Walking In The Winter

I must say, I was extremely skeptical that we were going to get the amount of snow they were predicting yesterday and last night.  It just wasn't getting cold enough.  But, lo and behold, not too far after the time they said it would change, it did.  And then it didn't hold back.  I don't know if it was the snow (the novelty of it rarely wears off on a southerner) or the lasagna I made for supper but I really had trouble sleeping last night and was up early too.  After a quick breakfast I figured I better get out if I wanted any photos because the highs they were predicting would cause a fast melt.

We got about 4 1/2- 5 inches, but that's a fair amount for this part of Alabama.  Some places north of us got 10 inches.  It was one of the prettiest snows I've ever seen.  The trees were heavily lined with snow transforming them into enormous confections.  And there really was a otherworldly blue cast to everything.  I did not retouch these photos.

Unfortunately, southern snow is often heavy and wet, due to our humidity and the soft pines do not fare well.
We had some large limbs down but gratefully, no trees and no limbs on power lines.

Gates protecting bare nothingness.

I had never seen this happen before.  We got a layer of ice first and I guess that helped the snow cling to the wire instead of falling through.  This is the roof of our bitty pen, now solid.  The ground underneath was completely bare.

The soft netting above the big hens' larger run did not fare as well.  We will have a few repairs to do here.

 
For some reasons the chickens just love to eat the snow.   And yes, I warned them about the yellow stuff.

Standing down near the chicken coop looking up towards the front yard.

Another version of the garden.

This bird doesn't mind the snow.  I had to laugh at the Easter Eggers again.  I let the chickens out and most of the hens slowly made their way out and trudged through the snow up to the house where there were bare spots under the trees.  The Easter Eggers came out as a group, gingerly took a few steps into the snow, considered a few minutes and then seemed to say, 'this is bullshit, let's go back inside!'

The burning bush has cooled a bit.

Chigger and Callie had a high time playing in the snow.  Yes, even Callie.  I have never seen a cat that liked to play in the snow.  She was having a blast.

Here you see the elusive southern snow leopard....rarely captured on film, er..pixels?

Mama, I'm doing all the running....what's up with that??

Heading up the mountain.

I had to laugh that Chigger will now pose on command.  Give Lassie a run for her money.

About halfway up.

It was very beautiful and peaceful up on the side of the ridge.  So quiet.

Some of ya'll might have noticed that I've posted a lot more than usual this week.  I'll tell ya'll why Saturday!!

Dream Baby Dream

As a very heavy snowfall blankets the world outside, I am in another season and the sun beats down instead.

Sweet And Simple

I did end up making that rhubarb-strawberry cobbler during our last snow and it was fantastic!!  Yum-OOO!!  I really hope my little rhubarb plants come back this next year but I'll just buy new ones every year if I have to.  I only managed to harvest one really full quart bag of rhubarb off the plant I had but maybe I can refine my technique (and fertilize the ever-lovin' crap out of the plant) and produce more from now on.  At any rate, it was worth the minimal effort for one big cobbler.

All my cobblers are very simple matters; basic same recipe no matter what fruit you are using.  I love them because you can throw one together in just a few minutes and they are so tasty.  As I mentioned before, I'm not a big fan of sweets but they are a nice treat every so often and in the summer you can add a couple of spoons of ice cream for the season!  It's also very simple to can up or freeze lots of summer fruit for use during the winter so I always keep fruit stored for a quick dessert.  Here's my basic recipe:  This makes enough cobbler for a 9x13 inch pan but you can cut it down however you like.  I've even made little 1 or 2 portion mini cobblers.

Basic Fruit Cobbler

8 cups fresh (or thawed) fruit of choice
1 1/4 to 2 cups of sugar  ( I don't like real sweet so I use the 1 1/4 cup)
2 to 4 tablespoons all-purpose flour  ( I like a thick syrup tho, so i use about 4 Tsp)
1/4 cup butter
*appropriate spices 
biscuit dough crust

Combine first 3 ingredients;  bring to a low boil then reduce to low simmer until mixture thickens, stirring constantly; this won't take too long.  If fruit is fresh you might want to cook a little longer because it will be much firmer.  But no more than 10 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in butter and spices, vanilla extract or whatever and stir until butter melts.  Pour into a buttered dish and top with biscuit crust in lattice or just a solid sheet with slits cut in it.  I sprinkle a little sugar on top of the crust and then bake at 475 degrees (F.) for about 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned and bubbly.

Biscuit Dough Crust:

About 1 full cup of all-purpose flour
About 2 tablespoons of shortening
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
about 1 tablespoon sugar

Mix flour, salt, sugar, and baking soda.  Mix in shortening until coarse and distributed.  Add enough buttermilk until dough is just workable.  (maybe 1/2 to 3/4 cup)??  Roll out on floured surface to about 1/4 or 3/8 inch thick and either cut into strips for lattice or whatever else you want!

*For the rhubarb-strawberry I used a little nutmeg and grated orange; that's good with blueberry too.  Vanilla, nutmeg and cinnamon is great with peaches and apples.  Or go wild and use your imaginations!

Wait It Out

We got a beautiful respite from the cold, dreary winter weather this weekend!  Mid fifties and sunshine!!  Woo!!  And I even felt a little better and was able to get out and do a little.  Just mostly puttered around yesterday but today I was able to wash and hang 3 loads of laundry!  And... do some minor yard work.  It was great!  Of course, if I think too much about what all I used to do it gets a little depressing but I'm just trying to be thankful for what I can.  Mainly I just wanted to be outside all I could because we have another snow/ ice/ sleet storm coming Monday night and it may last a few days.  Hard to believe that's coming on a day like today but that's Alabama for you.  The place where you can get frostbite and sunburned all in the same week.  I also needed to catch up on some housework and the weather today was a great opportunity to do laundry.  I did not have the stamina to vacuum and dust but I did cook supper so that was something.

