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My chicks were 7 weeks old this past Monday. They're growing so fast! It's very exciting. If chickens aren't exciting to you, well just go with it. =) They're very fun to watch grow and sort of develop little chicken personalities. They're at some sort of a milestone too. I say that because they've started transitioning from making cute little "cheep cheep" chick noises to making grown up "bok bok" hen noises. It's very funny because one of them will make the grown up chicken noise and then look around like, "what was that?" and get very quiet. So i took some pictures today. I'm very proud of how healthy they look and how fast they seem to be growing - not that i have anything to compare to. I haven't given them names yet because i can't really tell them apart. But i might have to name this one Hawkeye 'cause she always has her eye on me. I stuck some grass through the wire - partially for photo ops and...

My friend and neighbor, Meme, passed from this earth a week ago yesterday. She lived a long life and had many children and grandchildren. At the end of her life, her health was not good, but she quickly adopted as her own anyone who came near, and that included me. Meme and i had some good heart-to-heart conversations during the short time that i knew her, and on our last visit, she gave me a quart-size bag of frozen turnips. I am going to miss Meme, and yesterday, one week after her death, i decided to cook those turnips as my own little memorial to Meme. So this recipe is not Meme's, but it's in her honor. I never ate turnips before Meme gave them to me, so i will probably always think of her if ever i eat turnips again. Here's the recipe. It's pretty good. Ingredients 16 oz great northern beans 1/4 coarsely chopped white turnips 4 oz of bacon 6 oz of sausage one large onion, diced 1/2 cup milk water salt and pepper or nature's seasoning to taste 1 TBS of m...

The home i was raised in, by most people's standards, was to say the least, very conservative. Let me explain. In regard to holidays, i was taught to know what i'm celebrating. And if some part of the prescribed celebration of a holiday did not fit with the reason for the celebration, or if the reason for celebration did not have a place with our beliefs and faith, then that celebration was clearly deleted from (or never showed up in) our traditions and celebrations. For example: Christmas - celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ on the Earth. Household celebration includes modest gift-giving, prayerful thanksgiving for God's gift, and warm fellowship with family and friends. Because of pagan origin of Christmas trees, household celebration does not include Christmas tree, and i was never ever told by my parents that anyone, much less Santa Claus, was going to come down my chimney and give me presents for being a good girl. Halloween - no redeemable reason for celebr...

Yesterday morning, April 1, i woke up to the sound of dogs barking at chickens. I looked out the window and saw one of my chicks OUTside of the pen being corralled, as it were, by my dogs. I've read awful stories the last couple days about well-meaning playful dogs and broken chickens' necks, and i bolted outside in my pajamas and socks to find all the chickens safe and sound inside the pen and no holes in the pen. And i was in wonderment all day, thinking i know i saw that, but i couldn't have. My eyes don't work so well in the morning, but they don't usually fabricate things that aren't there. I could see that chicken very very clearly OUTside of the pen. I told my husband that the animals had played an april fools joke on me. It was so weird. But it turns out, they're not that clever. They did trick me though. Later in the afternoon, i looked outside and saw all the chicks crouched together in one corner of the pen, and one of them with her head a...