Chicken Little...Chicken Big

  We've been feeding our little chicks very well.  Now we have hens and they are laying!

Monday evening we had the Empty Nesters at our house.  These are couples or older singles who no longer have children in the home.  So we gather once a month for Family Home Evening.  This time it was our turn.

So we cleaned... at least the places where company would be.  We fixed food--  grapes, veggies and dip, chips and dip, brownies, lemon bars, chocolate oatmeal cookies, dozens of deviled eggs, and finger sized chicken salad sandwiches.  One friend brought apple slices and cheese and crackers.  So we had plenty of food.

We talked about what had impressed us or what changes we had made based on conferences addresses from last general conference.  The first talkers had a lot to say, so we finally had to limit the time to just a few minutes per speaker.  All in all, it was a lovely evening.

Tuesday I got my hair cut and I met with the Realtor who will take the Darracq's place as they go on their mission.  Just in case we need to buy a house or two while they are gone, you know.

Tuesday and Wednesday were work days. Tom worked at the duplex. I worked at writing.  Tom got frustrated trying to put down the laminate floor. I went over to help.  We both got frustrated. It just wouldn't lock in. It was like it was bowed.  So we called for help.  Our housecleaner (who cleans our rentals) used to do flooring. She came and said.  a. you're starting from the wrong direction.  b. you are using Shaw flooring; they have a terrible locking mechanism. c. you really need pry thingies and wedges and stuff to get it right. d. would you like me to do it?  YES!!  It turned out it really was a bear for her, too.  The edges wouldn't lock so they had to be glued.  That was one of the reasons why we couldn't lock the next section in-- the ends would move.

Thursday we drove to St. Louis.  We had a closing for our Portis duplex scheduled for Friday.  We decided to go up a day early and go to the temple.  We'd hoped to meet Scott and Tanya there and visit with them. They are moving to Ohio-- even further away!   But, alas, it didn't work out.  So we drove up in the afternoon, did a session, got up the next morning, did a session, then went to the closing.  Ahhh.  It was nice to be done with one house in St. Louis.  Unfortunately the difficult house is still trying to get a clear title.  But there might be light at the end of the tunnel.

We arrived home shortly before Dan and Miranda came to visit.  It's always so nice to see them.  Camden and Ethan are growing.  Saturday we watched general conference together.  We also went to the Home Show in the morning.  Camden was excited to climb on the lawn tractors... not quite so excited to wander past windows, Realtor, electric companies, and central heating places.  But he was excited about the equipment Jackson Rental had displayed.

Actually, the chickens above?  I got a call from one neighbor saying another neighbor had two laying hens, did I want them?  Sure.  Then I thought, akk.  What will I do with them.  They can't be mixed in with the little chicks.  So I decided to put them into the chicken tractor.

I picked them up from a neighbor I'd known only by reputation.  A delightful older man.  We had a nice chat and now we are friends.  I've been wanting to get to know my neighbors better. It seems we need to know each other so we can support each other in difficult times.

My chicks are growing.  You can see that the meat chicks look like Louie the giant compared with the laying hens.

  Since I learned that I did have a few Cinnamon Queen hens, I decided to add a few more layers to my flock.  So I got two little black chicks and two Red Productions that have nicely speckled feathers.  The blacks were a few days younger and a bit smaller than the others.  The Reds were a week older, but still small enough not  to overwhelm.   They were accepted into the flock without problem.

Tom finished the coop enough that we can move the birds out. Yippee!  They smell!

We went to general conference at church in the morning.  I needed to clean the chicken cage anyway, so decided this was a great time to move the chicks to the coop.  I'd hung a heat lamp out the afternoon before so I could make sure it would not be too cold for them.  I'd put down straw and hay to insulate them from the ground.  And I figured out how to fill the large waterer.  Here they are in the coop under the red heat lamp.

The feeder was another matter.  Critical holes didn't line up.  We will need to drill holes so they fit.  So we still have to use the little old one.

It was nice to have great general conference sessions.  They are always so uplifting.

Spring?

Tom had snow while I was at Mom's house.

And it was chilly the day I returned home.  But now, I think Spring has come.  The daffodils are almost all finished.  This Easter Morning the first tulip bloomed.  And the scent of hyacinth fills the air.  The phlox are bursting with almost-blooms.

