Looking down the road ahead

When you haven’t written in awhile, it is so hard to get started again. I could try to tell you why I keep going missing from my blog, but I’m not sure I know the reason myself. I’m not sure I know much of anything lately. And no, nothing is really wrong. We’re all still here together – busy, reasonably happy and healthy as far as we know. Life is just doing what it does . . . changing.

I’m not so good at transitions - when reliable routines start fading, when responsibilities shift, and it seems as if tiny holes start opening up in the old familiar safety net. Sometimes I feel like I’m just going round and round in a whirlpool of chaos - swirling the drain. I keep wanting to say, “Wait a minute, now! Let me get a foot on dry land. Time-out!! Everyone just stay put while I hike on up to the summit where I can see in all directions and have a peaceful moment to think. I have to regain my perspective! I’ve got to figure out which way to go from here!"

Yet the days keep rolling by – whether I’m with the program or not. I wasn’t ready with any resolutions or even a new attitude on January 1. (That’s always seemed to me a very bad time to start a new year, when the Christmas boxes are not even back in the attic yet!) Next thing you know, here comes that old feeling that I’m rapidly falling to the back of the pack and that the race leaders have already crossed the finish line, miles and miles ahead of me.

But then I remember the most comforting words from Sink Reflections by Marla Cilley (aka The Flylady) – a book that is, by the way, about so much more than cleaning.

Remember that you are never behind.
Jump in where you are.
Baby Steps.

So here I go again. X marks the spot on the map and the note says YOU ARE HERE.
My new year starts right here. The journey starts right now. The maps are unfolded, the possibilities are exciting and endless. My course may meander, but that just means I’ll be seeing some new country for sure. And I can learn to enjoy this ride.



Okay, now I will smile and imagine a lovely trip still ahead of me.
Breaking it down into baby steps - one day at a time.

Then all I have to do is

just

start

Moving.

**Sometimes I mix too many metaphors into one post. Sorry - this is one of those times - but I'm just going to go with it anyway!

Having a spam problem!

Just a note of warning to let you know that my blog has been bombarded by spam! Has this been happening to anyone else?

I went so long without having any problems and didn't even feel the need for that pesky word verification. Then several months ago, I had an isolated unfortunate comment with some nasty looking links in it, so immediately put word verification back on, thinking that would be the end of it.

Now, at about 3 am over the last few nights, someone has left multiple comments scattered across many different posts, mostly older ones. These appear to come from a few different people with blogger accounts and the comments are mostly oriental looking characters and are full of hyperlinks. Naturally, I did not click on any of these to see where they might lead.

It was a pain to go through and find all of these and delete them. I hope I've gotten all of them. My concern is that those of you who have commented on these threads and subscribed to the comments, will have gotten these in your email inbox. Please just delete them and don't click on any of the links! I wouldn't want you to end up on a dangerous site.

Unfortunately, I've had to enable comment moderation now in hopes of stopping this. This is no fun! Why do people want to do these things? How do we protect ourselves and our readers? Anyone have any thoughts on this?

A lot has been happening around here - I promise a happier post will be coming soon!!

Merry Christmas to All!

Lazy snowflakes are drifting down. It's cold outside - warm inside. At the beginning of this busy, joyous week, I am listening to a sentimental, obscure Hoagy Carmichael song - an old Christmas tune from the World War II days of 1944 - and thinking of all my dear blogger friends scattered far and wide.

My Christmas Song For You

My Christmas song for you is all the old things tried and true,

Like jingle bells and chestnut dells,

A valley white with snow.

My Christmas song for you, is all the old things in review;

A window bright with candlelight

To set your heart aglow.

Through the door a Christmas tree

Sparkling with dreams for your family.

Hoping you'll be there to share

All of the season's blessings.

My Christmas song for you is all the good things people do,

Red stockings hung by glowing fires,

Soft carols sung by village choirs.

The very best your heart desires

That's my Christmas song for you!

Hope you all are warm and safe and able to be with those you love this holiday season. God bless you, love you, and keep you . . . at Christmastime and always!

Love, Shari

Mother Hen Lucy does it again!

Remember back in July, when we had surprise babies at our place? Well, our girl Lucy has pulled it off again! The last we had seen of her was one morning when she bolted for the barn in the pouring rain just as soon as the chicken house door was opened. Then she went missing . . . for weeks! Again, we searched everywhere and finally decided that, this time, something must have gotten her for sure. Unfortunately, we know we have raccoons passing through the yard every night and that they can even get into the barn when they want to. Our area is so saturated with them, there's not much we can do.

Towards the end of October, our son heard a noise when he was cleaning out the cow stalls. When he investigated he found Lucy with six more baby chicks snuggling under her feathers. We were really shocked and amazed this time! She'd not only managed to avoid the coons, but had kept those eggs warm through some very cold nights.

I'll never believe the "bird brain" idea again. This hen is so smart! She made her nest in one of the cow stalls (coons unlikely to be in there with the cows at night) between the wood siding lining the stall and the metal outside wall of the shed. She was only a few feet from the milking stall, so could easily slip into the feed box and clean up the extra grain that the cows leave behind after milking. Through all those days she sat there absolutely still to avoid detection when people were in the barn milking or tending to the cows.

We've had Lucy for more than four years. Maybe she felt her biological clock was winding down and decided that, since we always take her eggs away from the nesting boxes in the henhouse, she'd have to take drastic measures if she wanted to be a mom!!

Mother hen and her six new chicks are together in a big tub in our shed, which is a safe spot and still pretty warm at night. The little ones are now about three weeks old and feathering out nicely. It's funny that they all look more like Daddy (King Edward, our barred rock rooster) than Mommy.

The two hens from the first brood in July have been accepted into the old flock with no problems and are happily joining in free ranging during the day and roosting in the chicken house at night. The four roosters from that first brood were given to a nearby Amish family. We already have three roosters, and that's enough!

We're hoping to get more hens out of this batch - we desperately need them! Egg production has pretty much come to a halt with our 4-year-old hens going into the shorter days of winter. Most likely we'll need to start a new batch of day-olds in the spring - that is, unless Lucy keeps this up!!

I remember reading in a chicken book that Buff Orpingtons were one of the few breeds that have retained the instict to sit on their eggs and produce chicks. That has certainly been our experience. We've also had Barred Rocks, Rhode Island Reds and Red Stars, but only our Buffs have gone broody.