Nails, Parties and Pies

I just got off the trampoline with Greta so I could come inside and write a blog post. I haven't written anything in over a week, which is sort of unheard of in the last 6.5 years. I can't believe I've been blogging for that long. Crazy right? It's pretty difficult to drag myself inside on a day like this. 75 degrees and no wind. I was just lying out there on the trampoline soaking up the sun while Miss Greta jumped wildly around me. What a beautiful day.

It's been an interesting week. My little car decided to leave me with a flat tire while I was picking up Greta from my parent's house. I swear I pick up more nails than any other person I know. Sean tried to patch it but the hole was so big that even two plugs wouldn't work. Yet another reason I wish I had a SPARE TIRE. Grumble grumble grumble. I had to go buy my second tire for the car in 15K miles. Aren't tires supposed to last longer than that?

I got to be chauffeur Mom in the truck for a few days. Transporting two kids around in a single cab truck along with backpacks, library books and groceries was not enjoyable......but it was doable. Even as tiny as my car is I am grateful to have it back in working order. Greta loved riding around in the truck, I think she was sorry to see it go (don't worry, I turned off the airbags).

Saturday evening we got invited to the birthday party of Sean's old college roommate. Another old roommate was there as well. It's been 11 years since we last saw them. It was enjoyable catching up and seeing our kids all play together. We aren't exactly the most social people so yay for a night out being social!

Greta was invited to her very first birthday party this weekend and oh was she excited. They had a rack of prom dresses, high heels, costume jewelry, boas and purses for all the girls to dress up in. That along with a bounce house made for one very fun afternoon for a certain little 4 year old.

We can't forget to mention Happy Birthday to my father-in-law. We got to celebrate Rich's birthday last night before he left to head back to his temporary home. He's only got three more weeks before he retires and heads home to New Mexico. We'll miss not seeing him regularly, that's for sure. I knew he liked coconut so I made him a coconut cream pie (I'm a coconut fan too). It was delish (if I do say so myself). Happy Birthday Rich!

Challenge

Hello March! I love March. It's a "lead in" month. A month where little shoots of green grass poke through the winter crust of soil. A month that leads in to Spring. It might be nasty out there but there is hope I tell you. Hope. Right now there is freezing rain falling, coating every surface in a slick glaze of ice. We have snow in the immediate forecast and several bitterly cold nights ahead. But since it's officially March there is hope.

I decided I need a new challenge for March. I thought about doing a 10,000 step a day challenge with the Fitbit, where I have to get 10K steps a day every day of the month but I thought I'd hold off on that challenge until next month. This month I'm going sugar free. No refined sugars, no artificial sugars, nada. Now I'm not going all crazy or anything, if there is a little added sugar in a product I'm letting it slide....6 grams and under is my rule for the month. So added sugar in marinara sauce, that's ok. Fruit is ok. I thought it would be a good way to get back on track for the spring and summer months. Now this doesn't mean I'm dooming the kids to a sugar free March. It just means I keep food stocked in the house that I won't have a problem saying no to. For instance, ice cream. It's easy to say no to ice cream and that's something the kids and hubby love. And to test my resolve, today I made the kids some cupcakes. So far so good. I got this.

For an activity challenge I had the hubby show me the next routine on the BowFlex. I've been doing the first routine outlined in the manual for about a year and a half now. It was time to switch it up, work some new muscles. So four times a week I am doing the new workout and it's a nice change. I'm starting out with some really light weights and working up to the heavy ones. It's amazing how quickly results can be seen with resistance training. I'm a believer.

I will report back with how my two challenges went this month.

Are you going to challenge yourself for the month of March? 

Weekly Winners

I don't have much to write about this week. It's pretty slow around here. The weather is back to being yuck. I sometimes wonder if this winter will ever end. I know it's only February (nearly March, I round up in the winter) and it could always be worse than it is. But sometimes I feel like I might explode unless I get outside in some warm weather. I even told the hubby last weekend that I feel the need to go running again. I've pretty much stopped running all together. It's not something I miss but I do miss the way I feel after a run. It's very hard to recreate that feeling on the treadmill. So maybe I will start running again in the Spring. Anyways, I digress, the point of this post is to share some photos.

The kids and I started quite a few seeds this past weekend. It might be a little early but I'm ok with that. We got six types of tomatoes started (36 tomato plants in all), two types of bell peppers, broccoli and a whole tray of basil. It's a good start. I'm really looking forward to rototilling everything. Can't hardly wait.

I just love this picture. Greta, with her crazy morning hair, helping Sean mix up the waffle batter on Sunday. He makes us waffles with berry sauce every Sunday morning. It's a nice routine that I and the kids enjoy (and Papa Rich).

Having outside cats has been quite the treat. You just never know what they will bring home. I was on the treadmill yesterday and looked out the back window to see one of the minions prancing through the yard with something big in its mouth. Upon further investigation I found it to be a bird and a snake.....together. It was a big haul. Both were completely eaten by the time I went out later. Yuck.

The kids have been asking to ride their bikes so Greta and I stopped by the store to pick her up a bike helmet (she's been using her brothers helmet to ride during the day while he's at school). Walmart had some rather unique helmets. The unicorn helmet didn't fit too well so we went with a traditional one, but still very cool. Then this past Saturday when it wasn't too cold I loaded up the bikes in the back of the truck and I took them to the high school parking lot to do some bike riding. Living on gravel roads does not make learning to ride a bike very much fun. They had fun on the pavement, I had fun getting out.....it was great. I'm looking forward to doing it again when the weather warms up.

Welding and hotcakes

I was out last weekend enjoying the amazingly nice weather and decided I needed to muck out the goat house. They'd been cooped up in there for a few weeks and it looked like it. Yuck. So out came the pitch fork and the garden cart. Half a load in the head of the pitch fork fell off. The metal fork part just slid out of the metal handle. I managed to shove it back in long enough to finish up for the day then asked Rich, our resident welder, if he'd mind welding the head back on. He said sure, he's nice like that. Then it hit me, our resident welder is just a mere 40 something days away from retirement. Retirement means he's moving back home to New Mexico. He's been visiting nearly every weekend for close to two years now. It's become routine having him here and we are sure going to miss him when he leaves. I'm happy for him being able to go home but it will be strange not having him here on the weekends.

I thought perhaps, since he was leaving soon, I'd see if he'd give me a welding lesson. Maybe I could do my own welding once he left. He said sure and the next day I got a great lesson in wire feed welding. I'd done a bit of welding in my Sculpture 2 class in college but that was 15 years ago (yikes!). I feel pretty confident in trying it again after my little lesson. I suppose it's just a matter of practicing it. Things I learned after the lesson: always wear clothing that covers the entire body, no skin showing. I wore a sweatshirt that day that had a v-neck. I tied it close but it must have came open a bit during the welding as I was sporting a decent sunburn on my chest that evening. Oops. It was fun and maybe some day I'll take a welding class.

Thanks Rich for teaching me, between Sean's skills and mine perhaps we can pick up the welding duties around here after you leave.

On a completely different note, I thought I'd share my newest food obsession. I tend to stick with a food that I like and will eat it every day until I tire of it. My newest thing are the two ingredient pancakes. I mentioned them in a previous post but didn't elaborate on the recipe as it was still a work in progress. Well I've been messing with them and finally got them perfect. It's where you take one banana and mash it up, add two eggs and mix it all together. I tried it in the food processor but it made it too liquid. Mashing it by hand keeps some lumps which help bulk up the pancakes. Throw in a couple tablespoons crushed walnuts, a teaspoon of vanilla, shake of cinnamon and an 1/8 teaspoon baking powder and it makes the perfect little stack of protein filled, flourless pancakes. Add a dab of butter and they don't need any syrup. So good and good for you! I think I've had them every day this week. I've been trying to cram more protein into my day, I feel so much better when I hit my goal of 75 grams a day. The key (according to Dr. Oz) is to get 25 grams at each meal. I have so much more energy during the day, which is so nice. Anyways, just thought I'd share my perfect two ingredient pancake recipe.

Perfect Two Ingredient Pancakes:

-1 medium banana
-2 eggs

Smash banana with fork, add eggs and mix well. 

Optional ingredients (highly recommended):
-1 t. vanilla
-1/8 t. baking powder
-a couple of shakes of cinnamon
-1 T. walnut pieces 

Heat pan over medium heat and add a teaspoon of coconut oil. Cook pancakes and enjoy!
With the walnuts, this recipe has 18 grams of protein.

New Toy

Today I came home to these two big boxes. We'd ordered something that I've been wanting for quite some time. Technically it's for the kids ....but secretly I've wanted one of these forever.

