Chicken Chronicles

Yes, it's been a while and I know y'all have been just craving another post about my chickens.

Lots has happened with the chickens, but we all sort of got side tracked.  We lost a dear friend suddenly a few weeks ago, and it's kind of hard to want to write about any thing trivial.  Jim was an awesome man, and he and his family were among those that encouraged us to get chickens, and they have about the cutest chicken coop you've ever seen.

We decided our last two nameless birds would both be named to honor Jim in some way.  So, the Cuckoo Marans are now named Tweetie Pie and Ginkball.  Not exactly a timeless memorial, but it does make me smile and that is important.

So.  The girls have grown up a lot.  We finished the coop and moved them in.  One got injured (long story), and I was afraid we'd have to break out the axe again, but she seems to be improving steadily.

This is how the coop looks as you approach it from the woods.  It's far enough from the house that you can't see it from the house or the yard, so it's kind of nice to walk down the path and see it there under the clubhouse like that.

This is the back of the coop - those cupboard doors open into the back of the laying boxes so I can sneakily gather the eggs.

Here is the front of the hen house, with the ramp and the door. 

We physically placed the hens in at dusk and closed the door the first couple of nights, but they've got the routine down and  now we don't do anything.  Except for those few days when I had to go out after dark and lift Bossy up into the hen house because her injury prevented her from going up the ramp.  The night I went out and found her in the house with the rest of the girls gave me such a feeling of relief - I knew she was on the mend!

Happy chickens, with lots of room to roam now.

 This is Ginkball, heading up the roost.  She and her sister Cuckoo Maran (Tweetie Pie) are the largest in the flock right now.

These are Lacy and Big Bird (Aidan's chicken).  Loving the "top hat" that is growing on Big Bird.  S/he is a gorgeous chicken, and the only "unsexed" one we have.  We are anxiously awaiting further growth and hoping that it is not a rooster!

This one is Queenie.  Developing into a very pretty chicken, but she isn't growing as fast as the rest.  I am assuming it is a trait of her breed, as she definitely is one of the more dominant hens in the flock and gets her fair share of the food.

Several of the girls enjoying their outdoor roost.  There are also roosts in the henhouse.

I can't tell you how much we are all enjoying the chickens.  I love seeing a note from Bridget posted on the back door, "Gone to visit the chickens" and we as a family often wander out there together to see what they are up to.  I've been known to head out with food for them and just sit and relax for a half an hour, watching their antics.

Anxiously awaiting the eggs......

Stay tuned...  we have new residents moving into the coop with The Girls!

Survival

Cabin fever.  The Shining.  Not too far off the mark.

Luckily, I have a great bunch of neighbors. 

Yesterday, I left the house and walked around the corner.  Found Dottie nearly diving for safety behind her mailbox as the neighbor tried in vain to get his truck up his ice encrusted driveway.  Repeatedly.  Leave the car on the street, fool.

Pass by Kristen's.  She sprints out the door as her husband and two small sons stand on the porch saying "Wait!  Come back!  We still need you!"

"Hurry!" Kristen hisses.  "Go, go, go, go!"  Down the road we slip and slide, destination Denise's house.

Sanctuary.  Warm fire, other women, thankful to be in each other's company rather than texting all day, "Can I duct tape my kids in their rooms?"  "Is it too early for vodka?"  "Does anyone know if they will ever come take our trash away?"  "Whose power is still on?"  "Low on dog food - help!"

Besides the fire and the women, there is the World's Largest Crockpot full of delicious chili, several bottles of champagne, and gourmet jello shots.

Yes, gourmet jello shots.  If Carolyn were your neighbor, you'd know what I was talking about.

These lovely little nuggets are a layer each of chambourd and vodka lemonade.  Yummmmm......

Lunch was delicious, the company and conversation just what a bunch of snow-bound mommies need on a cold winter's day.  Thanks, Denise!

Ice Station Zebra

Greetings from Ice Station Zebra.

I am a scientist engaged in the study of global warming (ha!) and it's affect on moderen suburban families.

