Snow?

What job can you have where you get paid thousands of dollars, can be on TV, always be wrong, and never get fired? That's right: Weatherman. Here's pictures of our rainy Sunday afternoon. The chickens enjoyed it until the "rain" got to around three inches deep; that's when they headed inside. I really can't believe that people are getting all worked up into a panic over warnings of 'global warming' when these warnings are coming from the same people and their "computer models" that tell us it's going to rain an hour before it snows three inches. Yeah, yeah, I know it only takes a degree or two, to make the difference, but isn't that what global warming is all about? a global warming of a degree or two?

Nugget and his hens:











The back yard:

Egg Update

No eggs yesterday, but we got one this morning. Kenzie's getting a little impatient for full production to begin, but I think she's got a couple weeks to wait before we see that. At least she has an egg to eat for lunch today.

Alex begins guitar lessons tonight. I told him the secret this morning. I figured part of the fun would the anticipation of starting his lessons, and I didn't want to deprive him of that. I'm trying to show him good things happen to those who earn them. He's done well this week, except for a slight slide in yesterday's language arts work. He's been very stubborn about learning a couple concepts that I have to repeat over and over and over again. That's true of everybody, though. They (We) all have things that we just can't seem to get stuck into our brains. I'll just have to keep stuffing into the one ear whatever keeps falling out of the other ear.

Two Eggs, Three Yolks

Our second egg arrived today. It had two yolks. Kenzie called it as soon as she saw it. For a first egg from one our chickens (don't know which one, but I'm sure it wasn't the same hen that laid yesterday's first egg), it was huge. It had a crack in it, so we decided to see if Kenzie's double-yolk prediction was correct. It was. Since this one was laid, another has been discovered, making a total of three eggs (probably a total of 4 yolks). At least the average price of eggs is declining around here. Keep up the good work, chickies!

Homeschool Update

Alex has shown a lot of improvement over the past week, at least in the amount of effort he's willing to put into his work. I know that he has a lot of trouble with studying. He just doesn't understand how to do it. I, personally, never had to put much effort into learning stuff at his age: things came kinda naturally. So, even though I can teach the 'stuff', I'm not great at teaching how to get the 'stuff' into the head. This past week, Vicki has been working with Alex to help him learn methods for doing this. I know I didn't do much of what she had to do, because she and Alex have been spending many hours together, going over material for Alex to learn. He has done much better on some of the re-tests I have given him, even the science test I had make up from scratch. I hope this trend continues. I'm going to help it along by limiting, even more, everyone's "electronics" time at home. I already try to limit their electronics, but hopefully less time in front of video games should give everyone more time in front of books.

On another note, Alex attended his first meeting at our volunteer fire department last night. As he submitted his application to become a Junior Volunteer, they asked him if he'd like to stay for their bimonthly (semimonthly? twice a month. I always get those two prefixes mixed up. so much for my learning stuff without studying...) fireman's meeting. Naturally, he stayed. I guess all went well, because when Vicki picked him up, he was in the middle of a crowd of volunteers, looking like he already belonged. Plus, they all said, "See ya next meeting", as he left. They still need to vote on his membership, but that seems to be only a minor formality. I still have no idea what a Junior Volunteer does, but I know he won't be going on any emergency calls. He's allowed to hang around the firehouse and, I guess, begin learning about what the volunteers do, and helping out around the station. The fire chief also told me Alex may be allowed to go on non-emergency calls (no clue what that would be: maybe a house fire, or brush fire, or something) where he could help the firemen in the background, getting them drinks and stuff.

I had my doubts about adding something else, like this, to his schedule, but, like with SSPP, it's something he's getting more and more excited about all the time. Maybe it'll be some motivation to get, and keep, his grades up. I also think it's the kind of thing where he can put in as much, or as little, time as he can manage. We also have another surprise for him coming up soon that I can't mention because he might read this. I'll bring it up later, and let you what it is and how it went.

The $700 Egg

Happy Shrove Tuesday!

Well, I was figurin' on getting our first egg by Easter, and we got it just before Lent! Kenzie, of course, is very excited. She's called all our chicken friends with the news. She won't tell me when we can eat it, though. We have to make sure everyone who is anyone gets to see it first. With all the expense that has gone into these chickens, this first egg has cost me $700.16 (don't tell Vicki), not including our last trip to the hardware store for our Spring coop construction supplies, which still has stuff on the credit card. We'd better get a lot more eggs from these girls before I spend another $700 on them. I think Kenzie is already planning on setting up her "Home Grown Brown Eggs For Sale" stand for this Summer. Most kids sell lemonade, or even Girl Scout cookies, but not my Chicken Girl.