Tom has been working very hard. The chicken coop is done except for painting the trim.  Good thing.  We've got chickens in the house that I'm anxious to move out as soon as they can stay warm enough outside.

I errorred in ordering a "straight run" of the Cinnamon Queen chicks.  A straight run means both male and females.  The males are fluffy yellow.  The females have brown stripes.  I also ordered Cornish Crosses... and I thought they were brown striped, too.  So when I figured this out, I realized I had 9 yellow chicks and 7 brown striped chicks.  AKK!  I thought I had all males and meat birds.  I called to see if I could order some females... maybe I could.  See on Monday.

Tonight, I was wondering why the yellow chicks were growing so fast and dwarfing the little brown ones.  So I went back on line.  Ahah!  The Cornish Crosses are fluffy yellow, too!  So I have 7 egg layers and 7 big fat chicks and 2 little chicks.  7 Cornish crosses, two Cinnamon "kings".  I might actually keep one rooster and see how it works out.  But if he gets possessive and cranky... off with his head!

Tom has also been busy remodeling a bathroom, painting, and laying new flooring in a rental.  He got the bathroom tile all done and the new tub and vanity in.  On Friday two of the young women came over to earn money for Girl's Camp.  We put them to work painting.  They got the two bedrooms done.  Tom painted the rest on Saturday.  It looks so much better.  Monday he will start with the laminate flooring.

I'm so impressed with all the work he's doing.  He says his body is complaining.  I suppose we can be grateful that Sunday is a day of rest.

I decided that I wanted to specialize in writing copy for alternative investments-- real estate, tax liens, joint ventures and venture capital mostly.  Maybe energy.  So I ordered a new domain name: InvestmentCopy.com  I hope that's not a confusing name. Now I need to build the new website.

Having been learning a lot about title insurance-- what is is, what it might be... and sometimes what you thought it was-- I probably will write something about understanding what you're buying. Of our two properties in St. Louis. One is on track to close.  The other-- we're still working on getting clear title to it.

I guess that's all the news from this week.

Last days of Mom's trip

 Monday Mom and I went out and bought her a television. She only could turn on and off and mute the old TV.  So we got a slim one that would still fit in her space.  I got it hooked up... but could only get three stations on it.  She called the cable company and they will come out and program it for her.

Last week I worked on a project for Jay, the accountant.  Tuesday morning he called me and asked if I could do something in 24 hours... and I was flying out that day.  Sure!  Actually, it worked out pretty well. I sat in the airport and wrote the letter, finishing it on the flight to Phoenix.   Then I had a layover for a while so I found an outlet (my poor old laptop doesn't hold a charge) and typed up the first draft.

Leaving Phoenix, there were wonderful city lights.  Umm.  Long exposures and not a real smooth flight gives you this kind of picture of the twinkly lights.  I think it's modern art.

We had a little delay in Phoenix so we were late getting into Little Rock.  I arrived about 11:30pm.  And there was my sweetie waiting for me.  He had a hotel room all ready so we went back and crashed.

We awoke pretty early.... and a good thing.  We were still in Little Rock when the post office called to say our chicks were in.  So we drove home and picked them up.

 We put them in the dog kennel, but the holes were too big.  Tom made a loud noise and five of them jumped through the holes and out of the cage.  Hmm.  So we added cardboard and wood around the sides and we hope they grow big really fast.

Trip to Mom’s

 I’ve been such a slacker.  I’ve been having too much fun to blog.  Monday I worked on a bazillion things to get them checked off, so I could be ready for Tuesday.  We have been listening to information on infinite banking and had a call on that.

Early Tuesday morning (6:15) we left to drive to Little Rock.  Tom tossed me on the airplane to Mom’s and he swung by the commissary before heading home.  I arrived at Orange Co. Airport by 3pm and Cynthia met me.

I had a fabulous trip with Mom.  It was like being on a cruise ship.  Delicious dinners, wonderful scenery, relaxing visiting.  I don’t know that we ate home a single night.  Tuesday we went to a charming little restaurant.  Cynthia and Jim came over after for a wonderful strawberry pie desert. Nice to chat with them.

View from Mom's dining room.

A full moon when we came home one evening.  Do you know how hard it is to hold the camera still for this?

