We've been cooped up this past week while F. and C. suffered through the chicken pox. Honestly, it was not as bad as I thought it would be. About 3 itchy days and then the spots started to scab over. M. has not broken out yet, and I am amazed. How could he have not have contracted this when he was exposed at the same time as the other two? So now we have to wait another 10-21 days to see if he breaks out from exposure to his own brother and sister *sigh*

So anyway, the kids have been lounging around, and I'll tell ya, I could get used to this lounging around business. Not having to go anywhere or do anything for a week has been agreeing with me. I am enjoying sipping my tea and snuggling under a blanket to watch Elf for the hundredth time with the kids. I got all the ironing done. I was able to run for 5 evenings in a row. The house is neat and schoolwork is done. It feels good to ditch committments and relax.

Here's a pic of the damage on my lovely C:



And a puzzle we finished in two days (only becuase we were home of course. Otherwise it would have sat on the table for a week). It's a winter one, but it's cold enough here to be winter so it's fitting-plus it's pretty:

I just want to be able to make a quiche

We FINALLY have another layer. One of the Delawares started to lay this past week at 28 weeks. That is 9 whole weeks after Penny started to lay and 5 weeks after Sugar. Why so darn long? And what I can't believe is that there are still 2 Delawares who aren't laying yet, as well as our little Easter Egger.

What's up chickens?

Last year all of my pullets were laying by 22 weeks. We are barely getting 2 dozen eggs a week at this point, which is really pathetic considering we have 11 hens. But when you have 3 that still won't lay, and 5 that are seriously molting, then I guess 3-4 eggs a day is okay.

*Sigh* Still, I am not used to not having enough eggs. I actually had to ration them out last week to make sure I would have enough to boil later in the week.

My bet is this: The last 2 remaining Delawares will start to lay by 30 weeks, the Easter Egger by 32

Happy 6, little C.

What can I say about C?

She is as delicious as a strawberry.
Her eyes sparkle like blue sapphires.
Her enthusiasm is unmatched, but she can also be as quiet as a mouse.
Her hands love to draw, color, paint, glue, sew, and hold her teddy tight.
Her legs are strong and love to jump, dance and kick.
She is about a million times smarter than any 6 year old should be, certainly more so than I was at 6.
She is an older sister and a younger sister, a leader and a follower.
She has a loose tooth!
She finds beauty in nature and the world around her
She is unashamed to pray aloud (unlike her mother)
She still believes that all wishes can come true
She is my only daughter and a part of my soul

Happy Birthday C!

I'm back

I've been away for a bit due to some computer issues, and having to use B.'s ultra non-user friendly laptop for the past couple of weeks.
During that time we found out that chickens love pumpkin:


And we had our first snow. Just a dusting, but enough for snowballs and a snow angel:



My beautiful daughter also turned 6, which I will post on in a bit.

Goodnight garden, sleep tight.

The garden is done. We have had two weeks of frosts and freezes, and I finally was able to go out today and put the garden to bed for the winter. I pulled out all the dead tomato and pepper plants, shoveled chicken manure over bare spots, and lamented over my poor peas that barely blossomed before the cold shriveled up the tender blooms.


It always feels good to leave the garden for the winter. The summer maintenance gets to be a drag, and this fall was very dry and I had to do as much watering as I did in the summer. After the first freeze I let the chickens in the garden and they were in heaven. All summer long they stare at the garden, probably dreaming of fresh greens and fat earthworms. They literally ran in as soon as I opened the gate. Now I can leave the gate open for them until late-April when I begin to plant again, and they can dig, scratch, poop, and dust-bathe until their hearts are content. I did cover my garlic patch with a blanket temporarily, and I will have to put some kind of netting over it for the winter so they don't scratch up the cloves.


I still have a little work to do. I am moving my compost pile over a bit, and I would like B. to till certain areas. I also need to find some cement blocks or heavy rocks to hold down the cardboard that I have spread over the grass where I am expanding the garden.

Then I can let the garden get a good, long, restful sleep.

Oh mighty food processor!

My birthday is coming up. Usually I buy myself some clothes, but this year I decided to buy something that I could really use. I have wanted a food processor for a long time. I don't really like to cook, but out of necessity I cook nearly everything from scratch and I spend an awful lot of time in the kitchen. I decided to go all out and buy the best one I could afford, one that would be able to do all the things that would really cut down my time in the kitchen. I recieved it about 2 weeks ago, and I can honestly say that I have used it nearly every single day since then. I have sliced potatoes, cucumbers, carrots, shredded cabbage, carrots, onions, cheese, I have made butter, and I have made apple sauce and pie crust. I LOVE this food processor!

The verdict is in

And the mystery green egg layer is....drumroll......Sugar!!
This is really exciting because we expected Sugar to lay brown eggs. Her father was our White Rock roo, and her mother was an Easter Egger. Her mother laid green eggs, but my research last year (NOT scientific by any means) led us to believe that the male determines the egg color of their offspring. So the fact that Sugar lays green eggs blows this theory out of the water. Sugar's eggs are a dark olive green. The darker the egg is, the more brown-eggs layers the hen has in her family tree. So I would say that Sugar is pretty far removed from an Americauna chicken, but she still lays pretty eggs!

Here is a picture of Sugar's egg (in the middle). On the left is Penny's brown egg, she is also a pullet which is why her egg is small. For comparison, I put one of our White Rock's eggs on the right. The pullet eggs will grow in size as the hen matures: