Our Lou Boy

Catch up Post #1

It has been a while since I have written anything here, sorry about that. While things have been a bit on the crazy side and very busy, I really haven't made the time because it seems no one reads it anyway. However, that should not matter, I started this blog to record our journey and that is what I shall return to doing.

There is so much to catch up on.

I think we left off just after the floods. Boy are we in a different place now. It has been so very dry ever since the floods that my garden sort of resembles West Texas in August. I had such high hopes for my garden this year, but the weather, the rabbits, and life had other plans. I am still holding out hope for my fall garden though. See, ya just have to keep moving forward. ; )

Remember our monster birds? Yes, well, they were boys! We ended up with two roosters in our flock this time. I posted pics of them. Bully bird is no longer with us, he was mean and would not let the girls have a moment of peace. Pterodactyl boy has changed his name to Lou and he is going to stay with us. I know, that means we will be building yet another home and run!! Our plan is to put Lou up in his own pad to keep him away from the laying hens. Don't worry, we know he needs someone to look after so we are going to move Zelda, Fluffy and possibly Penguin in with him. Ohhhh, you have not met Penguin huh? Oh boy, that is a story unto itself. I will post about her a little later. I had said that I did not want to have a rooster on our property but it is not often you find a sweet one. Lou is such a gentleman and he is so good with the girls. It is fun watching him look after them, and the kids are happy he is hanging around.

Flock 3 Pictures

Pterodactyl Boy

Bully Bird


Sweetness isn't she?

Our pretty baby girls.


Bully Bird, pure evil.

The Roos.

Bully

Pterodactyl

The girls

Little girl at roost.

Flooding in Middle Tennessee

Redbud Roost is still afloat. (lol bad joke.) We are all fine, we survived the rains and rising creeks, must be all the down the babies have shed. ; ) If you did not leave our property line you would not know today that a flood ever happened. Our hearts go out to all of those in our community, county and state that did not fare so well in the face of the 1000 year flood. Earlier today we drove through town and saw all of the people who live along the river with their entire lives out on the lawn. They were busy gutting the houses and trying to start to rebuild.

Flooding is devastating far beyond just material things, it is a very personal tragedy that happens on a very large scale. I was there once and I remember the defeated feeling of everything being destroyed with no defense against it, for yourself or your neighbors. The wonderful thing about this happening in Tennessee is that the people here are far more than just amazing. The stories you hear from other places that have gone through this have always been largely negative, but not here. The stories coming out of these waters are of kindness, caring, and selflessness. Every where you look people, even ones who are affected by the floods themselves, are reaching out to neighbors, strangers and anyone in need. The Volunteer State is being true to it's name in a big way. It will take a long time to rebuild the towns, the lives and the economies, but it will happen.... Tennessee people will make sure it does.

I am so very proud that we chose this state to raise our family. We are Blessed beyond words.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

Lots of changes going on and I am not just talking weather. The babies look dreadful because they have hit that stage where they look half naked while trying to grow in all those beautiful big girl feathers. There are some definite personalities in this group of girls! I don't think these will be as easily frightened as the last flock, while they are a bit high strung they are also fiercely inquisitive.

We combined the other two flocks. It was not pretty at first, at all. They have however calmed down and started dealing with each other so maybe they have the pecking order back under control. First we put bands on all the oldest girls legs, with the exception of Zelda and Fuzzy. Now when it comes time for the oldest to move out, we know who is who for sure. Zelda is still not happy about all the new kids in her space but she is hanging in there for us.

Well, there is lots to do while the rain is away so I will update soon with new pictures, until then...Have a great day!

Two weeks, wow!

The prior flocks have all grown at about the same rate, with the exception of a runt or maybe one or two that were just a bit larger like Zelda. This flock somehow lost the memo that they should all be about the same size. We have like two, maybe three chicks that are dinosaur birds, they are HUGE! They are all losing the fuzz and getting feathers at the same speed and everyone seems healthy and all are getting to the food just fine. I am not sure what happened but these girls look like they are on steroids.


I brought a couple of the babies in the house to take pictures so you could see the difference I am talking about. The sad part is that the big girl kept cowering down so she would not be the big kid. I noticed that all the big ones kind of do that but this one seems to do it the most.


Somehow the two that I brought inside turned into five. The kids kept bringing in "just one more."

This is Jewel, she is Sarah's buddy. She is cute.


