New Posts Soon!...And an Update.

Hello! I've been AWOL for quite some time. It seems having five children isn't conducive to blogging. Well, for me, anyway! I plan to start blogging a lot more. I have some interesting stuff I'm planning to do, and I thought I should share.

What's in the works? This spring I plan to start my very first garden. I will be picking out heirloom organic seeds and learning a lot. In preparation for that, and to off-set the high price of organic winter vegetable cost, I may be trying my hand at indoor veggie growing. Just a few plants to get some practice in.

Also, I am ramping up our preparedness supplies. This economy is very troubling, and I'm not the only one out there freaking out about the "what ifs", should a serious recession or depression come about. So I will be re-stocking our pantry. I'll also be re-organizing our new home, and redecorating on a budget. Nothing fancy, but repainting, and repurposing "junk" furniture into something beautiful. Our goal is to become more self-sufficient.

In order to achieve that goal, we will be adding animals to our mini-homestead. We plan to add chickens soon. I'm trying to talk my husband into a goat or mini-cow, but he wants nothing to do with it right now. (He knows he'll be doing the milking, lol.) Right now we're buying raw milk (soooo good, and good for you), but I'd like a better source...preferably me! I plan on starting to make homemade raw yogurt, buttermilk, piima, creme fraiche, cheese, etc. I need a milk with higher cream content to do that. We'll see what happens.

I'd like to add some meat animals to our homestead, but I think we'll have to make do with chickens. We're just going to buy a few fully grown laying hens for now, and probably get a mix of meat and layer chicks in the spring.

Now for the updates: so far, my aorta is still in one piece! My symptoms are getting a little worse, but the cardiologist isn't sure exactly what is causing them, as neither the aneurysm nor my bicuspid valve should be bad enough to cause these symptoms. But he's modest enough to admit that we are still learning new stuff every year about these conditions, so there's no way to be sure. His plan is for me to have the surgery right after my c-section. The surgeon he sent me to disagrees, and wants to wait three months. I'm going to another hospital to see a doctor who specializes in pregnant patients with heart problems, so we are waiting until after that consultation to make any plans.

My pregnancy is going fine. Except that I am HORRENDOUSLY congested, especially at night. Since I use a CPAP machine for my sleep apnea, I have to breathe through my nose, which doesn't help....since I can't breathe! I'm almost wondering if I've developed allergies. We got cats two months ago, and it seems that shortly after that is when I developed some symptoms. I've never had allergies before, but developing allergies as an adult can happen.

At right: "Prayer of the Expectant Mother"

Oh, and I'm hovering near the dreaded 300-pound mark. I can't seem to stay raw this time around. So I'm focusing on trying to do a Nourishing Traditions style diet, and at least do raw green smoothies every day. But it seems inevitable that I will hit the 300 mark, which I swore I'd never do. It's really depressing.

Well, folks (if I have any readers left, lol...I never stick around when someone stops posting) tune in soon, I should have something interesting to read

One more update....it's a girl! She is due mid-February.

We Have Chickens!

Yesterday we picked up our chickens. The owner had several to choose from, and we chose one Buff Orpington and one Black Astralorp. Both are supposed to be good cold weather birds. I've wanted a Buff for a long time. Eventually when we move, I'm hoping she'll be a broody hen, and set eggs and raise chicks for us

They've settled in well. I put them in the chicken tractor and they immediately set to nabbing bugs and tearing off little pieces of weeds to eat (our lawn has almost as much dandelions as grass). It's been dry here, and we've begun to water the grass. Chickens are great for grass, so I'm hoping they really help.

While I made some adjustments to the tractor, the chickens were making very loud "bok, bok, bok" sounds. I was worried if they kept that up, they would be "stealth chickens" no more! But once I put them in the tractor, they quieted right down. The cat next door discovered them very quickly, and began stalking the chickens. I have no fear of the cat though. She's small, and these chickens are pretty big. I think she just likes to think she can "take" them. I'm pretty certain if I let them out, the cat would head for the hills!

The dogs were in awe of the chickens. They just stared at them as if to say "hey...what the heck are those, and what are they doing here?" The kids were thrilled. The lady who owned the chickens let us check out her chickens and goats, and they got to pet the cat.

