What is this white stuff under my toes?

Answer: not snow!

After a crazy day of travel, we woke up to the first of many gorgeous, relaxing mornings in Florida.

We made it to Fort Meyers beach, so now we know if we ever make it back to skip it. It's half beach, half ashtray and full of skanky spring breakers...next beach please! The next day it was St Armands Beach in Sarasota and it was perfect! It was a huge beach and barely anyone was there (they were all shopping in the little square near by). Keith spent all day playing in the water while I did an amazing impression of solar panel on the sand.

The next day was Easter. We started with french toast and bacon and ended with goat cheese crusted rack of lamb. In between there was a lot of laying by the pool. It was wonderful.

Before picking up Keith's family at the airport on Monday, Keith and I got a chance to stop at Thomas Edison and Henry Ford's winter estates. Thomas Edison and I go way back, since as a toddler I peed on a rug in his childhood home in Milan, Ohio-we have a bond. For as close as I thought Edison and I were, I had no idea that he was kind of best friends with Henry Ford or his quest to find a plant that could produce rubber as a way to make the US less dependent on foreign producers of rubber. The estates were beautiful. They were full of gardens overflowing with both native and non-native plants. I would recommend stopping there if you ever get a chance!

Now we had Keith's dad, step mom, brother, brother's fiance, sister and sister's friend all to hang out with-it was time to get out on the ocean! We had a beautiful and relaxing day of bobbing around on the boat.

We stopped at Boca Grande on Gasparilla Island. It is an adorable little village that has a ton of massive banyan trees-the trees are truly impressive! We walked to a little beach and played in the water-after Keith's dad informed me of all the different kind's of shark around-great!

The day before we left we got a chance to visit Keith's grandma. This was one thing Keith was really hoping for while we were in Florida since we so rarely get to see her. We had a nice visit and got from her the only souvenir we brought home: a beautiful hand knitted blanket.

It was wonderful to hang out with everyone and and lay in the sunshine! Now we're home and it's still snowing. The Subaru got us all the way back-I think we should be in a commercial or something!

The Story

Stop me if you've heard this one...if a car flips in the mountains and it still gets you to the airport, did it really flip? (yes)

Keith and I got up at 3:30 am on Thursday for our epic journey of a three hour road trip to the airport, then three connecting flights to get us to Florida. And we made it!

We didn't expect that it was going to snow at all on that day and when we looked outside and saw that about an inch of fresh snow was on the ground and it was still coming down, we knew we had to get on the road ASAP! As we climbed into the mountains the snow was coming down even harder.

The trip was going slow and steady until everything got turned on it's side. As we were coming around the bend, still high up in the mountains, the car started to slide. It kept sliding until it bounced off a snow bank and flipped onto the driver's side. This all happened in the slowest of slow motion-I almost didn't spill my tea.

Keith was kind of sitting on the driver's side window as I was braced against the seat and the dashboard, kind of hanging in the air. With a surprising lack of screaming or crying (I think it's called shock) we did the 'You're OK, I'm OK' then quickly moved on to the 'How the hell do we get out of here'. Opening the door was not a good idea since we had gravity working against us and it just came crashing back down, but the windows still worked so we rolled down the passenger side window. I half hopped/got pushed out by Keith and he followed soon after-with my hat, gloves and a blanket. At this point we tried to push the car over. We made a valiant effort, but it was lodged in the snow. (And for those of you who want a picture of this, sorry, that just was just about the last thing on my mind at this point.)

Knowing getting towed was probably the only way out, Keith got on the phone to some friends to see if we get someone out there soon. I was doing my best at looking pathetic on the side of the road and apparently it worked very well. First one truck pulled over, then another! This is 6am, in the middle of nowhere, it's freezing and it's snowing-I really love these guys! We had a plan of all four of us trying to push the car over by the time Keith got off the phone. We all got up on the snow bank, held on to the roof rails and gave it our best-and it worked! One of the guys had obviously been in the situation before and told us that we should let the car sit for a couple minutes to get all the fluids drained back to where they should be. While we did that, Keith dug the back tires out of the snow with a giant roll of duct tape (you really can use it for anything!). He sat down, tuned the ignition, and the car started!

Our plan was to drive it towards the airport until it wouldn't drive any more and it got us all the way there. Not only that but we made it to our flight with time to spare. The rest of the day was a breeze, with all of our flight on time. We made it to Keith's dad's condo at around midnight.

It was time to get this vacation that almost never was started!

I believe I can fly

We have had chicks living in our living room for four weeks now and wow,  how things have changed! About two weeks ago the chicks were upgraded to a giant refrigerator box that is taking up a large portion of our front room. This is great because they are getting huge and feathery, but it makes having chicks in the house a little more interesting because the box has kind of low sides and the chicks can-and do escape.




Add to the list of things I didn't know: Chickens can fly. They can only fly for a very short period in their lives and if we just clipped their wings we wouldn't have to worry about them escaping, but they are going to be so big so soon that I'm just not really that worried about. Plus it is a lot of fun to watch all of this going on! You may notice that the baby gate that we are using to deter flying is really not very effective!


The chicks are getting so big! The Crested Polishes are still the runts, but their flair is fabulous! And they are the main escape artists of the group.



Keith thinks they look like Helena Bonham Carter. They remind me more of a muppet, maybe Beaker or Red from Fraggle Rock.

The Bovan's-good lord they are massive! They don't tend to escape very often, but orange feathers are always erupting out of the top of the box!



The Australorps are still the mellow ladies of the group. They don't really even try to escape. They can fly, but don't fly way. Generally the just want to hang out, eat, and bask in the glow of the heat lamp. Should I name these chicks?? There are only two of this kind. No names are coming to me, I can think of slacker guy names, but hopefully these are girls.


When we get back from Florida, these ladies will be moving on up to the fanciest coop of them all! And finally it is completed! Do you notice anything funny about the coop?


Maybe that we accidentally ended up painting it the almost exact same colors as our friend's house, where we were building the coop.... Yes, it was an accident! We picked out the green trim color, but the body of the coop was another $5 'oop's' gallon of paint and well, it looks pretty good!

And the chicks aren't the only ones moving into fancier digs! We are going to be moving out of our crap-tastic doublewide rental as soon as our lease it up to move into a great farm house in Enterprise-of course we are at the beginning at this process, so we are keeping our fingers crossed that the inspections and all go well!

What a difference a week makes!

It's not every week that you get to wake up everyday to a view of beautiful snowy mountains-oh wait, yeah we do! The main differences between this past week in Park City and a usual week in Joseph is that we had SO many restaurants to go to and no animals to take care of! While Keith was learning how to do stress tests during the day, I was going to the movies, the spa, and shopping-just about anything instead of what everyone else was there for-skiing. Even though it seems like it's been forever, all it takes is a walk down a steep hill to put me and knee in it's place!! Keith did get to go snowboarding a couple times and had a blast!

Now we're back and the chicks are huge! They had a lovely time at Liz and Nic's and were a hit at Malachi'a second birthday party. After a week the chicks have quite a few more feathers and are so much bigger!


The funny looking ones are even starting to develop their gooofy fluff!


The Bovan chicks are getting enormous! They are so much bigger than the Australorps and the crested Polish's. Still we have no idea if any of the chicks are males yet. There are a number of things written about this and pretty much we need to wait a few more weeks to see if any male traits arise or we may not figure out it for a few months...I guess we'll just wait and see!


By the end of this week the chicks will probably be moving on up into a larger box and in about two weeks (I hope!) they will be outside in the fanciest coop ever!

A week and a day

We have had the chicks for a week and a day. This means that the chicks are actually one week and two days old. And yes, we probably will be throwing a birthday party on March 14, 2012 for all the ladies! In the past few days we have learned a lot about our girlfriends!

Over the first few days I thought they would grow like mad! Realistically they just grew a little and are just now really to starting growing their feathers. Sunday was the first day they really seemed any bigger than the first day we got them and it's only the Bovan chicks that are noticeably bigger. Still every morning I notice little changes.

So here are couple of things I did not know about chicks until this week. One is that sometimes when they sleep they really, really look like they're dead. This is kind of scary when, say, you've never raised chicks before! It's also hard to get a picture of this because as soon as I try, the small click my camera makes wakes them right up. But trust me the chick in the picture below is very much alive!


