Nicole's

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Looking back at 2014

December 15, 2014 confessions

That time of the year came around again like it always does… Holiday card time! This process is a good excuse to pause and take stock of the year. And I think it’s fair to say that 2014 was one of the biggest, most exciting years of my life. In Dec 2013, I launched the website I had spent six months building. January involved the planning and finessing for upgrades. January through March saw the search for a new supervisor in my department and gave me the chance to perform a lot of director level tasks that offered great experience. March saw the acquisition of chickens. Lots of baby chickens....

Miller Homestead & Grunnion Update – September

September 29, 2014 Photography, Urban Homesteading

This chicken continues to play the Houdini and disappear from the backyard nearly every day. She reappears in the neighboring yards or our garden. Clever girl.   The ducks continue to splash and frolic about. They’re even happier now that rain is becoming more frequent, creating more mud puddles for them to dive into.   As for Grunnion, he is as happy as can be at the barn with his buddies. As for me, I had far too much fun taking pictures of him running around the round pen. 🙂 Just call me camera happy. We’re documenting Honey’s battle with cancer here at hopeforhoney.com — follow us there for the...

The Power of Community

September 29, 2014 confessions, Honey

In the past two weeks since Honey’s diagnosis, I’ve been astonished and touched by the response I’ve received from friends, family, the Buffer team and the Buffer community. Every tweet, email, note, gift and kind word has resonated so deeply.  I can’t thank you all enough.  There are moments when I forget the reality – when I forget that I won’t have my baby for another 6-10 years like I’d planned on. But I guess that’s the thing with our plans — they don’t always happen like we expect. When reality comes crashing back to me, I hold fast to my dogs, my husband and the love and support coming...

The Day Every Priority Changed

September 23, 2014 confessions

We have a 2×3-foot white board in our kitchen with assorted lists: Outside chores to-do Inside house to-do Nicole to-do John to-do On Wednesday, September 17th, I wiped away all of those lists and replaced it with this: We found out our six-year-old dog, Honey, had lymphoma, a very aggressive cancer. Suddenly, nothing else mattered. Other to-do items suddenly sprang to mind: take Honey and Bo for a walk go for a drive with the dogs buy more dog treats It’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day and the nonessential. Sure, mowing the lawn is important at times (best to stay on good terms with the neighbors,...

Miller Homestead Update #3 – One Full Flock

August 17, 2014 Photography, Urban Homesteading

Honey is hard at work guarding the homestead:   Good old Foghorn is one of the most consistent layers we have:   As is Gandalf! 🙂    We let the three little birds out with the full flock, and they enjoyed roaming their bigger pen. The bigger hens were a bit protective of their domain, but I think they’ll settle in eventually. Gandalf was not sure about Bug:   As always, the ducks are big fans of their kiddie pool:   Hawkeye has filled in as the only rooster on campus now. He’s a fan of the new arrangement.   We bid farewell to Penguin this weekend as he moved...