Overdue Update

Apologies to you and this blog, I have been neglecting to get posts written and I assure you I have slapped my hands with the ruler for this misdeed. While the posts have been few it does not mean that we are all lazing around and have nothing to say, just the opposite actually.

The family: This month has been busy for the humans on Redbud. Taylor had her 17th birthday, Sarah slept over at a friend's house for the first time ever, Daniel celebrated his fourth D-aversary (the fourth anniversary of his diabetes diagnosis), Taylor had Governor's School auditions (which is huge and nerve racking for her), we had our annual IEP meeting with the school for Daniel's Asperger's, Daniel had his 4-H poster to turn in, there has been much planning for the garden and the chickens going on and the kids have been home on and off from school because of weather. Whew, that is a lot and I am sure I have missed stuff.

The chickens: Those silly girls have been up to some antics. They have not been big fans of the weather, the rain and the cold have them in a tizzy. There was a point when we thought we would have to rename the hen house The Ark and the girls looked a mess because they would not stay out of the rain. We had a few days that were so super cold that the egg laying decreased and I was afraid even with the light on for the 14 hours a day that they would stop, but they plowed through it. It did send one girl into a semi-moult and she got picked on for it. She looked so ragged with her little half naked neck. Then I saw Zelda pulling feathers from the moulting girl and eating them. This can mean one of two things, they are bored or they need more protein. Because of the freezes the amount of greens have been fewer so I figured it was the protein issue. I cooked up a bunch of eggs and fed them, I know it sounds wrong, and they loved them. Voila, protein. One day they got scrambled eggs and another day they got boiled eggs broken up. The shells can be baked and fed back to them for a boost of calcium as well. They will be happy to know that in my garden plans is a plot of ground just for their greens, both for spring and for fall. One thing that was tough during the cold was gathering the eggs fast enough that they would not get too cold, hopefully the worst is over and we can go back to our regularly scheduled collection times.

The dogs: They have a canine apartment of sorts in the barn and they enjoy it. They love to be let out so they can play outside too but this month they have spent more time in the barn than they would choose because of all the rain and cold. One of the spring plans is to fence off half of the area behind the barn and then they can go out when they choose. Dixie is ok to let roam free but Sunny is half border collie and she likes to herd things, like cars. Over all they are happy girls and enjoy the time in the afternoon that the kids go and play with them and give them treats.

Collectively we are all getting excited about spring, the green coming back, the warm days, and starting on the next phase of Redbud.