sick ward

this has been the scene at my house this past week:
last tuesday when i went to pick up carey along with his sister eden(we are watching her while her folks went away) i got a big surprise as that night-sickness had consumed them.-day 7 still coughing up a storm. so needless to say we've had sleepless nights and i'm trying so hard not to get sick cause rhodie(friend and neighbor) are driving off the hill all the way to santa clara(about 3 1/2 hour drive) to "stitches west" a knitting convention-we are just hitting the market-yeha!!!! fiber galore-i hope i have a handle on my addiction. and i get to meet a cyber friend and fellow blogger soxchik!!! i am very excited indeed-i hope i can pull myself out of my hermitess-ness-to deal with the crowds. crowds overwelm me.

at one point this week when carey was feeling better-he and liam were able to construct a small casino and play spades out in the fresh air-being that we've had lot's of sunshine-i've been airing out the house! evertime i turned around there was a hen in the house:
hi lucy!!! well- i gotta get dinner for the kids and write my next chicken cronicles article for the local paper-nothing like writing about fingering a chicken!!!!

hooray!

happy valentine's day!!!! i made my loved ones little purple handknit hearts-i love you guys!!!!

in honor of this holiday i will show you a recent skein of merino i hand dyed and spun-totally not my colors. i'm putting it on etsy-but my neighbor/friend rhodie gets first dibs-she saw me spinning it at spinning sat. and NEEDED it !i've been super busy with commissions lately-here's a vest i'm working on:HOORAY FOR ME!!!!-now i'm not usually the bragging type-but i am patting myself on the back for this one. i have always been crochetedly challenged and have never been able to do it-didn't mix with my brain. but thanks to my friend lynn-she taught me the single and double crochet stitch and i'm embarking on an aphgan.i only have 97 squares to go!!!

i have a little tradition that i always knit myself something for st. patty's day-one of my favorite holidays-not for traditional reasons mind you but-for honoring the irish in me and a great excuse for drinking lots of beer!!!! last year i dyed some Falkland wool and spun it and knit myself a pair of socks.
this year i'm doin lace-yes-my first try besides "feather and fan." i'm doing the "forest canopy shawl" in some old stash of mine-classic elite-"evergreen"-which was spun from recycled materials.. another new exciting project for me.- i hope i get it done in time.
i almost forgot to post a picture of the cool egg collecting basket i got for free from "the" awesome yard sale- here it is :hug your loved ones!

chicken butt adventures!

wow!-11 days of being snow bound-unable to drive up our driveway. we relied heavily on neighbors and sleds to bring things in-thank you rhodie for groceries and the use of your dryer and birdsong and glenn for chicken feed! we live on top of a hill-the boys and neighbor kids had a blast sledding all the time. my dryer broke and we couldn't use the clothesline-i would haul wet clothes up hill to rhodie's-and then ride it down in the sled dried-yee ha! what a fun ride! only took a few seconds to ride down it was so fast!!!we've been getting caught up on our schooling but i've been so worried about ruth-our sick hen. she has lived in the laundry room for 2 weeks i put vitamins and echinacea in her water, fed her lot's of healthy food but no egg in 2 weeks-that's bad. egg binding can kill a hen. and trying to help her get that egg out can give her a heart attack and kill. so-i figured either way she could die. never, never, never in my whole life did i ever think i could do what i was about to do- lube up my fingers(gloved) and stick them up my chicken's butt!!! wow- i felt for stuck eggs and lubed her all up inside and then massaged her stomach toward the vent.(butt) i was trying hard not to remember old john waters films that dealt with x-rated chicken scenes-i'll spare you the details!!!
afterwards i put ruth to bed and expected her to be dead by morning- low and behold-maybe it was the fingering or maybe it was the canned salmon i fed her that day- but she looked great the next day-and she layed an egg!!!!oh happy day!!! i plan on reintroducing her back into the flock tomorrow night. i will stick her in the coop after the others are asleep-hens can be nasty.

during the big storm my boy liam turned double digits-the big 10(shit!) we weren't able to do much but today-he was in heaven we went to town!!!!! and hit some yard sales-he got ootles and ootles of his kinda things-old stuff-bottles,tins and insulators-he was in heaven here's a box of old bottles he got for one dollar:i won't bore you with all his scores-but i will bore you with some of mine!!!! one place we went to was a sale from a deceased mountain man- i scored handmade leather shoes: for 3$
hand sewn fur pants for 5$a jesus, mary and joseph pendant for my catholic mother-i wore it to spinning saturday later in the day-wonder if anyone noticed-most folks know i don't follow the faith of my upbringing- though i still love the icons and myths.now here's a real score:a good day was had-and now it's late and need to get off le machine-but it was great to get off the hill and shop and go to spinning saturday-haven't been there in ages. saw lot's of old friends and met new ones!!! too bad i forgot my camera!!! there was so much beautiful color happenings going on!!!

