10 Days Past December

Usually I am a bit more up-to-the-minute on my New Years post with a review of the past and hope for the coming times.  2013 was put to rest none too quickly for my liking.  It was a hard and frustrating year due to the car accident and slow healing.  Glad that’s almost over!

On December 31st I pulled my journal from the bottom dresser drawer… the journal with the hot pink cloth binding and the swirly letter L with bling bling on the cover.  The journal contains my bucket list.  I usually don’t look at it but once or twice a year, so I’m pleasantly surprised when I get to highlight the completed items on the list!  In 2013 there were 2 1/2 items completed…. 1. Go on a girls road trip! CHECK!  2. Build a chicken coop and raise chickens. CHICK!  I mean CHECK!  And 1/2 of 3. See the Parthenon…. well, I did see the Parthenon.  The one in Nashville.  I didn’t even know there WAS a Parthenon in Tennessee!  It’s in far better shape than the one in Greece.  When I made the list, I meant the one in Greece, but I didn’t specify Greece…. so I half-way highlighted it with hopes of Greek Islands in my future still.

On the horizon for 2014, other than we should start getting fresh eggs come May, we have a few out of town weddings, a graduation, some missions trips and lots of excitement and hope!  I relish a fresh new year with no scribbles on the pages.

As far as resolutions go…. REZ#1: I’m going to lose the weight I gained while lying on the couch for months eating casserole after casserole that my homeschool peeps brought to feed our family! Believe me, I am SOOOO thankful for my community who surrounded us during that time!  What’s a bigger size of jeans?  Or 2?  But everyone plans to lose weight, right?

REZ#2: I am reading the Bible through again.  The Children’s Living Bible is the chosen translation again.  The best I ever did at reading the Bible through involved a plan that took weekends off.  I needed the weekends to catch up!  So I divided the number of yearly weeks by five days and then divided the number of pages in the Bible by that number.  Voila!  Brilliance!  Four and a half pages a day.  And it’s already January 10th and I’m ahead of schedule!  Oh Yeah!

REZ#3: Make a few more mind and life changing resolutions…. like spending time each day in silence, and spending time each day being artsily creative, and knitting (well, that is creative too), and spending time each day listening to good music.  “Good” by my standards, not my children’s.

What are your resolutions?  Did you make any?  Will you keep them?  Share the wealth!

Chicken Coop Construction

Third time’s a charm, right?  I hope so!  This is our third attempt at raising chickens.  The other two tries were highly successful and with each adventure we learn a little more.  Nov. 25th, Nora’s Gotcha Day, we bought some new chickies.  Darling little fluffy peepers…. soon turned into noisy, smelly growing birds.  But we love them.  Truly.  From that day, I knew I had approximately three weeks to get a coop built.  Time got away from me… and I ended up purchasing a bigger plastic storage tub to make my planning/collecting/building time last a tad bit longer.

My sweet supportive husband did not want chickens.  At all.  He didn’t even care if we would eventually get two dozen eggs a week.  Nope.  He is scarred from having to clean out maggoty chicken poop a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away.  It’s okay.  If I were born in a different era, I’m sure I would have fit right in with Little House on the Prairie.  Oh to have a free range flock!  I dream of wearing fashionable rubber boots and collecting eggs in a hand-woven basket from my huge coop at the back of the grassy property.  But no.  I’m in Phoenix.  In an HOA, nonetheless.  But it’s all good.

Being non-supportive, Mr. Wallet didn’t feel the need to “invest” in chicken coop construction.  Go figure!  The one I would love to build comes in a tidy box with a shiny picture on the front of a two story coop with a run, shutters, metal roof and wood paneling that I admire with ogling eyes.  For a mere $249, it could be gracing my backyard!  Trying to keep peace on the farmstead, I have been pouring over Craigslist, an online garage sale…. particularly the FREE section.  She shoots, she scores!  I found a 3’x3’x3′ wooden shipping crate!  PERFECT!  I did talk my sweet supportive husband into dumpster diving with me in the next neighborhood where new homes are being built.  We totally scored some 4×6 treated beams and a bunch of other useful pieces of wood.

Yesterday was spent removing nails, measuring, sawing and praying.  Today I called my two nephews and niece over from across the street to help me and three of my kids get the legs on this baby.  We should have video taped the whole ordeal.  They are ALL sarcastic and funny and loud.  I was explaining the procedure, “Two of you need to lift the crate,” before I could breathe my eldest nephew named his sister and cousin for that job.  Hardy har har.  The four remaining cousins were to hold legs in place while I screwed it all together.  They were all in place but talking so loudly I finally pulled the trigger on the drill and yelled something …. nice… like “Please use your inside voices” or some other such nonsense.  They all laughed.  In my face.  Anyway, we did get the coop duty done.  Tomorrow is front door construction and heat-lamp hole drilling.

The girls are getting all feathered out already!  HURRY!

Stink Eye and the Last Green Egg

Thanks to one of my homeys in a denim jumper I awoke this morn with a flaming case of pink eye.  What in the world?  Did I shake hands with a six year old?  Isn’t this a childhood disease?  Anyway, my family is off to worship God at His place and here I sit….. only risking the contamination of our dog.  (Don’t laugh.  Trixie and Larisa gave pink eye to each other several times years ago…. back when we let them sleep together.)  Eeewwwwwwiiiiieeeeee.

Sadness has also enveloped our home as we bid goodbye to the only pets who were contributing members of the household, TJ (or Sidney) and Olivia.  The first time we had chickens (Thelma, Misty and King Pao) the kids bonded with their own and loved them and played with them daily.  Keeve especially loved Kung Pao and she rode in the power wheels jeep with him and clung to his bike handlebars as he rode her around the yard as she relished the wind in her feathers.  Those three girls went to a nice ranch north of Phoenix when we moved to a subdivision with an HOA.  So second time around, the kids built a coop and we went and picked up three peepers at Pratt’s pet store.  They are so adorable when they are chickies.  But the bond never formed and feeding and watering was a chore added to the chore list.  Not fun.  Personally I appreciated the yummy brown and green eggs, but it seems I was the sole appreciator.

Fast forward 18 months: a friend called and asked if she could come look at our coop and get some ideas about building her own.  My response, “It’s your lucky day!  Take ours! Can you come before Wednesday?”  So our feathered friends moved to their new abode yesterday and will be loved FAR more than they were here.  Farewell, TJ (or Sidney) and Olivia, already renamed Tina and Goldie Hen (Hawn, get it?).

And for those wondering why I keep typing TJ (or Sidney), we had two Rhode Island Reds because they are awesome producers of eggs.  But one died of heat stroke last summer when it was 118 degrees and I wouldn’t bring them into my airconditioned house.  (Please refrain from hate mail.) But we will never know which gal went to chicken heaven.

Peace out, Pink Eye Linda and Trixie

P.S.  Calling all cowgirls, new bags up tomorrow morning:  www.bagsforzaza.blogspot.com