So I Can't Sing Well!

My Mom has told me over and over throughout the years that if you have animals, you need to talk to them.  They will trust you, like you and get used to you.  They won't fear you.  So when I end up in charge of 20+ chickens, what's a gal to do but sing a few songs?

Every morning, I put some animal bread from the bread store (that's another post!) in a pan outside in "the bread zone", add table scraps (truly - these chickens are like piggies and they eat everything but fowl because that's cannibalism and gross!) and liquids from everything that we cooked the day before (German weiner water and kielbasa water seems to be some of their favorites as well as ground beef grease) and make them some good ol' slop.  They can't wait to get outside to hit the buffet!

I really only sing them one song.  In the morning.  I'm not even sure I have the words right, but then I usually take the words to songs and make up my own anyway.  So here's my morning routine:

Good morning, good morning!  It's time to wake up and start your day! 

Good morning, good morning!  It's time to go out and eat the buffet!

Enjoy the video (not so much my singing).  You'll see what the naughty roosters do.  They don't listen.  And they are very rough with the poor hens.  You'll see one who just can't wait and chases a hen while I'm singing.  Pig.

Yes, I am weird.  But the chickens are beginning to love me.  And that makes my Dad feel good that his chickens are well taken care of while he's recovering.  And he can watch videos of his chickens I take on my cell phone.  ;)

Chicken Chores

My parents have a 5-acre hobby farm which, when we were growing up, was home to cows, pigs and chickens.  Now that my parents are retired, there's only chickens.  But those are the creatures we must now feed!

Oreo!  A Dutch Lakenvelder that was a free "exotic chicken" in Dad's chicky order.

I love the way I was raised and I love the way my parents farmed.  We were and still remain an organic farm.  Nature knows best.  That's why the chickens are cage free, free range chickens.  We do lock them in the coop at night because of predators (there's owls, coyotes, raccoons, skunks - a lot of creatures who enjoy a good chicken dinner!) but as soon as I wake up, I run down to the barn and let them out for the day.

This is what free-range chickens should look like:

The chickens spend the day outside scratching and eating and grazing.  We have never had to worry about ticks or other bugs in the ground because our chickens go from the back of the house to the front to the far back of the property.  They cover the entire farm from North to South and East to West and back over and over and over again daily.  The results are not only bug-free fields but we get the best, dark yellow (almost orange) yolk eggs that have lower cholesterol and better taste than the ones purchased at the store.  Yes, I know.  We are very lucky and I never take that for granted. 

Graze, Chickies, graze!

To Flush or Not to Flush?!

When you've lived away from your parents for 23 years and have a way of managing your home your own way, it's a little different coming back home to live with your folks and follow their methods once again!

Since I was married, I have lived in homes in suburbs where we have always had sewer systems with water service.  Now, we live in a home with a private well and septic tank.  My wonderful father is one of my most favorite people in this world, but that doesn't change the fact that he's a pessimist.  It's usually the glass is "half empty" as versus "half full".  Well, we added 3 new people to this house and of course, my Dad thinks we are going to ruin the septic system by flushing too much.  In this case, it's not "the septic tank is half empty, it's already full and busting out!"   

He told me, my husband, my son and my daughter the same story:  he watched a movie once called "Meet the Fockers".  They had water scarcity issues on the island and Dustin Hoffman (who played Bernie Focker) said the following in the video link here:

Water Scarcity Rules

Yes, we now live by my Dad's "Septic Tank Overflow Rule":  If it's yellow, let it mellow.  If it's brown, flush it down.  I don't think my family can create enough waste to ruin the septic tank, but sometimes we just simply forget and flush out of habit.  My daughter will sometimes ask if it's okay to "flush".  Yes, yes it is.  ;)

Moving back in with your parents is wonderful, don't get me wrong.  I am spending quality time with them, my children are spending quality time with them, we are doing the kind of hard work on the farm that's good, honest, productive and character building.  But there are sometimes little "bumps" in the road, and ours happens to involve toilet flushing.

Hey, if this is as bad as it gets, then we are lucky and blessed because if this is what makes Dad happy, then we'll be happy to oblige! 

My Return to the Farm

God has a plan for us.  I try to never question His ultimate plan, but sometimes I shake my head and wonder, "Why?"

It all started in January of 2015 when my Dad called with a bloody nose.  Yup.  That's what started it all.  LONG story.  But fast forward to April and the call about my Mom not being able to walk.  Dad has heart problems (but not for much longer as his surgery is scheduled for June 1st!) and Mom has back problems and hip issues preventing her from walking normal.  That's when we moved in with Mom and Dad back at the farm and left my husband home at our house to prepare for our big move.

Now the kids and I are living back on the farm and it's been tough and wonderful and tiring and rewarding and it has brought back so many wonderful memories of my childhood.  But I won't share them all at one time....

For now, I will simply share a picture of my childhood home and the surrounding farm.  Here's the picture of our garden. I have a whole story to tell about preparing this piece of land. ;)  Each post, I will slowly bring you with me down on the farm and you can experience farm life first hand!

Our large garden

We Moved!

I have moved in very suddenly with my parents.  That's kind of weird, because I'm 44 years old and have a 16-year-old and 12-year-old.  The first night, I went by myself and left the kids home with my husband.  The kids packed their bags the next day and came over to the farm, too (there's something about Dad taking care of them - it's just not the same!).

Mom had to go to the hospital by ambulance yesterday, Saturday morning, because she couldn't walk and was in tremendous pain in her hip and back.  They didn't help (x-rays didn't show a fracture so GO HOME! they told her) but sent her home with enough pain meds to last until 3:00 a.m. Monday morning.  Seriously.  Only until 3:00 a.m. and she was told to follow up with her primary care physician.  Am I thinking I'm the only one who gets this right now? How can she follow up with her doc when they aren't even IN until at least 8:00 a.m. Monday morning?  3:00 a.m. versus 8:00 a.m.?  I called the E.R. and asked for more pain meds for her.  They said the only way she can get them is by coming back to the E.R.  I explained the only way she can get there is by ambulance and they said, "Well, if that's the only way then you have to do it."  Seriously?

Pain Meds are the norm now!

I called in a favor with a couple friends:  a chiropractor and a PCP who's in the same office as my Mom's PCP.  He prescribed more pain meds and shared the info with her PCP.  Dr. Marc, the chiropractor, came over to her house and put his adjustment bed right next to her bed and helped her out of bed to flop right on his table.  She did get an adjustment and that made an amazing difference for 3 - 4 hours (she was actually walking again!) but the results didn't last.  That's to be expected.

In any event, the lesson of this story?  If you have to go to the E.R. and they give you pain meds, make DARN sure they prescribe enough to get you through until after you get in to see your primary care physician.  You'll be glad you did.

Football Frenzy

It's fall so at our house, that means football rules. Our son has played football since he was five years old, but this was our first official year of high school football and we were ready because practice started in August. I remember one very warm afternoon waiting in the parking lot for him to finish and listening to the band practicing.  There's just something about the band's drum line and football - the two seem to go hand-in-hand.  I was giddy with the anticipation of the first game!

My Football Hero!

Our almost-six-feet-tall, 200 pound freshman was pulled up to play JV football so our world was rocked a little more than expected, and going in to a brand new school not knowing anyone, it was an adjustment for him and us!  He did great, though, and the team had a great year (6 and 3).  Of course, I had my camera at all the games and I think I averaged about 250 pictures a game.  Considering there were 9 games in the season (plus numerous scrimmages), I have well over 1,200 images!  Thank goodness I have the dates of each picture because seriously - they all look alike.  1,200+ images of my son and his teammates running this way, running that way, carry the ball, kicking the ball, making a tackle...do I really need to have 1,200+ images of the same thing over and over and over?  I could, but that would not be a very interesting photo album, would it? Plus it doesn't make sense to spend all that money printing them either individually or in scrapbook pages.

District Champions

So what's a shutter snapping, photo addict like me to do in a situation like this? The answer:  make friends with the "DELETE" button.  This has been so difficult for me because I take pictures with a purpose, pictures that mean something to me. There's my kid in it, for crying out loud and if I delete it, that's like throwing away my child! Do you ever feel that way, too? Get over it, Jackie! Deleting an image does NOT throw away your child. I'll have the best images saved, printed and I'm learning to delete by following these steps:

1.  Go through and get rid of the blurry, out-of-focus images. Even if it was the best play of the game...no one enjoys looking at a picture that doesn't look good. Period. Let it go.

2.  Get rid of duplicates. Is my son standing in formation before the ball is in play?  Sure, I think he looks good standing there, but do I really need 100 pictures of him like that? No! Choose 5 that are the best and delete the rest! Whoa. That's a darn good mantra:  choose 5 that are the best and delete the rest!

3.  Let's take it game by game (day by day, event by event or however you have your photos organized) and choose from each the 5 that are the best and delete the rest! Let's say that I had my continuous shooting going on my camera and I have 10 images that show second by second an awesome play. I said it was a mantra, remember? It's not the law so I can bend a little here and there.  Images like that would make an excellent collage on a page. But I have to keep that to just 1 or 2 per album and remember the mantra for the rest.

