She’s so mean!

Yes – there are three open nest boxes.

So why are there two chickens in one nest box?

Because Jezebel wants to sit on the egg that the Delaware on the right is about to lay!

Jezebel is the Speckled Sussex on the left.

She’s mean.

REALLY mean.

Being broody has NOT improved her disposition one iota.

At all.

So – after some quick consultation, John and I decided to buy some fertilized eggs and let Jezebel set them and hatch out some chicks. We’re figuring she’s going to be one formidable Mamma Hen.

Here they are! There are:

2 Ameracaunas

6 Silver Laced Wyandottes

3 Rhode Island Reds

3 New Hampshire Reds

If everything goes according to plan we should have chicks right around the 20th of February.

The big thing to get this whole thing up and running – actually having to pick Jezebel up and move her to her babies. SCARY!

John was smart though, and put gloves on first. Boy, can this bird bite!

Very wise to move quickly with this bird!

She wasted NO time gathering the eggs into a pile she was happy with…

…and then went to work.

Is that a smile I see on her little chicky face?

It’s been a little crazy how peaceable she is now that she’s got eggs to keep warm!

A very brief encounter!

That’s a.m. – 3:20 am.

Wednesday morning.

I think we’d maybe gotten a couple of hours’ sleep, and this was just about the time we were throwing last minute stuff into our suitcase, making sure we had everything we needed, and were thinking seriously about getting in the car and heading toward the airport.

Jake seemed happy that I was out of my bed and he was able to climb in. But less than amused that I would leave the lights on and go about my business – while he wanted nothing more than to sleep!

We finally left for the airport at about 3:30 am – we wanted plenty of time to make it through security, since I’m still sick – and on TPN, IV antibiotics, and have all sorts of medical paraphernalia that we figured the TSA might be a little stressed out about. We’d read up on the appropriate protocols for carrying this kinda of stuff while flying – and had the appropriate documentation.

We were surprised to find:

1. Delta’s counters were open and going like gangbusters at 4:00 am. What a surprise! Many previous occasions we’ve had to wait until 4:30 am for them to open.

2. How easy it was to get through security. Although I think it helped quite a bit to have a sympathetic TSA officer who went ahead and let us know that she’d let the screeners know that we were coming. I did have to go through the whole full-body pat down, etc – since I was still hooked up to TPN – it doesn’t finish until 7:00 am. They were very nice, I have to say.

Here’s our gate.

Yep – it says Flight 744 departing at 6:25 am for New York, NY.

Wild, huh?!

I was pretty wiped by the time we got settled on board. And I slept a good portion of the flight. I woke up at one point in time – looked out the window and saw this:

A great big frozen lake!

John looked over at the map and said, “Well, I guess that makes sense – we’re over Michigan – it’s one of the Great Lakes!”

Here we are on the plane.

Honestly – we didn’t purposely coordinate the blue thing. We never do – it’s just that we both like blue a lot and wear it often! We’re really not trying to be matchy, matchy – honestly Stacy and Clinton!

I slept a while longer, and shortly after the announcement that we’d be landing soon – just four hours after our take off! (We had a seriously kick butt tail wind the whole trip.) – I looked out the window and saw this:

I wish you could see this clearer – I was scrambling to get the camera out and get a picture at all – but those houses are AMAZING! These are not just houses – these are estates – gorgeous!

We landed, found our suitcase, and were met by a driver, who drove us to our hotel.

I’ll warn you – there are a LOT of photos taken through the car window!

Like this one…

Isn’t that just a beautiful church? I have no idea which church it is – but it’s pretty, so I took a picture!

I know – nearly impossible to tell – but that’s Ground Zero – THE Ground Zero. It was emotional just driving past it! And it wasn’t that far down the way from our hotel, either!

We made it to our lovely hotel, got checked in, and then got my TPN pump plugged in – so it’d be ready for use later that evening.

Here’s our hotel room – it was nice!

Nearly all of the bags you see there – with the exception of the suitcase – were what we needed to take along to deal with my health – crazy, huh?!

 

Here’s the view out our hotel window. We were in Tribeca. The Tribeca Film Festival was right around the corner!

I thought this was kinda wild:

The add with the violin on it is saying that this building is going to house 5 condos. Each condo will be a floor of the building. Here’s a better view of the building – although it’s a pretty long building, and you can’t see that well, unfortunately:

We were trying to figure out how much that would cost – a condo that was a whole floor of a building. Not cheap, we’re pretty sure.

This is up the street from our hotel a block – the AT&T building. We had excellent cell service in the hotel! LOL! That was one stinking tall building, by the way!

John did a little research in the hotel’s informative notebook. Then we got our coats on and headed out for a bit of a walk around the ‘hood.

I couldn’t help it – I just had to have this picture. It’s just that I’ve never seen this sign before and – I admit it – I thought it was funny!

See the red awnings back there to the left? That’s restaurant in the hotel.

That’s a little closer shot – kinda shaky, though – it’s hard to take pictures with mittens on!

Speaking of mittens – it was seriously cold. The wind was crazy cold – but, being that Manhattan is an island, I guess that makes sense. We walked as long as we could handle it – but the cold finally got the better of us and we headed back to our hotel.

John had dinner in the restaurant at the hotel – I watched. He was kind and picked something I wouldn’t want to eat! (Well, at least I’m 1 month down, and 2 to go on being NPO.)

I started not feeling so great that evening and went to bed pretty early.

The next morning when John went down to breakfast (and I was getting ready for the day) – I got a text message on my phone. It was John, and it said: “It’s snowing!”

And it was!

Here’s John – it’s snowing outside – and we’re waiting for the car to pick us up.

See?

It snowed a lot!

In fact, it snowed most of the morning.

Good thing I had plans that involved being indoors and warm!

We were in NYC for an interview. That took up the better part of the morning and into the early afternoon. (More on the interview later.)

Then, when we were all done – we went for a quick walk around the neighborhood we’d been in for the interview. And here’s what it looked like:

Bright! Beautiful! Sunny! Cheeking cold, yes, but lovely! And no sign of snow anywhere!

We walked over to Rockefeller Center. You know what? It seems so much smaller in real life than it does on TV!

And just across the way is this building:

Pretty, huh? It has something to do with the show “30 Rock” – which, sorry – I have no idea about – I just really don’t have much time for TV.

I thought this building was pretty, too.

See that? On the left side? It’s Radio City Music Hall. Wild, huh?

And that, pretty much, was the end of our walking tour.

And then that, pretty much, was the end of our time in New York. We walked back to where we’d been for the morning, met our car, and then headed back by our hotel to pick up our bags, and then directly on to the airport.

Warning: more pictures through car windows to ensue!

Crazy neon everywhere!

Huge ads everywhere!

Cars everywhere!

I took this picture for Jonathan – aka Basketball Boy – gosh, I wish we’d had time to go to the NBA store – he’d have loved a t-shirt from there!

John took this one for Jessica – they saw tons of Dunkin’ Donuts when they were in Philadelphia and Boston in the Spring. I gotta say – there were – roughly – about a bazillion Dunkin’ Donuts in NYC!

We drove past Chinatown – and there was a REALLY COOL open air market going on – I could just barely get a snatch of it as we were driving by – but oh, it would have been so fun to go to!

Honestly – one day I’m coming back to NYC and I wanna eat really good Chinese food while I’m there. Sigh… I miss eating. And I really miss Chinese food!

This place looks like a good candidate for a try for yummy Chinese food, don’t you think? Get a gander at those roasted duck in the window on the left!

Okay – so you’re going to have to do some work to see this next famous site:

Yep – that’s the Brooklyn Bridge. But that’s not what I’m talking about.

See her? On the far right? She’s French, and probably the most identifiable landmarks in the United States!

See her?

On the far right – it’s Lady Liberty! One day – we’re coming back – and she and I are going to get better acquainted!

I gotta say – the NYC skyline is pretty impressive – even from inside the car!

And that was pretty much it.

We made it to the airport in good time – actually, the driver was blown away how well we did. We got checked in, John got a (very) late lunch, and we found a quiet corner so I could do my IV antibiotic. It took forever – it’s a gravy driven IV and we couldn’t find a very tall place to hang it from – but it got done, and that’s what matters.

We got on the plane, we settled in, and I fell asleep. I woke up one or two times, but the 7 hours went amazingly quickly, and before long we were back home.

We were in NYC for slightly more than 24 hours.

Crazy!

Next time – we’ll go when it’s warmer weather, we have time to go, and see, and do stuff. And I think we should take our friend Ann with us – she used to live there, and her husband is a native – THAT, I’m thinking, would be the best way to go!

It is lovely to be home, though.

…and then there were more!

Four more, to be exact.

Meet Millie (we call her M2), Rosie, Louise, and Speck.

They are young-ish pullets that came to live with us this week. They are Rhode Island Reds, and from the looks of it, a few months behind – age wise – than our April 2009 chicks. They are sweet and fit into the flock beautifully.

They come from a family not far from here who found that continuing to have chickens wasn’t working out for them right now – and we were fortunate enough to be the recipient of these lovely ladies.

Honestly – I think our Millie (aka M1) and Henrietta are a little relieved to have some kin added to the flock. It’s funny how birds of a feather do – actually – flock together. I was watching them the other afternoon kinda hanging out together and older/wiser Millie and Henrietta seemed to be giving the new girls the insider tips. It’s been fun watching them interact!

These four came to us not having roosted at night before. It took them a few nights, but they they soon not only figured out HOW to roost – but exactly WHERE they want to roost – and they’re willing to defend their spot!

I love Rhode Island Reds… probably because our first four were RIR’s too. It’s been great fun getting to know these girls – and we’re so glad to add them to our family!

(Mystery – on the ladder to the right – getting ready to ask if she can scootch in with the new girls.)

All about passion…

If you were to ask me – pretty much any given day – any season of the year, “Where’s Jonathan?”

Nine times out of ten the answer would be, “He’s playing ball.”

Basketball.

His love affair.

This kid eats, drinks, sleeps, breathes, walks, talks basketball.

When he’s not playing ball at the Rec, he might be at Training. (He works with a professional basketball trainer – a great honor.) When he’s not at the Rec or at Training, he’s probably at JV2 basketball training at the high school. Or at a game. Or at the elementary school up the way playing ball. Or at a friend’s house playing ball.

Have I mentioned that Jonathan loves basketball yet?

Yeah – this kid knows all about passion and the motivator it can be to excel.

I am so proud of this kid.

He’s starting to think about his future seriously.

He’s thinking he’d like to try out for the JV team next year. I’m thinking he’ll make it.

He’s thinking if he makes JV next year, he’ll try out for Varsity his Senior year. I have every confidence he’ll make it.

And he’s thinking UCLA would be a really great place to go to college and play ball.

Basketball, of course.

I love that he has dreams.

Have I mentioned how proud I am of this kid?

Just have to share some great pictures that one of the dads on the JV2 team has shared with the rest of the team. Of course, Jonathan features prominently! He’s number 22.

New Friends

About a week and a half ago two new girls came to live with us.

They are Annabelle (left) and Hildy (right).

Annabelle has a bit of a reputation as a bossy girl. She’s been known to beat up some on Hildy (note the Blu-Kote on Hildy’s comb!).

Moments into their arrival here Annabelle took on Ducky – who currently sits at the top of the pecking order and it was only moments before blood was drawn.

Dang it all.

Ducky was NOT amused.

BB became pretty miffed that someone would go after her pal Ducky, and joined the show down. More blood was drawn.

It took about 3 minutes to get Annabelle cornered and captured, and sequestered in solitary confinement. We kept Hildy in a separate location until everyone had gone to sleep, and then put her on the roost next to her new flock mates later that night.

Hildy melded into the flock with hardly half a thought.

Annabelle stayed in solitary for several days. It was interesting that after the first night, Hildy would come and sleep near Annabelle – with the chicken wire wall between them. There must be some love between the two!

Things have gone swimmingly since Annabelle came out of solitary confinement. She has avoided further conflict with our existing flock, and has been getting along quite nicely with Hildy. We have noted that each night Hildy and Annabelle roost up on the roosting later next to each other. It’s also interesting that they seem much more attached to the coop than the rest of our girls are. They do free range some with the rest of the girls – but they come back to check out the coop pretty frequently throughout the day.

I will say they are likely the smartest two of the flock – when it’s raining, windy, and cold – they head straight for the cover of the coop. Smart girls! How come the other girls haven’t figure that out yet?

(The girls enjoying stir fry for morning snack – Annabelle waiting her turn.)

I am happy to report that Scarlet is finally over being broody. Hooray! If she goes broody when it’s warmer I plan to let her set eggs and see how it goes. I think she’ll be a good mom. To be honest, I’m hoping Shelly or one of the other girls will go broody, too. I’d like to hatch chicks this year, rather than buy from a hatchery. We’ll have to wait and see if the girls will cooperate with my scheming!

In real life news – I started my new job right before the end of the year. The other day I met one of the managers for the hospital and we got to talking. He asked where I lived, I told him, he mentioned he lived in the same vicinity. We got a little more specific as to location and then he said, “Oh! I totally know where you live – you have the chickens in your yard and a large garden!” Turns out he has chickens, too. Gosh, I’m starting to think about half of our neighborhood has them! Anyway, we had a lovely conversation, and he promised to stop by one day to meet the girls.

Seems impossible that we’re 8 days into the New Year. Time has just flown. Jessica got an acceptance letter to another university – it’s about number three on her list of five faves. It will be late March or early April before she hears from her first choice. Jonathan continues on with the JV2 basketball team – he’s loving it, and continues to train several times a week to go on with developing his skills. William – after much nagging, potential bribing, etc. on his mother’s part – has finally decided that reading is pretty cool. He’s read two books in one week. That is quite possibly a miracle! All we have to do now is keep on with this trend!

There have been a number of developments in the family that I’ll write about later. Suffice it to say that we’re trusting God to guide and comfort us as we go forward.

Phew!

I may have let slip a time or two before that I have some… um… shall we call them dependencies in life.

One of which is my computer. My desktop computer. Yes, I have a laptop – which is very handy when one is traveling, or in the hospital, or the like. I am deeply grateful to have a laptop – really, I am. But – well, I *love* my desktop.

Until it dies, that is.

Then I’m not so happy about it.

(Fickle, aren’t I?!)

I can admit it – I had my fair share of pouts and – shame – fits with Dell, my service provider. I even got a little – I’m so embarrassed – forceful with them when the rubber hit the road.

But dang it all! I need my computer!

Yes, I said NEED!

So – what was originally thought to be a few days without my much depended on desktop stretched on to more than a month – you can imagine what a state I was in by the time my new system arrived.

Here’s what it looks like:

How can you not love a kick butt warranty when something like this arrives on your doorstep – free of charge?

See the crazy red lighting? You can change it up – all sorts of different colors – each area can be a different color if you want. You can have morphing colors – from one color to another. Or pulsing colors – honestly – I know – who cares about color, right. Um… I gotta admit – I’m loving the colors.

So… life will now be coming back to a little more normalcy. I’m still – admittedly – limping along a bit because we haven’t been able to access my backup drives yet – when those are restored – THEN I’ll be running full steam ahead.

Pretty stinking sweet, though, huh?

Thank you, Lord Jesus!

unique Christmas gift ideas | The Nickel Pincher: Create Unique, Inexpensive Holiday Gifts for Under $20 | Rodale News

unique Christmas gift ideas | The Nickel Pincher: Create Unique, Inexpensive Holiday Gifts for Under $20 | Rodale News. 

via unique Christmas gift ideas | The Nickel Pincher: Create Unique, Inexpensive Holiday Gifts for Under $20 | Rodale News.

If you’re anything like us – this has been a really rough year financially.  We consider ourselves blessed to have a roof over our heads, a warm house, enough to eat, and – finally – health!  Aren’t those blessings enough?!

If you’re looking for great, inexpensive, thoughtful gifts to put together – this is a fairly decent article.  I wish I had a thrift shop that sounds as cool as the author has in close proximity!  So not quite sure I could find the “finds” she did on some of the items – but her creativity is great, and definitely sparked my interest.

Enjoy!

Someone…

…is laying MONGO HUGE-O eggs.

See?

Three of those eggs are in excess of 3 ounces each.

Typically, eggs around here weigh in at about 2.5 ounces. Decent sized.

Here’s a handy reference:

Modern Sizes (USA)
Size	Mass per egg	Cooking Yield (Volume
Jumbo	Greater than 2.5 oz. or 71 g
Very Large or Extra-Large (XL)	Greater than 2.25 oz. or 64 g	56 mL (4 tbsp)
Large (L)	Greater than 2 oz. or 57 g	46 mL (3.25 tbsp)
Medium (M)	Greater than 1.75 oz. or 50 g	43 mL (3 tbsp)
Small (S)	Greater than 1.5 oz. or 43 g
Peewee	Greater than 1.25 oz. or 35 g

 

Or…

US egg sizes are defined by the weight of a dozen eggs. (Not individual eggs.  An egg in a carton of Extra Large eggs need not weigh at least 27/12 ounces, but the dozen must weigh at least 27 ounces.)

Size	Weight of a dozen eggs
Jumbo	30 ounces
Extra Large	27 ounces
Large	24 ounces
Medium	21 ounces
Small	18 ounces
Peewee	15 ounces

 

So – in short – those are MONGO HUGE-O eggs someone is laying!

All I can think is: OUCH!

And which breed is it laying those monster eggs?

Investigative reporting to ensue!

I’ll report back when I know more.

Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes

When I was planning out the dinner menus a couple of weeks ago I was searching for things that seemed – you know – different, but not all that scary. Keeping in mind that I have two of the pickiest kids on the planet eating here – I must be very, very careful when testing the waters!

I found a couple of Crock Pot Sloppy Joe recipes and I thought, “Hmmm, those could be okay.” It got scheduled for Thursday evening of this week.

I should interject here that I don’t think we’ve EVER done Sloppy Joes as an actual meal. John likes them, buys the canned sauce, and when the urge hits (about once a quarter?!) he’ll make some up. I always think they smell good – but that’s about where it’s ended. My last experience with them is likely way back when – when I worked/lived at Sambica – and we had them fairly regularly. They weren’t awful, the kids always loved them. I figured – kid friendly food, right? We’re gonna give this a go!

So, I did a little web search, and came up with two contenders for the recipe we’d use. They were:

This one from www.myrecipes.com – a web site that I’ve recently rediscovered and find that I like quite a bit.

And…

This one from www.southernfood.about.com – which seemed a little simpler – and John thought we would like better than the other offering.

So, Thursday morning – before I got ready for my interview – I threw together the second recipe – only I modified it a bit for us – cause, well, I know us!

Ingredients:

2 pounds lean ground beef
1 large onion, chopped, about 1 cup
1 cup chopped celery
1 (12-ounce) bottle prepared chili sauce
1 (6-ounce) can tomato paste
2 to 3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 to 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
Toasted hamburger buns

The original recipe calls for diced green peppers – I’m allergic to them, so they got omitted. The original recipe called for THREE pounds of ground beef. Good grief! That’s WAY too much. I wondered about the 2 pound quantity, but figured if the boys liked it – we’d be glad we had that much.

I actually had to run to the store to purchase a couple of groceries before starting this – and hit upon a bit of a moral dilemma. Here’s the thing – I’m completely unfamiliar with chili sauce. Do you know anything about it? Use it regularly? I mean I’ve never – in my life – purchased or tasted the stuff. Here I stand in the aisle at WinCo debating the choice between Heinz and the “Homemade Chili Sauce” – the latter, as you can see from the photo below – I ended up choosing. I ended up spending a little more – BUT – the real shoe in for this one is the fact that there was no HFCS in it. Gold star for the makers!

So pretty easy ingredients, right?

Oops – forgot to include the Worcestershire sauce in the picture! Here it is. And I choose this one – once again – because there is no evil HFCS in it.

