pacing and drooling……………

We have two different kinds of grass in our yards, and while the front needed to be mowed, the bermuda grass in the backyard hasn’t quite caught up and still is pretty darn dead. I have to say, there is nothing funnier than watching chickens come racing (and they can flat MOVE!) across the yard when they think they are going to get treats.

They saw J with his mower bag and knew right away what was waiting for them. If you’ve never seen chickens jump for treats, you have not lived. 

Indeed, there is nothing they love better than a good, fresh garden salad!

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In The Rearview Mirror

Have you looked?  Do you usually look? 

~~WARNING!!!! LONG POST AHEAD!!!~~~~ 

Every year around this time, I end up laughing sardonically to myself.

“I just love a clean slate!”

“New year= new beginnings!”

<gag> I mean, really? Do people really believe this? Like, nothing from the past year is going to follow them into this year because it’s a “new calendar?” Or that because it’s the new year, things are just magically going to be “better” because the time meter has been reset?? The short answer is yes, apparently they must because every year, they say the same thing.

Ooooooookkkk- back to reality! I love history. I just don’t live there.

Sir Winston Churchill said, “Those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Yep. It’s true. The key here is learning.

So many times, people do the same things over and over, each time expecting a different result. Doesn’t work that way. Never has; never will.

Learn something from the past, get over it, and move on already. Play the hand life has dealt you instead of moaning and groaning about better days (like when you were in high school). Don’t let the past keep you trapped, because you can’t escape from self-imposed imprisonment. It’s just not happening.

Get rid of your grudges- they keep you enmeshed, even if you don’t think they do. Why are you continuing to let that/them/him/her/it continue to have that kind of power over you? They don’t care about your grudge, and it’s going to damage you far more than it will them. Let it go……. but learn from the experience- don’t forget it; protect yourself from something similar happening again.

This is why we need to periodically look back. For me, it’s a measure of taking stock- where have I been? What went right? What needs work? Were any of those things things I actually had control over? 