We are not the only ones that are eager for spring it seems!  Despite the very frigid weather we have had fairly consistently, almost all of my daffodils are trying to come up.  I wish they would wait because I know they are going to get bitten.  Maybe I need to replant these a little deeper.

We had a little drama yesterday when two of the Easter Eggers got into a knock-down-drag out.  The one in the foreground there gets picked on a lot for some reason and I think yesterday she had about enough of it.  The other ones don't like her to eat out of the feeder if they are around but she decided she was going to eat out of it no matter what!  Well, one of the other girls pulled a plug out her head and in the ensuing fight she broke her middle toenail off on the other hen or something. I went down to the coop and there was blood everywhere!  So, get out the medical kit and start patching.  You can see her big bandaged toe if you look close.  Thank goodness for duct tape.  I gave her a half of a baby aspirin for pain and she seemed fine.  Just thinking about getting one of my toe nails ripped off just makes me shrivel up!!  Ugh!

Grass and all is getting so scarce now that they are wanting to range a further than normal and a little out of my comfort zone, so when I needed a break I would go sit with them and play chicken herder.  They were apparently finding a good assortment of slugs and snails in these deep leaves so I was willing to stay with them so they could get some good foraging time in.  We keep layer mash for them at all times in the coop but I'd much rather they find all the protein and goodies out naturally, rather than eat the bought stuff, and I think they prefer that too.  Organic chicken feed is hard to find around here and ungodly expensive when you do, so it's pretty much out of our budget.  So, we just try to let them get all the natural food they can and only eat that layer mix if they have to.

Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up......but I refuse to look at the camera no matter what you try to tempt me with!!!

Are any of you getting a break from this cold winter??

Chickens On Ice

 I'm happy to report I'm feeling much better tonight.  Not great by any means but I think the leak has sealed up and I am mostly headache free.  I've even been able to bathe and walk outside briefly!  I think I came very close to Dr. Nabors making me come back to UAB for a blood patch but thankfully, if this continues, I won't have to. It's kinda odd to me that I was SO sick from that because the spinal tap itself was one of the easiest things I've ever been through.  Honestly, I did not even know when he had put the needle in my spine.  Of course he had numbed my spine a little in that spot and I felt him touch my back but I was just sitting there chatting away when he said, 'OK, not much longer, I've almost got enough fluid'...  Wha???  I never felt the needle go in or anything.  Ha! I guess I paid for that later.  I bleed very easy though and I think the puncture just would not clot up.  When I had that tooth pulled a year or so ago I wasn't sure that thing was ever going to stop bleeding!  But anyway, I hope it's over now.  He did the spinal tap to test for a few kinds of meningitis (I didn't know there was more than 1 kind!) and for MS.  A couple of the first tests came back quickly and my white blood cell count is up just a little, but that's all I know for now.

So...in the meantime....you all know what that means!!!  Yes!!  More chicken pictures!!!  This time it's chickens in the snow.  This all occurred in the week before I had the spinal tap.  We survived the Snowpocolypse just fine, having only received about 1 1/2 inches.  The chickens were not very happy about the whole ordeal though and would not come out of the coop.  Zuzu did come out when I tempted her with scratch, because she is so greedy or tough, I'm not sure which.  I have to give her credit though, she was about the only one even willing to come out and scratch around for the first 2 days.

 Even the Easter Eggers, which are supposed to be a cold weather breed, said the heck with that!  They would not come out at all!  Maybe that's how they survive well in cold weather....they won't go out in it!!

 Poor little PeePee looked so miserable.  I know she was dreaming of warm summer days and green grass.  I let her sit in my lap several times so she could warm her little feets up.  She really liked that.

It was not a very heavy snow, even by our southern standards, but it was pretty.

The garden is snugly tucked away in it's slumber.  There are no greens of any kind left for the chickens now, even the cabbage I had stored in the pump house for them has been eaten up.  I pulled up the brussel sprouts for them and they scarfed those down in no time also. 

After about 2 days they finally relinquished and came out into the yard and into the snow.  If you look closely you can see they are doing their flamingo impersonations.  I guess it let them warm one foot at a time.

Or, they found anything to stand on besides snow while they scrounged around for eats.  Don't worry, we threw them scratch and they always have layer rations in their house and they get any scraps from the kitchen that we think they might like.

I can't remember what day but sometime during this we also set a record low around here of -2 F. (-19 C.) Alabama record books say we have gotten much colder than that in the distant past but I have never seen minus temps in my life here.  We have a little heater in the chicken coop so everybody made it through fine but I think everybody is ready for spring.  I know I am!

World Of Hurt

I just wanted to make a quick post to let ya'll know I am in the land of the living but it may be a while yet before I'm really back to posting.  I went this past Friday to have a spinal tap, which was super easy in itself, but am now suffering from some complications of it, mostly the dreaded.... Spinal Headache. If  you have ever had the misfortune of having one of these you know what I'm talking about.  I'm a long time headache sufferer anyway but this takes the cake.  The pain is somewhat relieved if you lay down, or at least keep your head and spine in a horizontal position so most of my time is spent in bed, basically doped up.  I will spare you all the gory details but I am at least so thankful that the puking has stopped.  And that is because of my long suffering husband and Dr. Nabors, who gets my vote for Doctor of the Year!  Long story but it involves 1:00 a.m. phone calls and a long very, very late drive by my husband.  Anyway, most of the headaches go away after a couple of days but for some reason mine insists on sticking around.  Hopefully it will get bored with me and go away soon.
I'm also having to write this laying in bed, which is as difficult as you might imagine so I will make this short.  Be back soon! Hopefully!!  Feel free to talk amongst yourselves.