Overall the girls are doing really well. They are however running out of room in the baby box so this weekend they will definitely be moving into the teen house. ; )

Our Lovely New Flock

I feel absolutely guilty for not starting the new flock journal sooner. There have been a lot of events pulling my attention and time. Here we are now so let's talk birds. ; )

We picked up our babies at the extension office on April 7th. This is our third flock of 25 Black Sex-Link pullets.

We immediately got them home into what we like to call the baby box. We keep the girls in a tub on the enclosed back porch so they are protected and because it is easy to keep an eye on the antics and take care of them until we feel they are ready to move into the teen house.

We make sure they know where the water is...
No one really needs to show them where the food is, they are more like piggies than chickens...

They settled in quickly and everyone looks great...

Every night before bed the kids and I would check bottoms to make sure no one is getting a pasted bottom. We check them for up to a week, just to be safe. I don't know why we did not find this in prior flocks but this time we learned something new. One night while checking bottoms we found an interesting second spot. At first we were concerned there was a problem so we looked it up. Baby chicks have belly buttons! Cool huh? Well, if you think about it you would agree that it makes sense, right? This is where they are attached to the food source in the egg, just before hatching they suck up all the protein from the egg and that is what keeps them fortified for a day or so until they can get to where they are going.

Ok, I have to go but I will be posting the next article in a little while. Wait til you see what is going on with those girls now.

Spring Is In The Air

I forgot about this pot of Hen and chicks but they seem to be reviving, that was a nice surprise.

The boy coming back from chores.

Sunny on guard and ready to play.

New leaves. Makes one giddy after what seemed like a long winter.

Sarah overseeing the little girls.

The bud of a Redbud is awesome.

My entourage.

The Tulips are making their debut.

The first beautiful bloom of the year here on Redbud.

Nature's Mood Enhancer

I just can not stop from being happy right now! The weather is beautiful, as if to say that Spring is on it's way. In a month or so there will be a surprise coming to Redbud and it makes me so giddy. I wish I could tell you what it is but then it would not be a surprise but it has me smiling from ear to ear.

The chickens were all in an angry mood this morning, not sure exactly why, but hopefully the sunshine will brighten their attitude a bit as the day goes on. Over the last few days we have had some escape artists. Funny thing about those birds, they find a way out of the run and immediately start looking for a way back in. Thankfully one of our dogs, Sunny, is a herder and she kept them safe and gathered for me while we got them all back inside their domain. A couple of them were following me and just talking like crazy, it was like they were saying "It was not my idea, she did it." They are all safe and sound and I think we have corrected the problem that led to the break out.

We have our first bloom of the season!! I will be outside a lot today doing much needed chores and I will have my trusty camera at the ready for signs of Spring to share in the next post. Until then I hope all of you have a beautiful day and keep smiling.

Put That Bird Here

At the end of the month we will receive 25 Black Sex-link pullet chicks. This is such a good breed, they are fun to raise, they are hardy, and they lay beautiful brown eggs. We are thrilled with them as we have raised them for the last two years. This year we wanted to add onto our poultry flock by getting a few hens that lay tinted eggs and also try our hand at Guineas. I have run into a snag with this plan. I was hoping that if I got them all about the same time we could raise them together but that is not going to happen. We will get the hens at the end of March, the new hens would not be available until May and the Guineas not until June. I am quite sure by the time they are available I will have this worked out, but I am quite sure asking my husband to help me build yet another hen structure is out of the question. He has spent the last two Springs building for chickens and as much as he loves them, I think the idea of putting off other projects for them again is kind of pushing it.

The set up we have now is working. We brood the babies on the back porch in tubs, it is enclosed and safe, this way they can get constant attention and the best care. It is also a great way for the family to bond with them before they think they are grown. Once they have their feathers and we feel they are ready or they are growing so much that they are taking over everything, they move to the little girl house. They will stay closed up until I feel the weather is good enough for them to explore the great outdoors. Then we will introduce them to their run and they will be set until next year when the new babies come along. The gang of girls that occupied the little girl house before them will graduate up to the big girl house. This one is much bigger and has way more open air, a bigger run and even fun places to pretend they are Queen for the day. (Until someone knocks them down to take that spot.) The previous big girls will hang around until we know we can meet the egg production needed for our customers and then we will say goodbye to most all of them, with the exception of Zelda and Fuzzy.

The first year Daniel took five hens to show in the 4H Poultry show. It was fun, he got a blue ribbon and even got some cash. He was thrilled when one of his hens produced an egg during the judging and it was great to see all the other hens and meet their owners. We did not choose to take part in the auction because we kind of liked our girls. ; ) Last year Daniel was excited to show his hens and we had even picked out which ones he would take but we ended up with no way of transporting them to the show. I was not about to ask my MIL if we could carry them in her BMW. lol That would have been a NO. This year will be better and he will get to show his hens one way or another.

It is Chick time again....

We are so very excited to announce that we will once again be taking part in the 4H Chick Chain. Woo hoo! 25 new baby chicks will be heading our way and we are thrilled. The whole family looks forward to this time of year when we get new babies to take care of, name and watch grow into hens with attitude. Stay tuned for updates and once they arrive, pictures, pictures and more pictures. ; )

Our Snow Angel

This is the most snow we have seen since moving to Redbud. It is pretty, the kids like being out of school, but I am ready for Spring! I love that we are moving into February, the month I get to start planting indoors to transplant into the garden after the last frost. The hens are not so much happy with the white stuff everywhere but the dogs love it.

During morning chores Sarah decided to make snow angels and Sunny was leaping around like a wild thing. Sunshine loves the cooler weather and really has herself a time, especially when the kids are out there to play with her or just to watch her and give her attention.

So this is Sarah. Her main chore is to collect the eggs. She has learned the hard way that you can't run with the basket and that eggs ARE certainly fragile. When we sell our eggs the label usually says Gathered by Sarah, so if you are a customer and you wonder who is collecting your eggs, this is her.

Well, back to plotting and figuring for Spring. Stay warm and have a beautiful evening.

Snow Birds

It was a snowy afternoon here on Redbud. The chickens are less than thrilled with the lack of green treats and even less impressed with having to do their bathing in the hen house. Our little ladies are finally learning that yelling at me really changes nothing. The big girls could have told them this a long time ago. Now they sort of grumble and look at me in much the same way as a disgruntled teenager.
As I type this it is sleeting and snowing outside. The girls will be even more excited about things when we let them out in the morning. NOT. The upside is that they are laying really well, maybe out of boredom I am not really sure. There is someone in the big girls house that is laying her eggs on the floor in protest. I have not figured out who it is but she will learn soon enough that it does not work.

Rules, Schmools!

I have been absolutely torn when it comes to paint choices in our home and I am over it, I just want to get it painted already. When I ask myself why this is so tough all I can come up with is that the rules are strangling me. I know that we have rules for a reason. In general I am a person that respects the rules but this is where I need to be a rebel.

Interior design rules will say that when you have rooms that are open to one another there should be an easy transition by using complimentary colors. Closed off rooms are not as fussy.

We live in a home built in 1945, it is small and we have to sometimes be creative with space. We specifically chose a small home for many reasons. Our kitchen and master bedroom are usually always open to the living room. Now, I know that this being said, these three rooms should be painted to compliment each other. However, my argument is that we paint and decorate our homes in a way that makes us comfortable and happy. That is the point, right? We live here 24/7 and quite honestly our family does not have that many visitors other than kids and they really do not care.

Our family lives by so many schedules and rules due to health issues and Asperger's that I feel if each room wants to be who it is then it should be allowed to do just that. Each room should become what it is destined to be. It was easier with the kids rooms, they are closed off from the main living area and they could choose what makes them happy. The living room is done in warm colors and feels very cozy. The kitchen wants to be light and fun because it is a workhorse. That leaves the master bedroom, and it has been the center of controversy. We want to decorate in shades of blue but that does not follow the rules. Here is where I am done. I will decorate our bedroom in shades of blue and I think the room is very happy with that decision. ; )

Have you broken the design rules? Do you think it should all flow or meet the needs of each individual room? Tell me your story, I would love to hear what you have to say.

Did you know?

I love to learn new things but I love to learn old things too. I thought it would be cool to do some "Did you know?" posts. Some of these items you may know, may have forgotten that you know, or maybe you will get a new wrinkle in your brain. So here is the first installment.

• 5% solution of vinegar kills 99% of bacteria, 82% of mold, and 80% of viruses.
• If you want to kill germs on toys with batteries you can just put them in a ziplock bag in the freezer for 2 days.
• Oven cleaner is great for cleaning hair tools such as curling irons.
• If you don't know if those eggs in the frig are fresh or not just place them in a bowl of water. Fresh eggs will sink to the bottom while older eggs will float.

Cool right? If you have little tidbits feel free to leave me a comment. Until next time, now you know.

