Chicken Run

As I may have mentioned before, we have about an acre and a half of land and on this nice little plot is a small barn. Half the barn is a chicken coop. So, with Spring here, it was time to go to the feed store and get some baby chicks. We've learned from experience that having a rooster around is a lot of trouble and it's just easier to get new chicks than to hope to hatch some of our own.

So a few Saturdays ago we loaded the rugrat into the SUV and head to town. We came back with a couple of large bags of pine bedding for the coop a 50lb sack of crumbles (chick food), and a box with 10 little peepers in it.

The hubinator hauled everything down to the barn and then decided that the weather was still too cold for the chicks to go in the barn, even with heat lamps. Now, the sunroom where we've incubated chicks before is currently occupied by cats, so that wasn't an option. Furthermore, the large steel tub we had kept chicks in before had been rusted out, so we didn't have anything to keep them in. Finally we hit upon a solution.

We brought a large, plastic garden cart/wheelbarrow-type thing into the basement to keep the chicks in under heat lamps until they could grow some. Now, we realized that this meant our basement would soon smell like chickens, but we really didn't have any other choice. The chicks needed time to grow before they could handle cooler weather.

Grow they did.

I went to check them this morning and something didn't seem quite right. I did a head count on them - not easy to do when you have nervous chicks running around in circles in a plastic tub. 9. I checked again. Still 9. One was missing.

I look around the basement and see no sign of him. I'm fairly confident that he's not dead - but hope and pray that he hasn't decided to hide out under the stairs where I would NEVER be able to reach him. As I move the bag of food and bucket of clean pine shavings out of the way, I see chicken droppings on the floor next to the cart. Ah-ha! Confirmation that one actually got out instead of being abducted by aliens!

I carefully move the heat lamps and roll the cart out of the way - sending the remaining 9 chicks into a new flurry of frenzied peeping and flapping. Once the cart is out of the way I see him - the loan chick - perched on the edge of a scrap of paneling I had propped up against the wall, looking completely befuddled. His peeping became more frantic as I moved closer, but he apparently was too afraid to move, because he didn't budge as I reached to him and gently picked him up.

I carried the squirming, peeping little bundle back to the cart and put him in before rolling the cart back in place and setting up the heat lamps again. A little fresh food and water, and the peepers all quickly settled down.

If there is one thing experience has taught me - this is just the start. We still don't have a cover for the cart, so I'm expecting to have to chase the little sucker down again tomorrow - maybe even an accomplice or two.

It's all part of life here on the edge of chaos.

Munchkin Madness

Having a toddler means no end of troub - er - delight for my husband and me.

Yesterday as we were leaving the family Easter party, someone asked her how old she was going to be in a few weeks. They then said "How many fingers?" Well, as this was happening, my aunt held out her hand to help Rhi out the door. So when she was asked how many fingers, she started counting my aunt's fingers.

Today Rhi said she wanted to play hide-and-seek. So she covered her eyes and began counting. Somewhere between 1 and 2 I think she got her games mixed up, because then she uncovered her eyes and shouted "peek-a-boom!" I think she got it from Oh, The Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. One of her favorite parts of the book is when the little guy escaped from The Waiting Place and finds "the bright places where boom bands are playing." Any time she sees people playing instruments, she calls it a boom band.

I think this is also why she calls band-aids "boo-bands".

A few hours later she asked me for a drink. Well... at first she demanded. Climbed on a chair and shouted "Hey! I thirsty!" I went over to her and told her how to politely ask for a drink. After she repeated what I said, I took her to the kitchen and gave her some water. Next thing I know, she was shaking the cup up and down, splashing water all over the floor. I asked her what she was doing. She looked at me, looked at the cup in her hand, and then said "It jumped!"

Trailblazing!

I leaned upon the sturdy staff, gasping for breath, every muscle in my body aching. I had done it - I had reached the end. Looking back, I viewed the uneven terrain - the long ignored trail upon which mankind had not trod for countless ages - the trail I had just traveled. I sniffled in the cold, late-winter dusk and smiled proudly. From the Western Steppes, through seemingly impassable brambles and thickets, I had conquered the Northern Trail!

Translation:
Last year, between dealing with my mother's breast cancer, my brother's divorce, a 2-year old, and 2 lawnmowers that refused to work, our wooded acre and a half became somewhat over-grown. One of the sacrifices we had to make was a little path that runs along the northern side of our backyard. A normally pretty little path that begins at brick steps by our greenhouse and lined with daffodils and snowdrops was cluttered with weeds, fallen branches, and poison ivy. With it's gradual slope, the path was the easiest trail from the house to the barn at the eastern end of the yard - but it was not the most direct path and so it fell into disuse.

Today - the last day of winter - as the sun was lowering in the western sky, I took our trusty, rusty garden rake and cleared the path once more - just in time for the first of the Spring flowers.

*thumpthumpthumpthumpthump*

It's Friday morning and I've got a busy day ahead of me, to include story time at the library, picking up chicken feed, going to the hardware store to get stuff to fix a leaky pipe, and stopping by a new craft store in town in hopes they are open finally so I can lose my mind wanting to get everything I see.

So... just a quick note today.

Yesterday we went for my second prenatal doctor visit. I'm 11 and a half weeks into the pregnancy and we could hear the baby's heartbeat! YAY!

Everything seems to be going well so far. Next step comes in about 2 weeks when I go get a stitch in my cervix to keep from losing the baby.

You Asked for It

Since there was a request, I'll go ahead and relate the day that was my birthday - i.e.: the Ides of March. To set the stage, however, I must go back to the day before.

On Monday, my husband left for work saying goodbye to the rugrat, ignoring me, and slamming the door on his way out. He was pissed off that I was miffed about a comment he made regarding laundry. Married people fight over the silliest things, sometimes. So I spent the day in a rage at him for being mad about my being mad about him making a snarky comment. As a result, I washed and ironed almost every single piece of clothing her owned, as well as disassembled, moved, and reassembled a futon sofa frame from the living room to the family room in the basement. I was still furious and walking very fast on the treadmill to burn off energy by the time he came home. Then we hugged and made up and all was well.

Given the amount of work I'd done on Monday, I felt completely justified in taking Tuesday - my birthday - easy. I had promised Rhi that we'd have a tea party at her little table in the family room, so while she was watching Sesame Street I went to the kitchen to start preparing for the party. I cut thin slices of pound cake and then cut those out into butterfly shapes with a cookie cutter. I spread the butterfly cakes with lemon curd and then sprinkled lavender colored sugar on top. I made iced blueberry tea. When it was all ready we had our tea party - it was great to sit there with her and her dolls!

After we cleaned up from the party, I decided to pull out the stamping supplies I'd just gotten. Rhi had seen some of them and had asked me to make her a "special picture" so that's what I did. I made a frame out of moss green cardstock that holds a white card stamped with moss green ink. There is an image of a dragonfly and a quote from Emerson: "All I have seen teaches me to trust the Creator for all I have not seen." It's now hanging from a sheer pink ribbon on her bedroom wall. We also made up a birthday card for my husband since his birthday is 5 days after mine.

The rest of the day was just as easy-going. I wrote up some stories for one of the online games I play (Star Wars Galaxies), read websites while the rugrat got a nap. After she got up from her nap, she helped me wash some dishes. Mom arrived with gifts for the hubinator and me, and then after my husband got home he took us out for dinner. He offered to take us someplace fancy, but since I'd had such a casual day I told him I was more in the mood for burgers.

Not doing anything special, but just taking it easy and enjoying myself made it one of the best birthdays I've had.

Writer's Block

I try to update this blog more often - honest. I have sat down at various times during the week to write updates.

There was the gripe about bill collectors who send snide letters over accounts for which I'd never gotten an original bill. But because it was an account that I knew I owed the money, I made arrangements to pay the bill right away and once the payment was sent off my righteous indignation at the collector dissipated.

Then there was the gripe about the service at a restaurant we ate at over the weekend where they charged us for our daughter's meal despite their advertised special of "kids eat free". But I ended up talking to the manager of the place on the phone and he apologized profusely and said he would send us out a certificate for a free meal to make up for it. Between his being so pleasant to deal with and the fact that we really liked the food despite the ending to our visit, I'm a happy camper on that front now.

Then I was going to write about making soap with my daughter. My husband had gotten me a kit from a craft store so I spent a morning melting little block of plain soap and adding coloring and scent to it before pouring it into molds. It was fun, but not much else to talk about there - though it's a great way to get Rhi to take her baths because the very first soap we made was a turquoise glycerin dolphin that I told her was her soap.

Then I was going to write about my brother and the stress I've felt about having to go get his kids from an hour and a half away because he doesn't drive. I'd made up my mind that I was going to set limits on when I would and would not pick up my nephews and that I definitely would not make another trip until he started making progress towards getting his own license. But I was afraid to confront him on it because I didn't want him to think I was turning my back on him. Turns out I didn't need to do it. I'd told my mom about it and she ended up telling my brother. He understood and agreed 100% and as a result has signed up for driver's ed.

So obviously I have stuff going on. I just don't know how to write about it in a way that isn't just whining or that sounds totally inane and boring by the time I wrap it up.

Blankies

As I write this, Rhianwen is curled up in her crib, snuggled under a pink quilt that has little pictures of sheep and moons all over it. Each little picture has the words "Off to sheep I go" wrapped around it. With each nap and bedtime, she specifically asks for her sheep blankie.

It is her newest blankie - she's had it about a week now. It was given to us in the Emergency Room when we took her in for her stomach virus. The nurse explained that it was from Project Linus - a non-profit organization that makes blankets to provide comfort to kids who need it. A little tag attached to it showed that the blanket was made by volunteers on the staff at one of the local elementary schools.

Rhi instantly fell in love with the blanket - at a time when she was feeling bad and was scared, she knew she had my husband and I there, but she had the added comfort of a soft, cozy blankie. The nurse had told us that the blanket was ours to keep - which is good since as we were getting ready to leave, Rhi insisted it come with us anyway.

I know I can be a sentimental sap, so it isn't surprising that when thinking about that blankie I get tears in my eyes. In so many ways it provided comfort not only to Rhi, but to myself as well - comfort in knowing that there are people who will give of themselves to help comfort kids.