Egg woes

In an effort to coax my chickens into producing more eggs, I spent a few hours working on their coop. First I shoveled a truck load of poop out of there. Ginger was such a good helper, although I cringed every time I saw her use her cute little hand to brush the poop onto the dustpan. I tried to tell her not to touch it, but alas, she's 3 years old. (she did get a bath as soon as she came inside)

The Backyardchickens Forum is a very helpful website with anything you might want to/need to know about chickens. One of my chickens lays egg with very thin shells, apparently because she doesn't get enough calcium. Chickens are supposed to have access to o

yster shells, or even their own egg shells to eat, for their calcium. So that went on the shopping list. 

The 3 chickens that actually lay (out of 18 hens), lay in a corner on the ground, so I decided they needed some new nesting boxes. I guess the ones I have right now are just not right. On the forum there was a thread with pictures of people's nesting boxes. Some had very inventive ideas, while other had mansion nesting boxes. I wish I had the time or inclination to make my chickens nesting mansions, but at the same time it would suck if I spent all that time, and then have them laying on the floor somewhere. 

So I ventured into Joe's shop (can be scary), to see if he had any appropriate sized containers. I found 2 trash cans that he had gotten from a job site, and thought those were just perfect. Joe built a little front for them, so the nesting material wouldn't fall out.  Then I also found one of those cardboard boxes you get from Costco when you buy groceries. This particular one even has a lip in the front to keep the bedding in the box. -- one of my hens actually laid an egg in this box today!!

I also switched from straw to wood chips as nesting material, because the hens don't seem to really like the straw. Joe tried really hard to convince me NOT to buy wood chips. He would just go out with his chainsaw and chop some stuff up, he said. But the wood chips from the store are so universal, and perfect! I was not convinced that I wanted to wait until he had time to hack on a piece of wood, and it went on the list too.

Finally, chickens like to have a "nest egg" in their boxes, so they know that's the place to lay. Previously I have just left one egg in that corner where they lay, but the problem with that is, that they can easily break. So, the forum enlightened me on a solution for that as well. Some people suggested buying wooded eggs at a craft store, or even ceramic ones. But the idea that stood out to me was using the plastic Easter eggs. I filled some eggs with rocks, glued them shut with super glue, and painted them a nice light brown color. Hopefully my hens are easily deceived.

Christmas related opinions

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Paper is so much nicer.
2. Real tree or Artificial? Real, but this year I gave in, and bought a fake one and love it
3. When do you put up the tree? Beginning of December
4. When do you take the tree down? Beginning of January
5. Do you like eggnog? Yes, but diluted with a little bit of milk
6. Favorite gift received as a child? We didn't get gifts for Christmas
7. Hardest person to buy for? My in-laws
8. Easiest person to buy for? Myself ;)
9. Do you have a nativity scene? Yes. Joe's grandparents gave us a nice ceramic one a few years back
10. Do you mail Christmas cards or email? Both. Emails are cop-outs though
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? Gift card to Walmart
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Home alone
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? Usually around a point in October when I realize Christmas is "only" 2 months away
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? yes
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Spiral sliced ham, and pogacha
16. Lights on the tree? of course! White ones
17. Favorite Christmas song? Trans-syberian Orchestra (I can't remember the name of the one I love)
18. Travel at Christmas or stay at home? Stay at home, with family
19. Can you name all of Santa's reindeer? No, but I know dasher, prancer and Rudolf
20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Star. After 8 years of marriage we still don't have a good one though. I guess I need to hit the stores the day after Christmas
21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Opening them on the 24th seems wrong... after all, it's not even Christmas yet
22. Do you have any special traditions? We re-inact the story of Jesus' birth, with costumes and all.
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? My high electric bill
23. What theme or color are you using? Theme? what theme?
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Ham, and my mom's artichokes
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? A baby to adopt

If that's not in the line-up: a gift that's not on my wishlist, but that's something I have always wanted. My mother-in-law wins the award for finding these kind of gifts for me. I think she has managed to do it twice: A teapot for my nice china, and a special Dutch griddle for Gourmetten. I LOVE the surprise!

