Holiday Spirit

Sending some happy holiday spirit your way. Yesterday, I worked at the church in the morning and DD and DH got the Christmas decorations down from the attic and set up the big tree. When I got home, we decorated the house and the tree. In the middle of everything DD decides to go pull her own tooth (with a wash cloth)! What a brave kid! Her two top front teeth are very loose and I'm sure we'll soon be hearing "All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth!" Now I need to try to find that song to put on the blog...

DH put some pizza dough in the bread maker and we had homemade pizza for supper. My neighbor friend came over and we all watched "A Christmas Story" and "Holiday Inn". What a great way to start the holiday season! DD even made her own pizza (she doesn't look too happy about it, but she was thrilled).

Well, the chickens are laying 7-10 eggs a day now. Way more than I know what to do with, so I guess I'm back in the egg business. We've had a raccoon that has been sneaking into the chicken house if I forget to close the little door at night. The other night when I went to tuck Gary into bed, the 'coon had tipped over the cat food and all I could see was his tail sticking out of the bin. I ran back to the house (with Gary still in my arms, of course) to get the .22. By the time I got it loaded and back out there, the 'coon was gone. Then last night about 1:30, Gary was crowing; then the other rooster was crowing. I totally blew it off thinking I was either dreaming or the chickens had gone crazy. But this morning, the cat food bin was tipped over again. The chickens were probably scared and crowing in distress... (duh farmgirl). So, I guess a trap is in order. He doesn't bother the chickens, but I really don't want a 'coon roaming around.

DH is in town today as part of an ARK Crew we have at church. Have you seen "Evan Almighty"? In that movie, ARK stands for "Acts of Random Kindness". We sent away for a kit that helps get you started identifying needs in y0ur church and community and acting on those needs. Today, our church's ARK Crew is at the home of a congregation member who recently moved back into the community. They've moved to a different home and then her husband got shipped off to Iraq and she took a new job. With a couple teenagers and all the changes, they haven't even had time to unpack. So the crew is there helping her get organized and decorated for the holidays. What a blessing to be able to do this for the family.

Sure glad this is a chicken farm...

These guys are especially happy that today, most Americans are eating turkey.

You can probably see that we got a little snow yesterday. It was a little white knuckle driving around noon yesterday, but by late afternoon, most of the local roads had cleared off. Today, we received some big beautiful white flakes (you'd have thought it was Christmas).

As usual, we had a bountiful dinner at MIL K's with 26 of our nearest & dearest. Lots of fun to watch the cousins play...

DD dressed as a "Pioneer Pilgrim" (same as her Halloween costume) and read a Thanksgiving poem...

and DH cut the bird...

and then we all sat around and gabbed.

Does anyone have any experience with a "house trap" in their septic system? We just discovered that we have one and it is causing a few issues now that we've installed a water-saving toilet in the upstairs bathroom. Ideas?

Also, for the record, the kitten that I mentioned in the last post is doing just fine. It wasn't even our kitten to begin with, but I shared all your wonderful and thoughtful advice with the kitten's caretakers and they're happy to report that "Patches" is doing great.

Now that DD is in first grade, she brings home assignments every night. She loves to read and enjoys math, so getting her to do this is not as challenging as I expected.

I'm also trying to involve her in the kitchen more. DH lets her cut things with a knife (under close supervision, of course), but I'm not that brave. On this particular evening, we made meatloaf and had extra hamburger, so she helped make hamburger patties for the next night. She's growing up way too fast!

Finally!

The new chickens are finally laying eggs! I was getting one a day for a few days and then yesterday and today...three! Hallelujah!

It's much colder here today (in the 30's), so everyone's bundled up. The scarecrow's lap seems to be the preferred spot. I wouldn't be surprised to see "Gary" curled up there later with the cats. C'est la vie!

I got this picture of a cat the other day when I was on a photo shoot...couldn't resist! The picture I didn't take, however, is the one of DD crying inconsolably over a tiny kitten whose eyes are all "gooped up" and probably won't make it through the winter. Life and death lived out daily around the farm; tough, but important, lessons.

I was reading Reluctant Entertainer's blog this morning and it felt so timely and God-inspired. Just last night, I read Romans 12 and this idea has been on my heart lately. Especially as we enter the holiday season and a time for thanksgiving, this chapter helps to put me into the right frame of mind. I hope you will take joy in this, also.

Happy Fall, Y'all

Ok, so it's been a while. DH received a voicemail from his friend down south and prompted me to get back to bloggin'. Just haven't been up to sharing a lot that's going on here. Starting to come out of this mental fog that I've been in, thanks to the help of my DH, DD, some very good friends...and lots of prayer.

So glad that the garden is done for this year. The peppers were outrageously hot, the tomatoes outrageously unproductive, the corn was layed flat by the high winds. It was pretty much a crop failure all the way around except for the green beans - - I finally just let them go (after I put 20 1-gallon bags of them in the freezer). Then, last week I noticed that they had re-seeded themselves and a new crop was growing (until the frost killed them off Tuesday night).

The port on my camera went bad a few months ago, and I just figured out how to go "around" that issue, so I can finally bring you some photos. I don't have a lot of photos of the family to share, but I can show you the girls (and a couple roosters):

I have no idea what breed most of these chickens are (they're just "perty"), but I believe this one is called a turken (or "Larry" as we like to call it):

This speckled one is the friendliest:

At dusk, they all head to the coop, except for a brave few who still roost in the pine trees behind the coop.And this is poor "Gary" - - I think he's a mix-up with that extra batch of broiler chicks we got. I don't have the heart to cook him for dinner, but he sure is a pain. He's just learning how to crow in this muffled, heart-sick way. He likes to sleep in this rocker at night and I have to carry him into the chicken house to train him where to go, but he always sneaks back to this spot. So, I put the scare-"chicken" in the rocker to deter this bad habit...he crowed at it for half an hour, but the silly thing wasn't scared....

If you can't beat 'em . . . join 'em:

And these little guys are new - - yes, more chickens. Some people inherit jewelry or money; I inherit chickens. My uncle Wade passed away a few weeks ago shortly after he hatched these RIR's and his sister asked me if I would take them, so here they are:

I'm still taking some family photos - - this one is my good friend and neighbor: