Funny things happen when you seek direction and clarity in your life. Sometimes you wander, grasping into a fog that may seem never-ending. Sometimes, lightning-bolt moments happen during a conversation, during a shower, during a movie. Sometimes, a book jumps out at you, and alters the course of your week. Many of these have happened to me lately. Brene Brown in Rising Strong encourages keeping your eyes open to the dots in your life — the events or moments that perhaps add up once you connect them all together. Since reading that a few weeks back, I’ve been better about journaling and being more aware of my feelings and events...
Why, hello again!
Hello, blog. Long time, no see. It’s been what? A little over a year? Gosh, you’ve changed. Me? Oh, you won’t believe everything that’s changed for me in the past year. Where do I even begin? I’m a whole new person. I’m complete. I’m, as Elizabeth Stone said, “forever to have my heart walking outside my body.” What a beautiful gift motherhood is. What a challenge, what an adventure. On December 18, 2015 at 11:19 p.m., we welcomed the sweetest early Christmas gift I’ve ever seen. Before, during, since and for a long time to come — my world has revolved around this darling thing. We lost our beloved Honey right after...
15 Cubic Feet of Dirt
Three feet long, two feet wide, two-and-a-half feet deep. It’s the second time I’ve dug a grave with these dimensions, and that 15 cubic feet of dirt seems to grow heavier-and lighter-each time. The reality of owning chickens is that they are frail, delicate creatures and hunted by most everything in a country (and urban) environment. But I’ve dug these graves on my own, because I know if I choose to be responsible for these beings, I must see it through to the very end. I made the tough call to put down Spike after a neurological disease meant an early end to his short life. I made the call...
Thoughts After One Year as Chicken Owners
It’s hard to believe a year has passed since we picked up these little fluff balls that totally changed our lives. It’s been a year of chicks, ducklings, bantam adoptees, sick birds and eggs gallore. Never have I felt so helpless and so enamored with such tiny little things. I never expected so many life lessons to come from owning chickens. Now, I look back and see all the mistakes we made, things we really couldn’t have learned without learning the hard way. And I would not have traded a moment. Chickens have died, vanished, reappeared, had to be euthanized. Each moment has burned memories and emotions deep into my...
Chicken Chronicles: The One Disease Backyard Chicken Owners Need to Know About
There are so many things in life you learn best by simply diving in. Our adventures in homesteading is one such example. That said, there is one thing I wish I would have known before I started raising chickens: one disease that is almost everywhere and yet often unknown to most hobby farmers. Spike’s Story: Spike was a Polish Tolbunt, a rare bantam breed that had the most beautiful coloring and quirky personality. He was bought and raised for a few months by our neighbors, who then realized he was a bit too loud for their backyard, which butted up to another house behind them. Since we have a...