In answer to the age-old question of which came first; in our case, the egg, which incubated 'til it hatched and grew into the chicken that laid this egg. Full cycle. Pretty cool.

We're headed to our church's pancake supper tonight. No Cooking! Yay!

Role Reversal

I remember a time when I was so angry at my dad that I tore up a very special poster he gave me. I did it just to hurt him. It did. I don't remember why. I just remember the feelings. I was about Alex's age. Fortunately, we get over these things. Alex is feeling that way now, I bet. We've been on a very extreme roller coaster ride lately, he and I. Very high highs, and very low lows. I'm glad I can remember something of what he must be going through. He's angry at things I need to do, to keep him on the right path (or to get him back on it), just like I was angry at Dad for doing his job, back then.

On the bright side, I think my dad did a good job. I hope I do as well as he did.

Dinner Is Served

Or will be, soon. A wee bit graphic below, regarding chicken executions; consider yourself warned.

I don't know how much ya'll know about our roosters, but lately they've become more trouble than they're worth. They've been fighting each other, and driving the hens crazy. The problem is numbers: 6 rooster, 8 hens. That's a horrible ratio; couldn't be much worse for the poor hens. We've always planned on butchering the roosters, but we were going to try to wait until the person who does that could schedule a day we could bring our roosters to her place. We only have 5 we want to eat, and she needs to get more lined up before she'll make the effort.

Well, after yesterday's impromptu cock fight, injuring one rooster, and the hens being chased all over the place, all the time, I got the hatchet today and headed to the coop. I did call everyone I could, trying to find someone to do this for me, but I had no luck. I never chopped the head off a chicken before, and I wasn't looking forward to it.

It actually wasn't that bad. I don't have any pictures of the process because it was snowing all morning (didn't want to get my camera wet), and you probably wouldn't want to see them anyway. We now have four butchered and cleaned roosters in the freezer. Well, two are in the fridge for dinner tonight. We tossed the one that got injured in the fight because I don't know what he could have picked up in the way of bacteria, through an open wound on its neck.

Once the feathers came off, the job got pretty easy. It looked just like the chickens you get at the store, except I had to yank the guts out myself. No problem there, for a Biology nut like me. I dissected all kinds of stuff in college, and actually got to give some mini anatomy lessons to some of the kids as we cleaned the chickens out. Tyler, of course, wanted me to cut up everything so we could look inside, to see what made a chicken tick. I only showed him the insides of the heart, lung, and liver.

Chicken Girl Kenzie did surprisingly well. She even watched one or two of the beheadings, and helped hold the basket down, over the flopping bodies, to keep them from running around "like chickens with their heads cut off". I never disbelieved that saying, but it is amazing to see, nevertheless. The fifth one did escape the basket and ran across the back yard, behind the coop. Luckily, it got trapped in a corner and didn't get too far. At that point, I shooed the kids away until I could recapture it. They didn't really need the trauma of seeing that. Not that I could keep their curious eyes away for long.

Kenzie says she feels weird, now. I told her she should feel a little weird. I do, too. You're not supposed to feel happy about killing something. But you also shouldn't feel bad about it, if you're humane and responsible in how you treat the animals God gave us to use as food. God, in making the first leather clothes for Adam and Eve (Gen 4:21), showed us that it's okay to kill animals for our use. It's the price we pay for sin, so it shouldn't feel good, even though it's sometimes necessary for survival.

Even on a day we take off from school, there is still so much to learn. For her, and for me.

New Chicks Are Here

The post office called this morning with word that our chicks are here. Naturally, we had them home within the next fifteen minutes. I have to say, I never ever thought I'd ever go to the post office and ask about picking up my chickens. The door was locked (the PO hadn't even opened yet) but they let us in anyway. I guess they saw the forlorn look on Kenzie's face and weren't about to disappoint her. Here's some pictures from this morning's adventure.














ADDENDUM: I was curious, so I looked up where these chicks came from: Webster City, Iowa. They hatched on Feb. 10 and travelled 1100 miles to get here 48 hours later. I'm amazed at this. Our last batch was locally grown and home-hatched, and I was worried about them surviving my kids.

Another Recital, And Other Ramblings

That's right, another piano recital. Tomorrow afternoon. Kenzie and Connor both get to play at this one. It's really close to home, for a change; only about a half hour away, so I'm hoping Vicki gets to go see them play. She needs to get to do something besides work or take care of Kearsyn, and she hasn't seen the kids play at a recital for a while. Next weekend, Connor has another recital, in Cambridge, and that's a good hike for us: a little farther away than Kenzie's softball practice, so I'll probably be taking Connor to that one. I might try to talk him out of that one, but I never seem to win those battles. I guess it's good that he likes to perform, even though it scares him to death.

I have to remember that Alex has a public speaking event on Thursday. He's going to recite that poem I wrote in high school in front of his 4H club. I wish there was a way I could be in two places at the same time, because that's also softball night. I'll have to find Alex and Connor a ride to 4H unless Vicki can get them there.

Alex told me the other day that he'd like to look into becoming a junior volunteer at our local volunteer fire dept. I think that would be cool. I mentioned it to him last week as something he'd be good at (unbeknownst to him, I emailed the fire chief to enquire about the minimum age: it's 14), but didn't push it. He actually must have been listening. I told him we'd stop by and pick up an application the next time we drive by the firehouse. Yet another thing to squeeze into our lives. Well, he'll be driving in a couple years; that might help somewhat. When you think that he'll be able to get his learner's permit in summer, 2008, it sounds awfully close, doesn't it?

People have told me that I need to pick fewer things for my kids to do because we seem to be always running around like crazy. The problem is, there's so many of them, even if they only do one thing each, it amounts to a lot of stuff. And, unfortunately (or not), they are all good at so many things, I don't have the heart to say no until every second of every day is all used up.

Don't forget, today is the feast day of St. Blaise. Head to your local Catholic church and get your throats blessed! My kids know St. Blaise to be the patron saint of sore throats because of the brief ritual of blessing the throats that our priest does this weekend of every year. He's also considered to be the patron saint of wild animals. That kind of applies to my pack of kids at times, too (especially in church :o). Other than that, I have no idea why wild animals need a patron saint. Alex thinks he's special because, as an altar server at this evening's Mass, he was the first to have his throat blessed.

As the title of this entry suggested, this has been a collection of ramblings. I hope I didn't disappoint.

This Day Really Shot By

I can't believe it's already 3 pm. That morning softball practice really kills a Saturday. It was worth it, though. Kenzie's softball club had some high school coaches and players come and do a two hour clinic. In future weeks, they're going have guest coaches from other leagues and colleges (Salisbury and U of MD, I think) to do the same thing. Plus, next month they're having a professional coach fly in from California to spend a day with the girls. Kenzie is having the time of her life. She is just eating all this stuff up. She told me that during a bunting drill, her coach had her demonstrate to her whole group how to do it. She's the youngest one out there! She also told me that her coach started to teach all the girls to bunt the way Kenzie does. Not to pat myself on the back, or anything (*pat pat*), but I taught her how to do it that way, and she is one of the best bunters on her team. It probably helps that the ball is twice as big as what she's to, too.

I had a 1000 crickets delivered today. I was really mad because they all looked dead because it got really cold last night. I had ordered them to be shipped overnight, but the cricket people sent them 2nd-day. I wrote them a nasty email about killing my crickets. I should have waited, though. I told Vicki that cold crickets sometimes revive after some warming up. I should have listened to my own words. Te darned things revived and now I feel bad about complaining to the cricket company. I did pay for overnight shipping, though, so I want the extra money I spent on shipping, back. Oh, and the crickets are for Betty and Wilma, our bearded dragons. Here's an old picture. They're much bigger, now. Betty is facing left. Wilma is facing right. (Like you really care about which is which, eh?)

Ok, off to check on showers. We're going to church at five tonight, instead of 7. Alex and Connor had altar serving duties at 7, but switched with a friend because he had something to do at 5. Showers around here sometimes take a bit of prodding to get done in time for church.

Alex's Resume

Along with the standard admission forms, I'm going to add all of Alex's course work to the packet I'll submit to SSPP. Here's GRADE 6 , GRADE 7, and GRADE 8. We're also waiting for some letters of reference from various community leaders (our priest, his youth group leader, his CCD teacher, and his soccer coach, plus one from his teacher: me) that we'll also add to his portfolio.

Any other ideas of the kinds of things I can add? Please comment! I want the fattest, most impressive package we can assemble with a week's preparation.

UPDATE (2/3/07): Alex has just finished the third draft of his letter to the SSPP principal. He's going to type it up this weekend. I am so proud of him for taking the initiative like this. He's even called some people today, to remind them that he needed their letters of recommendation by tomorrow. Who'd'a ever thunk this is the same kid giving me fits last month.