In this experiment, we will cut a small cluster of families off from civilization by encrusting their roads in ice and creating a hostile environment.  We will monitor the behavior of the trapped subjects.

The suburban offspring began the experiment by spending a lot of time out of doors, attempting to slide down glaciers.  While there were varying degrees of success with this behavior, due to the perpetual cycle of returning to the house for warmth and sustenance, and always forgetting to close the doors, their habitats now look like this:

This phenomenon has caused the suburban housewife to consume alcohol.

Seriously though.  What a mess!  Our roads have been frozen for three days, and it will not get above freezing today either, and then more snow is expected for Friday.  At this rate, with the "snow days" piling up, the kids will be in school doing makeup days until the Fourth of July.

I am about to run out of milk and am contemplating walking to the nearest convenience store just for the novelty of it.  Note to self, call first to make sure they DO have milk.  Rumor has it the grocery stores are running low.  Other than the milk (and I do have powdered), I am glad I have a well-stocked pantry.

The only friends the kids see are those within walking distance, and it is a cold, cold, walk!  Ray goes out daily to break the ice on the pool.  Aidan, obviously, hasn't been able to train at all, so I nag him to spend time on the stationary bike - it's about the only way I can get him away from the TV.

One of the neighborhood mommies kindly invited the rest of the neighborhood mommies over to a chili lunch today.  I am certain there will be wine involved, and so I may not be home until the spring thaw.

Random Musings

Nothing major going on here.... just lots of life's little joys and challenges.  Knock on wood, but I kinda like it that way.

So, in no particular order, I give you:

The Junior Girl Scout troop working on their Bronze Award.  Bridget is 2nd from the left in this photo. 

The Bronze Award is the highest award they can get at this age and these girls are doing something amazing!  They chose a local charity, Spirit Horse, for their community service project.  Spirit Horse is quite an operation and gives riding lessons to children who are physically, mentally or socially disadvantaged.  So, our girls started off by baking home-made horse treats.  They then took these to a horse show and sold them.  With the cash they earned, they bought a trailerload of stall shavings which they donated to Spirit Horse.  They also are spending their May meetings on site at Spirit Horse doing chores.  Last week, they stained the stalls of a recently constructed barn.  Yep, a crew of 11-yr old girls stained an entire barn full of horse stalls.  In 2 hours.  They were a mess, but the stalls looked beauitful.  This week, they're painting fences. 

This next picture is just plain funny.  It's Aidan after a swim meet.

He's pretty tired, eh?

Speaking of Aidan.....  not to be outdone by his smartie pants sister, he recently surprised himself by qualifying for the National Junior Honor Society.

Pssst, Aidan!  The secret is out!  You ARE smart, and you CAN get good grades!

We're proud of you, son!

And now for another photo of Bridget!  This was taken at a recent riding lesson by someone with a much better camera (and photography skills) than I.

Pssst!  Bridget, the secret is out!  You CAN jump a horse!

We are finally beginning to get some fresh local produce around here.  My own garden got in late due to running a B and B and L and D for much of March and April, but I have neighbors with mad skillz in the gardening department.  They gave me these cute 8-ball zuchinnis and I stuffed 'em w/ turkey sausage.  Yummy!

They also gave me a bunch of cucumbers.  Which I promptly stuffed in the blender along with some parsley, mint, argula, scallion, chili oil, cayenne and sour cream.....  Soup's on!  It was delish and I can't wait to make it again.  I could LIVE on that kind of stuff!

And now for something completely different....  a photo of Ray!  As you may know, his company is in NY, so when he's not on the road, he works from home.  While he has a very nice home office where he is sequestered for much of the day, sometimes a change of scenery is nice.

I wonder if the other conference call participants can hear the waterfall?

And now for something completely different - a photo of Pam's brain!  Well, not really - but what is occupying a large chunck of my brain lately......

It's a very bad photo of my calendar.  The good news is I've recently discovered Cozi, which is an online calendar perfect for families.  You can track everyone's separate schedules all on one calendar and have regular emails sent to each family member with the week's activities.  The bad news is just like this time last year, it's getting a little bit Out Of Control.  The hairy scary details include multiple swim practice changes to accomodate wildly out of synch schedules of 2 different school districts, talent show rehearsals and performances, choir rehearsals and performances, field trips and money and forms needed for all manner of things.  End of year pool parties, sleepover parties, water park parties, paint ball parties, and one much needed Mommy Luncheon which may (hopefully) include wine.

Speaking of wine.....  we hosted our neighborhood Wine Club this past weekend and had a lot of wine fun.  We have a lot of really fun neighbors and we gather on a regular basis to enjoy wine and each other's company.  These four were the only ones who allowed me to photograph them.  The names have been withheld to protect the innocent. 

 We drank explored blended wines and then experimented with blending our own.

Ray found these really cool wine blending kits on woot.com  They come with several splits of a variety of "pure" wines (cab, syrah, merlot, etc.), tasting notes on each, some "recipe" ideas and measuring devices.  We divided our party into 3 groups and each group had to come up with a blend.  We then had a blind tasting.

In addition to the splits of pure wines, there was also a bottle of a blend that won a wine competition using these very same ingredients.  Two of our groups took a lot of time to explore the various qualities of each bottle and discussed the type of blend they wanted to achieve.  They considered bouquet, finish, mouth feel, etc. and were very into it.  One of our groups CHEATED and just dumped the "winner" bottle into their decanter.  And you will never guess which blend was the resounding winner, getting about twice as many votes as the other two blends combined.  That's right, the CHEATER's blend!  And they still took the prizes!  Harumph!  You know who you are! :-)

And finally, I give you.....  Dixie.  No, you can't HAVE her.  She's OURS.  All ours, as she seems to be settling in quite well.  We're all a little disappointed in Scamp though, as he doesn't deign to play with her, he just walks away aloofly whenever she tries to get him to romp with her.  Hopefully he'll come around.

She's learned our house rules, and where the perimeter of the shock fence is.  She chases a ball, but hasn't learned to bring it back.  Any clues on how to train a dog to do this?  She's getting better on my 3 mile walk but still a little nervous when I take her out into the world.  And she recently climbed into Ray's lap and spent the better part of an evening there.

We are in the downslope of another school year.  8 years done for Aidan, and 7 more to go for Bridget, so we are more than half way done.  It seems strange that I'll be way less involved with school now that we're done with elementary school, but I have to take heart in small things like the fact that my middle schooler still seems to want me to chaperone on field trips, even though he has banned me from coming in to have lunch with him.

Which reminds me.  I must go have lunch with Bridget at least one more time before she leaves elementary school.  You take what you can, when you can.  You never know when those opportunities will no longer be there.

"It's so tiring being a princess....."

... is what Bridget said to me when I tucked her into bed Saturday night.

It was the annual Father/Daughter Prom and she and Ray had the time of their lives again.

"There are so many moments!" Ray said.  Like when he was slow-dancing with Bridget.  She was standing on his feet, leaning her head against him.  Ray was looking around at all the other couples, and suddenly he feels Bridget's hands on either cheek pulling his head down and she says "Hey!  Eyes down here, buddy!"

She has learned that her dates must be attentive.

As usual, we had our yearly "pre-prom" cocktail party here and it is so much fun to see the girls vibrating with excitement.  As each one arrives there is much exclaiming over the dresses, the shoes, the hair.

"You look just like a fairy!" I said to Kimberly, who had on a gorgeous white dress.

"You look just like a fairy!" said Ray, to Kim's dad.

We have just enough time for the girls to snack a little bit, drink some "bubbly" and pose for photos.  Then it's out to the cars where the daddies hold the doors for them and they get to ride "shotgun" like ladies.

At the prom, they have formal photos taken, eat dinner, and dance.  And run around playing tag behind the curtains - they're still little girls, after all.

Meanwhile, the mommies have a civilized dinner and (mostly) civilized conversation.  The brothers run around in the woods shooting each other with pellet guns and have a campfire when it get too dark to shoot.

Ray says Bridget began to wilt about 8:30 but insisted on remaining until the 9pm bitter end.  She curled up under his blazer in the car and went promptly to sleep on the way home.

It's such a sweet tradition and a wonderful evening.  Ray says that Bridget said "I love you, Daddy!" several times over the course of the evening.

So sweet!

Thanksgiving

Yeah, yeah, I know.  It was a while ago.  I've been busy.  Fa la la la la freakin' la la la la and all that.

OK.  Enough with the Scrooge attitude.  I just love Thanksgiving.  It's all about food, family and friends and no other commercial trappings.

I've been cooking Thanksgiving dinner ever since my mom died more than 15 years ago.  While the very first Thanksgiving was hard, I took it as an opportunity to mix it up a bit and try some new recipes.  Shake up the ol' palate, modernize some of the recipes, infuse some new flavors.

Every year I pore over magazines, cookbooks, and sites like Epicurious, Martha Stewart, etc. looking for something new and exciting.  I watch the cooking shows and ask all my friends what they are cooking.  A whole day centered around FOOD, what could be more fun!?

My kitchen elves and I started a few days in advance.  The beauty of many of the Thanksgiving style recipes is they can (and often should!) be made a day or so ahead of time, and then just reheated before dinner while the turkey is resting and being carved.

This is the cooking crew, otherwise known as Nonna and Bridget.  They peeled a LOT of vegetables!

The kitchen elves also were the dining room elves.  Bridget and Nonna went through all my linens, china, crystal, silve and flatware and designed a very beautiful table.  Didn't they do a nice job?  Aren't I such a slave driver?

All that cooking in advance paid off on The Big Day.  I got to relax, go for a walk, have a long shower, enjoy my family, watch a little football.  It was great.

This is the dinner - ready to shove into the ovens when the turkeys are removed.

Yes, that's right:  turkeys.  As in plural.  I know we were only ten, but....  I do so enjoy leftovers!  And, one of the birds was a "heritage" turkey.  A breed called a Bourbon Red.  This is sort of like a "heritage tomato."  It's the original breed, hasn't been messed with genetically to grow a bigger breast or mature faster or do any other unnatural things that will make it easier and more profitable to get it to your table.  Since it's a REAL turkey, they only get to be about 12 pounds, and that certainly wouldn't have cut it.  So I cooked another "normal" organic bird.  We could definitely taste the difference.  Meatier, in the same way a homegrown tomato is tomatoier.  Much less white meat, the dark meat was very rich.  Definitely doing it again.

The best part of the evening?  Sitting down at the table with my family.  I live far from my original family, so I've sort of adopted people who are now my Texas family.

The second best part of the evening?

The food!

College 101

One of our favorite people, Andrea, is in her second year at OU.  She's kinda like my surrogate teenage daughter.  She's definitely like Bridget's big sister.

This past Saturday was "Family Day" at OU.  Andrea invited us up and Bridget and I jumped at the chance!

When we arrived, we met Andrea at her boyfriend's house as it was a convenient place to leave the car since we'd be walking all over the campus.  Bridget got her first idea of what, um, well, there's no polite way to put it, PIGS college-age boys can be.  Thankfully, most of them grow out of it.  Bridget's eyes grew round as saucers when we went into the house, and I could tell she was politely fighting the urge to pinch her nose.  Thankfully, The Boyfriend is much tidier than his housemates and was happy to show us that his room was definitely liveable.  This guy has potential.  And a puppy.  So that made it all OK in Bridget's eyes.  Even though they'd shaved their fraternity letters into the puppy's side.

What a beautiful fall day it was, and what a great day to see the campus.  The leaves are turning and blowing, there was the classic fall nip in the air, and OU would be playing A&M later that night so there were plenty of crimson clad fans all over the campus.  There were tailgate parties, live bands, and many campus organizations had events organized all over campus for the day.

Our first stop on campus was the Kappa house.  Andrea pledged Kappa Kappa Gamma this year and they were hosting a BBQ for Family Day.  Bridget really enjoyed the tour of the house, she thought it would be really fun to live in a mansion with all your friends.

Bridget took this shot of Andrea and her mom, Lori, in front of

the Kappa house.  Lori is like my sis.