Wednesday we went to the Presbyterian Woman’s luncheon.  (We did make Chicken Fettuccini for that.)  Mmm.  Those Presbyterian women know how to make mighty fine food!  We had an interesting meeting and I visited with one of the leaders of the Kenya support group.  I was able to connect him with one of the people I know over in Kenya.  I hope they will be able to work together to support the orphans.  Wed night Cynthia and Jim took us to a favorite restaurant of theirs that serves small plates.  But my salmon salad was plenty filling.

Thursday we took Pat to lunch at a cute French restaurant.  We were helping her celebrate her 90^th birthday.  She’s not driving anymore, so we worked to connect Sue and Steve with her now-retired-Honda.

Friday I drove Mom to Long Beach for an eye appointment. Sally joined us and we had such a nice visit.  We lunched at a great Mexican restaurant.  They had a lady making fresh tortillas and then you could choose steak, pork, or chicken and add your own pico de gallo and cilantro dressing.  Of course they also had salads, chili verde, and too many yummies to eat… but I tried.

That evening we joined Aunt Ruth and toured her new apartment in the Towers at Laguna Woods. She has a lovely place. Light and airy.  Beautiful view.  And lots of closet space.  She treated us to dinner at their California dining room.  Wow!  Lots of choices and elegantly prepared food.  After we went to a play at Clubhouse 3.

My cousin Sherrill joined us for dinner and the theater.  It was a very cute play about two daughters (and their husbands) and the elderly demanding mother. Cute ending.  The old mother falls in love with an aged artist, gains a new life and goes off happy.  And the daughters are mostly happy to see her go.

Saturday we took a walk and visited a friend of Mom’s. I worked on some writing.  In the evening Cynthia picked us up and we drove out to the Swiss Park for dinner of Osso Bucco—braised veal shanks. Very tasty. It was the annual Swiss Athletic Society Dinner, so Mom had a chance to see old friends and we saw awards given away.  It was kind of a late night. I drove home.

I realized that I do very little lane changing here in Mountain Home.  Certainly not at 65 mph with heavy traffic.  I’m always afraid I’ll merge into someone… or into someone merging into the same lane.  Twice, honking horns told me I was right to be worried.  It would be ironical if my 91 year old mother drives all over the place, and I’m the one who can’t merge.

Sunday I went to Mom’s church with Cynthia and Jim. It was Palm Sunday and they combined all the worship services into one.  So we had a blend of contemporary Praise Worship and traditional worship. Intersting.  It lasted longer than a Mormon meeting! (1.5 hrs.) After that the youth served a pancake breakfast (our lunch.)

Adam, Savannah, and her parents were down from Oregon going to Disneyland.  So we arranged to meet them at Sally’s house.  I love it that we can just invite ourselves to our siblings and then say… oh, and can our kids and in-laws come, too?  Sally, you’re AWESOME! It was fun to see Steven, too. He visited for a while and then went off to do Bishop stuff.

Interesting side note.  Savannah’s mother knew Sally since Sally was her young woman’s leader when she was a teen.  We dined on great taco salad and had fun visiting.  Savannah said the kids were exhausted, but they were really very well behaved.  We got 4 generational pictures—on my little camera, and Randy (Adam’s father-in-law’s) fantastic camera.  Don’t know if any of them have all of us looking and smiling.

We decided to get the two grandmas and the kids in a photo. Carter loved my necklace.

After they left to put the kiddies to bed (and likely themselves, too) we went to the mortuary to see the storage room where Sally had agreed to store a chair and a settee that Aunt Ruth had given me when she downsized. They were lovely.  We also peered into boxes of Cousin Walt stuff to get rid of… and looked at Cousin Walt stuff to save.  We so enjoyed chatting with Sally.  It was another kind of late night going home.  I think I’m finally used to freeways again.

Busy Week

What are we doing this week?  We have two houses (St. Louis) under contract and have the paperwork of that to deal with.  We are trying to figure out the best way to invest that money and have been looking into options- all of which take listening, learning, evaluating, considering… and so on.

One idea is “infinite Banking”—a fascinating concept, but not an easy one to understand.  If we decide to go with this, you’ll hear more about it from us.  In the meantime, we have phone meetings, webinars, and emails to bring us up to speed on it.

We have current rentals to keep up on.  We checked out the fire damaged house and the repairs look great!  When he repainted, he painted the porch posts the same color as the railings and it added unity to the architecture.  A tenant is moving out of the duplex that we said, “The next time the tenant moves we need to do something with the bathroom and flooring.”  So we went shopping for flooring and tile ideas.  I think we will do a laminate floor.  The one we chose was darker than what I’d imagined.  But it was also cheaper and with a better wear warranty. 