I am the queen of keeping it all so I understand how difficult it can be to delete images, but let's face it.  No one wants to sit and look through albums filled with thousands of pictures. A single picture can tell an entire story so of course, 45 images from the 9 games will make a memory book filled with many stories and great memories to last a life time!

Most importantly, I want my son to be able to look back fondly on his first year of high school football and have an album that will make him smile for many, many years to come.

Aaaaggghhh! Fruit Flies!

There's nothing better than fresh fruits and vegetables right from the garden. It's like Heaven on a plate! But every rose has it's thorn (thank you Bret Michaels): fruit flies. Yup, I have them all over my house and they're driving me nuts! The worst part is that they are not only a nuisance, they can be a health hazard (((shudder))). The rotten little buggers can contaminate food which can make you and your family very ill! I did a LOT of research online from many, many different sites and links with so much information my head was spinning. Seriously, they're little, nuisance flies, but here's the scary part:

They love bits of rotting food remnants and seem to thrive in even the smallest amount. When fruit flies move in, they just don't want to leave and will lay eggs in and on anything they can find - fruits & vegetables left on the counter, sink drains, garbage disposals, empty bottles & cans, garbage bags, and even mops and rags.

A Few Fun (okay, not really) Facts About Fruit Flies:

- Can lay up to 500 eggs at a time

- Their entire lifecycle is complete in about a week

- While considered mainly a pest, they have the potential to contaminate food with dangerous bacteria

We all know that removing the food, getting rid of the garbage & cleaning up plays a big role, but we also know what it's like to move a piece of fruit and have a swarm of fruit flies fill the air only to escape your attempts at killing them. Where are they gonna go? Obviously the ones flying around can't be easily captured or killed, so they'll linger about until they find some other place to lay eggs and the whole cycle starts again. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I read about folding an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of paper, making a cone, and placing it in a jar with vinegar or banana. Pain in the butt in my opinion. I read about buying traps from the store. Expensive!  Check out an idea using a banana:

1. Get a small jar you don't plan on using again ( like a baby food jar or something similar ) and wash it out well. Make sure it is not a jar with a funky smell such as a used pickle jar or anything that use to have strong spices. You want a clean, odorless jar.

2. Take a chunk of banana and place inside the jar. This is why you want a clean, odorless jar - so that the banana smell won't be overpowered by other not-so-tempting smells. Banana seems to work the best, but you can experiment.

3. Fit a piece of plastic wrap over the top of the jar, making sure that it fits tight and well sealed around the edges. Then take a pen or pencil and poke 4 to 5 holes in the plastic, just big enough for a fruit fly to fit into. Once a fruit fly crawls in, it can't get out. You would think they would just fly back out through the holes, but they won't!

4. Place the jar in an area where you have seen the most fruit flies. Depending on the amount of fruit flies you have, you can expect to start seeing the jar fill up within just a few hours. After 24 hours, you will discover just how bad your fruit fly problem is!

This simple, inexpensive & safe method works perfectly and if you don't want the jar on public display, you can always slip it behind the garbage can, in the cupboard or even under the sink (Just don't forget about it!). You will want to empty the jar every 3-4 days before any eggs have a chance to hatch. While adult fruit flies can't easily escape through the holes, their maggots can very easily, and besides that - they are disgusting to see crawling around in the jar. You don't want to see these things crawling on your counter!

Cleaning out the jar shouldn't be a problem. Kill the bugs with bug spray, wash out the jar and start the whole process over again if there are still some fruit flies left to capture.

For bad fruit fly problems, you will want to use this method for a good two weeks to make sure you've captured the majority of fruit flies. You might even want to use a few jars in different places. Before long, your kitchen will be back to normal.

Maybe for some people, but not for me. Too many steps & too much hassle of maintaining the darn thing. And I don't use bug spray (it's the organics in me). So what do I do? Simple. Fill a small jar with apple cider vinegar, add a few drops of liquid dish soap, mix it up and set it out on the counter where there have been a lot of fruit flies. Watch them come in for a drink (and because the soap breaks the surface tension of the vinegar, they fall in) and voila! They can't get out! Dump, clean and re-fill as needed until the buggers are gone

I understand that the fruit flies really love beer (I wonder who conducted that survey?) but too bad I won't let them have a "happy" death - that would be too nice of me. I guess they love red wine even better (ditto on the survey). Sorry little pests. If I have red wine in my house, it certainly won't be for YOU to drink!

And don't stop eating fresh fruits and vegetables like my husband suggested (go figure). Just accept the challenge and fight to win! Now I must go clean my counters AGAIN.