Whose that crazy Chicken Lady?

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Monday, January 29, 2018

Is Winter over yet?

I would wager to say this has to be the coldest Winter in a very LONG time!

Being homebound has given me a bit of a cabin fever. I did get out over the past two weekends. Short trips into the nearby town. I got pretty pooped pretty fast. I'll find out later this week what is the story about my knee. (If I need surgery) The results show ligament tears, cartilage damage and my MCL has a tear. I'm still hobbling around on my crutches. This is week 7 and I was hoping for more mobility. I think I'm pushing myself too hard.

The rest of this Winter has not been uneventful!

Sadly, we have lost 3 hens due to the cold and 1 hen from an Owl. Right now we have 5 Ducks and 8 Chickens, including our Roo.  Our hope is to make or buy an incubator to hatch more. Or hit the farm auction in a few months for wee ones.

Our neighbor was wonderful to plow us out a few times! The pipes in the bathroom froze on two occasions. We were without propane twice, once due to running out, the company didn't come out in time to fill us and the other was due to the blower going out.

I've been pounding away on my second book. YAY me!

Homeschooling has been fun, but yet challenging. Mini Man is more of  Kinesthetic learner- meaning he learns much better through physical actions then me yammering on about different subjects.

My wonderful Sister came out for a visit a few weeks back. It was a lovely time! I twisted her arm to do a Vision Board. She brought Zucchini that was super yummy. Mini Man and my adorable Nephew played Nerf guns and ran around like mad men.

We're still doing garden planning and other house projects. I say, "We" but I really mean Mr. Awesome. I kind of just supervise from the couch. But I did treat myself to some nifty photo boxes that I am using for my seed storage. SWOON! I love how they look in them! Most of the seeds are ones I have collected from the previous years harvest. I do have a bit older and plan to test them to see if they are still viable before planting.




So, we burn our paper out in a burn barrel. Peanut is in charge of this task. Well... It was a bit breezy on Saturday when she tackled this project. Sure enough a ember flew out and WHOOSH! She came running in the house yelling for Mr. Awesome that the field was on fire. YIKES!






He ran outside and I hobbled to the back door to catch a few pictures. The event took about a half hour. Both of them were pretty tired when they got back in. We had planned on doing a bit of a small burn to hit the Thistles that are crazy in the meadow. So in a way it works out?






It was so nice outside yesterday we went to church! It's been ages and I missed going. The weather was also nice enough that Mr. Awesome grabbed chairs and I was able to ground myself.

I also got a chance to see some bee's flying and our other critters having a run around the yard.

Besides my knee, the Lyme has been flaring fierce. The upcoming supermoon is definitely making my body wonky. Creepy crawly, migraine, body pains and just all around feeling crappy.

I am putting in paperwork for Disability. It's my 4th round of doing so. This time I received a notice in the mail that my health provider considers my health medically frail and that I should consider filing for disability. I'm torn. I want to beat this. The flip side is that Lyme will never completely go away. It will hide (remission) until something causes it to rear its ugly head again. I don't wish to call myself disabled. That makes me feel defeated. Does that make sense? I do need to jump back on the fitness wagon by cutting out the sugar, carbs and other inflammatory things. I know I'll feel better. On the flipside I hate to burden my family with added special foods for groceries. I haven't cooked too much since the great knee incident. Convenience prepacked foods have been in the house. Where is Spring? Maybe that will help my mood.

So how is your Winter looking?

Hope your day is great!

BIG HUGS!
Mel

Thursday, January 11, 2018

Dreaming of Spring...

Horray! The snow is just about gone after several weeks of bitter cold. The chickens have finally ventured out today for the first time in a long time.

Mr. Awesome purchased a few flock blocks for the birds and ducks to nibble on while they hunkered down in the coop and duck abbey.

The temps over the past few days are 50 degrees! Amazing!

I am sad to say we did lose 3 chickens bringing our flock to 8 chickens and our 5 ducks did survive. I was worried!


Mr. Awesome and I discussed investing in or making an incubator to hatch our own chicks. There is also the option of going up to the local farm auction on Fridays to bid on some. We are still considering sheep and now Dexter Cow(s). We will see!

I'm happy the bitter cold is no longer with us. The furnace was running quite a bit. We hadn't put plastic on the windows and some other insulation projects kind of fell to the wayside due to my fantastic knee boo-boo and just because Mr. Awesome is just plumb tired after a long work day.

We discussed plans for the garden with no idea if I need surgery or not. I will find out the news on Feb 2nd. I've gone out a few days ago to present a Vision Board class for a few hours. I was able to manipulate the stairs with my trusty buddy right beside me in case things went wonky.

To break my need to get out, he planned on getting me out of the house soon. I'm anxious and nervous. I admit to being gun shy to put weight on my leg. Oh, I'm doing my therapy exercises, but I'm still quite nervous. My knee and leg no longer feel like jelly. Thank goodness! The swelling has gone down quite a bit and I took my own shower without any aid last week. YAY ME!

So, back to plans. My plans for the year are totally different then his. My little antique shop will be placed on hold while I heal and we work on other pressing projects such as:

Starting on the pond
Using the dirt from the pond to grade along the house
There are some old piles of rubble and glass that need to be cleaned up
Something done about the valley or entire roof of the house
Burning the yard
Revamp or new animal cages/coops
Create a loft for hay/straw in the barn
Insulate
Move the Godherd the schoolbus to a new location
Make raised beds for the garden

There are a few more things as well.  I'm excited and anxious to see what else happens this year.

Homeschooling has been fun. I can't say I'm unschooling but I'm not following the usual curriculum but hope to purchase something for the 2018-2019 school year. I also haven't totally decided if we are just going to school year around or break for summer.


Ah! I can't wait for Spring! How about you?

Big Hugs,
Mel