My oldest son wanted to name the chickens Jason and Jackson. I have no idea where he got those names from! I told him the chickens are girls and needed girl names, so he came up with Jill, and I helped him come up with Ginger. The Buff is Jill. I was thinking of calling them Buffy and Blackie, just to get the naming over with, lol! It took a while!

The "girls" seemed to settle in well. I gave them a pan of water and some leftovers for dinner...lettuce, green peppers, onions, cucumbers, tomatoes. It was late in the day so I didn't feed them much, they were already looking to go to roost. Which reminds me...tomorrow I need to add another roost in there. The one in the chicken tractor wasn't big enough for these two big birds, so I suspect the Buff will be spending the night in the nesting box...she appears NOT to be the dominant bird, since the Astralorp, Ginger, was perched on the roost, and didn't look like she planned to give up her "throne" any time soon!

This morning I found quite a mess in the tractor. They'd spread the newspaper strips I had put in the nesting box all over the place, and dumped out their water. I know this is typical chicken behavior, but I do believe it is more of a problem because there isn't much room. The footprint of the cage is about 3 x 3, but the actually useable space is 2 x 2. I made the mistake of dumping this morning's scraps in the middle of the cage. Ginger promptly placed herself over the pile and feasted on it, while Jill made raspy bok-bok noises and circled around her. Finally I took some of the scraps and placed them in the now-empty nesting box, so Jill could sneak up there and eat some too. I definitely want to get a cage with more room, because otherwise it's going to be too easy for Ginger to hog all the food.

Otherwise, so far so good!

Chickens in My Backyard...soon!

My husband said I could get a few chickens! Yay! We've had a few chickens before, and had to get rid of them when we had moved. We're in the city now, so we'll only have two or three. I'd like as many as five, but that's probably asking for trouble. Technically, we're not supposed to have them. At least that's what the city planner said, but I can't find anywhere in the codes that specifically prohibits them. I know there are a few "stealth" chicken owners around here, and my neighbors are nice (only two houses have any view of our yard), so I don't expect a problem.

I was able to ask around and found someone giving away some chickens, and another person giving away a chicken tractor. For those who don't know, a chicken tractor is a moveable cage/pen used to house a few chickens, that is rotated all over the yard to give the birds access to fresh grass and bugs, and eliminate the need to clean out a pen. Plus it's great for the grass. Some chicken owners make huge chicken tractors that you need a lawn tractor to move, and house a dozen or more chickens. Then some people, like me, have a tiny one that houses only two, and is easily moved by one person.

The chicken tractor I got wasn't that well-made, and is all of older recycled materials. Which is what you expect for a free chicken tractor! I'll need to refasten some nails, and remove a couple of screws that actually protrude into the nesting box (yikes). It's just a temporary solution til we can build a bigger, nicer one.

Chickens only need two square feet of space. I like to give them more, but that's what the experts say. And a chicken tractor isn't quite the same as a cage or even a coop. They're constantly exposed to new grass and bugs. They don't get to run much, but they'll be happy. The chickens I had in a coop never ran, either. And the time I had them free ranging, they pretty much only ran when being chased by the rooster. The tractor I have only has enough room for two chickens, unless I get bantams (mini chickens).

We're trying to come up with a lightweight design for the next tractor that will allow us three to five chickens, with a little room to run back and forth if desired. The trouble is making enough room for a nesting box with perches that is insulated well for the cold weather we get (I'm wanting to get Buff Orpingtons,like the birds pictured above, as they're great cold weather birds). I'd let them roam the yard, but we don't have fencing yet, and the small children's park behind our house is dogwalking central...and a lot of irresponsible, selfish owners don't put their dogs on leashes. (Don't get me started on that one...they think their precious pooch would NEVER bite another animal or a child...til it happens then they whine and say it wasn't THEIR fault. Cry me a river, I'm still suing their butt if their dog comes in MY yard and bites my kid!) Anyway, back to the chickens

I spent a long time uploading pictures that didn't turn out, so for pictures of coops and tractors grand and small, visit the Chicken Tractor Gallery and BackyardChickens.com