truly living the simple life..#1

...would be to not even have to worry about what to eat for dinner, right? How easy life would be if we could just grab something out of the ground that tasted as delicious as any comfort food you can think of.  I mean I love to cook and bake..it is a huge passion of mine, much to my family's joy, but wouldn't life be simpler if we could just eat what Earth provides?
Well we all know that is not possible, or is it.....and ever since February 2010 I decided to try my way down that road.

I stared on the 15th just as a personal bet, I was going to go 100% RAW for 30 days, I mean, who does not have thirty days to spare..for optimal health and wellbeing?

 I am just as strapped for time as anyone else..two children and their many hobbies, homework and snuggletimes, 4 dogs loving if you spend time at home with them, a Pecker Palace (chicken coop), full of little egglaying machines, requiring not much, but even what little it is...it takes time.
I knew it would be hard..I was doing this on my own after all..still maintaining my family's mealtimes as such..their meals, their cooked meals, downhome cooked meals, the ones that make your whole house smell divine. All I asked was for my husband to support me and not grumble about my "not eating real" food.

My biggest goal with this bet was to regain control of my eating habits if you will, bansih food related headaches forever and make my stomach happy once and for all and if I would lose a few pounds and get clearer skin along with it...BONUS!!

I had done a lot of research on the RAW diet, all the positive outcomes and negative comments alike....30 days..I could do that without letting my body completely keel over.....

Finally..I am back.

It has been so long since I wrote on here..lots have happened since then as you very well probably know..time does not stand still.




School got out in May, Sofia graduated 4th grade as an all A student, again making the Honor Roll..the only way she rolls since starting school..lol.


Lukas graduated from Kindergarten with flying colors..reading up a storm and ready to head into 1st grade as soon as he can.





Summer was splendid, we did very little, just relaxed, swam at the pool, visited friends and enjoyed a summer of R&R, especially since last summer was so hectic with the complete house remodel.

 

We also had lots of playdates and went to a few Vacation Bible Schools..

Pippin showed in his first show at the Reliant World Dogshow..he did great, so long as I didn't handle him.. He was grumpy with all strangers approaching his momma..so I asked a friend of a friend, Stacey Hayes, to handle him for me...and they both did wonderfully. It was a very big show to be entered as his first, he took it with stride.

Sofia also gave showing a go, and handled Honey Moon, Stacey's Ibizan Hound, beautifully in a Junior Showmanship Clinic for beginners





All in all Summer was great..the only big downfall was us not being able to go home and visit family in Sweden...but Mormor came to see us..

It was nice to have her visit us for three weeks, right in time before the kids went back to school again..

 it is so bitter sweet knowing your mother and best friend and the grandmother of your children is so very far away..it kills me a little every time we say goodbye..

More has happened since end of summer...of course..but there is another day and entry for that, until next time..live and love your simple lives folks...it doesn't get any better than this.

Hatching eggs in an incubator...

...is nerve wrecking, heartbreaking but ohh so rewarding

A few weeks ago one of our Buff Orpington ladies went broody. Broody means the hen is sitting on eggs for 21 days, sometimes they will stretch their legs, eat and use the restroom once a day, for a short while so the eggs don't get too chilled...and sometimes they won't leave the nest at all...literally starving for 21 days..it is very individual from hen to hen.

It amazes me how short of a time span it takes for a fertile egg to go from "egg" to hatched chick...

14 days into the broody period we had a family of raccoons break into the coop and kill our broody momma hen and two others...in an effort to save the eggs I went out and purchased a Little Giant incubator...not the best maybe but I was determined to make it work...so we set it up on the counter, loaded it up with the 9 eggs from the nest plus three more from the two other hens that got killed...made sure the temperature was a constant 99.5 degrees and that the humidity was kept at about 45% or so...we also had to make sure the eggs were turned three times a day so the fetus' didn't get stuck in the shell....now the wait..

It was very hard to keep the temp. and humidity right...especially when our AC kicked on in the heat of the day or during the night...several mornings I woke up and temps. had spiked to 102 or dropped down to 95 degrees or humidity had dropped to a low 20%.....aaaggghh..so frustrating.
I finally stabilized everything by wrapping a beach towel around the base of the incubator...if temps. were kept too hot...fetuses could hatch too soon or even scramble, if they were too low it could prolong the incubation time...both could lead to deformities, something I was dreading as it would be hard for the kiddos to experience.

On day 18 you are supposed to go into "Lock down" mode...which means up the humidity to 75% and stop turning the eggs...all this so the chick could orient itself properly with its head and beak by the air sack that is always located by the fat end of the egg...and hopefully it can find its way out...

The first sign is a pip...a small crack or hole made by the chick so it can start breathing air.

...after the pip comes the zip...where the chick has by turning itself counter clockwise in a spiral type way...beaten its egg tooth in a zipper type fashion around the whole circumference of the egg...next it will push its head towards the fat end of the egg and hopefully the zipping was done all the way so the chick can hatch out completely..

If the humidity is too low the chick will "shrink wrap" into its own egg, which in turn suffocates it...we had two eggs do this so after lots of going back and forth of whether we should intervene and help..we finally helped them out...it is hard and very dangerous as the membrane that shrink wraps around the chick is full of all of its blood vessels so if done too roughly or hastily, instead of helping it you end up killing it instead...something I did not want to be part of..

This is Ginger, it was also helped out as it was a shrink wrapped little one..

This is Sugar Ray, he is absorbing his yolk to gain his strength lost during the hard hatch..

                                    

 Our first egg hatched night between day 20 and day 21...M&M...blackish chick.

 Our next one hatched on day 21, Lemonhead, a golden yellow chick.

Here is M&M and Lemonhead together..waiting to fluff up before they can go in the brooder..

The third hatched night between day 21 and day 22, a pale yellow chick with feathered legs, Sugar Ray...he was one of our shrink wrapped chicks..fought good though and is strong now. Our fourth chick hatched on day 22, Butterscotch, a very dark golden chick with feathered legs as well...and after it came Licorice, hatched out night between day 22 and day 23, our second blackish chick, our 5th chick

...finally on day 25..came Ginger, another golden buff chick with feathered legs...our chick #6, it was our second shrink wrapped one, it is strong and happy now, although tiny, since it is almost three whole days younger than the rest of the brood.

Out of the original 9 eggs two died early on and 1 before lock down...but we got 6 healthy strong chicks...not so bad considering the rough time we had of the raccoon killing the momma hen, me not getting the incubator right and two being shrink wrapped...

Chicks in the mail...

A few years ago when we first started looking into having a coop full of ladies making us breakfast on a daily basis, I was shocked to hear that you can order them via the net and have the friendly neighborhood mailman deliver them to your doorstop....amazing right?

Well we looked at all the different hatcheries through out this great country..there are quite a few out there, most offer just about the same selection with a few exceptions...most have a minimum purchase amount..meaning 25 chicks or more..jikes..I didn't want that many..then we found out about Ideal Poultry, right here in our own backyard..well a few hours away at least..

They have a minimum purchase dollar amount..so it worked out great..

The hatcheries here in the States hatch the eggs out one day, either sort them according to sex, meaning cockerel, a rooster that is less than  a year old or pullet, a hen that is less than a year old...or they will keep them together and it is called a straight run..in other words you don't know whether you'll get pullets or cockerels.

The pullets are more expensive, more homesteaders want these little girls..they produce the eggs after all..the cockerels are the cheapest..not very many folks want cockadoodeling fellas running around their yard keeping neighbors and themselves up at all hours..the straight run is in between..but it is a gamble..will you get enough hens or will they all turn out being boys ???

As soon as the sorting is done they get put into the respective packages and are taken to the post office to make their 24 hour journey to their new home..Most hatcheries have a minimum purchasing amount mainly to keep the chicks warm while in transit..if you only want a few, odds are they will be dead upon arrival..thus the more the merrier.

Ideal Poultry lets you order less, but they will supply the warmth buy sending along "popcorn stuffers"...Popcorn stuffers you might ask..what the heck is that?

Well, all hatcheries have an abundance of  left over cockerels..remember more folks want the egg laying machines not the noise makers..so the popcorn stuffers are just that..noise making little fellas they would "get rid of" anyway..

We finally got the call in early March of 2009..our little package of peepers were finally here..

We had ordered a variety of pullets and three ducks as well..and along for the ride came 12 little Rhode Island Red fellas..

Once home we opened the package and out popped peepers and squeakers galore..

Look how cute, I just love how tiny and cute they are....but they grow fast and the cuteness factor turns into gawky teenage looks rapidly.

We had a brooder box set up ready for them to move on in..it was large and toasty warm...

We separated the ducks from the chicks..as the ducks are way messier than the chicks and they thrive in water...chicks will get chilled and potentially die if wet and cold..so it was only natural to do..

At about the same time our own hen Little Miss Muffet was sitting on eggs out in the coop..they were due to hatch within days..of course we checked on the often and one day I noticed one of the eggs was squished, almost flat...so I retrieved it and brought it in and put it under Sofia's desk lamp in a shoebox..low and behold...Spring was born right there on our kitchen counter..he was very weak and we almost lost him but after 12 hours on the brink he finally came back strong and fought to stay alive..

He was scrawny and after we did some counting realized he was born/hatched prematurely by almost 5 days..but he was a fighter..His mommy was our Summer, thus the name Spring...he later on became Bruce Springsteen when we gave him to some friends of ours..

We still had two eggs in the egg boxes outside and Little Miss Muffet was doing her best to hatch them out..

Withing days one of these eggs got squished too and we moved it into the box on the counter..

Before the our eyes this little chick hatched out..it looked so painful and slow..we were all eager to help,  but it was important that we let nature take its course..

She was named Flora at first after a Swedish butter..but after a few weeks we realized she was a boy..so his name was changed to Guld, which means gold in swedish.. He is still here with us today..and he is a stunning rooster..

The third egg never hatched..

The ducks grew much faster than the chicks so we actually took them out to explore the grass while they were still quite young..and they finally got their first outdoor bath..jippea..every ducks dream, right?

Note..the pool is an 8" (20cm) pie dish..

Meet Lilly, Tulip and Petunia..our three Fawn Runner Ducks...

Aren't they stunning little girls..I adored them so much..

Of course the chicks grew fast too..but they get chilled quick so they got to have their "outdoor" romp inside..on a big sheet in the kitchen..while pecking at oatmeal flakes..every chicks favorite snack..

These little girls are all Silverlaced Wyandottes.

...and that is how we got our chicks in the mail.....next time I'll write about how they grew up..



Enjoying a Spring afternoon...

....finally we've had better weather for a few days now. Today we even had a clear sunny day so I, of couse, took advantage of that and hung my laundry out to dry. Nothing beats clothes with that crisp, fresh scent of drying in the sun and breeze..if you don't believe me, try it...save some energy, gain some wonderful crisp laundry.
It is getting late in the afternoon, but this is what my drying rack looks like, very traditional european style rack, it holds 4 loads of laundry...

The dogs are also enjoying the day, laying about and just taking it in, unless of course a squirrel break their relaxing day by running up and down from the trees on our property...the nerve...

My girls are out, scratching and pecking, looking for bugs, fresh shoots or whatever else cathes their fancy....it is so peaceful to watch them go about their day....

Well, I think that is it for today...sending this post via my phone, that is how much I am enjoying the outdoors today. Next time we'll talk chicks in the mail...until then, have a great life...

Our girls and boys old and new....part 1

Today I wanted to introduce you to our boys and girls that have been or are still living in the Pecker Palace....we have had many birds come and go...some from dying of natural causes others from having had a too close of an encounter with either Gus (our premier chicken killer), Bogus or Otis....you haven't even met Otis yet...but he will be introduced at a later date.
We have also been giving some of out girls and boys away, to friends and family when they wanted to get going on chicken keeping, it is addicting you know...having these little funny critters.

But before that you have to see a picture of our first egg...boy the kids were happy when they found this in the nesting boxes...this is not our first "first" egg, remember they laid one on the way home from our evacuation from IKE, the menacing hurricane ..but this is our first laid in the actual Pecker Palace. Sofia was holding it so gingerly as if it was about to break at any given moment..but come to find out.."homegrown" eggs have a much harder shell than the store bought once do. You can drop them on the ground and they would bounce..not break

This is Duchess, the hen that laid that first egg..her name was Duke at first as we were convinced she was a cockerel..but nope she is a Duchess..
She is a Buff Orpington and that is definitely my favorite breed, we have had a slew of different breeds, but I always come back to these..they look like butterballs out in the field when they are free ranging and I just adore that....

This is Viola, named after one of my grandmother's sisters..but we call her "crocked beak" or hairlip, as her jaws are miss aligned, so her top beak goes to the right and her bottom one goes to the left..usually these hens starve to death as it is very hard for them to eat, but she is our oldest hen to date and she is holding her own...We do baby her somewhat, with extra scraps or a deeper bowl to eat out of so she can get more food in her. She is an Australorp.

This is Helga, she is also an Australorp and she is like hell on wheels..I would not want to meet her in a dark alley, if you know what I mean.
She always had to sit on the top perch, which in poultry lingo means "I am the BOSS"...so here she is sitting on her favorite high perch...the roof of the Pecker Palace..not one other hen tried that ever..                


This goofy looking fella is Vida Blue..he is young here, in that weird teenager looking stage..although we didn't even know he was a rooster until he crowed....
He is a Giant Blue Cochin...oddball 




This is Vida Blue once he is fully grown..he is a stunner isn't he?
He ended up breaking his leg at one point and I babied him and made a "chicken sling" and had him in our bathroom in it for 6 weeks before his leg was all healed..but he did it..

