Writer's block

I must say that I haven't felt like writing much. So, I must wish everyone a belated Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a wonderful one. We had a a lovely small Christmas. I baked until 11 PM on Christmas Eve. Pictured above is a photo of the Paula Deen Ginger Orange Cranberry filled cake I baked. I garnished it with dried cranberries, as I forgot to buy the gingerbread cookies to place around the cake! It tastes great! The 2 photo's in the middle are the first photo's I took with my new 10MB 18x zoom. The difference is amazing. The second photo is of my husband Eric and my cat Tony. Tony doesn't look too happy there! The 3rd is of my Golden laced Wyandotte Big Momma. You can really tell the difference in the quality of the photo's! The last one was taken with my old camera. It's of my Silver laced Wyandotte Cluckster. I bring her in once a week to soak her foot in peroxide. She had bumble foot badly at one time, so I like to keep a watch on it. She's gorgeous, the photo doesn't do her justice. I can't wait until it warms up to try out more nature and animal shots.

What did everyone else get for Christmas? Ours was a skinny Christmas, but a good one. For dinner I made 2 rib roasts, mashed potatoes, roast gravy, sweet corn and homemade bread and a fresh salad. I added several new chicken collectibles to the flock. I will post some photos when I next post on this blog.

By the way- Big Momma is successfully back out in the coop. She has new roomies, she's now in our smaller coop with Scroungy and my precious Phoebe. She is doing well. Phoebe and her did have a little fight at first. Now Phoebe lets her be the boss. Luckily, Big Momma is a nice boss.

Cabin fever is setting in early this year. We did have 20" of snow on the ground. On Christmas morning it started raining and it hasn't stopped yet! I'm sure there will be numerous floods in nearby areas. Eric and I will have to fix several leaks on the chicken coop roof. Well there's not too much going on around here. The girls are all nestled safe in their beds, with visions of sweet corn dancing in their heads. We're kicked back warm and watching that spoof Frankenstein. Can't get much better than that! I hope to have more exciting news to post soon.

Too little time

Too little time lately to do much of anything. It's been working at the post office 24-7. I've been going from one PO to the next. Not much time to spend with my animals, write my pen pals or to do any baking. Any free time I've been wrapping up the things I've sold on Ebay. So, if any of my pen pals are reading this, I do apologise for not being able to write. I'm planning on hopefully getting some down time this weekend. I want to follow my Tony cat's example for a day or too--...sleep...arise....eat...sleep...arise...eat. As for the girls, they are doing pretty well. Eric paid my stepson William to clean out their roosting coop today. This morning one of my black heat lamps, literally, exploded. The glass went everywhere. I tried to pick it up ASAP. I was running late for work, so I got everything I could see. After Eric dropped me off at work, he and William took care of getting the old wood chips out of there. Tootie was tring to get ahold of the glass, she's such a stinker. Instead of wood chips I used straw this time. After the couple of crop problems I've had, I started to think that they were filling up on wood chips as they were scratching for their corn. They seem to like the straw and I think it keeps the house warmer. They also love to eat it.
Well, we finally got our Christmas trees up. We put up a small one with all of our sentimental ornaments. I have lots of bird and chicken ornaments too, on it. Then I put up a formal tree with all matching ornaments and Victorian tassels. They look really pretty. For my anniversary my hubbie bought me a new digital camera with 10MP and an 18X zoom. After having a 2MP, this is like wow! I will post some photo's if I get a chance to install my new camera software. Anyway, I'll close for tonight, have to get up early to get to work tomorrow. Then we'll go into town to get my Christmas groceries. God bless.

Are you a crazy chicken lady? & Various ramblings

Yesterday morning as I was leaving for work, I was in quite a contemplative mood. I began to wonder what makes for a crazy chicken lady/man.?! Is it when you start to sing Tom Jones' songs to your favorite chicken? Like my personal favorite "What's new Phoebekins- whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa..." LOL

Another classic sign of a crazy chicken lady is having not one but, two baby monitors hooked up at all times in the chicken coop, to make sure no predators are present. Yet another sign of the ever growing craziness is having your chickens names on your address labels and Christmas cards. And instead of sending out photo's of your children to friends, you send them photo's of your chickens. Judging by, my own standards, I'm as chicken crazy as a loon!

