It's only been 5 days and it feels like forever....

     I guess I'll start off with one of my observations about my son.  A little background - my oldest son has been "diagnosed" with autism.  I put the quotes there because no one can actually give me a diagnosis of where on the spectrum that he falls, but I'm thinking it must be somewhere around Aspergers (if it were drawn on a line).  Since he was first diagnosed, his favorite meal is chicken and fries.  And not any ol' chicken will do - it MUST be Tyson Chicken strips (used to be nuggets but they changed the way they make them).  He's okay if I change the style of fries, crinkled, crunchy, or shoestring, but the chicken MUST be the same.  I know some of you may be thinking that it sounds normal, children are normally picky eaters or all children love chicken and fries.  This is beyond normal - he'd eat it every night if I let him.  And if it's not the same chicken, the plate and food end up on the walls.  Yes, my 9-year-old son throws his dinner plates. 

     In my 7 years of dealing with an Autistic child, I have come across quite a few articles and other moms who have reported to me that their autistic children are also BIG FANS of chicken and fries for dinner.  I AM NOT A SCIENTIST OR A RESEARCHER but I have to wonder if there is some sort of link between Autism and chicken.  Maybe it provides a protein that they are deficient in.  Or maybe it's just that they prefer really bland food.  I don't know but it's curious to say the least.

     I write this only because my DH came home from work the other night saying that he was talking with a co-worker who he found out has an Autistic son.  By some weird coincidence, his son is also 9 years old and their prenatal care was at the same hospital that we went to.  And YES, his son's favorite meal is chicken and fries - TYSON chicken.   Hmmmm?

     The last few days have been somewhat productive.  My DH and I cut out another garden bed out of our yard and he's currently working on a third (I've got other chores to do).  Our gardens are coming together and he's already talking about being a part of our local farmer's market within the next 2 years.  Not bad - if we can do it.  The plants are ready to move; they are starting to look pretty pathetic in their containers under the grow lights.  If only plants could talk.....

     I've personally been working on moving my chicks to another containment area - in other words, they're getting too big for the cardboard box that they've been kept in up until this point.  Since we moved the chickens to the barn, the old coop was available.  After cleaning it out and putting in new pine shavings, 7 of my chicks moved to their new home.  (I had the same nervous feelings that I had when we moved each of our boys from the crib to a toddler bed.)  It's bigger and easier to clean - not to mention it's outside so it doesn't stink up the shop anymore!  I only moved 7 because they were a week older than the others when I bought them.  The other 5 are still in the cardboard box in the shop, but I gave them new pine shavings too and it smells a LOT better in there.  It's still hard for me to believe that we'll be culling the Cornish X's in 2-4 weeks....  Hopefully it won't be on Mother's Day.

     I am really bad about staying in contact with people.  I made some really wonderful friends while we were in Japan and I feel so bad at the end of the day because I don't keep in touch with them like I should - will they forgive me??  I get reports from them that the cherry blossoms were beautiful this year, but that their season was short lived and that they've been getting some freakishly weird weather there - snowing in April!!  I'd take the snow in exchange for the rain....and the chance to be in Japan again.  Odd that we were only there 2 years and yet it feels like home.  Kate, whose blog you can read here, talks about being homesick for her family and home town.  I completely understand the feeling as I miss Japan that much!

Today was a great day!  I made a Chinese Chicken Pasta Salad for lunch and my oldest son LOVED it!  He ate two bowls of it!  He also is voluntarily doing his schoolwork.  I had errands to run yesterday so I missed our normal learning time (that's what he calls it).  When I got home I found that he had gotten out his worksheets and did his schoolwork on his own - not even my DH knew that he did his schoolwork.  Maybe this homeschooling thing WAS the best thing for him.....

A day in the life.....

I think that it would be nice to live the life of a chicken. Think about it - you wake up, stretch, get something to eat from the feeder that the nice humans put out for you, get something to drink from the waterer that they also left out for you, scratch the ground looking for seeds and bugs to eat, be let out of the coop to walk around ALL DAY scratching the ground some more for bugs and seeds, make a pit stop in the coop to lay an egg, take a dust bath, then make your way back to the coop in the evening to go to sleep. How easy it must be to be a chicken. No kids to take care of, no bills to pay, no laundry to do, no house to clean. I envy my chickens.

We plotted out the garden and tilled it. My poor husband is working 12-hour shifts, driving 2+ hours back and forth to work, and still manages to work on the garden during the week. I sure do love that man. The chickens love him too - he has dug up this HUGE rectangle of heaven for them! So many worms and beetles and seeds for them! And of course, we just have to take a break and enjoy watching them forage for food.

To say the least, we have now sequestered them to the back pasture where they can hunt for their own bugs. (As a treat today, I tossed the compost pile and found what seemed to be 100+ worms.) They seem to be taking to their new coop pretty well, although the egg count has dropped. Maybe it's just stress. I hate to think that they've found a new place to lay their eggs!

My apologies - a catch-up

I apologize for not keeping up with the whole blog thing. I have trouble staying committed to it. It’s not that I’m not “into” the whole blog thing, it’s just I keep going back and forth about sharing my life with the ENTIRE Internet population. But I digress….. The last few weeks have been a whirlwind of events.


It started with us purchasing 12 chicks to replace our current flock. Replacing chickens serves two purposes (for us anyway) – 1) it allows us to start our flock fresh, knowing exactly how old our chickens are and 2) we will have both meat and eggs. When we first got our chickens, we bought them from different people who were uncertain about their ages. And chickens lose 20% of their laying abilities each year after the first year…. I know, I sound like I’m trying to convince myself. The lady at the store who helped me with my chicks looked at me as if I were crazy – replacement chickens??




Then I started my next college class online – business ethics. Normally I love learning, which is a dramatic change from my high school years, but these online classes are sucking the life out of me. I can’t wait until they are done!





Then I weaned our goats off of their lunchtime bottle – well, I should say it’s a work in progress. They still cry a LOT at lunchtime, but I just switched them to grain and they seem to be getting over it. And, as for crying, well, Bonnie is a Nubian and from what I hear, that’s what Nubians do – cry a lot.






After that, it was the normal, day-to-day stuff – household chores and taking care of children, animals, and husband. Actually I was waiting for the rain to stop long enough for us to get the vegetable plants transplanted. The rain didn’t stop until the 10th and we’ve been busy since.


We moved the chickens to a new coop - it’s actually a stall inside of the barn that we closed off. We wanted to give them a place to lay eggs without the threat of my boys terrorizing them. The new coop has a door with a lock on it so maybe it will give the chickens a sense of security from my boys. And the stall is HUGE compared to their little coop.

I felt a sense of empowerment over the weekend because I, the one who hates bugs and generally being outside, mowed the entire backyard. Not an easy feat but I did it. And it only took me 2 hours. And the best part – watching my husband fly kites with our boys while I did it. It was nice to see him have some time to play with the kids. His current schedule keeps him away from us for 4 days out of the week and the other 3 days he’s been working on the farm.



Yesterday was the best day – it was gorgeous, sunny and warm so we dug and tilled the garden. We were able to cut the sod out and start laying it over the “sandpit” (where the previous owners had their pool). The kids spent most of the day outside (complaining the whole time but nevertheless outside). We had our first grilled dinner of the season – T-bones no less. And we retrieved 5 eggs from our chickens – the most in a long time. Maybe the new coop is serving its purpose…..



Well, I guess that’s a pretty good “catch-up” of the last few weeks. I’ll try not to let so much time go between postings.