I Can

I Can.  Obviously that word carries a myriad of meanings, suggestions and allusions.  I can because I can.  I can take care of myself even when I'm sick for months on end because we thought ahead and prepared.  I can have decent, even decadent food to eat even when I don't feel like going to the store or out to eat.  We can have healthy snacks and side dishes any time with minimal effort.  I only wish I had felt better during the summer so I could have put up even more fresh food from our garden, but I did pretty good as it was.  This is just a portion of what I canned this past summer.  Lots of fresh fruit, jams, soup base, pickles, beans, peas and salsa!  Not to mention some frozen and cruciferous foods I have harvested from the garden during the winter or have in cold storage now.  I believe we'll have enough veggies and fruits to make it until fresh stuff starts coming in from the garden this spring.

I don't cook many desserts but a warm fruit cobbler on a cold winter's day is really nice and really easy too when you already have your own canned fruit ready.  I think I gave ya'll this recipe for Peach Cobbler with Blueberry Muffin Crust??  Holy Smokes, it is good!  I eeked out enough rhubarb that I think we'll soon have a Rhubarb/ Strawberry pie or cobbler. 

Maybe tonight even!  We got a fair snowfall today although I have seen much heavier.  Days like today make me VERY thankful that I can.  No trying to get to the store in this or having to remember to go way before it hits.  Or, as was the case this time, not going to the store ahead of time at all because they really didn't call for much of anything in our area.  Instead, we played in the snow a bit while a big pot of soup made from pantry goodies simmered in the crock pot! 

Shaking The Tree

 When I first started building the house I was very selective, reluctant even, to take out any more trees than just absolutely necessary.   That's good in one respect because you have time to think about which ones you want to cut and don't end up with a giant bare lot.  However, it helps to make the decision within a reasonable amount of time because it sure is easier the smaller the tree.  Thinning out large trees can be a pain and they grow much faster than I think we realize.  So, I decided that this winter would be a good time to finally get rid of a few of these trees closest the house, before they got any more awkward to fell.  Now, I know some people are gonna squeak and fuss about cutting trees but sometimes you just have to.  Two of these are damaged anyway and one of those leans slightly towards the house.  The other two are sweet gums, which, if you are not familiar, are what we call "trash trees".  The wood is not good for much, they crowd out nice trees because they grow much faster and they put off these hard, spiny balls that are a pain, literally, if you step on one.  And lastly, having these trees removed will make backing a concrete truck up in that area much easier.  I still have those planter walls to pour in front of that concrete block you see.  I know it's taking forever but I will get to that one day!

I know the photo is really crappy but i was shooting through a window with a screen on it.  You can see (maybe) one little woodpecker up on the suet block and several little sparrows (?) on the feeder.  Other regulars are cardinals, nuthatches, tufted titmouse and possibly a couple of goldfinch. 

And of course, the opportunistic, greedy chickens are never far behind.  They patrol under the tree like hungry sharks, just waiting for the occasional seeds the birds drop.  Anybody coming up would think we never feed these girls. 

I also forgot to close my cold frame the other day when I let the girls into the garden for winter clean up.  They quickly discovered my mistake and proceeded to dig to China.  I think they might have found a few bugs but mainly they thought it was the best place to dust bathe ever!  At one point, there were so many of them crammed in there they really couldn't even move around very well.  There was only a few remaining dregs of lettuce still planted, so it didn't really matter.  I let them have their fun for a few days but ran them out yesterday so I could plant a new batch of loose leaf.

So, our tree cutting is on hold for now.  The wind has really been horrendous these past couple of days and would make something like that potentially very dangerous.

Big Iron

     Aha!!  I bet by now, you all had even forgotten about the "word" posts that I was supposed to be doing!  Uh-huh.  Well, that's okay.  I'll let it slide this time.  I can't blame you because I have been a terrible slacker.  But, I keep the list on my desk so I will get to them all at some point.  Well, anyway....the next word on the list is podger!!  And I would imagine that most of you, like myself, are like, Huh??  What the hell is that?  Leave it up to some smarty pants construction people to come up with something like that...heehee.  The tool of course, I knew, just not by that name.  Down here, we call this a spud wrench.  Podgers, or spud wrenches, are generally carried by ironworkers and used to help erect "red iron".  This is the term we use for the structural steel framework of a building that is usually coated with a red primer, although many times they will use grey.  Red iron just sounds better.  Red iron is welded in places but initially they bolt it together as the crane lifts each piece into place.  As you might can imagine, a 30 foot I-beam swinging from a crane is not incredibly easy to control by a person standing only on an 8 inch wide beam 60 feet in the air.  Suspended in such a manner, the beam actually swings quite easily, but getting the bolt holes to line up just right is time consuming and a good way to mash your fingers off (literally), thus the pointed end on this tool.  It's easy to ram that end through the misaligned holes, as long as they are somewhat together, and as the pointed end is pushed through, it draws the holes in line.  The bolts can then be placed in the other, now aligned holes, the podger removed and that hole bolted.  It's also a great pry bar.  A coordinated ironworker can move pretty fast with one of these.  This particular spud wrench is fairly large (for me) at about 20 inches and it has, as you can see, a fixed open end.  Many spud wrenches are adjustable just like a large Cresent wrench.  I honestly have no idea where I got this one and have rarely used it.  Tools like this were usually supplied to us on the job and as I was not a full-fledged, regular ironworker I did not keep my own.  Allen has an adjustable one that we use more often, as you might imagine.  So, there is your lesson for the day.  Haha!


