Category Archives: Backyard Chickens

Thankful

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I love Thanksgiving. It is the only holiday that we make a concerted effort to simply reflect on what we are thankful for along with our loved ones and our abundance of food -our sustenance. It is not about excesses or commercialism. It is about remembering what is really important. And although Thanksgiving is not until tomorrow, I thought I would give thanks a little early.

I am so very thankful that I grew up with such a wonderful dad. While it still pains me that he is not here anymore, I have to remember that this pain is just love inside out.  

I am thankful for my health and the health of my loved ones. Without your health, life is much harder.

I am thankful FOR my loved ones. Without the people in our lives who we love so much, life would have little meaning. I would even include Schnoodle, Kitty and our chickens as my “people” in this one. 🙂

I am thankful for our opportunities. Even when we sometimes worry or complain about them, my life is better because of work, because of our rentals, because of the opportunity to live in Puerto Rico! How great is that!?

I am thankful for our comfortable life. I have a warm house, food at all times, clean running water, transportation, entertainment  and more. Some may say they are not all the most important, but they definitely make life a little easier. A foundation for you to achieve your own dreams. I am thankful for all the people in all sorts of various ways who help keep our lives possible in that way.

And I am thankful for you! By taking the time to read our blog, you show that you are interested in our lives. Thank you for supporting us, engaging with us in great dialogue, and even becoming new friends.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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Fall, Freezes and Feathers

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We had a pretty hard freeze the other night and so all our beautiful flowers out front, our basil, peppers and tomatoes all just turned black and shriveled up into a mess. The same thing happened in our greenhouse. We also had some horrendous winds and so most of the yellow and red leaves have blown off the trees. Still, in true Colorado fashion the weather shifts between mid 70s to 30s depending on the day.


Front after the freeze…all withered and wilted

The chickens have been laying a lot fewer eggs and Henrietta started molting which means no eggs from her at all until that’s done. Some people put a light in their coops for about an hour at night to increase their laying, but we don’t. We figure it’s a good time for them to rest and follow nature’s rhythms. I know that I want to sleep a lot more too!


Henrietta’s Spikes


A close up

Pretty soon we will be moving them into their winter home: the greenhouse. After the freeze I went in there to check it out and so did they. They helped clean it up by eating some of the over-ripe tomatoes for us. Also, don’t miss Kitty’s cameo 🙂

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Fall Around Our Yard

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The shift to our Colorado autumn is in full swing. We usually get about one to two weeks of glorious weather with the trees changing colors and the temperature in the middle of the day maintaining at about 75. Up in the mountains the leaves have all changed and dropped, but here where it’s a little warmer we still have some.

At night we have had a few light frosts and our tomato plants, basil, and peppers probably have about a week left till they are toast. We’ve started cracking out the cold weather foods like hot spiced apple cider, chili con carne (with Fritos and cheese of course) and an evening chai latte or hot cocoa. Still, during the day you can where short sleeves and take walks in the changing colors.

Here are a few pictures of fall around our yard.


Fog over the lake behind our house at dawn


The chickens enjoy our white birch trees’ new colors


The flowers out front still look great!


And a few bees are still out working!

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OMG!!!! EGGS!

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So it looks like the government needs to step in and protect us from eggs now.  From CNN:

“The fresh eggs from the recalled firms are being diverted to USDA-approved facilities for pasteurization,” Food and Drug Administration spokeswoman Patricia El-Hinnawy said Wednesday.

Well honestly, that is about the expected result.  Instead of fixing the problem (large scale centralized food production) we come up with another quick fix.

I just find it amusing (especially after raising a few hens in our backyard) that there is all this hoorah about some eggs.  People really should just take matters into their own hands and raise a few themselves.  But as we’ve seen, the government does NOT want that. 

I mean just think.  People could be responsible for themselves and there wouldn’t be a need for a .gov agency to oversee EVERY single egg this country produces and consumes.  It really is laughable the lengths we Americans go to in order to feel safe.


Show me your papers

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