let it snow ,let it snow, let it snow!

what an awesome snow storm!!!! glad i stayed home- it started out so innocently tuesday morning-we had our morning walk and it was barely coming down. by the time we made it home there was an inch or two on the ground-it was acummulating fast. we had tons of errands to do in town that day-but i chose to stay home as i hate driving curvy mountain roads when it's snowy- hey- i learned to drive in February in wisconsin-may i say this- flat!!!! may i say this- no curves-were' talking straight flat farm roads for miles on end!!!! when i lived in minneapolis-i didn't have a car-i rode my bike or took public transportation. so i do get all nervous driving these snowy roads-and our driveway is steep and curvy.-which we are now totally unable to get out-even with 4-wheel drive. i needed to go to the post office today and music lessons tonight-but as dylan says-"we ain't a goin nowhere." now the bummer thing about homeschooling is-snow days don't exist. we still gotta do our work-but the kids are going crazy to sled down our fabulous driveway-so i lighten our load and let them play. and play they did! our property is so steep-we almost lost them a few times!!! unfortuanately our dryer is broken so i couldn't dry and warm their snow clothes thru out the day. i hope to get a sledding video up in the next few days-but it will take some technical doing on my part.
so- my computer is being possessed right now -don't know if you can see it but i can-it's typing in blue and underlining the words-and it won't stop-shit, whenever i try and underline something it won't-i'm getting pissed. i hate when other entities take over my computer!!
anyway-(it stopped!!!!) i have some photos of my recent dyeing adventures: soon to be available on my etsy site. lovely soft merino!!!
i know i know- can't i ever do any other colors? i just love these- but i did use up some raspberry dye that was explosive-i hope it mellows when i spin-put your shades on:

ouch! that hurts!!!

for those of you who have inquired(thanks!)-ruth is doing somewhat better-still in the laundry room-and no clue what is up-after all my reserch. i continue to put echinecea and vitamins in her water. i'm sure the other gurls would love to be in the laundry room too:lucy says-"hey-where'd everyone go?"well, it's bedtime story time-gotta go. enjoy life and snow-we are suppose to get more!!!!

where's ruth?

i think the girls are wondering where ruth is. i opened the front door yesterday afternoon and this is what greeted me:

ruth is still in the laundry room-looking slightly better. i'm a bit worried. the only advice i've gotten so far is let her have a week in the laundry room-if she's not well by then you need to cull her-gads!!! how can i kill her????i'm not that kind of farm gurl. heavy sigh!

on another note- i did get some dyeing in. only one pound of merino. better than nothing. of course i always forget to take photos while i'm playing-this is all i got:once the fiber has dried i will post more photos. i've been very busy with commissions lately-which always makes me nervous. hoping they will like what i make for them. here's some yarn i'm working on-blue-faced leicester!i dyed this merino and spun it for a hat commission:
hubby's been traveling a lot lately for work-it's nice to have him home. we bottled some homebrew today:i'll leave you -on this very rainy day-with a picture of liam with his favorite hen-kamakze.

caged drama!

No, this isn't where i put the kids when they won't do their school work(hey not a bad idea though!)-we have a sick hen and i had to get the isolation "cage" out. it's actually the first time we've had to use it. I'm overwhelmed with busyness. so, i'm just going to post a rough draft for my february article of "The Chicken Chronicles"- for those of you who don't know i write a monthly column for our local paper on my inexperienced adventures in raising chickens- by the way liam loved the cage and said he wanted to sleep in it.(?????) here's the article:

After an uneventful holiday “chicken” season, this month seems to be quite the opposite. There’s a lot going on here at the Rebel Hen Ranch. Many of you noticed that our rooster “Insulator” was not included in the list of holiday greetings wishers. I chose not to include him as I was trying to detach myself from him as we found someone to take him. Only-it wasn’t to give home a good home it was for holiday feasting purposes. We just needed to catch and deliver-well, to tell ya truth-I’ve grown kind of attached to this fella since finding him a taker-and so have the kids. Insulator is quite the guy! He finds his girls’ food- makes a delightful chirping sound which they run to him and he lets them eat first-before he ever takes a bite! He keeps them all round up in a tidy group and crows proudly-announcing to the world that he has the best “chicks” around-and they are all his! So, I keep making excuses as to not catching him while I figure out what to do with him as I promised Hubby no roosters!

I’ve also been busy with coop repairs- trying to keep the girls warm and dry during all these storms. The storms haven’t affected egg production though-they are laying like crazy! We had eight eggs yesterday! The girls are averaging about 5-7 eggs a day. The wild turkeys continue to be a nuisance. My new wrist rocket doesn’t help much-they keep coming back to eat the expensive organic chicken feed!!!

We had another bad predator scare the other day- no wild beasts this time. A neighbor's dog was chasing the girls madly around our house. Fortunately I looked out the window before we had another chicken massacre.My throat hurt the rest of the day from screaming and yelling so loud. Heavy sigh of relief!

On a sadder note-as I sat down to write this article earlier today my youngest son came running in to tell me “Ruth” was sick. She looked terrible!-pale comb and foamy frothy eyes. I knew I had to separate her from the rest of the flock. Luckily a few years back I bought an old collapsible dog cage-I had no use for it at the time. Best 5 bucks I ever spent! We brought it in the laundry room- filled it with straw, a roost stick, food and vitamin/electrolyte laced water. The boys and I caught “Ruth” easily and brought her inside. I dosed her eyes with homeopathic pink eye remedy by Similasan as I knew it couldn’t hurt. We put her in the cage and she seemed real content to be out of the elements. I’ve been reading up in my “Chicken Health Handbook” by Gail Damerow-it could be many things-but the frothy eye seems to be listed under “Chronic Respitory Disease” which is common and usually not fatal-but I’m going to do more research to see what’s going on with her. I’m hoping it’s just a cold due to all the wild wet weather.

As I finish writing this I’ve noticed her eyes are no longer foamy and she is resting peacefully. I may try and give her some Echinacea as it always helps us when we are sick…….Stay tuned for the next exciting adventures of “The Chicken Chronicles.” May all be well!

did you notice her freaky eye syndrome?

damn turkeys!!!!!

wow-long time no post. besides the storms, the poison oak(which is still itching!), the sicknesses, the schooling, the field trips etc., etc. etc., etc. life just left me with no posting time. we are having beautiful misty , foggy weather at the moment-my favorite kind. snow showers are expected later. i'm watching the football playoffs with hubby right now-sure looks cold!!!!(it's colder in green bay right now than it is in moscow, greenland and alaska-shit!) football bores the hell out of me-but it allows me to get things done like blogging, knitting or spinning. unlike basketball-which i like but i have to keep my eyes on the screen as it is action packed and not boring in anyway. so, i can multi task while watching football.

anyway- i'm sure you have all been holding your breath on my xmas tomboy gift i got myself-aheim-i mean the family-a mighty fine-----are you ready? check this out-(see an earlier post-"holiday tingle") an official "wrist rocket" i have wanted one of these forever!!!!! we are having a great time blasting the wild turkeys. unfortunately they keep coming back. they drive me crazy!!!! they eat all my expensive organic chicken feed-they are quite the nuisance. i had a post during turkey hunting season-but decided not to post it-i may still do it-it's a bit gorey.

news flash-it's snowing-yea!

i've been super busy fixing and cleaning the chicken coop for better weather protection, the boys helped dig the new potato patch(thanks!) and i have many knitting and spinning commissions i'm working on at the moment. my hands hurt. gotta give em a break! plus- i started up my banjo lessons again.

here's a caplet i finally finished for myself in bulky merino-with awesome antler buttons:
disclaimer-no deer was harmed in the making of these buttons! so all you bambi lovers out there can let out a big sigh of relief!!!!!!

my latest baby bonnets knit out of my handspun have been real popular. here's a few i already sold:if you'd like to see more of my knitted stuff and and handspun yarn check out my flickr site. i will leave you with 3 awesome photos that liam(youngest son) took during the "storm of the century"-yes, we snicker about that too birdsong!
later folks-"go packers!"

YEAH! 2008!

HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

we had a wonderful new year. a celebration at our neighbors / friends rhodie and scott. delectable new mexican cuisine made from scratch! after much feasting and shots of "hot damn" we had a spectacular fireworks display in our newly cleared field.we don't do fireworks in summer because of fire danger. so we set them off at new years. very fun indeed!

well, since our journey to find snow- we got some of our own. yea!
here's a shot of one of liam's outdoor insulators.
the weather hasn't affected the hens at all-we've been getting 5-7 eggs a day. you go girls!!!!well, i have been weather proofing today for the upcoming series of storms that is expected to hit tomorrow. still need to buy gas for the generator. roy and liam are sick so we need that heat if the power goes out! sometimes i think these weather people get a bit dramatic. one station says-the worst storm in 10 years the next one says worst storm in 15 years. oh brother! but i prepare cause i know if i don't-that biggie will indeed hit.

i leave you with a picture from this year's poison oak festival in columbus, ca. in honor of our present condition. roy is more careful as he always gets it. liam and i never used to get it. not so anymore. i got it big time!!!! land clearing. winter is the worst-those damn sticks still got the juice. oh misery! if only i could stop itching so i could get some sleep! nothing like starting the new year off with a grand case of poison oak. check out the oak bikini: