Egg-O-Ramma

We are well into week two of the “egg laying”.  Most days, we are getting 5 eggs.  Not huge, but nice!  Even had a double yolk the other day.  Pumpkin, our Partridge Cochin, likes to lay in the corner of the coop, near the water dish.  I haven’t been able to stop her yet!

The chickens are quick to proclaim their “hard work”, squacking loudly and running about the yard.  I guess I would too, if I had to lay an egg almost every day.

The geese keep me guessing.  Toulouse, our 1 year old, is adjusting nicely.  She and Clover (our baby goose) are getting along well now.  Toulouse is very protective of clover and one of our buckeye chickens.  That particular chicken is a special needs chicken.  Really.  The geese and a few of the other chickens watch out for her.  Her name is Chrissy and she has a crossed beak.  Usually, these chicks don’t last long, but she eats well and likes to go in the goose pen to eat out of their deep bowl.  Toulouse has a bad habit of going into the neighbors pasture…but between their horses and cattle dogs…she is quickly chased out.  I am not sure what she is after over there.  Emily thinks she “smells” the water in their pool.  Humm, curious.

The garden is producing quicker than I am willing to pick.  We have green beans galore, cukes coming out our ears and so many UNRIPE tomatoes, which I am sure will ripen while we are on vacation next week!  I canned some pickles, not sure if they will turn out or not.

Life on the MS front is the same…the new drug study is going great, or at least I think it is!  I LOVE not having to take shots anymore.  I LOVE not being sick every weekend.  I have even been able to tollerate the heat this summer and so far am doing great.  I hope it keeps up!

The best news of the day:  my cousin Nate is home from Iraq/Afghan.  I am so happy.  I saw him on the Minneapolis news (via the wonderful internet) last night at their welcome home ceremony.  My sister and her son were even on there!  Just seeing him made me cry.  I wish we could have been there too.

We have an egg…

Well!  The night before leaving for a family reunion in Virginia…we got an egg! 

Of course, we took it to Virginia to show Andy’s family and fried it up there.  When we got back, at least three chickens are laying.  Two more eggs one night and now three yesterday!  Emily went down to the coop in the morning and witnessed two of the chickens laying.  She said it was “cool”.

These are labeled, Cochin…Plymouth Barred Rock and Australorp.

They are not very large, but not bad for first timers!  The shells are nice and thick.

I had to take the weed eater to the garden yesterday and hack stuff down in the herb section.  Mellons are going to be ready very soon and I can’t wait!  I love fresh cantaloupe.

OH!  We went and saw the newest Harry Potter film yesterday!  LOVED IT!  Probably the closest one to the books since in the first one.  Really enjoyable.  I am now rereading the 6th book to see what they missed.  They kids said it was great, but not enough quiddich.  Of course.  I just told them it was the most I had seen since the first one!  Really fun movie if you are into that sort of thing.

I am going to can pickles and green beans today…yummy!

Where have I been?

I don’t know where I have been or why I haven’t posted in so long.  Busy, life, things we all have going on.  Updates on my life in the country…

Well, the “GIRLS” are suppose to be laying eggs by now.  They are being defiant.  Really, really defiant.  No eggs yet, and I know none are roosters!  They seem to like their space in the garden, but like to be up in the bushes by the house even more.  During the day, they hang out around the barn and occasionally on the deck!  The other day, I heard a knock at the mud room door.  Suspecting the mail person, I opened it only to find all 8 chickens standing on the stoop…Chickadee was knocking on the door with her beak.  I don’t know what they wanted, but they all just stared at me.  Frightening.

Our newest additions come in a larger variety…two Toulouse Geese!  We got one as a day old about a month ago.  Not expected…I was on my way home from the county landfil and stopped by the ag center to pick up some straw and chicken feed.  Well, they had 4 toulouse geese in a box and asked it I could deliver one to the other ag center nearer to my home.  In exchange, I got to have one.  I don’t know if it is a boy or girl, but this past Sunday I picked up another one off of Craigslist.  This one is a girl and is one year old.  They are still getting use to each other.  I have them in a HUGE daytime pen and at night, I walk them over to the now VERY fortified chicken run.  They sleep in there for now.  I am building a shelter to put in the run for “fowl” weather!

This is “Toulouse” the newest goose.

This is “Clover”, at one month.  She is so sweet!  Both geese know their names and follow us everywhere.  So far, they are good weeders…but a bit clutzy!

The garden is in full swing and we are eating green beans every night.  I was going to freeze them, but after last years ‘unplugging’ of the freezer, forget it!  I don’t feel like canning them either…so green beans for supper every night!  I have already pickled the beets and the cukes are just about ready.  We had some sugar snap peas this year and 100′s of cantaloupe.  I think I have a better handle on the garden this year and even planted a nice herb garden next to the coop.