Can you figure it out yet? Sean took a day off of work today to work on the Rover but I hijacked him into putting this together for us.  Took him about three hours. I helped a little bit when I wasn't dropping off kids or taking a kid to the doctors or picking up medicine....oh never mind I didn't help.

Yep, finally got our trampoline. I was going to order one off of Walmart.com but the ratings weren't so great so we wandered over to Amazon and found a highly rated one with Prime shipping. For an additional $25 they would overnight it to our doorstep, so that is what we did. We ordered it yesterday at 3pm and it was sitting on our doorstep at 10 this morning and it came from Pennsylvania. Isn't that crazy? What a fun toy!
 

Oh and on a positive note, the pedometer works while jumping so this could be a fun way to achieve my daily steps. Woo hoo!

Melting

I can not express how lovely it is to get out of this house after so many weeks trapped inside because of the bitter cold and snow. The sun is shining, the snow is all but melted and we are getting ready for a super nice week of weather. It sure lifts my spirits. Unfortunately poor Wesley is under the weather. I thought he was over it this morning but I just got back from a shopping trip out to find him red cheeked and lying on the couch with a 103.5 temp. We're on day three of this. Luckily Tylenol gets the fever down and four hours later it's back up again. I sure hope it doesn't spread to the rest of us (especially Greta). I'm thankful he's out of school tomorrow for President's Day (he would have been kept home anyways).

I've been keeping busy cleaning out animals pens. Snow and ice kept the horses, goats and chickens in their houses for the last two weeks. The chickens, literally, didn't leave their coop since the first snow. They are the most prissy animals. The goats also won't set foot on snow and hunkered down in their shed. I just kept layering straw on top of straw to keep them clean. Therefore there was two feet of nasty straw bedding that needed to be cleaned out. That's quite a job. Luckily I have a massive pile of mulch started for the garden.....already full of natures fertilizer.

On that note, I got my garden seeds ordered last week. Several things need to be started soon so I went ahead and got everything ordered. I tried a new website this year. It's called SeedsNow.com. They have a great selection, only sell non-GMO, non-hybrid, heirloom seeds. They also offer a ton of seeds in .99 cent sample packs. Their sample packs have about the perfect amount of seeds for me. The basil sample pack has 120 seeds, the squash sampler has 15 seeds. It's enough to grow a nice row but not be overrun (remember last year when I grew 400 zucchini plants? Yeah, I'm not doing that again). There is just something that compels me to plant every seed in that packet, otherwise they are just going to waste. So this will help prevent that. This is a good thing. My new exciting crop I'm trying this year? Wheat! I'm planting a nice plot of Hard Red Wheat. This will be a first but I'm excited to try it out. Also this year I am rototilling up a few new plots for the kids. They get to plant whatever they'd like but it's up to them to keep it weeded and watered. They are looking forward to it and I think it will be a good learning experience.

That's all that is happening around here. 

Epic Ice

We got another four inches of snow yesterday and they decided to only delay school a couple of hours. Since none of the roads were cleared and my little car can't clear four inches I decided to keep Wesley home from school. It wasn't worth the deductible. So we relaxed at home, played some games, read some books and had some quality Super Mario Brother time. It was nice. We are sure looking forward to the warm up this week. It's supposed to be in the 60's within the next week. Good bye snow! Good riddance!

With the snow we had some epic icicles. Seriously the biggest icicles I've seen. We had a massive one that got to a little over 66 inches long and as big around as my leg. It was awesome. It nearly ripped off our gutter, but still awesome.

I tried some new recipes since that's seems to be the only thing to do these days. The kids enjoy being my guinea pigs in that department. I found a (somewhat) quick and easy yeast cinnamon roll recipe. It's only got one rise so it's pretty quick from start to finish considering it's yeast rolls. I iced them with a vanilla orange glaze (just mix up powdered sugar with orange juice and vanilla) which made them pop a little more. Really good on these frigid mornings. Give it a try!

One rise cinnamon rolls (makes about 16 rolls)

In a large mixer place:
2 1/2 cups hot tap water
1 T salt
1/3 c. oil
1/3 c. sugar or honey
2 T yeast
1 egg

Mix together a little and then add 6 c. flour.