     I haven't told ya'll a funny work story in some time so I thought this one kinda went with the post.  I don't think I've told this one but if I have just pretend you've never heard it.  In my construction career, I actually worked more as a carpenter probably but did do a fair amount of steel work on our jobs and the last job I did was solely as a welder.  I did hang a little "red iron" but mostly I was there to weld up the structural steel that held pre-cast concrete and stone panels.  As you might also imagine, this is some pretty hefty steel to be able to hold that much
weight.  The steel is also not bolted up but welded directly to steel plates embedded in the underside and edges of the concrete floor slabs.  The vertical pieces were only about 3-4 feet long, and I could handle those myself but the horizontals were very heavy and they would set those for me with a machine.  Well, this was a crap job.  I was supposed to have another welder helping me but that boy never could get his act together and ending up leaving because of an off the job injury.  Even with another welder there was no way I could hang all that steel by myself (also the elevators, handrails and much other misc.) in the time frame they wanted.  I was somewhat flattered in their confidence, or whatever, but no way, no how.  So, they ended up hiring a steel subcontractor to come in and help.  I had the pre-cast on the back of the building and this group of 5 men had the steel on the front.  To be fair, they did have more to hang than me. ha!  Now, for near 20 years, through chance or design, I had worked a great deal by myself.  When I truly needed help I could get it; I never moved a piece a steel that was too much, but if I could handle it myself I preferred it that way.  And, when you work by yourself (whether you're a man or woman), you learn how to move things and hold stuff the smart way because it's not physically possible to manhandle it.  The high art of wedging, cantilevering, prying and clamping come in handy.  So.  I was chugging along the back, hanging my steel like all get out.  I would put a heavy board across the handrails of my lift bucket and then wedge the vertical piece of steel between that board and the embed it welded to.  I had my layout marked on the embeds already so I just tapped the steel with a hammer to get it on spot and to plumb it up.  Magnetic levels are very handy too!  I'd tack that off and then move back, clamp the diagonal brace off to my first piece and just hold the other end until I tacked it.  Easy Peasy.  Double check my plumb and then hard weld everything.  I only needed help after I got all my vertical/ diagonals hung and one of the guys would hold the 30 foot or so horizontal angle up to them with a Lull.  I'd tack weld it on grade, he leave and then I'd finish.  Piece of cake.  So, the new steel crew came out and started on the front.  And this was no rookie crew.  You could tell by looking at them they were seasoned ironworkers.  Well, their first day I came through the building for lunch and I noticed that 3 of those men were crammed into the basket of one man-lift.  Now, that is highly illegal in OSHA's book and our foreman over the steel had a fit when he saw them.  "What in the world are ya'll doing??  Why do you need 3 men in that one spot??"  They stomped and fussed.  "Well, what do you expect??  Got to have one to hold, one to plumb it and one to weld!!!"  Now, Nick, one of our younger foreman at the time, usually goes into a battle of wits unarmed, but the construction gods were kind to him on that day.  An evil, joyous smile quickly spread over his face.   "Well, I'll tell ya'll what..." Nick drawled, barely able to control his glee but trying to feign a serious air. "I got a woman welder around back that's hanging all her steel by herself....I'll go get her to show ya'll how to do it."  Nick said a look of sheer horror came over that steel foreman.  "Hell no! No, no, no!!  Naw, we can figure it out!!  Nick insisted it would be no trouble, that I was a very nice lady and don'tcha know she won't mind a bit but they would have none of it.  Haha!  Imagine that.  I was in the trailer eating lunch with the other guys when Nick came running in to relay the story.  He was laughing so hard we almost couldn't understand him but eventually we all got a huge kick out of that.  He told me later that day he saw two of the welders peeking around the corner of the building to see just how I was doing it on my own.  Of course, every time I passed them after that I made sure to smile big and wave.