Let’s take a walk down memory lane for a minute so we can see what my frame of reference is:  2010.

~~~~~~~~~~Intermission music~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh hey. I see you’re back. 

The big rant there, about the medical billing? Yep. It’s still broken. The one bit of information I redently learned from my insurance company was “All emergency room doctors are contractors. None of them work for the hospital.” <gasp!> 

That was news to me! I thought only smaller community hospitals were cursed with that! I have no real way of confirming this information, so if you have some kind of concrete evidence, would you point me at it, please? Thanks.

Why, you might ask, is that even on my radar? Well, in August, dd #2 (my now 10-year-old) ended up in the ER with a concussion. I kid you not when I say that the hand of God was on that situation from the get-go, because financially, it could have been a WHOLE lot worse than it turned out to be. (I mean, of course the hand of God is in everything all the time- this was one situation, though, where a person could see it really clearly and know it for what it was.)

Explanation: We here, in our rural community where a larger city is 200 plus miles away in ANY direction, have 2 hospitals. One is relatively new; a private, physician owned venture that is really, really nice. Thanks to the cuts in Medicare and Obamacare, it can’t expand nor can it sustain itself, so it’s being bought out by the other hospital. I’m not sure that’s happened yet, and it’s besides the point.

So, when J started vomiting after goofing around with siblings (something I did not witness), I knew it was time to take her to the emergency room. I’m pretty well convinced that the other hospital will kill you unless you are mostly dead anyhow (ya, this is the one where the head of ER services told me “Everyone has pitting edema in the morning- you are just fine besides the connective tissue disease issue. Get off the internet and stop trying to find something wrong.” Yes, really. Nevermind those pesky chronic illness that other COMPETENT medical professionals have diagnosed.    ), so my thinking was to take her to the other ER because surely, it had to be better.

Indeed, it was. We were in and out in 2 hours; the CT confirmed a concussion but no bleed (which was a huge relief, because that’s an airlift out). In reality, we were the only ones there.

That was early August. It is now January. A few weeks ago, I got another bill from the emergency doctor’s contracting service, which turned into nearly 2 hours (yes, really) of time waiting on the phone. First, I had to call the service to find out why they hadn’t billed insurance again. (We had already had this conversation in October.) They said they had, and insurance said it needed more information from me.

??? I hadn’t gotten anything from insurance, so I called. Insurance said they couldn’t find a record of a claim. Interestingly, the hospital bill and the labs had been completely paid for by the end of September- apparently, the hospital, which took my information- was able to properly bill insurance with no problem. Somehow, the ER doctor service wasn’t able to take that same information and do anything with it. That bill was for nearly $750.

When I called insurance, it showed that it hadn’t been billed at all. The next logical step was for the insurance company to call the ER doctor service to try to straighten it out- all with ME still on the line……..Granted, most of the time spent was just being on hold, but still…. 2 hours later, it was finally determined that the ER doctors hadn’t actually billed the right place, but now it should be on the right track.

How does this stuff happen?!!! You give your information a single time; to a single person. This person enters that data into the computer, for goodness sakes. And every one but the one gets the billing right? Maddening!

But wait- there’s more!   As it turns out, the new hospital doesn’t actually HAVE pediatric services.  Yep. You read that right. They can deliver the bulk of the babies for the community, and they treat adults, BUT, they cannot admit pediatrics because they are not equipped to do so.

AND NOWHERE WAS THIS INFORMATION POSTED OR OTHERWISE SHARED WITH ME. 

You’d have thought that when we showed up, there would have been a note or something posted- or the person taking our information would have said, “Please be aware that if she needs to be admitted, we are going to call an ambulance to transport her to the other hospital.” Had I known that, I would have taken her there to begin with (where a dear friend actually works in the ER).  It was a given that if she had had a bleed, it would have been a chopper ride out- but first, they would have transported her to the other hospital by ambulance, too, because they are not equipped to do that there for peds.

WTH?!!! Pardon my french, but really? You don’t think you should tell someone that kind of information when they come in with a child that clearly needs medical attention? But see, fortunately, this is where God was clearly *overtly* in charge, because there was no bleed and things went well, all things being considered (we didn’t come home with something like MRSA….).  But when my friend called and let me know what was more likely to have  happened- wow. Just wow. Do people not have consciences?

I think we can conclusively say that medical billing is broken. And while our medical system is broken, I’m still inclined to think it’s considerably better than other countries with socialized healthcare, where people have to wait for eons to get surgeries and other services. At least here, I, the consumer, have the option to shop for doctors, even if I have to fight the payment ring-around-the-rosey later.

I think we can check that off the rants for 2011. 

