Winner Winner Chicken Dinner

Good Morning Sunshine

 Dylan butchered a very mean hen and I made fried chicken.   The hen would fight with the roosters, interrupt mating and she would bar the other hens from the nest boxes. She would harass the other chickens and chase them. She had to go. It was a lot of fun learning to fry chicken and even though the meat was totally over cooked it was delicious. Next time I know I'm going to do it a bit differently, but that's the beauty of learning to cook new things.

We got Wallace a booster seat with a tray. Meals are much more harmonious now that he is strapped into something. He was kicking and trying to sit under us at meal times. His high chair is too big for the new trailer. It is so nice having a kitchen table indoors. We eat as a family a few times a day. And since we got the new trailer we have sit down family dinners every night. It feels wonderful.

 Wallace has started throwing himself completely on the ground and screaming when he doesn’t want to go with me or get in the car. At home he doesn’t get hurt because there is no really hard surfaces, but in town he hits his head on the pavement and cries even harder. It's hard to have sympathy for him when he hurts himself being a brat.

 Nicole and I are making owl toys as decorations and game prizes for the baby shower. We are using some fabrics that I dyed, scrap corduroy, some fashion fabrics and leather. They look very rich and I feel proud of them.

We went Solar. It is nice not having to run the generator at all hours of the day and night! Gas is going up again and we decided this was the time to do it.

 This past weekend we went to the Oroville flea market on Saturday and the Marysville flea market on Sunday. We were looking for chickens. We came home with a Thai chicken hen called a Shamu, they are also known as Godzilla chickens. They are very tall and prehistoric looking. They are good layers and excellent meat birds. On average they hatch 60 birds a year. That will be over one chicken a week for our table. We also came home with a turkey tom. He is a "black turkey" that is a heritage breed.

We had so much fun at the Marysville flea market. There are lots of animals for sale. It costs $20 to have two tables. We are going to take a lot of our household items from storage and my old bike soon and try to sell them. For $4.75 I got a huge amount of baby clothes for Hellena 

Baby Einstein

We also got Dylan a new pair of Levi jeans for work and a nice leather tool belt. On Saturday we also went to a Salvation Army store. They were having a crazy sale and for $2.74 I got a big bag of baby clothes for the girl.

 A few days later we drove to the Jess Jones Winery in Dixon. The vineyard specializes in sweet wines, my favorite! I even bought a bottle to enjoy a little later on in life ;)   We bought a Naragansat turkey hen. Naraganset is a rare slate and buff heritage breed. She is beautiful! Turkeys will lay 100 eggs in their first year but they will only hatch out 15 birds a year. We plan to take her eggs and give them to our Silkeys to hatch. Each Silky can only hatch out 4-5 turkey eggs because they are so small and the eggs are so large. Lucky for us we have a whole bunch of Silkeys. Each turkey will sell for at least $35. At least next year our turkeys will be a good source of income in the spring.

Easter Eggs

 The good people at the vineyard showed us their chickens. They have the same taste in chickens as us and it was a joy to admire their flock. They have Americanas like we do and other Easter Eggers. They sell their Easter Eggs by the dozen. We know it will be a few years before we have enough, but we are planning on building our flock of Easter Eggers so that we can also sell Easter Eggs by the dozen at markets. They have lots of blue chickens, my favorite! They even have a blue Americana rooster. Wallace got beat up by the blue rooster. Wallace charged the bird and it slapped him in the face with it's wing. I ran at the bird and it flew away scared. Wallace had a mark on his face for a few hours. Before we left the vineyard Wallace went after the same rooster again but we stopped him; the boy has zero awareness of his own physical safety.

Wallace loves to stack his books in the window 

 We also bought a mature Easter Egger rooster from the vineyard. He is a Brahma Americana cross. He has a Rose Come; I think he is very handsome. Brahmas are a good meat bird and we plan on crossing him with our Godzilla hen. I'm excited about this rooster "Goliath" because it will be like egg color roulette with the hens he sires. Anywhere from pink to blue to an olive green. I saw a lavender and pink tinted speckled egg at the vineyard!

Goliath the new Rooster

 Being a Farmer means having your hands in so many different income sources. Each goat will bring in this much, chickens that much, turkeys this much, rabbits that much. Successful Farmers just need to plan ahead and have enough avenues of income to make it each year. I am getting used to it even tough it is hard to wait for the paychecks. We are planning now to plant out a field of birdseed so that we won't have to buy any more bags of grain for the birds. We can buy a 50-pound bag of scratch grain and plant it or buy smaller seeds and plant them out in rows. Were not sure what way we are going to go with it yet.
Dylan finished his goat pen and he built a turkey pen as well. Now all of our beasts have their own houses.

We have some bad news about our rabbits: they are both hermaphrodites. This happens sometimes and we can't breed them. We took them out of the warren and put them in a smaller cage having resolved to dress them out and eat them. One of them immediately died and I'm not sure if we should eat the other one. I don't know if Willow the dog scared the rabbit to death or if it was sick. We are going to spend the big bucks on a mature breeding trio from a reputable breeder next month. We know of a rabbit farm in Chico with a good reputation. Speaking of Chico, my baby brother Jack moved to Chico. I feel very blessed that Jack is going to be a figure in Wallace and Hellena's lives. Wallace is old enough to make lasting memories now and I know he will have memories of his Uncle Jack.

happy after dinner

I have an appointment with my Midwife on Tuesday of next week. She is the Midwife I saw with Wallace and I am looking forward to delivering with her group again. She needs to see me three times before she will let me have a water birth a the Sutter Davis Birth Center. I have been getting adequate care here in Oroville but I do not want to deliver the baby in a hospital with a Doctor. I feel like Doctors have no place in the delivery room! My OB is very practical and he supports my decision to deliver in Davis with the Midwives. He agrees with me about Dr's in the delivery room, and he prefers his patients to have Midwives deliver their babies either at a birth center or at home. He thinks it is always safer for the mother and that hospitals rob the mother of her birth experience.

Wallace the carpenter

My OB is still going to see me through the end of my pregnancy and do my post partum care. He said something that rang very true to me at my last appointment. I was signing the consent paperwork to get my tubes tied. I was planning on having the procedure right after the baby is born. He said that it is an emotionally unclean time to do a procedure like that just after the birth and he doesn’t recommend that I have it done then. It would require a 4-day stay in the hospital after the delivery and a woman should always be at home recovering 4 days after delivery. He also said that most women feel robbed or cheated after the procedure if it is done just after the baby is born, because they loose precious time with the new born. He said 6 weeks after the baby is born he will do the procedure and I will only have a 4-hour hospital stay.

 I am beginning to get very uncomfortable with this pregnancy. My sciatica and my pelvic girdle are hurting me a lot. I am caring the baby very high and she is well into my ribs. I have 7 more weeks to go and I don't know where she is going to go as she grows. There can't be any more room in my rib cage!!! I can't lean forward or bend from side to side now. I do a lot of squatting down, and I have to move the car seat really close to the steering wheel other wise my ribs ache when I'm driving. Wallace is well aware that I can't wrangle him as easily and he takes full advantage of it. He runs away and flattens himself on the ground to avoid me making him mind. I'll tell him things like, "if you don't get up and come with me I'm going to get your Papa to take over and you WILL have a bad time if you're naughty with him." Wallace almost always begins to obey me immediately after that.

 Wallace loves to have his picture taken first thing in the morning. He brings me the camera and begins to smile like crazy. I get a lot of great pictures of him in his footie pajamas with wild morning hair.

Action shot of the boy throwing fire wood.

I saw a shooting star on Friday night. I wished for an orgasmic water birth for us.