Strange Changes

     Well, I would really like to post that my health issues are clearing up and everything is getting back to normal with many posts about future projects and work coming up.  However, that sadly is not the case and I feel bad about continuing to come here writing about the same old stuff.  But then, I feel that maybe I should just make myself write about anything to keep from falling into a state of apathy.  I have ideas, stories, pictures..but when I sit down I find myself just staring blankly at the screen.  Nothing seems relevant.  The incredible brain fog I was having has lifted to a fair extent but that reprieve has only been replaced by more pain, coughing and nausea.  I can stand a fair amount of pain but nausea is something I just can't stomach.  Ha!!  At least I can still make corny jokes.  Thank God for that and Zofran.
     I had read in the past and heard from others that extended illnesses can make the person feel extremely isolated and I would have to agree.  People just don't like being around sick people and in a way you can't blame them.  I suppose that is one reason I insist on continuing this connection.  It affords me some contact with others. 
     There is also some benefit to this situation in that it gives me lots and lots of time to think about stuff I want to do without my normal headlong rush into things before I've fully thought it out.  Of course, I'm sure I'll still screw up plenty when I do get back to working but I have put lots of thought, scribblings and sketches into various projects that I think will be very successful when I'm done with them.  I normally work quite a lot on the trial and error method; I don't always know exactly how something is going to be when I start working, so I think this extended planning time will be beneficial.  Or that's what I'm going to tell myself anyway. 
     We survived the hideous cold without much ado and the past couple of days have been gorgeous, near 60 F.  They are forcasting a little snow in a couple of days though.  Such is the South.  I putter around the garden and clean house.  I managed to erect a little screen around my brussel sprouts and so have let the chickens into the garden.  They appreciate the last remaining greenery and new areas to search for bugs but they are still not above begging for treats whenever I go out.  Numerous seed catalogs are arriving in the mail and I really need to go through my inventory and see what needs restocking.  I suspect many of my seeds are really out of date and need to do a good culling also.  Maybe that would be a good project for tomorrow.  It's supposed to be rainy again.  We had a wonderful, prolonged thunderstorm roll through in the wee hours a couple of days ago.  Anti-nausea med caused me to sleep completely through it unfortunately.  I know many who do not enjoy storms but I have always loved those stormy pre-dawn hours.  It is pure bliss to lie in a warm bed watching the lightning accompanied by the swells of rain on a metal roof.  I suppose my perverted pleasure comes from all those cold, stormy mornings I had to get up and drive to a muddy jobsite in the dark, only to be told a couple hours later we were rained out.  Oh, on really bad days we could just stay home but if you opted to go in you at least got "driving time" and sometimes they could come up with enough inside stuff that you could make a day.  Having once been a job clerk I could often work on those days helping the boss with paperwork.  Ha! I guess that was another reason to like stormy mornings; easy work for carpenter pay.
     Welp, guess that's all for now.  Oh, the doctor from UAB/ Kirklin is still trying to help me figure this thing out.  Cool, huh?  I suppose if anybody can it'd be those people.  I'm not even going to try anymore to make any guesses about what's going on.  I think he has an idea though and I will probably go in for another test or two before long but that's all I got to say about that.

Big Freeze

I guess the big news on many blogs, especially those of a homesteading or gardening nature, is the recent COLD!  Now, I know many of my readers live in such places as North Dakota, Minnesota, Maine and heck, even Russia, so ya'll don't be laughing at me.  7 F. (-13 C.) is COLD to us down here in the south.  I don't wanna even think about what it's like up in those previously mentioned places.  Even though those are lovely places I'm sure, I couldn't live there for love nor money.
At any rate, it's warming up now to a balmy 24 F. (-4 C.) tonight but we did dip way into the single digits the past 2 nights.  In fact, we've stayed below freezing, even in the day, since Sunday night.  It is fairly unusual for us to get this cold but certainly not unheard of.  I remember times of single digit temps all through my life even.  I just wish we got the snow; at least it'd be pretty.  But, for us to get this cold it usually takes no cloud cover, so, no precipitation.
We did a little more winterizing on a few things but for the most part we were already prepared for the cold coming.  The main thing we had to work on was keeping water for the animals.  We don't have heated waterers for the birds so we just had to change out their water a few times a day.  We keep one big tub of water out in the yard for all the animals; Chigger, the cat and the chickens but it was useless.  You can see one big chunk of ice from that I'm holding in the photo above.  We have extra waterers for the hens so we just kept some in the basement warming and when the outside ones came close to freezing we would just switch.  We also ran a little heat from an oil-filled heater in the hen house.  Those type heaters are pretty safe because the surface just doesn't get that hot but it keeps the hen house just above freezing.  I know a lot of people say don't give chickens any additional heat but ours are just not used to cold like that and many of them have combs that can get frostbite.  Besides, the coop only stays at about 33-34 F. so that's really not that warm.  In fact, one day, even with the little heater running, we could not keep the house above freezing for them.  Of course, it's harder to do with the little door open but they didn't seem to mind, they were more interested in being outside as you can see.  I had pulled virtually everything from the garden, except for the brussel sprouts, in advance of the cold so it was okay to let them in to see what they could find.  The sprouts are under the blue tarp there and I just closed the lid on the cold frame etc. to keep them from eating anything we wanted.  You can see there is still some greenery in the garden, some grasses and such that they really enjoy.  It was frozen on this day but they pecked at it anyway.  Wasn't much scratching going on because the ground was way too hard but they found plenty to forage on and they will continue to distribute some mulch and compost piles for me.

Watching them walk around on that frozen ground with their little ol' bare feet just makes me hurt though!  And of course, if I sat down near them Susie and PeePee would run to get in my lap.  Those two are not dumb.  They know they can warm their feets in short order sitting on me.  I don't mind it either because they warm me in return.
We have a dog door on the basement so Chigger and the cat can come and go as they please when they want to warm up etc.  I figured Chigger would be in there by the fire constantly, like the cat was, but she insisted on staying out with the chickens.  She will go into the basement when we do but she usually won't stay when we leave.  She does however, sleep there at night after the chickens are put up.

In A Nutshell

 A few days ago I was actually feeling well enough to do a little hiking/ walking so Chigger and I set out for the trail that leads to the top of the ridge behind the house.  We didn't make it to the top mind you, but that wasn't really what I had in mind anyway.  It goes up on one end of my property and about halfway up you can take the deer trails over to the west and come down right behind the house.  One of these days I'll actually make some clear, formalized trails but for now you kinda just follow intuition.  Anyways, I remembered that there were 3, big, hardwood trees not too far off the main trail we cleared that had been downed by a storm and I wanted to see just how much trouble it would be to get to them.  The fate of the trees is a bit of a mystery.  They are large, healthy hardwoods, well, except for one that was completely hollow, but they were all just snapped right over about 15 feet above the ground and they all fall in the same direction.  It was obviously a storm that did it but the type of storm is what gets me to wondering.  See, the trees grow on the side of a small mountain that is very, very rocky, so, high winds just normally blow the trees over, roots and all.  And, they almost always fall in the opposite direction that these fell.  It was a fairly recent event also (within a year) as the trees still bear dead leaves. Amongst the leaves and limbs of the trees I found this:

Now, that side of my property does connect to a subdivision but that thing is a ways down a pretty steep hill.  I suppose some crazy dog could have toted this coconut way up there and dropped it but it had no chew or teeth marks in it.  So, how did an intact coconut get way out in the middle of nowhere on the side of a ridge??  You may remember back in 2010? when we had those really bad tornadoes that tore up many places.  We found probably 2 pickup loads worth of debris scattered across my land, some of which is still way up on the higher elevations because it is just so hard to get down.  I found numerous items from Tuscaloosa and areas over 100 miles from here.  Maybe there were flying coconuts that night too??  Who knows??

