Mail-Order Chicks!

~Photo by Nancy

"I do so like Green Eggs and Ham!"

It's that time of year again and the farmers are getting ready to order their chickens. The serious ones just start hatching new chicks from their current flock. Everyone else orders their chickies from a hatchery like Murray McMurray or Privett and ship them. One can also order them from the local Feed Store, but they're more expensive.

We were pretty new to all this last year, so we just sat back and watched the rest of the town; we observed and learned. THIS year, we are ready to place our orders and begin our family chicken farm. We are excited for a few reasons. One of which is knowing where our poultry and eggs are coming from, what they're being fed, and what's (not) being pumped into them in order to produce more (remember my history with the Pituitary...I'm a little sensitive about "Growth Hormones"). I've heard arguments both ways concerning Growth Hormone in Poultry and Dairy, but I'm willing to make an effort to "just play it safe," you know?

I've even made a deal with a friend: He will get fresh eggs in exchange for slaughtering some chickens every couple of months, cleaning them, and dropping them into our deep freezer. (I won't be able to stomach that myself...let's just be honest.)

So as we have scanned through the McMurray online catalog, we have decided what our order will consist of (follow the links for more information):

An assortment of Brown Egg-Laying Hens

Americanas (for green and blue eggs)

Guineas (to keep the bugs away)

Ducks (use the eggs for baking and the bird for Christmas dinner)

Geese (just for fun...that's all)

Turkeys (for Thanksgiving, of course!)

Cornish Rocks or White Leghorns (they make the best roasters)

I'm also planning on being "one of those" who hatches more chicks from the current flock.

Wish me luck!

Myth-Buster:

I noticed in the supermarket that the "Organic Free Range" eggs are brown and in clear plastic containers (so you can see how brown they are). Before I moved to the farm I thought that meant they were healthier.  NOT SO!  Studies have proven there is NO nutritional difference between the colors of the eggs. The truth is that some hens lay white eggs, some lay brown, and some lay green and blue.  All can be Free Range and Organic, but the color is NOT the indicator.

*The above Photo is of ACTUAL fresh barnyard eggs (from our neighbor) on my kitchen counter. Yes, that one is a REAL green egg.

Up-and-Coming Comedian

~Photo by Nancy

Sometimes I wonder if there is a "Class-Clown" Tendancy in our family gene pool.

Up until recently, though I believed it had skipped me.

Although I was always the serious, shy, studious-minded girl, sometimes I look around and realize that I'm surrounded by comedians both in my biological family AND my "married fam" as well.  Even my own brother has his own Stand-Up Comedy hobby.

This seems to be rubbing off on me lately since that filter is starting to come down (due to the fact that I care less and less about what people think of me).  The gene is beginning to show it's mischievous face more and more and at times I vocalize what I'm really thinking, I hear people laughing, and I wonder in amazement, "Did I really just SAY that?"

So, considering the branches of Hayden's family tree, it is no surprise to us that he is not only developing an amazing talent for impersonations, but he is also starting to write his own "material" for entertainment.

While riding in the car the other day, Hayden piped up and shared his debut original joke with the rest of us:

Q: "Why did the doctor eat the banana?"

A: "Because he was hungry!"

Hayden THEN proceeded to belly laugh, as though that was the funniest thing he had ever heard, which made US laugh with him.  Thinking he was JUST THAT FUNNY, he decided to tell the same joke again.

Photo: www.jupiterimages.com

Alright, so it needs a little work, but I think he MAY be off to budding career...

...or at least many years of family entertainment.

~Photo by Nancy

We woke up Saturday morning to something we don't see very often down here....

Snow!

This only happens about once or twice a year. Last year, 8 whole inches blanketed this valley. On that special occasion a year ago, most parents let there kids stay home from school for the morning, so they could play in the snow before it melted.

We witnessed almost 2 inches this time, but by the time I got everyone together it was already melting at warp speed.

We walked to the Pecan Grove and snapped some pictures of the beautiful majestic trees. This grove is (literally) across the street from our house.

I love living next to a pecan grove. I love listening to their music when the wind gently brushes past their branches. I love listening to the owls softly "hooting" in the dark; owls LOVE pecan trees too.

"A Tale of Two Kidneys"

*Despite Ben's personal opinion for me to "just keep some parts (of my life) off the blog" I am going to share another experience with the world; especially since it was a first for me. Don't worry, though, I'll spare the details......"

There are some things we really LOVE about this new culture (living out in the middle of Farm Country):

• The nightly stars and meteor showers are spectacular!

•It's peaceful and quiet

•Fresh, clean air to breathe and NO signs of pollution anywhere on the horizon

•You can run around outside in your underwear, dancing and howling in the moonlight, and nobody will EVER know. Not that I've ever done that or anything (*wink*), but you get the point.

Yet, there are OTHER things that, well, aren't so fun!

•Gossip (but that's everywhere)

•Paying $4.00 for an emergency gallon of milk at the "convenience store"

•Having to drive 35 minutes to the nearest (halfway-decent) Urgent Care

Native Air (A Life Flight Air Ambulance Service) was developed in this area because of all the isolated farm communities and Indian Reservations. Although I HAVE seen the choppers transporting people in the air, MOST of the time emergencies consist of just getting in the car and toughing it out until you get to the ER....which can seem MUCH longer than usual.

(You'll remember THIS story about Ben.)

So while sitting in my yoga pants and downloading "Ultimate Rock Ballads" onto my iPod® on Saturday morning, I suddenly felt a stabbing pain in my back. Before I knew it (about as fast as snapping your fingers), I was turning a ghostly white, shaking, and BLACKING OUT over and over! Ben picked me up off the floor and carried me to the car.

It ended up being a severe kidney infection which produced an agony-inducing kidney stone.

"Please pass the cranberry juice!"

It's funny what goes through your mind when you don't have control over your body and you're in and out of consciousness. Everything started to get really WHITE and I thought back to accounts of "near death" experiences (even though that was NOT what I was really experiencing). As we were speeding down the highway, I whispered my Blogger username and password to Ben. "If I don't make it, post it on my blog."

Ben has been making fun of me ever since, but I WAS NOT RATIONAL!

Do you hear me?!

I was delirious and hallucinating!

Now, I'm on pretty potent antibiotics, which knocks me off my feet, and a painkiller which will permanently discolor my contact lenses. (That's why I am wearing my glasses right now.)

That reminds me....

What the heck am I still doing on this computer?

B-Bye for now.

The Pied Pizza Piper of The West

~Photo by Nancy

I'm scared of big animals.

Except for the time that I rode on the back of an elephant when I was 13 years old, but she was a sweetheart! She appeared in the first Star Wars movie: Remember the big wolley mamouth-like Bantha on the desert planet Tatouine? (I asked Ben for that Star Wars trivia.) Well, that was an elephant in a costume. Anyway.....

The other day Ben and I were driving around a farm that we're thinking of buying. It's not a farm YET, though, it's a RANCH....big difference:

A FARM grows PLANTS to eat,
A RANCH grows MEAT to eat.

So as we drove around the "outback" we came across a water hole where a bunch of Black Angus cows were hanging out. The water hole is a "happening place," you know; a watering hole to a cow is like a pizza joint for a teenager.

As we came closer to the area, all the cows turned around and started heading toward us. Soon they were completely surrounding the SUV and WOULD NOT MOVE. They literally "stopped us in our tracks". We realized our sudden popularity was due to the fact that they thought we were bringing them food.

The hovering group seemed intent on stopping our vehicle, so we had to start nudging them with the front of our grill. Soon we broke through the sea of cattle and continued on our way with them following behind us. When we drove forward, they followed and when we stopped, they stopped and waited. Since I was too much of a chicken to get out of the car and mingle amongst them, I stuck my head out the window and snapped a picture (above). Then I snapped another picture as we continued to "herd" a few more in front of us (below). (Look at the snow on the mountains in the background....pretty.)

And suddenly, I found myself craving a pizza.

~Photo by Nancy

The End.

Benchmarks & Bullseyes

Photo: www.historicalaircraftsquadron.com

Well, here we are at the 100th post on this blog.

With nothing earth-shatttering to announce, I will simply share a recent story from the farm....

There is an Air Force base not very far away from here. Considering the abundant farm land, isolation, and scarce population, it is not uncommon for pilots to fly their jets out to "this neck of the woods" for practice. In fact, most of the air space around here (according to a special pilot map we looked at) is considered a "Military Operations Area."

This can make it tricky for the crop dusters. (Remember THIS story?)

Although we have watched many-a-dogfight (both day and night), I have to admit the one I saw the other day was enough to make me stop. In fact, it caused many to stop and watch.

I heard them practicing above us all morning, seeming to be unusually close. It wasn't until I started to load Hayden up in the car for a morning of errands that I realized just how close they really were.

There were four A-10 Warthogs that day. As I turned around to face the sky, after buckling Hayden's seatbelt, I saw the first one coming straight toward our house at a slight downward angle before turning to the left and pulling up over the pecan grove. Then, the second came toward us in the same pattern.

It was then that I realized I was being used as pretend target practice.

They were SO close! At times they were only about three telephone pole lengths high. I could almost see the pilot in the cockpit, so I smiled and waved at the third one as if to say, "I know what you're doing!"

Driving down to the main highway, I suddenly noticed that there were cars and trucks pulled over and people watching the private air show from the side of the road. As they circled back around twisting, turning, and flipping over and over, I had to keep reminding myself to watch the road.

Soon, they disappeared again over the mountains and vanished into the "wild blue yonder."

Photo: www.viewimages.com

Hey, speaking of the US military...

I checked something out on Snopes.com yesterday. (For those who are new to Snopes, it's a definitive Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.) I visited the site to check the validity of a forwarded email I received and found that THIS story is true:

There is a new warship being built right now called the USS New York, which is being built from melted down steel recovered from the World Trade Center after September 11th. The motto of the ship is going to be "Never Forget."

Check it out HERE!

...and HERE.