Warm Rain

The warmer weather and thunderstorms are hinting Spring, but I realize it is still January. Thankfully the seed catalogs are beginning to roll in and the plotting can begin. I have been trying to do a bit of Spring cleaning around here, at least inside since it has been a frog strangler out there. I know when the official signs of Spring roll around I will be way too busy to get to most of these chores then.

The little girls were very excited to come outside today, even though they are not fans of getting wet. When they all piled out the door they realized there were puddles everywhere and instead of just walking through them, instead decided they should fly over every. single. puddle! They are not the brightest bulbs but we still kind of like them. The big girls had no issues with coming outside, they love the rain. They are not thrilled that they are not getting the daily clover but that last cold spell got most of it. It won't be long they will be knee deep in the green again. (Do chickens actually have knees?)

Sarah bear is battling being sick. Poor baby has a sore throat, pink eye and an ear ache. I hope she starts feeling better soon AND that she can stay away from her brother. She so hates to miss school. Well, I should keep it short today because it is time to give the Big Blue Bear his shot. Tomorrow I plan to add more to the side bar and maybe even post some pictures. Have a good one!

The countdown has begun...

We are ever inching toward next week when our family will have a celebration. Each year on January 27th we have a party. We like to refer to the event as a D-aversary because it marks the date our son was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. I know that sounds odd, diagnosed with an illness that has no cure and yet have a celebration to mark the date. Yes. That is the day our son, then only 6 years old, received his first shot of insulin. January 27th is the day our son's life was saved from what only 80 years before had been a certain death.

Our D-aversary consists of the meal we had that night, KFC. We bake a cake and decorate it however Daniel thinks it should be, last year we decorated the cake to look like his insulin pump. We hand out certificates to recognize the hard work and milestones that have been met in the past year, not only by Daniel but by his entire team of family and friends who help him live with this 24/7. We have been known to have a little air guitar and air drums at the party to evoke everyone's inner rock star. We celebrate the life, the precious gift of insulin, the tenacity it takes to live every day when your immune system has disabled your pancreas.

This year is a milestone. This year is 5 years of living with Type 1 diabetes. I feel as though we need a bit more for this celebration. I will be working on ideas for this one because I want to show my son that we appreciate every year, every moment we have been given with him. I have to say that not all tears that I shed on D-aversary day are ones of joy. I am still only a mama, I remember in such vivid detail the events leading up to, the day itself, and the time after. Traumatic really does not come close to describing what a family goes through when a child is diagnosed with an illness that has no cure. When you come so close to losing a precious little one simply because you do not see the warning signs or maybe because you are in denial that they are even there, it changes you. The disease changes your child, your family, your world. I am thankful every single day for this now 11 year old that makes me crazy and for his sisters who do so even more. I can not imagine, nor do I want to, my life without them in it. On that day there was a period of time that I believed I was losing my child to something I did not understand and until he received that first shot of insulin, I was.

News from the Roost

Redbud Roost has been rockin' so far this winter. I have to say I am a bit surprised at how well the chicks have been behaving. This is the coldest winter we have had since we have lived in Tennessee and last year the big girls had a few issues with the cold. This year both flocks have done really well with both laying and with each other.
When we moved the big girls over to the second hen house I forgot about the lighting because, well, their hen house is inside the barn and it has lights, just not that stay on for the appropriate amount of time each day. So the girls went through a molt and most stopped laying. We learned so much from the molt. We learned that Daniel's beloved Zelda is probably the worst layer we have. Zelda did a slow molt, we knew she was vain but oh gosh she took it to new levels.
Once the molt was over I installed a lamp on a timer and after a bit they got back on schedule with laying. Now we have 43 layers and we are getting 30+ eggs a day. Thank goodness we have a pretty good customer base to handle some of those eggs. ;) When we get backed up we just scramble and boil eggs to feed back to the girls. Extra protein is always a good thing and they love them. The shells get baked and fed back as well to add extra calcium to their diets.
Sarah can not wait until Spring when we will order our new flock. I can't blame her, the babies are always so much fun.

A Brand New Day!

I have not blogged in a long time. I am now ready to move forward and want to revive this blog. It started out as a way to journal our 4H project of raising chickens but we are opening it up to so much more. Our family is building a small hobby farm, one limestone at a time and we live with a number of health issues that sometimes get in the way. I hope you find your way back here on a regular basis as we grow and add new features to the blog and to Redbud. Welcome!