Let’s see- the Stuff issue remains, more or less. Getting a Kindle has been hugely helpful in not adding to the pile of books, so that is good. The other stuff- *sigh*.  Work in progress.

I will say, though, that unlike 2010 which I was glad was dead and buried, 2011 actually DID have some really good points.

I missed not doing our usual travels. I think we all missed not taking out usual vacations. This was due completely to the addition of CHICKENS! If you’ve been reading along, you have no doubt figured out by now that I am totally crazy chicken lady. 

Not a *single* regret here for getting chickens! Santa even brought Mama some chicken lanterns for Christmas, which add to the chicken calendar, magnets, and ornaments for her birthday. 

We’re hoping to get the chicken arrangement more automated so when we do hit the road again, we’ll have it set to where our chicken sitter only really has to come once or twice a day to collect eggs and make sure they all put themselves to bed.

Of course, all of our girls are grown up now and they are all laying eggs. One of these days, I’ll actually get around to taking pictures of the chicken condo, the girls, and their gift of eggs!! 

The other “big” thing for me this year came in the form of running shoes. The change to Vibram Five Fingers has been absolutely monumental for me. Because I’m not running with as much pain, I’ve been able to increase my mileage and enter races. 2011 brought me 2 10k races. 

Year end totals for running: 935.76 miles. At the beginning of the year, my goal was 500 miles. At some point, that changed, and I was looking at 800 miles. When that goal got close, it changed to 900. The last few weeks, I had changed the goal again, to 950 miles.

The last week bit me in the rear, though, as I hit a pretty major flare on Christmas Day followed by a tummy bug. I only logged 43.5 miles for last week; my monthly total for December was 205.

How does that break down with the shoes? 308.56 miles were run in my Asics, which leaves 627.2 in my VFFs. I’ll continue to update periodically on my VFFs, as a measure of keeping track of the longevity of these treds. The Holiday Challenge finishes today, so stay tuned for the update coming soon!

Overall, 2011 wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. In fact, it was considerably better than I had hoped! That being said, I can’t confess to having unbridled enthusiasm for 2012.  While I’m cautiously optimistic, I’m probably just too cynical. 

2012- looking forward to good things and firsts- like going and collecting eggs, because we haven’t collected eggs at all this year.    And then a run, since I haven’t run at all this year……………….

What are your goals for the coming year?  Do you set any?  Have you looked in your rearview mirror yet? 

 

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100

SQUEEE!!!!!!!!!!  Can you believe it? 100!

Um, what? 100 what?

Ya, posts. Hard to believe I’ve had nothing to say 100 times, especially this time. 

In other news, I have admitted defeat.  I don’t think the house gremlin is going to respond to my letter.  And I can’t say that I blame him.  Heck, those toe socks are S–E–X–Y!!!

I did order my new shoes (and freebie toe socks!) today. They come with some pretty serious stipulations, though. Even though these are going to replace my regular tennis shoes, Hunny has expressed his desire not to be seen in public with me wearing them.

Yes, he thinks they are that ugly. Initially, I am bothered by his response.

Since when does he care about what I’m wearing, particularly on my feet? Really? There’s never been a single item of anything he’s been unwilling to be seen with me wearing in the last 20 years. Why start now? 

In this case, I am convinced that my ethereal beauty is so overwhelming that people will fail to notice the hobbit feet.

He wouldn’t have had an issue with Z-Coil shoes. 

 

 

 

 

 

He wouldn’t have had an issue with the rolly shape-up shoes. 

 

 

 

 

 

He even laughed and told me to go for it when I said I wanted to find the flipper heel shoes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But he has a problem being seen in public with me while I’m wearing Vibram Five Fingers Komodosport LSes?

 

 

 

Ppffffffffffffffftttttttttttttttt !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have to say, I am surprised. Shocked, even. But daunted? Intimidated? Chicken? Thwarted?

Not on your life!    I think he’d better get used to it!  I supposed, if it’s really a hit to his perception of respectability, I will cave and wear heels with my jeans as I have done for the last several years.  But the thought of no foot pain while on vacation?!  Comfort?  No foot pain? Did I mention consistently not having foot pain?

Ya.  I think that trumps his reaction and “need” for fashion. (Like, when did he even start caring about that anyhow?!)   

Now, if I can just figure out how to combine my fashion love of VFFs with chickens………

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I’m Eggcited!

Yesterday, we brought Cocoa into the house. She’s 20 weeks and 4 days old today. We brought her in for a few reasons- she was plucking others and screeching. Yep. Screeching. If you’ve ever had the power steering pump go dry or go out on your vehicle, you know this sound.

Ear. Piercing. 

Louder than my roo was. 

Funnier than heck. 

But very, very loud.

We let her out with the others as usual for the evening and let her spend the night outside. This morning, she wasn’t as noisy, but still pretty loud, and still thinking about plucking. So in she came again!

All of the girls are at the POL, or point of lay. Basically, this means they are technically old enough to start laying eggs. This is not a precise science, of course, and some don’t start laying until they are closer to 40 weeks.