New Regimen

I started a new workout regimen today. Exercise is pretty much gone from my life, so I decided the least I could do was run to my mailbox and back. That sounds even more pathetic than it really is, because our driveway is like 300 yards long. And the way back is up hill! I know, it's really sad. But I figured something is better than nothing. So, today I made the trek twice, once to put the mail out, and once to pick it up. Watch out marathoners, here I come!

Santa's visit

Saturday morning we had a Christmas party for a group called FSA. FSA stands for Families Supporting Adoption, and is linked with our adoption agency, LDS Family Services.  It was a get-together with other families that are trying to adopt, or have adopted in the past. It's always interesting to me to talk to other people, especially those that have had success stories. One thing I notice a lot, is that many of them have adopted their kids in a non-standard way. Most found their babies through other agencies, or maybe even through family and friends that knew of a birthmother. 

The kids had a lot of fun running around, and there were several kids there they knew from our old Plano ward.  There was also a karaoke machine, and all 3 of my kids were glued to that thing. It wasn't a surprise that Winter would love it, but even Sterling was belting into the microphone. 

Then, to top it all off, Santa paid a quick visit. Ginger wouldn't get on his lap, but still wanted to get the little goody bag. After he left Winter came up to me and wispered: "that wasn't the real Santa". She then explained she knew, because of his boots. See, he was wearing tennis shoes with some little covers over them. I would have thought she could tell he wasn't the real deal, because his beard looked like they shot a dog and draped it's fur over the guys face, but I guess the tennis shoes were more convincing.

Santa Store

Leonard Elementary has a Santa store at their library. This is a great place for kids to buy presents for their loved ones. They have all sorts of trash and trinkets, ranging from $0.05 to $15.00. We thought it would be a good experience for the kids to have their own spending money and a list of people to buy for. 

I have to tell you it was almost crazy enough to send me into a mental institution. The kids kept asking me "can I buy this?"... no that's too expensive.... "can I buy this?" ... no, you can't buy anything for yourself. They figured it out though, and

 each of them walked out of there with presents for 5 people, within their budget. 

The first thing Sterling said in the car was: "we have to use tape". This is funny, because my kids are absolutely obsessed with tape. They go through it like candy. Whenever they are at their grandparents house, they easily use 1 roll per day (more if we would let them). They are so obsessed with it, that I have considered wrapping up some tape, and giving it to them in their stockings.

Here is one of Sterling's creations with tape

Ginger had fun hitting her daddy over the head with wrapping paper. 

After all the presents were wrapped, we gathered for a quick family photo shoot by the tree. It is very disconcerting when I can't find any family photos that are less than a year old (the last one I took got eaten by the last computer crash)

Thanks!

Before

After

Yummy!

Tis the season

As soon as Thanksgiving is over, I am in the clear to start celebrating Christmas. The first major change I make during the Christmas season, is that the only kind of music I play in the car is Christmas music. This helps the kids learn the words to all the songs, and it just makes me happy to listen to.

Yesterday I also set up our Christmas tree. Last year we cheated, and didn't have a tree at all for several reasons. We had just moved into our house, and were in the middle of gutting it, and I just wasn't in the mood to decorate. I have to say that Christmas is not the same without a tree! Now that I have mine set up, I just LOVE it! I also put it in the corner that used to house the spare wood flooring that still needs to be installed. As you can imagine, my whole living room look a LOT better now. (I was going to post a picture, but I can't find my tripod)

So far I am really liking my fake tree. I didn't have to mess with light for an hour, they were already in there. Also, no more messing with watering it, and picking up needles all the time. I am very pleased with the quality of the tree, considering what I paid for it. It is very full, and has varying needles, to make it look more real. Now I should be set for a tree for at least the next 5 years