For now, this wanna be farmer girl is going to go out to the porch swing and take a midday nap…

Busy Spring Ahead

I don’t know where the time goes.  I can’t believe it is spring already and the trees are in full bloom.  The Chickens are 7 weeks old and huge!  No coop yet, but should be here next week?  Or so they say.  I have had to separate them during the day, so they don’t get after each other.  Four in the brooder, four in the dog kennel.  They (and us) are ready to be outside.

My parents came for a visit, and we went to Gettysburg and Washington, D.C. to see some of the sites.  It was really nice to have them here and I know the kids really enjoyed their Spring Break with their Grandparents.Emily finished the Patriot Program at school (memorized too many things that I could NEVER do!) and gets to go on a trip to Philly with those other students who completed the task!  Way to go Emily!

Ethan started baseball practice and their BIG Parade is this Saturday.  I am excited to watch him this  year, as he is really interested in it.  He has earned his Rank in Scouts and will move onto the Bear Den at his Pinewood Derby on Sunday.  The Pinewood Derby has consumed this household, as Drew is the Committee chair for that event.  We have been working really hard to make this a good event and I hope it all goes well!

I have had an interesting couple of weeks on the health front…a trip to the ER was involved, as I thought I had an aneurysm.  Thank goodness my good friend Melissa was around.  She drove me to the hospital nearby and Drew met us there.  We still don’t know what happened, but it wasn’t a stroke…or anything that they could find on a CT.  My blood work for the study at the U of M hasn’t been all that great either.  I am waiting to hear what they have decided to do with me regarding that (liver issues).  I am really, really hoping I get to stay on the drug, but will accept whatever they say.  I need my liver too! I think I would miss going down there, it has become part of my routine now.  However, there are always other things I could be doing…like housework…

So, I lost my wedding rings.  Really.  I am so, so sad about that.  I have searched every possible place.  It is just so frustrating.  I had them insured, but I don’t want replacements…I want them!  I have this very sick feeling that somehow they ended up in the trash.  My mind is so bad lately.   Left my cell phone in Gettysburg on a bench…lost my rings…forget to pick up things I need (even when I make a list…I then forget the list).   Hummm, I am too young to lose my mind!  (Said in a shriek!)

Now I need to start planning for summer Family Campout for Cub Scouts.  Just need to get past PWD this weekend…

Oh, here is a good quote from my son:  Easter day, we had a late lunch, so I assumed we would eat a late light dinner.  Ethan comes in the kitchen around 3 o’clock and screams, “Wait! I missed LUNCH! “.  I told him that he didn’t, we just ate late.  He pondered that for 1/2 a second and screams, “Then when is dinner?”.  I told him that is would be later…to which he yells, “MOM!  I AM A SCHEDULED MAN, DON’T YOU KNOW!?”.  Cracked me up!  He also decided that Monday was a good day to sell mud balls in the yard…he had a sign up and everything.  There he sat, in his new floppy fishing hat with a row of mud formed balls…25 cents a piece.  I was mowing and he stopped me to tell me that business wasn’t so good!  I felt so bad for him…he looked so serious!  So I bought some…and didn’t know what to do with them.  He told me to throw them at the fence.  Which I did…and it felt GOOD!  I threw $3.50 worth….

I love my kids.

Dougal Gets a Cut, Chicks Get Some Grubs

This has been an interesting week.  Highlights include: Dougal gets a great haircut….

We fed mealworm grubs to the chicks for the first time….

Emily actually came home with a “D” on her Social Studies Folder (I won’t show a picture of THAT).  Ethan has his first cavity (won’t show that either!).  I am starting to feel a little bit better.  It is only Thursday and all this…oh!  I rescued a knocked out little bird!  This bird hit our window so hard.  When I went to look to see what happened, it was lying on the window ledge, knocked out in the pouring rain!  So, I opened the window and held it for awhile.  She didn’t open her eyes, but was breathing hard.  I went in the basement and found the box the chicks came in, put some pine shavings in it and laid her in there, figuring she would die.  I put her on the counter upstairs to keep an eye on her and two hours later….she was alert and fine!  So, I brought her outside and she flew away.  Happy story!

All-in-all, I am ready for the week to end.  The kids are downstairs now with Andy sanding their Pinewood Derby cars.  I think I am going to curl up in the quilt my “auntie Barb” made me and read a good book.

Chicks Are Getting Bigger…

Well, I have been down with the Flu for the better part of a week.  My time with the chickens has been limited, and when I went down to see them today, I was amazed!  They are getting so big!  I couldn’t believe it!  This photo was actually last week…I have to get some of how they look today!  They are three weeks old now and really little characters.  I got out of bed today because I couldn’t just lie there anymore!  I came downstairs and ordered the coop that Andy and I agreed on  (finally!).  I am really excited, as this is a nice looking little coop.

I am realizing that the Chickens Poo actually does smell a bit…now that they are bigger, it is bigger!  Yuck.  So…in two more weeks, I will be ready to kick them out!

Chicks Night Out

I am not making this up.  However, it is true…there is actually something happening next Wednesday at The Mill in Black Horse (1/2 mile up the road from me) called “chicks night out”.  Sounds fine, if The Mill was a BAR.  However, it is not.  It is a farm supply store…and Chicks Night Out is an exciting evening devoted to Chickens.  I am SO there!  I so need a life.

The chicks just keep on growing.  I am amazed at how much they EAT, POOP and GROW!  We can get them to crawl up into our hands now and most of them will do it.  So far, the kids still seem interested!  Hope that keeps up.  I am really excited to get the coop done.

I have decided on a coop design.  It will look something like this…It will be wider…8×10…and have a few more windows.  The best part is, the front has a separate feed room……and I can get the eggs from that side.  Now I just need to get the foundation done out there.

My most exciting news this week…I got a haircut (and a bit of color!).  It is has been 7 months…argh.  I hacked it to my shoulders because I couldn’t stand it when I would roll over in bed and my hair would get stuck under my shoulder!  I had some highlights and lowlights (whatever they are)…and Ethan informed me that he doesn’t like it.  It makes me look “stripey”.  This was after I brought him to school this morning and he realized it was PJ day and he didn’t have his on…so I drove him home (meanwhile, he is freaking out that he was going to be late which was in no way going to happen as we were 40 minutes EARLY to drop off Emily’s science fair project and pick up her homework, but you couldn’t tell HIM that!), changed him in 2 minutes…raced back with 15 minutes to SPARE…and he tells me I look ‘stripey’.  I also got a grilling of…”where were you last night?  Is this going to be EVERY Thursday night?  Why do you have to do this? You missed Survivor…yes, we watched TV…the old lady got voted off and some guy is trying to bring back the loin cloth…and we are GOING TO BE LATE YOU STRIPEY MOMMA!”.  He was referring to a fly tying class I am taking in Middle River, MD.  I know he needs routine, but I am reaching my limit in my ability to cope with this.  It is frustrating, but confirms my opinion that I need to be home with these kids and better organized so that his day is less stressful for him.  I have been trying to call Psychologists on our insurance to have him tested (the school psychologist believes he has something on the pervasive development disorder scale and I don’t disagree)…but not one of those Psychologists has called back!  Crazy.  No pun intended.  I think I need to talk to our insurance and see if they can help (HAHAHAHAHAH!).  Okay, enough cynical Missi.

Happy Friday!

SHAD

For all of you out there who are familiar with this word…it is coming, or rather, THEY are coming!  The Shad will soon be here in Deer Creek and the Sesquhanna!  Get your shad darts out and be ready for the fun!

One Week Old Chicks

Well, after a very snowy and cold start to March, the chicks have reached the one week old mark.  I really cannot believe how much they have changed so quickly!  The Cochins are learning that being held is a GOOD thing as long as they can hop into your hand by themselves.  The minute you put your hand down, there they are.  They are so cute and fuzzy!

The Astralorps are very stand offish…and Zelda is HUGE.  I think Ali is just shy, but they are coming along.  I have heard that these birds are a very gentle breed and great egg layers.  Let us hope that they live up to their image!  Zelda is getting to be a bit more forceful in her pecking…and loves to peck at Andy’s freckles!  I suspect that she is a little bit older, since she is larger.

This is little Ali on the right.   She is still working on trusting us not to hurt her.  She will eventually get curious about us and come over, but never hop in our hands.

Peach falls asleep in your hands every time.  Buckeye’s are a rare chicken breed developed in Ohio.  They are good layers, gentle in nature and hardy.  We will give them a try!  My brother-in-law has these and really likes them.

Chrysanthumum (Chryssy for short) is shy, like Ali, but really soft and one of my favorites to hold.  I don’t think she likes it though, so we need to work on that.  She is also a Buckeye, just darker than Peach.

Now for the Plymouth Barred Rocks…Chickadee is on the Right, Stella on the Left.  We had one more, Lena, but she died on the second day.  NO idea what happened, she was just breathing hard and was so small. Andy saw her die, she ran once around the pen, then just collapsed.  I was sad, but now we are even at two of each.  I can handle that!

This adventure is so much fun.  We hooked up the camera to Skype and called my parents and also my little sister to show them “live Chicken TV”.   They liked it (I think!).

They are all learning to Roost…which is so much fun!  I need to get my coop going, as I can see the time coming fast when they will need to be out there.  Just not yet (too cold!).

They are HERE!