Mix flour until it "leaves" the sides of the bowl.  Then continue mixing 10 minutes.
Pour dough onto an oiled counter top. Roll out the dough on an oiled countertop to form large rectangle. 
In a bowl, mix 3/4 cup sugar & 2 T cinnamon with 4 T softened butter. 
With a pastry cutter or fork, cut butter into sugar & cinnamon until it forms a crumbly mixture.
Spread out on top of rolled out dough. 
Roll the short side toward you to form a log. 
Cut cinnamon rolls about 2 inches thick and place in 13 X 9 inch pan sprayed with Pam. 
Rise for 30-40 minutes. 
Bake for 12-18 minutes.

*I halved the recipe so that I didn't have a giant pan of cinnamon rolls. Eight rolls was enough for our family.

How times have changed

Last night around dinner time (aka "the crazy time") our littlest dog Chance decided to do his dinner dance. He proceeds to find his dish and scoot it all over the floor, shoving it into every wall, chair and toy in his path. The idea is to make as much noise as possible to alert me to his never ending hunger. He's one of the more annoying creatures around here (at least at dinner time).....and that's saying a lot. I thought I'd take a video to share on here since it can be quite funny. But after taking the video I decided I couldn't share it because it showcased just how messy and cluttered my house can be at the end of the day.

We're talking disaster area.

Toys strewn everywhere, shoes haphazardly dropped all over, crunched up leaves, puddles of melted snow water, cans of cat food that turned into a fun stacking toy and clothing dropped wherever the four year old decided her next wardrobe change would happen. It's embarrassing.  

Which leads me to discuss the latest article I read. I wish I could find it but alas it was a random read never to appear again. It was about how the times have changed and women in the home have gone from "Homemakers" to "Stay-at-home moms". In the 50's a woman's job was to maintain her house, cook a healthy meal and look presentable to her husband when he arrived home. Kids were raised in a playpen. Not a thing out of place. Women these days (that stay home with their kids instead of out in the work force) are to raise kids, if that means the house chores are at the bottom of the list then that's how it goes. The times have definitely changed, that's for sure.

I do try and have a healthy meal ready when the Mister walks through the door, my kids are clean and happy but my house looks like a tornado ripped through it. I feel bad, I should be able to keep it clean. That's kind of my job. But I always think of this phrase: "Cleaning a house with kids around is like brushing your teeth while eating Oreo's." There is nothing more true in this world than that phrase.  At the end of the day I enlist help to pick up toys and clothes but it is no picture perfect house, by any stretch of the imagination. But you know what? I'm ok with that. This is life.

To prove that, here is the video I was not willing to show because of my messy house. Isn't Chance a hoot?

Snow Day

We got a snow day today. Woo hoo! I feel like a kid on snow days, even though I'm not a kid. I remember that wonderful feeling of seeing your little school printed along the bottom of the tv. Such a warm, fuzzy feeling. It's really nice knowing I get to sleep in and not trudge through the snow to get the kids to school. I thought I'd try out a new breakfast idea this morning. My friend told me about two ingredient pancakes the other day and I'd seen them on all the Paleo facebook pages I follow, I felt like it was a calling. It was time to try em out. So I'm sure you are wondering what those two ingredients are? Well, you take two ripe bananas and mix them with four eggs. They said to use a mixer but I thought a blender was more appropriate. I added a 1/4 teaspoon of baking powder as well as a splash of vanilla and some cinnamon....because otherwise you've made banana eggs. I greased the pan with coconut oil and they came out pretty good. More like crepes than pancakes but I love crepes so it was a winner. I'm thinking next time I'll embrace the crepe idea and fill them with greek yogurt and sprinkle with cut up strawberries. Yum.

I've been trying to get my 10,000 steps in every day (which is so hard to do when there is 9 inches of snow on the ground) and the only way I can achieve that goal is to get on the treadmill. Well it's the easiest method anyway. Sometimes it's easier to just suck it up and get on there for half an hour a day. I figure I've got 23.5 hours to do everything else. I've been needing a new show to watch (to pass that boring half an hour) and so I started "Orange is the New Black". It's a NetFlix original series and I love it. It's about an upper middle class white girl that gets sent to prison for 18 months. It's got great writing and I'm hooked. I've got to say I'm so sick of FBI, CIA, cop dramas....this is such a breath of fresh air (even if it is a little gritty).

My father, who also had a snow day, called and offered to come pick us up in his Jeep so that we might go ride his new snowmobiles. He recently bought two snowmobiles for use up on the mountain around their retirement cottage. They haven't moved up there yet and this storm provided a nice canvas on which to try them out. I'd never ridden a snowmobile so this was a first for me and the kids. Wesley had a blast and took a ride with everyone and Greta tried it out once and was a trooper. It was a good experience for them. I thought it was great fun and look forward to trying it out again. Thanks Pops!

