Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[lorihadams]

Monday

Well, we're supposed to get a little snow or snow/rain mix today but we haven't seen any yet. I made whole wheat banana chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast and I am soaking some black beans and boiling some chicken breasts for taco filling tonight.

Got the kids outside for about an hour and let them go down to the neighbor's house to see their 2 horses, so we had a pretty good walk, until I refused to carry Maddie. Next time I'll just take the stroller and avoid the fight.

Let the chickens out this morning but the neighbor's dog from down the road was running loose so I put them back up. Found some blood on the kid's sandbox steps and I am wondering if it was from one of the chickens. It wasn't a whole lot and it was almost dry but I checked over the flock and they looked okay. I couldn't tell that anyone was hurt. I found a spatter of blood in the coop by the roosting poles earlier last week but again, can't see anyone with any obvious injuries. It hasn't been any more than a few drops and my EE roo Big Boy is being a little aggressive with some of the girls so maybe someone got scuffed up in the "process".

Just got word that my MIL is coming in from NC for her birthday Thursday so it'll be nice to see her. She's only going to stay for one night and then go to see my BIL for his birthday. Also have 2 more birthdays coming up Feb 1 &2 my granny and granny esther. Then Tyler's birthday is Feb 28 and then we have Chad's and Maddie's birthdays in March. Gonna be a busy couple of months!

 

[lorihadams]

Kids are up from their nap and we're getting some exercise with the Doodlebops! What are they anyway???

 

[Quail_Antwerp]

Kids are up from their nap and we're getting some exercise with the Doodlebops! What are they anyway???

I have been wondering the same thing!!

 

[2dream]

Lori - while you are doing all those Feb birthdays just throw one for me too. You will hardly notice one more. LOL

I seem to have someone at least once a month....I wish they all fell at one time so I could just be done with it. I am still trying to remember if my SIL or my MIL is this month. I always get them confused. 1 is the 20 and the other is the 21st - one in Jan & one in Feb. I never can keep them straight.

And what are doodlebops? LOL

 

[keljonma]

Never heard of them either...



Did you find out where the blood came from in the hen house?

 

[lorihadams]

The doodlebops sing and dance and come on the disney channel. They are in a band, the girl plays the keyboard, one guy plays the guitar and the other guy plays drums. DeeDee is pink, Roonie is blue and Mo is orange. But there are regular people in the show too. Weird...but my kids love them.

As far as the blood goes...no. I haven't seen any today and everyone seems good. I have seen a couple of piles of loose stool here and there but it is orange...they had cheese yesterday. Checked their combs and there are one or two with some spots and Buddy's waddle is still gray in places but otherwise fine. Still getting eggs...got 3 yesterday. Not bad since I only have 4 laying right now.

My MIL is coming tomorrow for her birthday. Hope that will go well. We'll probably try to take her out to dinner if she'll go. She's coming from NC though and I don't know what kind of weather she'll have to drive through...they got lots of snow yesterday.

Gonna do boy scout suppers for dinner tonight. Haven't had them in a while and with the cold temps they'll be good. Had toast with homemade pumpkin butter for breakfast...the kids had it all over themselves! Maddie kept saying "good butta mommy" Cute!

Got some books on gardening and self sufficiency at the library yesterday and I got a wonderful cookbook that I am thinking of trying to buy. Farmhouse Cooking by Mary Blackie. It was originally published in Australia but it has a lot of good information about processing meat and veggies and what to do with everything. I got so excited reading it last night that I didn't stop until I had finished the whole thing. I'm so excited to plant my garden this year and Chad even said that he didn't mind building the raised beds for me! I'm converting him slowly.....

 

[keljonma]

So they are Disney's answer to the Wiggles? (I don't have tv, but know the grands used to like the Wiggles)

Sounds like everything is okay then with the flock. Good point that you just fed cheese and now the droppings are orange. One of my friends couldn't figure out what was wrong with her chicks last year; droppings were bright green. She put them on antibiotics... I didn't say she was bright.... She tells her dh they have to get a vet in for testing because... then her dh said, oh, I fed them the leftover spinach souffle....

Good butta mommy!

Gotta love that! Pumpkin butter is one of my favorites.

I LOVE THE LIBRARY!!! Sounds like you've got a good one!

 

[lorihadams]

They had bright neon purpley-pink poo about a month ago and that totally freaked me out! I think they might have gotten into some pokeberry.

The flock seems to be okay...I have to keep throwing stuff at Lucy and Ethel cause they want to take a dust bath behind the heat pump and they keep throwing dirt into the unit.... I have put chairs in front of the opening behind it but I may have to invest in some fencing...I even put some sand in the run for them to dig in but they just poop in it.

My MIL just got here and she's playing with Tyler right now...he is showing her every single puzzle that he owns! Too cute...

 

[keljonma]

They had bright neon purpley-pink poo about a month ago and that totally freaked me out! I think they might have gotten into some pokeberry.

or sneaking the pepto bismol!

 

[lorihadams]

Friday

Got up this morning and it was a brilliant day! After weeks of it in the 20s and 30s it is in the low 60s today! We took the kids for a walk with my MIL before she left this afternoon and let the kids have a picnic outside for lunch. I let the chickens out and they came up to the porch and we let the kids feed them the heels from a loaf of bread. Miss Etta came up and sat in my lap and my MIL was astonished! She loved watching them come up the steps to get the crumbs. Etta's beak has been clipped (something I hate) and it is hard for her to pick up things off the ground so she eats out of our hands a lot. She is a total sweetie.

Tyler was going up and down the sides of the road and in the ditches in his gator today and we all got a real kick out of watching him have so much fun...makes me want spring to get here even faster. I've got sheets and towels out on the line, blowing in the wind and I am going to do omelets for dinner cause I have 3 dozen eggs to use up! I also have to do banana nut bread this evening for Chad's hunt tomorrow. If everyone goes that is booked for the rest of the season he can almost pay off the company credit card!!! Woohoo!

I officially have garden fever! Sat down and had a good long conversation with my MIL, which we don't get to do often, and I told her that I thought I was a "closet farmer" and told her about our plans for a garden and now she says that she may plant some tomatoes in a container at her house! I told her about the homemade laundry detergent and even let her smell my newly washed laundry to see that the vinegar rinse didn't make it smell funny!

I also told her that we were thinking of raising some chickens for meat later on down the road in addition to getting some more laying hens. She thinks that it would be too hard emotionally to kill the chickens...at least for her. I said "if you want to eat bad enough you'll kill 'em" She told me stories of going to her grandmother's house and eating fried chicken on Sundays and how she would just go out in the yard, grab a chicken, and wring it's neck. No big deal. Freaked her out when she was little sooooo....

We told her that we would start out with a few birds and see how we handled it and if it worked out then, who knows?

We have to get a different house first...I just can't see doing everything we want to do here. Our land is about half wooded and on a big slope with a drainage bed running through it. We've been here years and still can't picture what to do with it.