Cocoa, you may recall, was one of the second batch of chickens, the result of chicken math (read Oops, I Did It Again to see how chicken math got me again!), and was a mystery chick. We had been told they thought she was a Dominiquer. However, we know for certain that she is NOT a Dominique; she is another Barred Rock.

This morning, she was still pretty screechy, which is good for lots of all-out laughing. She was also going in circles and squatting. Really, they are pretty much all practicing the squatting. Just for grins and giggles, I was going to try to find a shoe box for her (for a nesting box). Never got around to it.

Right as I was getting ready to head out this afternoon, I heard the news: there’s an egg!! Cocoa is the first to lay an egg!

One thing to know about new layers is that the egg may be thin shelled and quite small. Generally speaking, it can take a few months of consistent laying to get the larger eggs. I’m not picky. 

Here’s the surprised chicken with her new egg.  Since I was on my way out, I took a picture with my phone. I had an appointment, so couldn’t linger to get my camera.

Interestingly (and a relief), she hasn’t screeched since. She quieted right down into her sweet, clucking self.

I wonder how she’ll be the next time she needs to lay…..

I have to say, I never thought I would be this excited- nay- giddy- over an egg. I mean, really, this is what they are supposed to do! Still, I can’t help myself! It was a perfect little egg; good shell and all. 

Hooray!

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My Girls Are Growing Up

Milestones are bittersweet.  Reaching a new one means growth, but also never a return to this point and time. You can never go back; only look forward.

Tonight, I am pleased to share, my girls put themselves to bed by themselves.  Why is this important? It means we no longer have to play football to get them where we want them.

Yep, my chicken girlies are growing up.   

The past two nights, we had to hustle them around, scoop them up and pitch them through the spring-loaded door. This was a 3 person effort: me scooping and chucking; my oldest dd blocking the open door with her arms and keeping them inside, and Hunny on the outside, manning the door control.

The spring is taut keeping it open, but lax when the door is closed.  In theory, this means that it would take a team of raccoons to wrangle/slide the door open; one or more on the outside, standing up (or a racoon ladder of one standing on the other’s shoulders standing on another’s shoulders) at least 4  feet off the ground, while the others (who would have had to dig under the run) got through the door on the inside of the run.  Did I mention that once the door is open, because of the tension, the cord has to be wound to keep it from springing shut?

So, I feel pretty good about them being secure at night.  The whole back side opens, but that would take a bear to rip it off, as long as the screws are that close it. I don’t think anything is getting in that way.

Tonight, we put their little solar light inside and waited.  As usual, they were mashed into one corner of the run, waiting for us to take pity on them and bring them inside the house (They used to wait outside the back door, and when we’d open it, in they would come inside-  except for Rocky, who always flew up and hitched a ride on someone’s back or shoulder.  I know, I know, I should have gotten a picture, but we moved them outside a day before I expected, and now it would just be cruel to tease them ). 

Hunny pitched a bolillo roll in their coop and then we waited.  The run and coop is outside my window in the office, so I can see them when I’m sitting at my desk. By 8:15 pm, they were all inside playing hockey with the roll.  I could hear them clucking and banging around while I crept around the backside to shut their door, hoping they wouldn’t notice me.

Anyhow. Just had to share.  My girls are growing up.  *sigh* 

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More Time

I’m looking for more.  I need more. I never have enough time to do the things I love to do. So, the only thing I can really do about that is to complain. 

The passage of time is something I am acutely aware of. There is something about becoming seriously chronically ill to realign your sense of time, particularly when you have literally no idea about what is around the corner.

As in, will I be healthy enough to do what I want to do, when I want to do it?  How much time will it take?  Will I need a nap? Will I be alive a year or more down the road? 

Really.  Seems like “time” is on my mind a lot, and yet I am finding it slipping away in large chunks. My days are flying by. My weeks are flying by. Before I know it, summer will be gone, and I’ll be looking at the necessity of getting organized for schooling again.  Fortunately, my plan is already in place, so I won’t have to spend a lot of time planning, because it’s already been done.

I have noticed that with our intense heat (it’s been 100+ for more than 2 weeks; tomorrow will be 108, and we will finally get some respite supposedly next Tuesday when it hits a much-anticipated low of 98), I am spending a lot more time in the garden watering.  I’ve done another planting, which means keeping the ground moist while things germinate. Seedlings don’t do real well in intense heat, so the continued watering is necessary.

When you are out watering at least 3 to 4 times a day in addition to keeping an eye on chickies, time slips away from you pretty quickly.  That’s why I need more.  I’d be happy with another 2 hours a day.

On second thought, I am not sure 2 hours more a day would really cut it.  Hum. Maybe I should get rid of the clock completely…… 

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