Keep on keepin on

It would be so easy to focus on how nasty of a winter this is. How the winds howl at night bringing the lows into the negative digits. How there is hardly any sun anymore, and how desperately I need sun. I try to keep busy inside and reassure the little bundles of energy (aka my kids) that Spring is on it's way and we'll soon be running around outside again.....even though Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow today meaning another 6 weeks of winter. Darn groundhog. The other day I got in the car and saw this:

This is about average it seems for morning temperatures when I take the kid to school.  The bad thing about an electric car is that the gas engine runs in these temperatures. It runs a lot. My average mpg is 67 right now, down from 165. I say this while smiling because that mpg is still super cool even though I have to buy gas.

The animals are all doing ok this winter. I can tell they are all ready for spring as well. The big dogs have become indoor dogs and spend their days lounging on the couches. The cats have remained outdoor animals (since I value my marriage) and I can always tell how cold it is depending on how many cats are crammed into the little wool bed outside on the deck. Today was a "two cat day" so I knew it was in the 20's. When it's a three cat day it's bitterly cold. At night they get put in the shop and cuddle up in the hay. I have peace of mind knowing they aren't getting eaten by coyotes too.

Sean has been passing the time out in his heated shop working on the Range Rover. It's pretty much ready to go. He's been tying up a few little loose ends....headliner issues, burned up light bulbs and a few more chewed through wires. I think a couple more weeks and he'll start putting miles on it. That will be fun.

The kids have found out how much fun games are on the tablet. About once every few weeks I get on the Google Play Store and we download a few new games to play. Greta gets the preschool learning games and Wesley likes the racing games. Together they play matching games and have a blast.

I'm kind of in a blogging rut, there isn't much of anything going on. We're all just trying to stay warm these days. I don't want to dwell on anything because I know there are people all over the country with worse weather than we have and with all the problems that come with prolonged cold weather. One lady blogger I read on the east coast has had her pipes freeze and been without water for weeks. She has to visit her neighbors house to lug buckets of water home to her livestock. I can't even imagine. I feel so lucky having a warm house with no frozen pipes (knock on wood) and a healthy, happy family.  Stay warm everyone!

A Brief Reprieve

Yesterday was a beautiful, 60 degree day. No wind, all sun. Just splendid. The kids and I were outside soaking it up since today has been so very very cold. We all agree as long as the weather keeps fluctuating from warm to cold (and not just staying this horrid bitter cold) we'll be able to manage. I do believe we are all counting down the days until Spring.

And until then we will escape, when we can, to the great outdoors and watch the kids ride their scooters up and down the driveway. Thanks Aunt Jessica for the scooters, they are a hit!

The Wednesday Write-Up

-I have pink eye. Again. That is all I'm going to say about that. *sob*

-I've been disappointing my pedometer lately with the sad little number of steps I'm getting in a day. It must be known how hard it can be to attain those 10,000 daily steps in winter. Some days it feels nearly impossible. But I've made it a priority again this month and I've been making great strides in my activity levels. At first I made a daily date with the dreadmill.....I mean treadmill. As long as I had a new magazine or game on the tablet I was good to go. I'd get on it for 30-45 minutes at the highest incline. That would ensure I'd get all my steps. Then even that became a complete bore. So my new goal is to just get moving more throughout the day. I turn on a little Luke Bryan on iTunes and Greta and I dance. Or while I make dinner I jog in place. Sometimes I race Wesley to the South fence and back (the kid beats me more often than not). Occasionally during the day I'll start jumping as high as I can fifty times. The kids think I've officially gone off the deep end I'm sure. Although now they've stopped asking what I'm doing and ask if I've gotten my steps for the day. All these crazy things I do in a day add up and at the end of the day I get my 10,000 steps (which is five miles by the way). It feels good and it's so much more fun than the treadmill.

-Wesley is doing great in school, I'm really proud of his progress this year. He's becoming a reading pro. We are reading a book a day in an effort to increase his confidence in reading. Keep it up dude!

-Greta's newest hobby is going outside and collecting odd shaped branches and twigs and transforming them into her "stick men". She glues googly eyes on them and "paints" them with glitter glue to make clothing. One even dons a hair bow. Naturally she prefers to play with them rather than the oodles of store bought dolls and toys. She's pretty creative for being four years old I think.

-Lately I've been getting a case of the munchies in the evening around 8 pm. I got in the habit of getting a big  snack nearly every night and I knew I needed to quit it. So I decided to start having a nightly cup of decaf coffee. The warmth filled up my stomach and stopped the cravings. It worked like a charm. Then I was reading online different ways to flavor your coffee without all that store bought artificial stuff. There are a lot of interesting ideas out there, for instance adding a teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice to the coffee grounds. That one is delicious. The key is to not add too much which makes it overpowering. But my favorite idea, which is a very simple idea, is to add cocoa powder to your mug then pour the hot coffee over it. I tried adding cocoa to the coffee grounds and it plugged up the filter making it very slow to drain through. But cocoa in the mug makes this lovely hot chocolate decaf coffee which is delish in the evening as sort of a guilt free dessert. I was just using plain old baking cocoa up until this morning when my shipment from Amazon arrived. I decided to order some organic cacao powder. Not familiar with cocao? It's got a great flavor and now I'm getting all sorts of health benefits from it as well. 


*Cacao contains more antioxidant flavonoids than red wine, green tea and blueberries *Instantly transforms smoothies, desserts, pies, and other recipes into the healthiest chocolate *Great source of magnesium, calcium, zinc, iron, copper and potassium

Here is the stuff I got on Amazon. All around good stuff to add to your diet. It's got a decent amount of protein per serving as well ( 6 grams). Anyways, thought I'd share.

  

WiiU Fit Time

I've got to admit that we've been thoroughly enjoying the new WiiU game console. It's winter outside so I don't feel too bad about sitting around playing games with the kids. But perhaps I've been sitting around too much this winter because I've gained a few pounds (six to be exact) and it's time to up my activity level and shed the winter weight. This is pretty typical for me, I gain a few pounds in the winter and lose them in the spring when I'm outside working my hiney off. But it's time to get exercising more. I've been bored with my workouts on the treadmill and Bowflex and need something new to get me moving. So, I saw that the WiiU has a Fit game that comes with a balance board and pedometer. It was just released on the 10th so last week I started shopping around so I could preorder it. I went to my "go to" store, Amazon and it was $89 with Prime 2 day shipping. I read the reviews and one of the them said don't preorder it here, it's $65 if you preorder it from Best Buy. Now, I can't stand Best Buy. I tend to avoid that store like the plague but to save $25 bucks I suppose I could give em my money. It's not like I had to actually drive to the store, it was delivered free.

So on Wednesday I received my WiiU Fit box. My parents have the balance board so I'm familiar with it and know how much fun it is.

The Fit Meter (a pedometer) comes with it and syncs with the console. You can choose a walking course and it uses the steps you acquired throughout the day to finish the course. They also have an altitude option where it measures how many steps up stairs and hills you go. It's pretty cool. I know of one gal who wears a pedometer as well as her husband and they compete to see who can finish the walking course first from the steps they acquire through the day. That would be fun.

My parents came over last night for dinner and we decided to do some quality family Wii time while they were here. My kids love the Wii and Greta, in particular, is fearless when it comes to trying new balance games on there. One balance game is the flying chicken  where you use the balance board and flap your arms to fly from one platform to another. Needless to say it's pretty entertaining to watch. Here is my digital  father the chicken.

And here is my real father the chicken. I took video but I'm sure he'd appreciate me not sharing it.

We rounded out the evening with dancing (in which my father kicked my hiney, I'm no dancer) and a few rounds of bowling in which Wesley stole the show. We'll have to take the kid bowling for real, he's a natural.
So, the WiiU Fit game is a hit in our house and the kids want to play it all the time. I figure since it's getting them moving it can't be all that bad.

Winter Moulting and Feather Picking

I question keeping chickens some days. Most of those days fall in the winter. Don't get me wrong, I like chickens. I like watching their crazy antics and I most definitely enjoy their tasty eggs. But this winter I am having some issues you could say. This winter my hens decided to start moulting. Winter is not usually the time of year that you encounter half feathered hens running around. But a few of mine have their internal clocks all screwed up and somehow they decided the best time of the year to loose their feathers would be when the temperatures are near 0 degrees. It's been frustrating to say the least.

You might remember I added five new pullets last Spring to replace the hens I've lost over the past few years bringing my little flock back up to eight hens. Two of the new ones and one of the senior hens have several bare spots on their backs and rear ends. Those three all somewhat resemble this.

Part of it is moulting and the other part is that when the new growth comes in it is quickly picked off by the other hens. Feather picking has always been an issue in my coop. They don't ever pick each other to death but once a hen is bare it's very difficult for her to regrow her feathers. My laydies are cooped up, not allowed to free range (due to far too many predators) so I believe they get a little bored. I doubt lack of protein is a factor, as it sometimes can be in feather picking. They get an 18% protein feed along with black oil sunflower seeds. But something has to be done to get feathers back on these poor hens since it is, after all, the middle of a very cold winter.

So I went to the local farm and ranch store to look for a solution. The gal there directed me to this stuff:

It's called Pick-No-More Cover-Up Lotion. It was around $7 and it smelled like tea tree oil (which I love) and was the consistency of chocolate pudding.  The hens didn't mind me smearing this all over their rear ends.

I went inside and came out later to discover they had eaten it off of their backs. All three were as bare butted as before. They looked at me like "come on lady give us more of that tasty pudding!" Dang chickens. So I did a little research online this time before returning to the store. Google informed me that I should try either pine tar or Blue Kote to prevent feather picking. So this time I picked up the store's version of Blue Kote.

My theory was this product would stain their white skin dark so that it wasn't like a big white bulls-eye for the other chickens to pick at. Perhaps if their backs were a consistent dark color it would be like camouflage. Couldn't hurt right? So each hen was picked up and sprayed about every three days. Here is a before and after on my young Sex Link pullet.

It did help it not be so noticeable of a bare spot. It think anyways. This has been an ongoing project since around the middle of December (so nearly a month now). The results are in! The Blue Kote is working although slowly and only on one hen. The senior Silver Laced Wyandotte hen who has had a big bare spot from feather picking (and being low gal on the totem pole her whole life) is growing new pin feathers. I was delighted to see this. She has, literally, been barebacked for two years. Here is her before and after.

So for now, the project is still on going. I have faith that the two young hens will eventually grow their feathers back. Probably around the time that Spring hits and the weather warms up. For now those two get put in a dog kennel and stay in the warmish side of the shop (Hubby's side) on those bitterly cold nights. These animals will always be a learning experience for me. As soon as I feel like I have it figured out a new challenge arises. But I suppose that's the fun in it.

It's Alive!

When we were all home over the Christmas break Sean was able to do some serious work on the Range Rover in the shop. It was a work in progress in which we weren't willing to invest a lot of money into until we knew there was nothing terminally wrong with the car. For instance, it needed a new battery and new tires among many other things but if the transmission was bad we didn't want to invest the money in it. So Sean has been tinkering around on it working on various systems to ensure that it was "healthy" enough for further investment.

The brakes were questionable. They had been sitting for at least six years and needed some help. I think I sat in that car for a total of 4 hours doing Sudoku puzzles while pushing on that brake pedal while Sean bled them. That car has a rather intricate braking system and all that bleeding never produced any results. I could push that pedal all the way to the ground with no resistance. So Sean diagnosed it and he ordered a new hydraulic brake unit and whoa-la it now has brakes! That opened the flood gates, it was time to get that car road worthy. I bought a battery on Saturday and tires were ordered this morning. We took it out for it's maiden voyage up and down the driveway yesterday several times (the tires were cracked and not in road worthy condition or we would have gone further). The kids piled in the back and had fun.

My mom kidded around that now that the Rover is up and running we'll not have another snowy/icy day this winter to try it out on. She's probably right! It's going to be a beautiful week of weather in the 50's.

Cabin fever

The cabin fever is starting to set in. I'm getting that twitch from having nothing to do. Well, nothing fun to do. I always have things to do. Chores and what not. With kids and dogs there is always something to clean or put away. Yesterday I woke up and decided it was a day to get out of the house. Greta is always on board when I want to go out. She's my little mini me in most respects. She loves to go out to eat and loves to go shopping. Nearby there aren't many good options for going out to eat but there is always Panera. We love Panera. She gets her buttered noodles and a cookie (hello carb fest!) and I can get my Mediterranean Veggie sandwich and vegatable soup (you'd think I was a vegetarian). Mmmm I wish I could have it again for lunch today.

We bummed around the library for an hour collecting new books, movies and WiiU games. Every week I get 20 new children's books that we read before bedtime. I've been doing this for years now and nearly every week I come home with a book or two that I've gotten before. They get a kick out of good ol' forgetful mom. How am I supposed to keep track of the hundreds if not thousands of books we've checked out. I assume we'll get to the point where we've read them all.

Then, of course, we stopped by the thrift store to see if there were any fun treasures to bring home. We found a brand new unique Disney puzzle that kept the kids entertained for over an hour last night.  We've never attempted a round puzzle before. They did great, only needing a little help. It was a nice way to squash the winter cabin fever.

Update

I'm happy to report that Dym, the goat, started eating again over the night and woke up bright eyed and bushy tailed. I'm starting to wonder if she's smarter than I think she is. Perhaps when the weather takes a turn for the worse she knows she can get a one way ticket to the heated garage if she just stops eating and shivers a little. It worked for her but now she's back in her pen all snuggled up with her big beefy offspring. She'll be plenty warm tonight.

Mucking out the garage from their 24 hour stay was not much fun. How three creatures can create that much nastiness is beyond me. I appreciate that I have a very understanding husband that pulled his "precious" out of the garage and into the cold so that my old goat wouldn't die. The funny part of this is now, that the garage is goat free and cleaned out, we can't even get his corvette back into the garage because it got stuck in the snow just pulling it out. It is so not a winter vehicle.

School starts back up again today and I'm secretly happy about it. It was nice having everyone home for over two weeks but it's time to get back to reality. Little minds need to get back to socializing and learning. Mom needs her kid free break again too. I'm getting the urge to do a little spring cleaning (a tad bit early but when you get the urge you go with it). I need to clean out my closets and donate or sell the stuff I haven't worn in a season. Perhaps I can earn a little money for my trampoline fund.  I've been saving gift cards and spare money in a envelope for a new trampoline in the spring. I don't know if the kids or I am more excited about a trampoline (probably me). We nearly have enough!

That's about all that's happening around here.

Baby, it's cold outside

This summer I had read how The Farmer's Almanac was predicting this winter to be one of the worst winters in 50 years. Then I ran across another article about how the conditions were perfect for an absolutely pitiful winter. I'm starting to think they were correct. What a nasty winter so far. The only silver lining I can find is that these bitter low temperatures are going to kill off all of those grasshopper eggs and I might have a decent garden this summer. Mild winters suck when it comes to pests. So I'm clinging on to that hope as I dress up in 12 layers and trudge out to feed the animals twice a day.

The weather dude is predicting tonight's low to be -2 degrees with wind chills into the -30's. Yikes. I've done a few preparations to ensure all the outside animals survive. First thing I've done is carry each yowling cat inside and up to Wesley's bathroom. So now we have three rather loud cats (who are clearly not appreciative of my efforts to keep them warm) crammed into his little bathroom.

The horses do great in this weather. Give em extra prairie hay and they are good to go. Naturally Dym, the nubian goat, decided to stop eating this morning. Ruminates do great in the cold. The way they digest their food works as a furnace like no other animal. But this all comes crashing down when they stop feeding the furnace. I put her coat on her, wormed her (which I did late November too so it might not be worm related) and gave her some molasses. She ate the molasses and picked at some alfalfa pellets but wouldn't eat hay or a flake of alfalfa (which is very unlike her). I had a talk with her and told her she'd better start eating or she'd probably die tonight. Oh how I wish I had a heated barn for nights like tonight. But I suppose I'd take a heated garage instead. So after watching her shiver for a few hours I moved the cars outside and moved her and her grown kids into the garage off the house. Right now two space heaters are going and they are slowly warming her up. It's up to a toasty 36 degrees in there now. Here's hoping she starts eating again.

So at this current moment we have all three dogs in the laundry room, barn cats in the bathroom, goats in the garage and two chickens in the insulated side of the shop (shhh... hubby doesn't know about this one). The chickens decided January was a perfect time to go through a hard molt. Two of the eight have lost most of their feathers. Stupid chickens. That's a whole nother post.

As for us we are all hunkered down inside today and tomorrow. Hubby has to go back to work tomorrow after two weeks off. We'll miss him. It's been an incredibly relaxing and enjoyable break. Santa got us a WiiU this year (thanks Santa you're the best ;-) and we've been having fun with it. I found an after Christmas deal on a fleece pajama set and I've literally been living in them for the past week. So warm and comfy. Stay warm everyone.