Well, in other news, we have harvested just about everything but the brussel sprouts out of the garden and I am slowly feeding the spent plants to the girls.  They really go nuts over the stuff!  They stripped one of the cabbage plants so fast it looked like feathered piranha going after it!  The greens really add some good vitamins to their winter diet though and it really doesn't cost us anything.  Before too long I will be able to screen my brussel sprouts off and just let them into the garden to forage, dig and poop to their hearts content.  They do a great job of cleaning and preparing the garden for spring.

And we can tell the days are starting to get just a tad longer again...We are getting more eggs!  I was excited to see we got all of the colors today.  The browns, white, aquas and olive.  It's funny, the olive colored egg is laid by Marilyn, our all white Ameraucana.  I really thought she might lay a pale pink or blue egg.  Oh well, shows you what I know. 

Not This Year

So!!  It's time for the all traditional Blogger's Year in Review!!  Wherein we see what all was accomplished this year and bask in the warm glow of our sufficiency and abilities.  Well, I'm gonna need to sit by the fire 'cause there ain't no warm glow coming off anything else around here.  This year has been a miserable disaster.  It just flat out sucked.  But, you know what?  Crap happens.  I actually went back through the blog to see if I could even find enough stuff to make a list of accomplishments...and well, it was mighty pitiful.  But, you either cry and feel bad about yourself or you just have to laugh and poke some fun.  It's nobody's fault either; it's just life.  Sometimes you're the bug and sometimes you're the windshield.  This was the Year of the Bug for me.  I did manage to scratch together a few things that were done this year though.  Hey, at least I have plenty to look forward to doing in the coming year...haha!
This year though I did manage, despite much crap, to:
1.  Pour the hearth in the living room.
2.  Start the slate and mosaic on the dividing wall.
3.  Installed the drop lights over the kitchen counters.
4.  I finished the east side of the chicken coop.
5.  Pump house finally insulated. 

See?  Pit-tee-fulll.  We did have a good garden again this year though and I was even able to can quite a bit of food, even learned to pressure can, so that was no small feat.  I was rather proud of that and we have been enjoying the fruits (and veggies!) of those labors lately.  We also planted 3 new fig trees in a new cleared area in an effort to move the figs out of the fenced garden, thus giving us more room for crops there.  We had a successful asparagus crop this spring, albeit small.
In addition to all the other downer stuff ya'll already know, we also lost 4 or 5 hens this year to predators or sickness and the voles ate up yet another apple tree.

In other statistics that I just happen to notice; this post will only be the 90th this year.  One less than my previous low year, making this year my least prolific on the blog.  My readership has also dropped to an all time low; about half of what it was before I got married.  As you might imagine, the US is where most of my readers come from but I was surprised to see that Russia was a very popular second.  France is a distant 3rd followed by China, then Canada, Germany and Australia way at the bottom.  A few other countries pop up in there too.  Most of my referrals come from Google, the Pure Florida blog or Hermit Jim!  The most commonly Googled subjects that lead people to my blog are, snap ties (how to use them), concrete, rebar and footings.  I do occasionally get the odd subject though, such as, "where do I put the dishwasher?"  I would suggest, in the kitchen, but that's just me.
I have also discovered that 2 subjects on my blog have just exploded on Pinterest, sometimes receiving literally hundreds of hits in one day.  Those would be the rebar handrails and the mailbox in the garden. 

So, there you have it.  I will continue to limp along though until the day I can start running again.  I will get there.  I have been able to go on a little longer walks lately and continue to clean and purge around here, getting my studio back in order for working.
Tonight however, is for fun and relaxing.  I've made up just a gluttonous assortment of finger foods and treats for me and Allen and we are going to kick back and enjoy ourselves.  I hope you all are able to do the same!!  Happy New Year to all of us!!  May it be prosperous and healthy!

Cold Day In The Sun

Although we didn't get any snow around here, the frost was heavy enough that if you squinted just right you could kinda see a white Christmas morning.  Ha!  We'll take what we can get.  Thank you all that left Christmas greetings and I hope all you that celebrate had a wonderful holiday.  Ours was fairly quiet but enjoyable.
Sorry that I have not done my usual Christmas postings but the little bit of reprieve I had from this illness or whatever was short lived and I have just not felt up to it.  I have continued the routine that I thought was making me feel better but it just isn't working anymore.  I don't understand what is going on and no one else seems to either so I'm just kinda floating along.  I managed to do a little cooking and a tiny bit of gardening but most efforts leave me very weak now and I have to nap or lay down a couple times a day.  I feel like an injured herd member that just keeps falling further and further behind. I appreciate those of you that continue to come here despite the lack of posts and in spite of my whining about being sick.  I thought maybe I could just go to showing photographs.  I still walk every day no matter what, so I can take a few pictures here and there.  I think in some ways I've dragged this blog out way longer than it needed to be, but then, I have lots of projects I'd still like to show and I like to hear from ya'll.  We live kinda "out" and I don't see a lot of people most days.  And let me tell you, when you're sick, you'll hear from and see even less.  But I'm sure most of you know that.  At any rate, I enjoy having people to communicate with online and to me, blogs are nicer than other social media.
I've been trying very hard not to get discouraged or depressed but it's kinda hard at times.  Still, I think I've actually been doing pretty good on that part.  I've been planning a good bit that I want to do when I get to feeling better and that gives me something to look forward to.  Next year HAS to be better.  Not just for me but for lots of folks.  Seems like there has been a lot of sadness and difficult times this year all around.  But, life has it's ups and downs and I guess most bloggers would tell you that is what they try to capture in their writings.  So they can show other people that they are not alone.  If we are honest about things, well, sometimes they just suck and there's not much else to be said.  But, things always get better, one way or another.  Maybe it's not in a way we imagined or hoped, but things do get better.  So, here's to next year!!  To that irrepressible human tradition of Hope.  If I'm not back by Tuesday I wish all of you and very happy, safe and prosperous New Year!!  May the sorrows of 2013 be drowned in the joy of the coming year.

Christmas Time Is Here

I wish all of you a lovely holiday, in whatever way fits your description of such.  I still seem to be stuck in a cycle of feeling pretty good and then bad again. Hopefully I will feel better tomorrow.

I don't have any mugs completed yet but I do have some in the works, so, I do still plan to have my annual Christmas give-aways.  Hopefully I'll complete them before the12 days are over! lol!

So, a peaceful, joyous Christmas Eve night to you all and I hope Santy Claus is good to you and yours!!

And Winter Came..

Chigger donned her festive apparel so that she could properly wish you all a happy Solstice!  She's not quite as enthusiastic as Grendal was but she is sincere nonetheless.

I gave the girl's house a good cleaning today while they decked it all out in greenery for the occasion.  They are enthusiastic...if food is involved.  Santa will have to remember to bring treats to all the critters around here.  They've all been good and mostly behave themselves.  Well, except for Susie.  She's been trying to be Ms. BossyPants around here lately, jumping on all the younger hens for no good reason.  Bertha caught her red feathered today though and gave her a good trouncing.  She needs to behave.  Bertha is the oldest hen and has taken to keeping all the others in line, kinda like a rooster would. 

This was taken a few days ago when the weather was mild.  Tonight things are a little rougher as we wait for this cold front to pass through the unseasonably warm spell of this week.  I think it is a little unusual for us to have tornadoes in December but not unheard of.  Hopefully this longest night will be mostly uneventful. 

Lately

I caught Chigger in her Sam The Sheepdog mode today, watching over the girls as they go about their late afternoon forage.  A lot of people that meet Chigger in person kinda laugh at the idea of her being a real guard dog but she takes herself pretty serious!  And she does a good job too.  Just last week she alerted me to a large, stray dog lurking up in the woods behind the house.  I ran out and yelled and it ran off so I didn't think much more about it.  Well, a day or two later I was inside once again (as I have been a lot lately) and I heard her really having a fit about something.  Looking out the window I could see Chigger was right close to the house just barking her head off.  This was fairly odd so I immediately ran out to see and lo and behold that dog had come back.  It was trying to get around the corner of the house and head towards where the chickens were huddled under the deck but Chigger wasn't havin' it.  In fact, she had that dog, which was bigger, hemmed up against the wall.  I did not kill the dog (because it had not killed anything of mine) but I did scare the living crap out of it and I have not seen it back.  Chigger got a good treat and much praise. 

Other than all that there still has not been a lot going on around here but things are improving.  I went to see the new internist and that went well I think.  She thinks perhaps I have a severe case of gastritis from the nsaid use.  Now, how my stomach could affect my brain and all so much I don't really understand but the treatment she suggested seems to be working.  Perhaps my stomach was so inflamed it could not absorb nutrients from food???  I don't know.  All she prescribed was 1 baby aspirin and a low dose Nexium just long enough to get my stomach healed up.  Now, I have also added lots of kefir (for the probiotics) and I'm still laying off animal proteins a great deal.  No pork or red meat in any form.  I can have a little cheese, goat milk, and a little chicken occasionally.  No spicy food either but I do take a little raw ginger every day because it's supposed to help heal your stomach.  We are still waiting on a little more bloodwork results but for now that's what I'm going with.  I'm not back to 100% but I am much improved.  I can drive myself now and think much, much clearer.  One other curious thing I've noticed is that since I've cut so far back on meat, I have a much happier, more positive mood.  I think those of you that have read here for a long time know that I can get kinda low at times and just basically pissy.  Well, I'm not Mary Poppins or anything but I've just kinda had a better attitude about things and a lot more motivation.  I imagine that no matter what my stomach does I will continue to go light on the meat (or not at all) from now on.  As the doc said, it's not a bad way to go!

So, in light of all that I've been cleaning like crazy, purging a bit more junk and basically trying to get caught up around here and get my studio and basement cleaned up and more organized.  And I started decorating for Christmas!  Got my front door wreath made today and hopefully will get one made for the chook's house this week.  Yes, I decorate for them a little.  Why not??  Makes the place smell nice and I think they like it.  Once I let go of the guilt for not having been able to produce much of any pottery for the Christmas season it has also helped me to feel better.  I also used my new mixer!!  I love that thing and plan on cranking out some yum Christmas cookies before too long.  Well, I'm off to decorate the tree!!  I hope all of you are doing well too!  Enjoy the full moon tonight!