More craziness of my own is knowing when to put my sweet Big Momma (photo above) back in with the other girls. After nursing her back to health the last couple of weeks, I've grown very attached to her. Usually, she was a very independent and quiet hen. Since she's been in the house in her hospital cage, she has taken on quite the lovie dovie personality. I've began to call her LovieKins as well as Big Momma. If she wants a scrambled egg she will make the sweetest little whines. She wants one at 5:30 am, 1:00 pm and 5:30 pm. After she eats at 5:30 pm, I clean her cage. Then she takes her usual after eating nap. Her feathers are nearly all grown back in & looking pretty good. Tho, she looks to be molting off one primary wing feather. Her comb is slowly getting red again. I've had her off the antibiotics and nutri-drench for about a week. I hate to put her back in the coop, as I know she'll have to take the hazing of Weezy, Tootie and Sylvia. The other girls pretty much will leave her alone. I think I will leave her in the cage for another week inside the coop to help the girls get used to her. I just don't want her to go back down hill again with the stress of getting put back in the coop. Not only that I will miss the little sweetheart!

Tony cat is 16 years old and he has tender lungs. When it gets snowy and dry here he starts sneezing jags. I've been running the vaporizer and humidifier for him. It worked almost immediately. Since he's a Senior Citizen Feline, he's more prone to little colds and allergies. Luckily, I have an excellent Vet. They see my cat and my chickens. I take my animals to Dr. Plante & Dr. McMahon at North Country Animal Clinic.

I've been trying to figure out what kind of dessert to make for Christmas dinner. I'd like to have 3 desserts. One cheesecake, perhaps a cranberry/apple pie and some kind of cake. We're having our Christmas get-together after Christmas. Working for the USPS, I will have Christmas day off, then have to be back at work on Friday and Saturday. So, if I can get the day off Monday I'll have our big dinner on the Sunday after Christmas. My Postmaster hasn't gave me an approved leave slip yet, so I probably won't know for sure that I can have it off until the last minute. Ugh!! How I do hate having to work outside the home sometimes!!! Only 23 years until I can retire! Or I can quit and move to Arkansas and become a full time homesteading housewife and beef farmer. I've been praying about it. In this economy it's a scary choice to make, especially since my job pays a living wage.

Does anyone have any stories or experience going from a good job to not working outside the home? How's it working? What did you have to change economy wise? How does raising your own garden cost wise compare to grocery store prices? I'd be very interested in seeing other women's stories in this area. One thing I worry about is that my husband is 25 years older than me. If he passed on, do I have to wait until I am 62 to collect on his Social Security? If I lost Eric's income and I was a housewife, I couldn't make it on minimum wage that's for sure. I'd need his Social Security. Anyone know the rules on this? I guess I worry too much :O)

Anyway, I'm getting droopy eyes... good night everyone.

Closing verse Bible verse:

Song of Solomon 8:6

Place me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm; for love is as strong as death, its jealousy unyielding as the grave. It burns like blazing fire, like a mighty flame. (NIV)

Pack rat anonymous

Well, I guess I'm not the only one who collects and collects...and collects! I was reading on one of the blogs I follow about collecting glassware. It inspired me to blog about my ever growing chicken collection. Pictured are two of my latest Ebay purchases. The top one is a very unusual rooster pin cushsion with a measuring tape that pulls out on the front. It did have a couple of cracks, but thought it was neat.

The figurines are Japanese Napcoware. What I thought was unique about them is that they look like the Delaware chickens. Since I got these two, I purchased two more chicken figurines & some very cute chicken/Holstein cow green gingham quilting fabric. Also, I'm currently bidding on a bolt of lace curtain fabric with gorgeous roosters and hens. There's also some retro looking crazy chicken applique quilt blocks I've been eyeing to bid on!!!

It would be one thing if chickens were the only thing I collect. My house is one big collection... cats, cows, chicken devonshire china, pastorial pattern dishes, records, stationary, stamps, chicken themed rubber stamps, vhs, dvds, cds, pc games, antiques, victoriana, stickers, greeting cards, antique books, animal playing cards, over 150 bottles of perfume in my fragrance wardrobe.... oh my....and over 50 designer handbags...not to mention shoes.... Did I mention I need to clean out my closets????

Does anyone have any Brown Swiss cow figurines?

Hello, my name's Shana and I'm a Pack rat!

The Warmth of Chickens...

The Warmth Of Chickens......

When your day seems out of balance and so many things go wrong ...
When people fight around you

and the clock drags on so long ...
When some folks act like children

and fill you with remorse ...
Go out into your chicken yard

and wrap your arms around one...

Their gentle breath enfolds you as they

watch you with those eyes ...
They may not have a PhD but oh they are so wise!
One rests her head on your shoulder
you hug her good and tight ...
She puts your world in balance and makes it seem all right.

Your tears will soon stop flowing,
the tension will be eased ...
The nonsense has been lifted.
You are quiet and at peace.

So when you need some balance
from the stresses in your day ...
The only therapy you really need
Is out there laying eggs!

Author unknown


Someone from one of the Yahoo! chicken groups I belong to shared this poem with the group! I thought it was really cute!