Cold fingers & writers crap do not mix

Hello everyone, I hope by now you have faired the worst of the winter cold & like me looking forward to the Spring.  I had to upload this card my little sis sent to me as a birthday card a few years back.......this is so me each morning without my first cup of coffee & each time I see this on the frig I smile.  so thought I would share it with all of you.

It has been a weird winter here as I have mentioned before, so little snow, lots of sunny days & some bitter winds.  I must say though the 'kids' are enjoying the time out in the yard & the hens have been laying quite a few eggs....

Some mornings they get cracked corn or warm stone cut oats, other days its a treat of cheerios since they don't need that high of a sugar to warm up.  Even though it has been such a mild winter I have noticed this season the leg mites are out of control as well as the body mites & lice.  So even with the nice weather it seems there is always something to do with the 'kids'.

Lauria, the crooked neck girl is doing so well she started laying eggs about a week ago.  I thought with her being a broiler she might not be able to ...well boy was I pleased to see that first egg of hers.  since we have been bathing her & dusting her the mites have pretty much died off so she is a much happier hen & now comes out into the living room to visit with me.

Rosy, the one who got a chest cold about a month ago is also doing quite well but is still in with the house 'kids' as she seems to do better with them.  The big coop  girls always peck at her crown so she has scabs all the time, in the house those get to heal.  Poor Porgie, the Sarama Roo had to get a pair of leg warmers, since he is so close to the ground he stays cold so I made him a pair using the cotton finger tubes for finger injuries, I must say he seems to like them. He does look quite dashing it them I might add.

Ok, some of you know I am working on a small book about my experiences raising chickens. Well it has seemed to have grown much larger than I thought in the beginning.  I sent the 1st draft to my little sis to edit & am now working on the areas she recommended plus add the pictures & diagrams.  What was going to be about 50 pages now looks to be around 100 but I don't mind as I think in the long run it will be of help to others who don't want all the medical books or books on raising large amounts of chickens.

I have also been working on a chicken suet recipe that I am testing out on my basement 'kids'.  I realized that the wild bird suet weren't really any benefit to the chickens, sure they love them but they needed something that was based on chicken health not wild bird health.  Through all the research I have come to see that one type of suet will not fit all the needs they have year around but they need a special blend for each season.  so that has been fun researching & making.  Right now the basement kids are on the Winter blend until the spring grasses come in then I will change it into a Spring blend for them & see how they do on that one as well.

Even if I am not moving my brain seems to always be in high gear when it comes to the chickens....lol  None of that just throwing out bagged chicken feed for them here!

Well I sent Thomas off last week to visit his folks in Vegas, he will be gone until the 22th of this month.  I am sure they are getting in plenty of Poker games...lol....  Next Month I get to go visit my little sis in Prescott Arizona for about a week.  She is flying me there so I can spend time with her & see this new town she calls home.  I think it will be a nice break for me as I haven't really left the house since may 2010.  I have such a hard time leaving the 'kids' & worry about them the whole time I am gone.  But thankfully my husband tends to over feed the chickens while I am gone so I don't worry about them being hungry.

But you know I will worry & be glad when I am back home, so I can check on everyone of them.  At least I know the 4 cats can pretty much fend for themselves while I am away.  And as long as Daisy Mae, the bearded lizard has her water & dried mealy worms she is good to go.

I am still doing home therapy on my bad shoulder & now have to do it with the other shoulder as I have caused it to ache from over using it...lol...just can't win!  Its alright since I tend to exercise it anyway when I am doing the bad shoulder but I will tell you, having two shoulders that ache all the time is getting tiresome.  And don't get me started on the arthritis in the ankles, one knee & both wrists!  Some days I feel like I need to crawl out of my skin because I can't stand it anymore.

I am sure looking forward to the Spring this year to work on the gardens.  With Thomas back home I can have the larger gardens so I have plenty of things to can for us.  I found a few new seeds I want to try out that I have not done before.  Normally all I grow is green beans, tomatoes, yellow squash & cantaloupe...this year I want to try cabbage up here & broccoli.  Not sure how well it will do but just maybe  I will get at least a head or two of each.  I also bought 10 packs of a chicken greens mix, made up just for the chickens through a company in Canada.  That I plan to put in the herb bed area for them plus in a few large bucket type pots so that I can move them into the run area when they have grown enough for the 'kids' to eat & enjoy.  Plus once they eat it all, I can move it out again & reseed it for them.  So I plan to have wonderful greens all late spring & summer for them.

Well since its going on to 3:30 a.m. I best close this for now & try to lay down again...Monk woke me up at midnight wanting to play.  But now he is laying on the computer table next to me sound asleep.

Until next time have a wonderful chicken day....M'