Chicken "porch"

I have learned that to save money on chicken crumbles, keep it dry! It needs to be easily accessible for the chickens to eat and me (or others) to fill it, and with the feeder I have, the crumbles will shake down into the lower tray only if it is hung up and swings a bit when the chickens peck in it. Also, keeping it higher than ground level means less debris is scattered into it when they scratch around, and also keeps it out of most of the flooding that invariably begins a few minutes after the start of a Tennessee signature torrential downpour. I call it a porch because on those really super rainy days, the chickens are lined up just inside, glumly staring out into the rain. Or maybe eagerly awaiting the worms that will follow, I don't really know! I should call it a veranda instead because I've always liked that word, but childhood conditioning is incredibly hard to break! Anyway, their old porch was crumbling into pieces and was only a temporary measure that ended up lasting for years. When I first got the chickens, I had no idea what I would ACTUALLY need and how things would go. But you go with flow, pay attention, and use a little ingenuity to repurpose things, and end up feasting on awesome eggs!

So to save myself some money, worry, and headache in preparation for the upcoming monsoon season (just a little Tennessee humor there! Of course it's not a real monsoon! But if feels like it) I have built an all new chicken porch in one day! I bought the 2 x 4s for the framing, and hit up my scrap wood bin for the sides, and scavenged the rest from the old porch. If I wasn't so whipped I might have painted it but yeah, that didn't happen. Perhaps this summer when I'm bored HAHAHAHAHAHA....

I'm still getting the hang of this blogging formatting hmmm....so big white here is Captain Crunch. she's the only full size chicken I have at present. I'm intending to get a few chicks this month, so she won't be so alone! She's also the youngest of this flock.

Below is Ivy, Bossa Nova, and Thorn, starting at noon going clockwise. Bossa Nova is the oldest, she's around 5 years old.

Digging Our Own Grave

If not, then digging the graves of our 100x great-grandchildren's grandchildren, or some descendants betwixt.

The problems stemming from tsunami damage to Fukushima Dachii reactor plant appear to be nonstop and growing regularly, and also consuming immense amounts of water while global droughts are becoming pandemic. Although one hopes they use undrinkable saltwater to cool all that nuclear fuel, I suspect they may not. Regardless, the water is undeniably unusable in ANY form once applied to spent or melting fuel rods. For many, many generations . Aside from the morality of generating material that is still going to be radioactive so many generations in the future I don't even want to do the math, we do not have the knowledge, capability, or apparently even the incentive to properly solve nuclear mishaps on this scale. All of which means, to a sane and responsible person, we should not be utilizing this technology.

SHUT THEM ALL DOWN NOW. 

I won this one

Today did about 2 miles, jogged all but a 2-minute warm-up and a few minutes near the end up at LONG, STEEP (yes both) hill. Total time was 28 minutes. Yippee I'm getting there!

Although perhaps I should change my animal spirit totem from wolf to TORTOISE :)

REBOOTING.....

Communication re-established, YAYYY! With positive result, triple YAYYY!!!  ;)

Wore out myself and Nibbles walking a paltry 2.25 miles yesterday ROFL

Delightful new breakfast:

• Soft scramble some eggs with salt & a little garlic powder
• Saute a few thin slices of onion, a garlic clove, handful of cherry tomatoes, then add ripped up spinach leaves. Salt it gently. 
• Scoop out some avocado, put it in a bowl
• Add the eggs and sauteed veggies. Top it with some diced up feta. Yum!

Intention is to jog today....time would be the main hindrance I believe. 

Welcome 2014

I hope this year gets better as the months roll on. Because so far in less than 30 days I've been clobbered with the breakup of a year-long technically nonexistent relationship (still quite painful for all its ambiguous character) and a mistake due to trusting a business and the postal service that at this point appears to be costing me one thousand dollars. Well! Let's not do things by halves, shall we? Still on the list of problems that won't be fixed in the foreseeable future: A fridge that freezes the refrigeration section, property tax raise coming to an additional $50 a month, a long string of money before my bathroom can be used for anything other than brushing teeth, a crumbling asphalt driveway, and a lovable mutt racking up $200 monthly not including shots, lab work, and annual exams. WAIT! There is one more ongoing issue - my son is smoking, failing high school, and apparently thinks school is spelled skool.

Am I being punished? What I did - was it in this life or a past life, I wonder?

Looking Back

What did I accomplish in 2013?

Rode a motorcycle by myself, for the first time. Which turned out to be the only time. LOL!
Broke my leg, got a cast, walked with crutches for a while, all also firsts.
Got addicted to World of Warcraft and leveled a warlock to 90.
Sadly said goodbye to the coolest cat ever, Hector.
Except when laid up with injury or illness, kept working out regularly throughout the year, even got jogging up to over a mile without a walking break and pushed my time down.
I got to play some fun games that won't be discussed on a G-rated blog ;).
Drank too much wine.
Finally stopped smoking, although sometimes I still want one. Briefly. Then a few minutes later it goes away. Eight years it took to say this with confidence.
Hiked lots of mountains and went to lots of Tennessee places I've never been to, or even heard about.
Didn't have enough to put up, but did enjoy some homegrown, organic fruits and veggies.
Learned a lot about egg bound chickens and dog allergies.
Watched my son become more grown up and teach himself how to script (code).
Failed to pass my organic chemistry class, but certainly learned a lot about organic chemistry.
Learned a great many low carb recipes.
Entered a 5K but didn't run in it. Sick!
Almost paid off my credit card then ran it way back up again. Sigh.

Made some new friends....but also lost a few, as well.

Realized and accepted the fact that our species will not stop drilling for oil, burning coal, and trashing our habitat. We seem to be much like the pest infections that eat all the available food and then die in vast numbers. Inevitable? Because I do believe that by now, the global effects of these actions are irrevocable. Consequences.....will most likely be rather dire. I wonder if I will live to see the worst, or if my son will have to face that alone, with his peers.

Introspective

I must think on this further:

"I'm glad you choose to see me the way you do."  ~ Walter Bishop, from Fringe