A routine for happiness

I love my morning routine now. Get up. Stretch. Walk outside to check on the chickies and the garden. Water the plants. Come in, make breakfast, read blogs that I follow, then get ready for work. The chickies are so frisky in the morning. Especially today. Its a lot cooler than its been in the past few weeks and the sun is shining. I've got tons of tiny cukes growing on their vines just waiting to be turned into pickles for Hubby. The broccoli has heads on them about the size of softballs on some. Thats really cool because of my disasterous attempt to grow broccoli last year. The bean tower is completely covered in beany vines. The black beans have pods on them already. Tomatoes are sprouting out everywhere. After my canning class this past weekend, I'm feeling more and more confident that I will be eating my own tomatoes well into winter. These are all baby steps towards happiness. My focus narrows with everyday. Its getting easier to "bloom where you're planted" and just be happy where I am right now. Making this house, this little family, and everything that surrounds it into everything that I've ever wanted and more. I want to create and to be self-sufficient. (stay tuned for an upcoming test of self-sufficiency will power) I want a farm-like setting in the city. Its becoming that. Hubby is more and more supportive everyday. Sometimes he almost sounds interested! I'm getting involved and putting myself out there so that others can see how great it feels to do things for themselves. It feels good to quietly think to myself "What a good life I have."

FINALLY!

Nothing has twitterpated my heart like looking through the old antique window, through chicken wire, and into a chicken coop with my bustling little gals checking out their new digs. The first attempt at getting the girls moved into their new coop was a big FAIL! We didn't have the window in yet and I thought it would be fine since it felt so nice out. About 3:30 am a nasty storm rolled through which jolted me out of my slumber. In my pjs, I flew outside to find 3 of my 7 girls soaking wet, including Ziggy-138, my runt. I scooped them up, and with Hubby standing at the door for a hand-off, ran them inside back to their brooder. It was kind of comical because most of them were sleeping so soundly that they didn't really even wake up. I know they probably would have been fine, but I didn't want to take the chance. I love my girls. Last night we tried again. The girls settled down in a pile to go to sleep. I went out to check on them early this morning and they were stretching and scratching about--happy as can be. And, speaking of Happy, our pooch, he is doing quite well with them. I don't think they'll ever have an encounter that isn't separated by 4" and two layers of chicken wire, but he didn't bark all night and that's a good thing!

They grow up so fast...

The girls are about 4 weeks old now and getting bigger everyday. I took them out for a little adventure in the yard yesterday. They were quite pleased. Chicks learning to be chickens are the funniest things ever. They scratched at the grass; hopped and chased at everything that moved; ate some clover grass. My girls are ready to be outside full time. The coop is almost ready for them. Hubby is doing such an amazing job. We will hopefully be painting tonight.

A few garden updates...
The potatoes are flowering already
Beans are half-way up their tower
Spinach not doing so well
May bet one or two tomatoes from the ones I started...out of about 50 plants (unhappy face)


I also had my first attempt at making jelly last week. FAIL. The strawberry jelly wasn't too bad, but it was more like strawberry jello that hadn't quite set up yet. The strawberry-blackberry jam was waaaaaaaaayyyy too sugary. Those were both uncooked methods. I don't think I shall be trying that again. I'm hoping to get some canning equipment this week to do some real stuff like for green beans and tomatoes. Can't wait! I also spent some time talking to a nice man at the farmers' market about working on his bee farm. I want to get used to being around them and hopefully I'll get comfortable enough to make the jump and get a hive of my own.

Horses...

Today I heard my heartbeat for the first time. It galloped. Horses have always amazed me. Although I've had very few close-up encounters, their grace and peacefulness pour through me whenever I do get the chance to be near them. Sophia and I got the chance today. She is a "no fear" child and has no problem walking up to and taking on the challenge that is a giant horse.(compared to her) A recent addition, Ms Hadley, to our family has extended our happy little circle to include a few more wonderful people who have three of their own horses. They were generous enough to let us come out to see them. We were smitten. Sophia couldn't wait to ride one. It was amusing to see how calm she was when riding. She looked like she was in a daze. Jenna, Hadley's other new auntie, rode for awhile with Sophia and then let Sophia ride by herself for a bit. Then, they even let me take a ride. I was definitely not dressed for horseback riding, but honestly, I didn't care. I haven't been on a horse for about 15 years and couldn't wait to try it again. I was nervous. It was still great. Jenna showed us some tricks while riding and then took him for a run. The sound of his hooves hitting the ground...I could feel it...it felt like my heart beating. It was amazing. It choked me up. For the rest of the day, this is all I have thought about. It was all that Sophia talked about until she fell asleep on the couch! I am very thankful for today.

Cityscape to my right; garden to my left

Its been a long few weeks here and very eventful. Birthdays. Baby Showers. Chickens. Babies. Family *issues*. Its finally starting to slow down and I am beginning to enjoy Spring. I went outside after dark last night just to sit down and do some weeding in the garden. Its ridiculous out there--weed haven. My niece arrived on Saturday morning, not before keeping everyone of us up all night with anticipation. Well worth it though. Her momma did so awesome and she is B-E-A-utiful! Such a snugglebug. I love her.

The chickens are getting so big. Its been a week now and I swear they have almost doubled in size. My favorite one, which I have nicknamed Bertha because she is quite a bit larger than the other chicks, is really trying out those wings. She was actually on top of the waterer the other morning. Scary. Its been so rainy the past two weeks that Hubby and I are having trouble finishing the coop. Ziggy-138 has had a pasty booty since Day 2. She is also not growing as fast as the others which worries me because she really is a sweetheart. They still seem very content in their little brooder for now. I've been giving them little bits of shredded lettuce out of the garden to help supplement the store-bought mediocre crumbles. They attack it more than they eat it. I sit on a little stool and just watch them play. I love them.

I get a lot of questions at work. Mainly "What the *bleep* are you doing with chickens?" I don't mind. I like being the oddball/crazy one. They think that I'm wacko for having chickens, and knitting, and whatever else I do that isn't the norm for a 28 yr old. I love driving down my street, about to turn into my driveway, and seeing the Louisville skyline in my rearview. Then I pull into the driveway and see my garden and half-done chicken coop. Its kind of cool having the best of both worlds here. I do love this city.

They're here...

Today, after dropping off my little munchkin with her Mimi, I drove to the Post Office to pick up, quite possibly, the most precious things I have ever seen. The box could be heard as soon as I walked in the door. "Hi! My name is Adrienne Wilson. I'm here to pick up the peeping package." The guy still looked at me like I walked in with 3 heads. Apparently they don't get too much chicken traffic in el ghetto post office. Anyhoo. I got them home and into the brooder. Watched them run around, run into the side of the box, run into each other, hop, stretch, eat, drink, and literally fall over because they fell asleep standing up. I've spent a couple hours today just watching them. They are amazing and entertaining. I can't wait to see their adult feathers because they have beautiful markings even as chicks. The two solid yellows are the Buff Orpingtons, the white with grey specks is the Delware (currently named Ziggy-138, an offspring of Danzig), the black with white stripes is the Silver-Laced Wyandotte, the two with the tan sides and brown backs are the Easter Eggers, and the last little brown chick is the Partridge Plymouth Rock.