Michigan Thread - all are welcome!

[gladahmae]

Lost my first bird to a "for sure" hawk. We had one during the summer that we suspected was a hawk, but while I was at work this morning, DH went out to take care of feed/water and the hawk was IN THE RUN EATING THE CHICKEN. So yeah. Definitely a hawk. We put netting up during the summer to help deter that and keep the chickens in, but took it down just last week because the snow destroys it otherwise.

On the stay-at-home or working-mother topic, I will simply say that I have been both and BOTH have their pros and cons and until you have done both, it would be best to reserve judgement.

DH has basketball tonight, so I'm going to start knitting a hat for *me*. I'm hoping it goes well and quickly enough that I have time to knit one for my friend also.

 

[ladyrsanti]

Lady... are you working with natural therapies for you depression? Color, aroma, exercise, SUN, light therapy, (have a sun lamp also) vit d, a hobby (like chickens aren't enough) Avoiding prepackaged foods(thinking hamburger helper types), MSGs, fake and/or modified sweeteners?

I am Bi-polar my self. I do not take meds either. I was prescibed depacote once upon a time. It brought me so low all the time. I felt like a zombie. I flushed them. In hinde sight, probably should have returned them to the pharmacy for proper disposal. I am very in touch with my moods. I can tell when I am about to shift up or down. I can tell a day or so before it happens that I am about to have a bad day. (I dream in color and I rage in my sleep) I am very careful to read label. Now I am even doing my best to avoid food that have GMO, which can be hard if you haven't grown everything yourself, so, read the labels, numbers on the produce and even have a phone ap that tells me if the producer of foods is a user of gmos. Really shortens the list of food in our stores. BUT brings you back to real homemade meals also.

I feed my chickens GMO free feeds also. We are what we eat, and I eat my chickens eggs...And occassionaly a chicken.

I avoid crowds, hot stores (wal-mart is the most unpleasant place for me to shop, no air in there) live just on the outskirt of town. Don't listen to the tv high... to much noise and I am instantly pithed off. Having two boys can be a challenge when they are both screaming, running and sword fighting... (!@#$ star wars) But I have picked up my paint brushes again, writing when I can. Snapping photos. Cleaning the garage coop... always fun to scrape down the cement floor. It's solitary, and peaceful. Go figure. Raking up the out door coops, scraping down... solitary and peaceful... Audio books are also an outlet. I don't think much when I listen to an audio book. Still function on auto pilot, but peaceful. Sometime suspenseful. I even use my audible on my phone at work in the AM and it's nothing to hear my coworkers radio that the crazy lady is laughing to herself again. ( I just finished Takedown 20 ) I have few personal friends. The friends I have don't get mad at me when I don't call them for a week or two. They know. And a true friend will not hold it against me. They know me. They also know that I will drop everything, no matter what mood I am in, and go and help them.

I do not apologize for who I am. I do not expect my family to always be happy with me. BUT if they were to treat me badly... Well you can't pick your blood relatives, but you can pick your family. And the people who love and accept you the way you are, related or not, those are the people to surround your self with. The rest can just be bystanders that you can ignore for the most part.

Yep, I do most of that + meditation and NO caffeine, not even decaf.

 

[preciouskitty]

Well, been off work since 23 Nov. Normally Thanksgiving week I get the majority of my XMAS baking done (I do a ton of cookies). Had no motivation & have been fighting a cold. Did get tree & decorations up. I did get a lot of shopping one...a la Amazon (I hate shopping, so Amazon is my savior )

Back to work tomorrow, but, I DID get one of my sugar cookies variations done today..the one that takes the longest because I literally paint each cookie. Takes about 30 mins / dozen just to paint. Took me 6 1/2 hours....

 

[fuzzybutt love]

My holiday was spoiled by car troubles. Jimmy i just bought died out on the way home; we originally thought fuel problem but looks like it's an electrical...... so trying to decide whether it's worth getting it to a shop or not. No symptoms, just sometimes it starts right up and sometimes not. No miss, no sluggishness, nada. Just either starts or don't! It died out because the negative cable got loose somehow; so i bought a new battery hoping somehow it was a stripped terminal. But two separate issues i think.

Family; can't eat with them. We make good and visit, but worrying over saturated fats, eggs, sugars, and anything that may be misconstrued to be generally unhealthy..... grrr. To me if you make it from scratch from natural ingredients it should be good enough, especially without the preservatives. But no butter, milk, egg, sugar, and for one meat........ what the heck does that leave??? But my mom and sisters and i were rebellious and ate pie anyway.

 

[chickflick]

Beautiful cookies!

 

[chickwhispers]

Farmer: Congrats to your family on the expected new arrival. I do hope all goes well for them.

You would think I could keep all straight here. Tap not that you shouldn't get congratulated for something, just the original earlier was for Farmer!

