May 15, 2011

NEXT BLOG

I like to click the box at the top of my page that says "NEXT BLOG". I just clicked forward to the next 20 blogs and found 14 with gorgeous pictures of food and exotic recipes. I found 3 that had lovely pictures of gardens in back yards with park benches. I found 2 blogs from broken-hearted women who got their hearts crushed.

....and I just write about chickens.

Today I'm going to write about something of substance. I have had an anxious and heavy heart lately.

February 20, 2011 my beautiful Cousin Dana.....

...lost her 22 year-old daughter to a drunk driver. A 21 year-old man, was driving with a suspended license in an unregistered and uninsured car, 80+ mph on a 35 mph road and in his drunk and drugged-up state, t-boned and killed our beautiful Rachel Lynn Millhouse.


The drunk driver was charged with Vehicular Homicide and DUI charges. The scuttlebutt is that this is his 3rd DUI. WHAT!! The pain and suffering because of this man's actions will be on-going forever!
The cross designates the intersection in Missoula, Montana where Rachel died.

"Educate your children to self-control,
to the habit of holding passion and prejudice
and evil tendencies subject to an upright and reasoning will,
and you have done much to abolish miery from their future
and crimes from society."
---Benjamin Franklin
US author, diplomat, inventor, physicist, politician & printer (1706-1790)

To add an increased sadness to our family, Dana's mother, Janet N. Lee, who is also my Aunt passed away this week.
Aunt Janet Lee was a sweet lady with a laugh that twinkled.
Dana and her family have had so much to deal with in the past 3 months. It seems inconsequential to talk about my pain, but as a cousin and a niece, I am hurting. Praying gives me comfort, but I still cry when I'm talking to the Lord. My heart hurts for the pain of my family.

THEN my sister Lee......
Lee with her daughter Lindsey who was just crowned Prom-Queen
...was almost killed exactly 2 months to the day after Rachel was killed. She experienced a true miracle and for that, I am eternally grateful. She was also t-boned by a driver. We don't know why he ran the red light but his little pickup hit her Suburban so hard, that she spun around in circles and then flipped over on the hood.

Lee's Suburban.

She was wearing her seatbelt which saved her life as she dangled helplessly in that smashed vehicle. The many emergency responders cut her out of her vehicle. She is in excellent shape and I believe her very strong muscles kept her spine in place.

Phew, that was a lot of unloading. I think I'm going to go to the NEXT BLOG.

April 9, 2011

Coop deVille

The ADVENTURE BEGINS!! We left the local ranch-supply store the middle of March, with 5 chicks, heat lamps, feeders, waterers, pine shavings, and baby-chick feed. A week later we purchased 16 more chicks for a total of 21. The breeds we chose are Wyandotts, Delaware, White and Silver Leghorns, and Black Jersey Giants. They were so tiny, fragile and vulnerable. They lived in our dining room for 2 weeks until they drove us all nuts and they were moved to the garage. Matthew is making sure that Jinx, the cat, kept her distance. They are now a month old and have out-grown their box and another box had to be added. We are pitying their close quarters and something has to be done!
We've spent weeks pouring over books from the Library. We read about chickens and coop designs. We looked all over the Internet and found some fabulous sites!

http://www.mypetchicken.com/ This site gives great information on chickens

http://www.backyardchickens.com/ This site has about 450 coop designs.


Victor has gotten a brilliant idea and made a simple stand out of 2 x 4's with chicken-wire stapled to it. It is firm and is able to stand up by itself, creating a circle. We've put the pine shavings on the garage floor, hung the heat lamps, and now they are enjoying the added room. Victor even designed an A-framed Roost for them.

Victor bought some wood and adds it to a supply of barnwood that we were fortunate enough to be given. You can't see it in these pictures, but the wind is blowing bitterly.
March 25th.....
Well, it's now April 9th and it's snowing!! It will be another few weekends before the Coop deVille will be finished and the chicks can enjoy their new insulated home.


Winter in Montana lasts until June!!




January 21, 2011

Chicken Farming


I have a dream. A dream to raise enough egg-laying foul to furnish our family with nutritious eggs... and a little mad-money for Lori! I wonder what I will do with my "egg-money"?


I am wishing for the good ol' days when they had barn-raisin's with the neighbors.  We need to have a good ol' fashioned coop-raisin'.


A sweet woman my husband knows from work, gave us some chicken magazines. I had no idea there were magazines solely devoted to raising chickens... with multiple issues. What could they possibly have to write about? Perhaps they would write about the kinds of things I've been wanting to know, such as:


How big should we build the coop?

What do you feed chickens?

What is the difference between the kind of chickens you eat and the kind that lay eggs?


Which ones bite?

Do we need a ROOSTER for proper egg laying?

Where can I buy a rooster-muzzle?

Who babysits those feathered-foul when we go on our lavish vacations with all that egg-money?