It Ain't Easy Being Green

Actually, this fall it has been kinda easy because I just said, the hell with it.  I usually fuss and fret over my fall crops, not wanting them to get frosted or too cold and all that.  This year I just haven't had the energy and they have done fine.  Better than normal really.  Now, I did cover them one night when it got down around 20 F and I covered the broccoli tonight because it's supposed to be about that cold again.  We have also got a plenty of rain this year. (I heard one town not far from here was 22" above normal).  And I used a goodly amount of composted chicken poo and mulch on the plants this year, so that could also account for their success.  At any rate, I think I've harvested 6 or 7 big heads of broccoli so far and hope to get about that many more plus maybe a bunch of side sprouts, which some of the stalks are already producing.

And I may actually get some sprouts this year!!  Yayy!!!  These are getting close.  I have been pulling the lower leaves off, hoping the plant would put more energy into the sprouts and not leaf growth.  The hens have been profiting by that also as they gobble up any greens from the garden.

I'm really hoping for a nice batch of sauerkraut this year too!  I won't have it by Christmas but maybe by the end of January??  As little as I've been able to tend the garden this fall I'm just happy to have anything coming in from there.  We also have regular salads from the lettuce I harvest although it's time to sow a bit more of that.  I did sow some Bibb lettuce seeds a couple of weeks ago but I think they were kaput.  Second time with that pack and still nothing.

And lookie!!!!!  I got an early Christmas present!!!  I've wanted one of these for a long time now.  And I'm ashamed to admit I've had it for about a week and still haven't used it.  I just don't feel up to much cooking lately but I must make something with it soon.
And speaking of cooking....I'm not so sure about the vegan thing.  I do feel some better by minimizing the amount of animal protein I eat but finding an adequate substitute has been difficult.  I will spare you the gory details but let's just say my stomach has not bee happy with some of what I've offered it lately.  Mainly I just have NO appetite, especially for meat or cooked food.  I've just been getting by on fruit, tea, crackers and salad.  Oh, and a little oatmeal and some nuts.  Peanut butter is pretty good protein and for some reason cottage cheese doesn't make me feel bad, so I have that with some fruit.  I'm not gonna complain though because in the past few days I've seen a number of heartbreaking things in the Blogger world and I am thankful for what I do have, even if things aren't great for me right now.  And I'm still hopeful that one of these doctors is going to figure out what's going on.

I also hope to do my annual Mug Giveaway for Christmas too!  So ya'll be looking for that later also.

Begin Again

Over the past 3 weeks I have managed to scratch out enough pots to do a complete firing, so what you see here is the results from unloading the kiln this morning.  Well, what was left of it anyway.  Had a few accidents, got to grind a couple of shelves.  Actually, I had enough stuff to fire again tonight.  Hopefully the second firing will go a little better.  All things considered though, I'm doing pretty good to have gotten this far.  I'm also scraping the bottom on pieces and glazes.  What I mean is, I'm firing everything I can get my hands on and using up everything because this new year is going to bring a major change in a lot of things.  If some of these pieces don't make the final cut then the hammer gets them.  All current glazes will be used up and not remade.  A total and complete renewal.  I've had a number of new ideas and forms come to me over the past little while and I've fired enough of the new white clay to see that I really like it!  So, expect a big change in the pottery.  In my mind I see it stepping up to a new level.  We'll see,.

This is one new form I may keep, or something kinda like it anyway.  I'm so very tired of this year and all it had to offer and I intend to make next year count.  Next year is going to be a good one.
On the other front, after a number of experiments, I can say that I am definitely having difficulty eating any animal protein.  As in, that seems to be what is making me so sick.  I have basically gone vegetarian and do feel some better.  Even my longtime buddy Heartburn is gone.  However, it's extremely hard to get enough protein from nothing but plant sources 'cuz I mean if I eat cheese, eggs, milk or any similar product I feel crappy.  I have one last appointment with an internist next Friday and I'm hoping that maybe she can find out exactly what is going on and maybe it can be fixed.  I really don't want to go like this the rest of my life but I guess you do what you got to do.

So, that's about all I have to show ya'll.  I have been feeling better but that's not saying a whole lot in a way when you consider how bad I felt earlier.  However, I am thankful for any progress and that I have been able to do a few things lately.  I'm also excited to feel a bit better with Christmas coming.  Have to start decorating soon and finding some vegan goodies to cook! ha!

Less Is More

I recently found a really great site I wanted to share with ya'll that are on the "simplicity" bandwagon.  Or even those who are not!  The articles are not all written by the same person but they are all very well written and really express the motives and ideas behind the Minimalist or Simplicity movement.  Right now they have some especially relevant articles about the rampant excesses of the holidays and how to avoid that. So, if you are of a mind, hop on over to Becoming Minimalist and thumb through the great articles.  There are many helpful tips on, not only decluttering, but deowning.  Just how to get rid of so much stuff!!  And how to explain to other people why you don't want more stuff to replace it!  (I know I have had a really hard time of that with some of my family).
Lately, when I feel too bad to successfully make any pottery, I've been tootling around boxing up stuff to get rid of.  I either sell it on a local online yard sale or just take it to Goodwill.  I've been working on this for over a year and still have a bunch to go.  Mainly it's my studio space although I do have a bunch of stuff around my desk and such that needs to go.  My goal is to get my studio, and basement in general, much less occupied and more organized so that cleaning the area is easier.  I don't know about ya'll but I can't stand to try and work in a messy area and I think sometimes I get discouraged from my pottery because the place is not comfortable to me.
Anyway, the website has some really great articles on living with less and why to live with less.  How to not be possessed by your possessions!  Have any of you been working on paring down your things or living a more simplified life?