Just my Platinum showing I guess! I probably should explain... I'll give short version. Several years ago I had some surgery, ended up with a blood clot, then ended up with 2 brain aneurysms. One they filled with 18 feet of thinner than hair platinum"string and the other Nuero said "not to worry...it's on the outside of the dura." Which means my brain won't bleed out, but my skull will have lots of pressure IF it should ever burst. I'm taking that as a big IF. Anyway so my joke is my "Platinum" (blonde) is showing. Not to offend any one who may be blonde ( my 3 daughters are all blonde and the smartest girls ever!

)

Everyday I am Thankful. I try hard not to take anything or anyone for granted.

I spent the day putting outside lights up for Christmas instead of finishing up the chicken run. I may be sorry next week when it gets cold again, but some of the things I need to do can actually be done inside. I am making all the sides as removable panels of wire, and can put the 3 remaining panels together inside the garage or sun room, then attach. I still have 2 pieces of metal roofing, ridge cap and gutters. Then wire on the ground around the perimeter and boards too and stones on top of wire. Then I think I'll be done until spring. ugh.

Wish me Luck!!!

LOL!

I was both also, stay at home mom then I worked while girls were in school yet. My youngest was 5 when I started working. It was hard. I wished I hadn't had to but I did. I am still working, but now not as hard. My girls all work, the 2 oldest love their jobs. Both very demanding, but satisfying none the less. I think my youngest would love to be a stay at home mom. I support them what ever their choice, or need.

Ok I think I made up for BYC withdrawal for long enough to get more outside chores done. Until then all stay well, get well, safe travels, and good hunting!

 

[Opa]

The value of time spent raising a family can never be stated enough. As a fireman I worked a schedule of 48 hours one week and 72 hours the next. While that does seem like a lot of hours it was worked in 24 hour increments. That meant that I had a lot of time between shifts. Many of my co-workers had additional jobs during that time off. While I occasionally worked an additional job, I made a conscious decision to spend as much time with my boys as possible.

While the additional funds would have been nice for the family budget, we did just fine with what I made. The time I spent with my sons has paid off in dividends. The learned a work ethic. That effort is required for success. They learned the value of honesty and integrity. Traits that are best instilled by a parent. How is this possible. By example. If your children spend lots of time with you they soon learn just what kind of person you are. If they observe honesty and integrity they learn the value of it and will emulate your actions. I never had a rule for my sons that I didn't have for myself and today they still follow those rules.

Don't worry about being your child's friend. Be even and constant in your rules. Be their parent and the friendship and respect will happen. My sons have now lived longer away from me than with me, yet the closeness we shared during their childhood has actually grown stronger. When they were small I was first their father and most times their friend. Today I am still their father and always their friend.

 

[lbrykowski2011]

If I ever get rid of mine I won't be doing turkeys again, too much POOP!!

Do you do turkey's all yr or just spring to fall? My ducks are in a 100sqft run now for the winter, due to the pond being froze and I was thinking when they go back out in the spring of getting 3-5 turkeys to raise, just till fall for food seems I have the pen anyways. Is it that much more poop than the ducks do anyways? I like the look of both the BBW and BBB, any opinion? Thanks, Lana

 

[lbrykowski2011]

Had no motivation & have been fighting a cold. Did get tree & decorations up. I did get a lot of shopping one...a la Amazon (I hate shopping, so Amazon is my savior

)

Back to work tomorrow, but, I DID get one of my sugar cookies variations done today..the one that takes the longest because I literally paint each cookie. Takes about 30 mins / dozen just to paint. Took me 6 1/2 hours....

The night before Thanksgiving I was getting pretty sick. I had a few months ago bought a bottle of elderberry syrup for a natural treatment for colds or flu and took a tsp and went to bed. Got up next morning with just a hint of runny nose n headache, took a tsp couple times that day and it was gone. I would def recommend it to anyone. I used to love shopping, but now have to say, I got almost everything sitting here on amazon and kohl's and am very pleased and saved on gas, since I have to drive almost an hr to get to any store. lol Your cookies look fab!!!

 

[lbrykowski2011]

The value of time spent raising a family can never be stated enough. As a fireman I worked a schedule of 48 hours one week and 72 hours the next. While that does seem like a lot of hours it was worked in 24 hour increments. That meant that I had a lot of time between shifts. Many of my co-workers had additional jobs during that time off. While I occasionally worked an additional job, I made a conscious decision to spend as much time with my boys as possible.

While the additional funds would have been nice for the family budget, we did just fine with what I made. The time I spent with my sons has paid off in dividends. The learned a work ethic. That effort is required for success. They learned the value of honesty and integrity. Traits that are best instilled by a parent. How is this possible. By example. If your children spend lots of time with you they soon learn just what kind of person you are. If they observe honesty and integrity they learn the value of it and will emulate your actions. I never had a rule for my sons that I didn't have for myself and today they still follow those rules.

Don't worry about being your child's friend. Be even and constant in your rules. Be their parent and the friendship and respect will happen. My sons have now lived longer away from me than with me, yet the closeness we shared during their childhood has actually grown stronger. When they were small I was first their father and most times their friend. Today I am still their father and always their friend.

x2