This is Little Miss Muffet, she is a Partridge Cochin, although I think she might have been a bantam (a smaller version than the standard), as she was much smaller than Vida Blue.

She is the only hen we've had that went broody on us, meaning sat on eggs until they hatched...out of her broodiness we got two roosters, Spring and Guld...
Spring was later given to friends, Guld is still with us today..pictures to come, he is stunning just like his father Vida was.

This is Summer, she is a Barred Rock/Ameraucana. She looked like a Barred Rock hen, but layed olive green eggs, a trait from Amerecaunas.
She is the mother of Spring, the rooster hatched under Little Miss Muffet.
He was striped just like her, but had feather legs just like his father.

This is Grace, she is one of the two Welsummers we had, the other one was Calloway..they were both named after the two cows in the children's movie " Home on the Range"..why?  Because just like those two cows..these two girls chatted up a storm, all the time..so Grace and Calloway it was.

They both laid really dark brown eggs, almost like chocolate covered eggs.
Ventura really like dark brown egg layers, so these were his favorites..among a few more.

This is a normal day the Palace..traffic jam by the nesting boxes...

Not an uncommon scene either..each hen has a favorite box to lay in and that very box might be another hens favorite laying box as well...

Petra's Pecker Palace...

...a few years after we moved out to the 'burbs, we decided to add some chickens to our menagerie of animals..

We searched, or should I say, I searched the internet for cool looking but also cool temp. chicken houses, coops and hutches, until we settled on the A-frame style. The reason we wanted a cool temp. coop is because of where we live and how darn hot it gets and stays throughout all of summer..which in Houston TX is longer than summers are elsewhere..

This is what the Palace ended up looking like after much planning, lots of work and way more money spent than I had in mind..but oh well..it is what it is...my hubby can not do anything half ass..bless his heart..

We got the girls as day old hatchlings in the mail..what that means is that the eggs hatch out at the hatchery, ours favorite is Ideal Poultry here in TX, and as soon as they are hatched they go into a box, get labeled and sent off, so we effectively get them when they are a day old..mighty cool I might add, to get a package from your mailman with little squeaking lives in it.. . We ended up getting 6 Buff Orpingtons, they look like butterballs, and 4 Australorps, black to the point of almost blue. We named them Duke (later to be known as Duchess, as she was not a rooster like we thought), Buttercup, Flora, Saturday, Blackie, Oreo, Viola, Maja and Esther. 

Needless to say the kids were ecstatic with joy and seemed like the coolest kids on the block for a while..they had after all their own egg laying machines now..many months would come before we would get eggs out of these little suckers however..about 5 to be more exact. If you don't know this let me tell you...chickens only stay cute for about three maybe four weeks, after that they get to looking like scrawny teenagers, with legs that are too long, feathers coming in at rates and just plain odd looking.

Months progressed, they grew like weed, summer came, we went to Sweden to visit with all of our loved ones and also to get out of the darn Texas heat..while the neighbor took care of our new brood and other pets.

Once we came home in August school was about to start and everything was hunky dory...until IKE, that little name for a storm of epic proportions...hit....

so we evacuated to Corpus Christi, further down the coast to get away from the winds, the huge rainfalls, floods and also falling trees, as our neighborhood had lots of trees in it....we brought the girls along, yes we evacuated with our chickens..weird maybe, but we had the chance, as we were taking two cars, one with kids and dogs + me..and one with hubby and the coop brood..hehe.  My father-in-law has had chickens in the past so he had a coop in his backyard that ours just moved into..worked great...We still didn't have any eggs from them and I was darned if they would get hurt or even die before we got our first egg..it would not happen on my watch.....this is the picture of Ike, which is why we decided to get the heck our of dodge..it is huge...                                   

While we were down in Corpus Christi, we added another little family member to the brood..Luna. She is Sofia's little angel, they even almost share the same birthday...just a day apart. Luna is a miniature schnauzer/ Yorkie mix, and she has grown up to be our beta bitch..we don't have alpha males in this house....we have Luna.

On our way home from our evacuation we stopped at a local burger joint to let the kiddos use the restrooms well as the dogs..and what did we have...but one little egg..The girls had laid an egg in the dog kennel on our way home..isn't that the coolest..see we were supposed to bring them along...just so we could see that.
The other really cool thing, in my opinion....our Pecker Palace had not sustained any damage from Ike, although our yard and the neighborhood was in complete shambles...not even the hay in the nesting boxes had been disturbed by the hurricane force winds..amazing.