And to add to the list of things I'd never heard before moving here, but now have to do on a daily basis, I have to check the chicks behinds for stuck on poo and if it's there I have to clean it off. Yes, this is pretty gross! This is pretty common and is called pasty butt and can kill the chicks. The dried poo blocks their opening and they can't poo any more and they die. Oh, and other chicks will also peck at and eat poo off each other. These are all reasons you have to clean them. And of course somehow Keith is never home when I have to do this!

Besides just being adorable, there is only very, very cute thing they do. They sleep in a massive pile of orange and black fluffiness! Seeing about 10 baby chicks all peacefully sleeping like this, at just about any time of the day, is just about the most precious thing you'll see all day!


BJ has gotten a little more curious about them, but still has absolutely no idea what to do about them. He tried licking one that I was holding, but I don't think he would try to eat it (I may be very naive about this though!)


So here is what they looked like at one week old. Notice the almost there tail feathers on the funny looking one and how freaking massive the orange one is (granted I picked the biggest one for this photo shoot!)

A little coop (coup) update. Hugh has been working on his own and been making some amazing progress. He added some trim, which makes the coop look much classier than I ever pictured!

Here is the big question! What are these ladies going to look like in the next week?? We will be as surprised as you! Keith and I are in Park City, UT (Keith is at a conference and I'm sleeping in later than usual and plan on eating massive amounts of sushi!) for a week and Liz, Nic, Malachi, and Hugh are watching the lovely ladies while we are gone. So a big shout out and a big thank you to them! And the the two residents that are taking care of BJ....they haven't called me yet, so hopefully there have been no problems yet!

Chicks: day 2

Here is your daily dose of chicks!

This is one of the White Crested Black Polish chicks (Stella or Sophia-I can't tell them apart yet!). She is starting to realize that she will be an absolutely fabulous looking chicken and is working on some poses for her future as a super model chicken!

Picking up chicks!

Let's be honest, I have absolutely no experience trying to pick up chicks. That is why I had to bring my wing man, Hugh, along with me to bring the right ladies home! I was picturing hundreds of chicks crammed into a small space vying for attention (and warmth) and I was kind of right.

Day old chicks, ducks, and turkeys were available today at Grain Growers in Enterprise. I went with a couple of breads in mind as well as roughly how many I was planning to take home-and of course I got a couple more than planned! They had heated tubs filled with 6-7 different breeds of chicks, one breed of turkeys and one breed of ducks. I had heard that Bovan chickens are really great producers of brown eggs and a very hardy bread of chicken-so the practical side of me won and I picked up 8 of them. Thinking about it now I probably should have only gotten 6, but I think it will be fine! The Bovan chicks were already sexed, this means that the chicks I bought should only be females. The man who worked there said there is about a 95% chance that all the chicks are females, but to be on the safe side I got a couple extra.

The other two breeds I got were not sexed, so that means there's a chance we have a rooster in our bunch. I don't really want a rooster for a couple reasons, one is that we don't want the eggs fertilized-we just want eggs to eat and the other is (in my experience) roosters are mean!! I got two Black Australorps, who are also supposed to be great brown egg layers and a hardy, good looking chicken. But of course, I had to find the funniest looking, not very good egg producing chicks and just have to take them home! White crested Black Polish chickens lay white eggs, but not very often. They are described more as a show chicken or a yard chicken-it's just cute to look at. Or as Keith just said-They freaking look ridiculous! And I got two them (I think Hugh thought I was going to get even more!)

As chicks, the Bovans are a light fluffy yellow, the Australorps are black and white (a little penguin-esque!) and the Polish ones are black and yellow with funny little 'top hats'!

I had already prepared our chicks temporary home in the megabox that I put together in the living room (I really wish we had a garage!). It's has a pretty big feeder and water dish and has a heat lamp to keep these little ladies all nice and cosy!

And now they're chirping away inside!

The chicks are super cute (as if that even needs to be said!) and so far are very loudly chirping and being crazy active, running around in the box or are passed out, sleeping quietly. 

They should be getting feathers in the next couple days, although it looks to me like some of them already have a couple. They said, since this is my first time, I'll be surprised at how big they'll be tomorrow-my little babies are going to grow up so fast!

I'm expecting a few friends over this evening to watch Chicks TV and I have to say it's pretty fun to watch in the couple hours I've been watching!