I just used my handy chopper for the onions and celery:

I love this thing!

Then I browned the ground beef – which had virtually NO fat on it – so I skipped the draining step; and then I threw the beef and veggies into the Crock Pot.

And then I dumped in the chili sauce, tomato paste, brown sugar, Worcestershire sauce, and black pepper. Seriously – took maybe five minutes to do all of that. Just gave it a good stir – and voila!

At that point all that there was left to do was set the heat on the Crock Pot on low, throw on the lid, and move on with my schedule for a very, very busy day!

Went about my business – and later that afternoon after a lovely second interview with the very nice place I’d interviewed with previously – I walked into the house and smelled a wonderful smell – the Sloppy Joes!

“Hooray!” thought I. “They smell great – I’ll bet we love them!”

I couldn’t have been more wrong.

I will say – for ease of preparation – total gold star. These are a cinch to throw together, and then to put them in the Crock Pot and not have to worry about it until time to serve – lovely. We served them on hamburger buns; William, of course, added cheese to his. Jonathan actually had to leave for basketball practice before dinner time – I offered him one before he left and he looked at me with this horrified look on his face and said, “I DO NOT eat Sloppy Joes. It looks like dog food!”

Have I ever mentioned that my boys are picky eaters?

I will point out – however, that they look NOTHING like the food our dog gets fed. I don’t know what the kid is thinking of!

ANYWAY, when John and I, Jessica and William sat down to eat – we had the following thoughts about this recipe:

John: It’s too sweet. WAY too sweet. If we were to make it again – totally eliminate the sugar. In fact, next time we make it – we ought to just use the canned sauce.

Me: It’s too sweet. It’s okay. But, well…. Not sure I’d want to serve this for a meal again in the future.

Jessica: Well, they’re okay – but, well, they’re camp food! (Remembering she worked at camp all summer long and didn’t especially love the food.)

William: I HATE Sloppy Joes. Cheese doesn’t even make them any better. YUCK!

So – consensus: we’re never making these again!

It was a good idea in theory – in practical reality, not so much!

Back to the drawing board!

Just NOT Okay

I can and will admit it.

I am cold intolerant.

I hate the cold.

I hate being cold.

I am happiest when it’s about 80 to 85 degrees out, with a slight breeze, and a lounge chair with a good hour in the sun!

Yes, I’m a weenie!

Not pretty, is it?

What makes it even more of a challenge for me is the fact that when it’s THIS cold, the girls’ water freezes up solid!

Requiring me to do stuff like this:

Shhh…. Don’t tell my husband I borrowed his hammer to do this!

As you can see – not terribly effective when you’ve got a good 5 inches thick of ice. So then I get out my gallon pitcher – fill it with boiling water, and trek it out to melt some of the water.

The girls get really happy when they see that blue gallon pitcher coming!

When it’s this cold out – I gotta go melt the water at least once an hour.

BRRRRR……….

I do feel sorta sorry for the girls, though. So I make them oatmeal – everyone should have a hot breakfast when it’s cold like this!

These are happy chickens!

And the really SMART girls are hanging out inside the coop – where the heat lamps went up last night!

The bottom number here – how warm it is INSIDE the coop WITH the heat lamps going:

Yes, that says 22 degrees.

Brrr….

Smart girls!

OH – and we had another first time egg from someone on Sunday…

It was so tiny and cute!

I guess I knew not all of the Cuckoo Marans were laying yet on some level or the other – but here’s proof that someone else has just come into lay! I gotta say – I adore the Cuckoo Maran eggs – they’re so beautiful. But more than that – you want to make chocolate chip cookies with them – they turn out so much richer and – well, almost toffee-ish. Totally yummy. Yes, that’s why I have SIX Cuckoo Marans!

That’s a teensy tiny egg! We decided to break it open and see if it was just egg white – as is sometimes the case with new egg layers. Nope – it had the cutest little perfect yolk AND white inside. Pepper thought it was a lovely little snack!

So – I’ll sit here, finish reading my email, sipping my hot cup of tea, and then will add a few more layers of clothes before I have to head out and deal with the chicken water again.

I’m ready for summer!