Andrea had fun introducing her "little sister" to all her sorority sisters,

and especially showing them Bridget's t-shirt.

After the Kappa house, we toured the rest of the campus.  The architecture is gorgeous and it has that classic college feel.

This is the main library complete with gargoyles!

The interior of the library is just as stunning as the outside!

The reading room of the library made

Bridget feel like she was at Hogwarts!

Bridget took this photo of the stairwell in the

College of Journalism, where Andrea spends most of her time.

All in all, it was a gorgeous day to be in Oklahoma!  Thank you, Lori, for sharing your wonderful daughter with us.  Thank you, Andrea, for taking so much time out of your busy day to host us!  We had a wonderful time!

Crazy Weekend

Aidan's vomiting pumpkin 

This was my kind of weekend.

The highlight was a visit from Kelli. Thanks, Kelli, for making the trek to The Republic of Texas and hanging with us. As I was tucking him in last night, Aidan sleepily said, "Kelli is my good luck charm" because he had such a fun weekend.

After the kids got out of school Friday, we headed to the pumpkin patch. It's a yearly ritual and it was left so late because it's been raining for the last 40 days. But the skies cleared 1 hour before Kelli's plane landed, the Texas prairie and woods were in all their beautiful fall glory. The kids played in the hay maze, and did all the other stuff and we selected our pumpkins and headed home.

After the pumpkin patch it was time to get on our fancy duds (the clean jeans) and head out to dinner. Another marvelous dinner at our new favorite restaurant, the Lonesome Dove Bistro. Just love seeing Picky Boy order rabbit off the menu and I enjoyed my elk sausage and foie gras sliders. Then we sauntered down the street to the Stockyards Rodeo for a couple of hours or bull ridin', ropin' and watching the kids participate in the Calf Scramble.

Saturday dawned early for Aidan and I as usual, and he headed off to swim practice and a team Halloween party. Kelli got to accompany Bridget to her riding lesson. It was a crisp fall morning, and she got out of the car at the barn, looked around, and said "Am I in heaven?" Yeah, that's exactly how Bridget and I feel about the barn. Especially on a glorious fall day like that. She had so much fun watching Bridget work with Cherry Bomb and watching the psychology play out among the other riders and their horses too. I left the two of them to attend other errands and they finished their morning with a visit to the tack shop and lunch at the local Mexican restaurant.

Once we all rendez-voused at the house, we began what was probably the busiest and craziest 8 hours since this weekend. Ray, Kelli and the kids pulled out all the Halloween decorations and proceeded to turn our place into The Scariest House in the 'Hood. I started rolling dough to make my soft pretzel amputated finger hors d'oeuvres. We carved pumpkins and crimped Bridget's hair.

4:30 and the festivities began! We hit the first party of the evening, and it was a hoot to watch the Daddy Squad play football. Ray even got grass stains on his knees. We abandoned Bridget there and moved on to the next party where we stayed until dusk. Ray, Kelli and I then quickly ran back home and got all the strobes, torches, black lights, candles and scary music fired up before the Parade of Trailers began.

Since we live in a semi-rural area with no sidewalks or street lights, the best and safest way to get the kids around is in hay-filled trailers. There are several that slowly make their way through the streets, attended by a flotilla of golf carts. All vehicles sport lights, streamers and other Halloween decorations.

We three big people had fun answering the door and seeing the little one's reactions to all our scary decorations. It's fun to sit in the dark dining room and watch them tenatively make their way up the walk. Kelli and I would hand candy to the kids while Ray would ferry trays of absinthe shots out to the adults.

Once Bridget's trailer arrived, Kelli and I abandoned Ray to accompany the trailer to it's second-to-last stop of the evening, a Very Posh Horse Barn where we all went in and gave the perplexed horses treats and loves. The stop at the Very Posh Horse Barn gives Mr. Haunted House Guy time to get the last stop of the evening prepared for our arrival.

On to Mr. Haunted House Guy's place for a tour through his foggy, spooky place. By this time, the trick-or-treaters were done and Ray had caught us up. Then back to the party for the Great Candy Swap and way too many sugar-loaded kids.

Then back home to collapse.