roseaponi

Or a moveable chicken pen. At last they can scratch in the dirt and eat bugs. I made this from 1/2" PVC pipe, t-fittings, a couple elbows, a pack of zip ties, and a roll of chicken wire. The sturdy cage on the end is the old rabbit cage, and it's clipped to the chicken wire with a carabiner. When it's time to go back in the crate for the night, I can shoo them in the cage, unclip it, shut the door and carry them in. The pen is a bit more than four feet long, 3 1/2 ft wide, and 20 inches high at the apex. If this was a commercial chicken farm, I could fit thirty chickens in there, but this is a healthy amount of room for four chickens, so long as I move it to a fresh patch of ground every day.

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Normal kids say, "Watch me, Mommy!"

Meri Lyn says, "Behold!"

Oh my word, my two-year-old child is channeling King James. Or maybe Thor.

There's a lot going on here lately.

Oreo McFurry (the rabbit) pulled out a toenail and needed first aid and a lot of cornstarch. A little cornstarch went to stopping the bleeding, and a lot went to powdering his feet white again so Jimmy could stand the sight of him. Jimmy doesn't do well with blood.

Jimmy is due to finish second grade next week. He would have finished already, but I let him have spring break the same week as his friend. This is pretty much the numbered assignments in math, language, and phonics. We'll continue with science, history, and social studies through the summer, but that's better to do as projects and field trips.

My vegetable garden is full of fire ants. I'm going to have to give in and buy fire ant killer with spinosad, which is supposed to be organic but honestly, how can any sort of poison be good for a vegetable garden? I went ahead and planted the free Earth Day tomato plants and a row each of onions and carrots in the part that wasn't totally overrun. This is disheartening.

My chickens are getting too big for their crate and I still don't have a coop! So most sunny afternoons I put them in the old rabbit cage and set them out in the yard with water and food. The cage is even smaller than the crate, but at least it's less boring for them to be out in the fresh air and they can scratch a little through the wire. I'm going to buy some PVC pipe and T fittings and build a little portable half-hoop run for them. I can cover it with wire and use zip ties to hold the wire on. That should make their time outside nicer, and keep the hawks from eating them.

Papa Butch is miserable. Quad-bypass surgery is scary, and recovery is painful and depressing, so please keep him in your thoughts.

At last, I have an assignment!!! I don't think I've mentioned it before, because I keep thinking something's going to make it fall through, and I really hate it when I get all fired up and tell people that I'm doing something and then I fail. But this is really happening! So awhile back, in January I think, there was a tweet from my church that they needed volunteers for some writing work. I ignored it. Then my husband (who isn't even on Twitter) brought it to my attention, so I dashed off an email about it. And then I heard nothing.

I figured all the positions must be full. I got a few calls from the volunteer coordinator, asking if I'd been contacted by the writing team, and I was like, no, I'm available if there's a place for me, I don't care if all I get to do is proofread. Then I did get contacted by the part of the team that does devotionals/blog posts, but I was having problems sending a writing sample and it just didn't work out.

Then, after I was sure they had as many writers as they needed, all of whom were much better than me and could quote Bible verses by number instead of context (I can't remember numbers worth a flip. This makes it difficult to get along in most church cultures, so it's an insecurity of mine... One of many, apparently ), I got a call from the pastor in charge of the Stories Ministry. My church has testimonies from members telling about how they came to Christ or came back to Christ or experienced a miracle, and they post these online with a picture and sometimes they make a video too. So he asked if I was interested/able to make phone calls to people who submit their stories and talk to them, getting more details and encouraging them in their walk with Jesus, and then to write the stories in the style and format of the church Stories posts.

Now, a confident person would have just jumped on this with, "Yeah! Of course I can!" but I was still getting used to the idea that they weren't full up of those better writers I had imagined in such detail! I think he couldn't decide if I was cautious or had overstated my interest in writing on the email that had somehow eventually gotten to him, but since it's the goal of my church to have every member participate in volunteering he went ahead and gave me a chance. So I worked with him on my own testimony during training, then I was handed over to my team editor, and she gave me an assignment and I'm working on that now!

So I'm really excited to finally be volunteering for my church, it's something I can do from home, and it's writing! I get to hear the most amazing stories firsthand from the people who experienced them :) I started out so afraid to even apply to volunteer, because I know this is a plum task. Out of all the people who go to my church there must be a thousand or more writers or wannabe writers who also believe their spiritual gift is communication and who don't have the difficulties with it that I do. Extroverted, confident people who remember Bible chapter and verses, without toddlers crying in the background of their phone calls, or something. But the pastor and my editor have both been really great and encouraging. I really think I impressed the pastor (who used to be a newspaper editor - and an atheist! before accepting Christ and then coming on staff at my church) with my rewrites after our first conversation about my story. He said he was impressed with my learning curve in the notes on the rewrite - and I don't think as a former editor he's in the habit of making "sparing writers' feelings" the top priority. He is very nice, but on the subject of writing, I think he's going to be either sincere or silent. It's been a bit rocky getting to this point, but I'm determined to make up for that by completing my first assignment with excellence ahead of the deadline and getting right on the next one, just as soon as my editor uploads it. Like they say, under-promise, over-deliver. :) And this will also give me practice and improve my skills! Win-win-win all around :)

So, that's April, pretty much :) I'll try to post more regularly, but every time I make a definite promise it seems like that's the cue for life to go nuts. Speaking of which, I may be taking care of SIL's kids all next weekend. O.O I must be losing my mind. Oh well, maybe they won't be so wild if they haven't had an hour-long car ride, and spending two nights will be relatively calm...
Yep. I'm delusional.

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Papa Butch came home from the hospital Friday, and Saturday Joe went over there to start the lawn mower (what is it with men and lawn mowers? Everyone has one that needs the tires pumped and engine tinkered with and some jury-rigged ignition magic jiggle before it'll cut grass. There is no such thing as just turning the key and starting.) Mostly I think he was giving his mom a break from Butch. He's not exactly great with morphine.
So, his heart, despite four major blockages, was quite healthy and the doctors were all really excited for him. I guess there's an upside to having a heart attack before you're sixty, because his recovery is going really well. He's still miserable, but it could have been much worse.

While Joe was gone, the kids and I were at my niece's birthday party, which was fun and both kids disappeared and played for pretty much two hours. Getting them to leave was tricky, but not awful. I had to remind Jimmy to run back in to the restroom because it was an hour's drive back home.

I wanted to get a chicken coop yesterday - the birds are driving me nuts! Well, when I'm out there. They're terrified of me when I put my hand in there to feed them or clean the box or change the water, and they flap and run and Brunhilde pecks. It doesn't hurt, but I don't do well with flapping things. I caught them and put them outside in the old rabbit cage again. I gently turned it upside down so they could scratch through the bars a bit. They were surprisingly okay with that, and stayed out maybe three hours, just being chickens and getting along. The cage is smaller than their box, or I'd leave them in it outside. I don't expect them to get cuddly, but I don't appreciate being treated like Godzilla whenever I appear.

But, no coop yesterday since SIL wanted to visit Butch and he does not need to have kids racing around right now. So her two kids came over here and had a blast playing with mine, and I even managed to get them to clean up the utter destruction they wreaked in Jimmy's room.

My thoughts afterward were that four children are too, too many, but that could be just because my nephew has the energy of twenty kids.

Maybe today after church we can get a coop.

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Here they are on their field trip to the backyard while I cleaned out the crate. Catching them wasn't too awful, though they are not cuddly chickens. Mostly they still peep and chirp, but when I caught Brunhilde she made a noise halfway to a squawk.
The kids entertained themselves by pulling up weeds and building a "nest" on top of the cage until I threatened them with having to go play inside. Yikes. I hope that stuff isn't poisonous to chickens.

And here is Brunhilde, modeling her freakishly long neck. They all have freakishly long necks, and not enough fuzz to cover them. The feathers are coming in nicely in a sort of barred pattern. It's about time to bring them back in so they can start pooping all over their crate again. I put sand instead of wood shavings this time, so less fire hazard from the heat lamp, but the sand bag got rained on and it's a bit damp, so I have the lamp on in there to dry it out a bit before I put the chicks back.

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Hey, y'all, my FIL (husband's stepdad) Papa Butch is bad off. He had a heart attack early this morning and they found four blocked arteries, so it's looking like quad bypass on Monday.
My husband is heading out to visit him now and bring him some things.
So if you could send a prayer for Papa Butch and family, I'd appreciate it very much.
Thanks.

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I don't know who taught my daughter the tune of "Flight of the Valkries" but she's singing "Wash diiissshhes, wash diiissshhes, wash dishes, wash disssshhhes" like she's in a German opera right now.

I'm so proud. :D

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I've realized (rather late) that I've been having a depressive episode over about six weeks. Great January, February started going off, March might as well have not happened, and in just this last week I've been climbing up a bit. Ugh. I had plans! Shiny lovely goals and intentions!

So fortunately, I had been reading my email from Flylady.net, which is mostly housekeeping but she has had depression and she shares what she's done to cope and emerge from it, and she promotes a lifestyle and mindset which definitely alleviates the symptoms.

Also, my pastor has had depression and he has recently begun bringing that to light and his honesty about it in front of so many people is really heartening. Of course he's really extra honest all the time and a bit TMI sometimes :) but to hear him speak on his depression is so relevant and helpful to me personally. He touched on it last Sunday, along with a reference to slavery and how human exploitation is worse than ever and how the church has ignored the issue for far too long, and a story about what he saw in the Atlanta airport and how that relates to people being clueless about your pain and assuming you can just try harder and overcome your circumstances. I might have to look it up and watch it again, because it was full of amazing relevant stuff. If you are even just a little interested, go ahead and watch it too: www.newspring.cc and the new series is "Chains." This is the first of the series and I can't wait to see what's next. Even if you aren't Christian or religious, I really think it's worthwhile for everybody who's ever had a hard time.

I am also trying to follow an online teleseminar course called "Victory Over Money Drama" because I'd like a bit of success and while I can point to a few things I've achieved, I don't have anything to show for them. Partly it's because achieving things is a bit erratic because of the weeks I spend in "survive the day" mode. Partly it's because I have self-sabotaging habits and mindsets that need to change into good productive positive things. So I am setting aside four hours every day, which happen to bracket lunch and dinner, which are my busiest times with house stuff and I feel freakin' overwhelmed trying to plan meals and cook them and make people happy and everything while one's hanging on my leg and the other gets hungry and begs for snacks as soon as he sees me approach the stove. This is why we have a rule in our house that no one is allowed to snack or talk/ask about food while Mommy is cooking. We used to have a rule about no babies/toddlers in the kitchen, but it's harder to enforce with an open floor plan. Anyway, if I want to listen to my live seminars, I have to get some stuff done beforehand. I did not spring for the downloadable MP3s plus notes, so the whole course cost only $9, but the trade off is making that time and taking my own notes. Now, if I can do this for a week, maybe I'll have the confidence and habit established enough to work like this on my art and writing and maybe a class on Coursera or something. Having this to set as a priority is helping me evenly distribute my work through the day instead of piling it all up until right before bed.

In other news, my chickens are no longer cute and fuzzy. Now they are scruffy, mangy, half fluff, half pinfeathered, odd little lanky bird-things. Ah, adolescence. Universally awkward phase of life. I'll try to put a picture up later :)

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So, I've done it. Even though flapping squawking things freak me out just ever so slightly, I've gone and bought chickens. Four Ameraucana chicks, which will (I hope) lay blue eggs this summer.

This is them on the first day - see their little chipmunk stripes?

And here they are today, in the glow of the heat lamp, but you can see they have real feathers on their wings now.

Brunhilde is the biggest, darkest, never really had chipmunk stripes, and is the most tolerant of being picked up. She's obvious in the first picture, and the one in the middle looking straight at the camera in the second.

Next biggest and somewhat dark is Gertrude, who is mean and pecks at the other chicks' feet when she feels intruded upon. She also really hates being picked up, but fortunately can't get much force behind her beak when she pecks me. She's not really visible in the second picture, but she's closest to the side of the crate in the first.

The prettiest is Agatha, who does not enjoy being held (none of them do, really), but who adapts the best to having new things in her environment, like the sand I added to the crate today. Her head markings are very symmetrical, and she's on the right in the second picture and facing the heat lamp in the first.

The smallest, lightest, and I think the smartest is Trilby, who figured out the poultry nipple waterer (brooder bottle cap) first and actually eats out of the feeder thing sometimes instead of waiting on me to sprinkle feed around it. Trilby's head has kind of a Christmas tree design :) She's on the left looking toward the water bottle in the second picture and in the middle in the first.

I mixed electrolyte solution for them the first couple days, and also had to soak their little rumps in warm water the second day because the stress of all the moving gave them "pasty butt," which, yep, pretty much what it sounds like. Dabbing a Neosporin-saturated cotton ball on their behinds afterward kept them from getting it again. Strangely, this did not bother me at all. I can only assume that I'm still desensitized to poop from all the diaper-changing I still do.

I bought two sets of brooder bottle caps (and won a third! Weird.) to use as my watering system. Chickens are disgusting about their water and baby chicks sometimes fall asleep in their dishes and drown. So I read that chickens can actually learn to drink from a thing like a rabbit bottle, and that was so obviously an awesome solution that I got a set for me, one for my mom (she's getting her chickens later this year), and I gave the set I won to my sister, who already has chickens. And then I was certain that my chicks were idiots and couldn't figure it out, but on day three Trilby was drinking from it and the next evening all the rest had caught on. Now they love it and have water cooler conversations.

I hope none turn out to be roosters. Brunhilde is the odd one - not really caring to interact much with the other chicks, and she seems significantly bigger, and her wing feathers seem to be a dark, glossy green. On the other hand, if Gertrude turned out to be a rooster, she'd be one of the mean ones, I think. I think Trilby looks more like a house sparrow than a chicken. Agatha's beak is a bit hooked and might need a teeny trim.

We need a coop soon - I swear they've doubled in size in one week. The crate is a nice big one, but they will eventually outgrow it and need a run, too.

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