In a disappointing note.  After spending months working under the tutelage of a Financial marketer, he presented my headline and lead to the bosses… and they turned it down.  They are not hiring now, and I still needed to learn more.  He said he’d connect again in June or July and maybe we could pick up and move on.

This was the week of the recipes.  I’d wanted to get my share of the recipes to the head honcho because she had spring break this week and could work on them.  I worked on them on Sunday and Monday and Wednesday.  Finally, on Thursday, I said, “I’ve GOT to get these done.  I stayed up until 1:30 getting all the recipes organized by alphabet and category.  Then I went back and copy edited that the type size was a 12pt bold, capitalized and underlined for the title, and 11pt for the recipe itself, with c. for cups, not C. or Cups… T. for tablespoons, not TB or Tbs. or anything else… and so on.

When I went to send them at 1:30am, I checked the “breads and quick breads” file, and found only two recipes!!! What happened to the other 20??  Sigh.  So I sent the others, and went to bed praying for a miracle.  Friday I had so much else that had to be done!

After walking Friday morning and reading scriptures, I opened the file.  Still no other recipes.  So I went back to all the other files and pulled out the bread recipes again.  It actually went faster as I’d gotten the system down.  It took less than two hours.

The blessing and miracles came later.  I had a 10:30 call with an editor and that went really well and gave me direction.  So I was able to write up an article and revise another much faster than I’d believed I could. And I revised another article, and went visiting teaching, and polished my seminary and institute training lesson for Saturday. Like the loaves and fishes, the time expanded for me to get everything I needed to done.

 please ignore the clothesline pole with scoliosis.

Tom has been doing wonderful things with the chicken coop. It looks so cute. Thursday I helped by painting it.  He also found time to help our neighbor put up some lap siding over the front of her porch in the roof peak.

Saturday Tom left at o’dark thirty to go to the temple with the youth for baptisms.  I left at 8am to go to Branson for my Seminary and Institute training.  It was a good training, even though attendance was light.  I got home about 2pm and was able to do a little more writing so I could get paid for this week.  Tom got home about 10:30pm… a tired puppy. But they had a good trip.

When I turned into the left turn lane for Old Tracy Road to come home on Saturday, there were THREE cars in front of me. Three!  I rarely even have a single car in front of me. Rush hour in Mountain Home.

Today I taught the class on how to ask questions.  It was a great class.  Good questions just seem to automatically invite great comments and discussions.  Tom has Bishop’s Youth Discussion now here at home, then he goes home teaching.  No rest for the Bishop!

Next week, I get to rest. I go see Mom. YEAH!

It Feels Like Spring

This has been a lovely week.  The weather is warmer and the flowers think it’s spring. Daffodils are blooming and hyacinth are up as well.  The roses are leafing out and the trees are budding.  Our last frost free day is still a month away. So I hope they all can take chilly weather.

Work continues okay.  I have been doing jobs here and there. The financial sales page I’d been working on came to a stop.  They are not hiring right now.  Perhaps in July.  I’ve also been doing some training.  I decided to focus on alternative investing, so I have been reaching out to some people and websites in that area. 

We also decided to look into our own alternative investing to see what to do with money from the St. Louis property sale. And part of that involved looking into Infinite Banking or investing in the Bank of You.  So I’ve called a bunch of people. As they call me back, I’ve got to figure out who they are in the scheme of who-all I’ve called.  Makes life interesting.

One of our rental houses needed a new roof. So Tom got with a roofing friend of ours and they did it together. It’s a metal roof.  While they had a little trouble with wind and it was a bit cold, fortunately it didn’t rain the days they worked.

Thursday Tom and I went to the Kansas City temple with a group from church.  We rode up in the van.  Left at 4:30 am and got back home about 9pm.  Fortunately I was able to sleep in the van a little. It was great going to the temple.  It’s such an uplifting experience.

I’ve put in some intensive time working on the Stake Cookbook. It’s not enough.  I’ve been working with a lame pusdo Word 10 program on my new computer. “Word Sample” or some such thing.  And it lacks lots of bells and whistles that make life simple.  I’m not able to open some documents and I wonder if that’s the problem.  I had planned on ordering Microsoft Office 10… and finally bit the bullet and did it. I hope that might streamline the process.

Our chicks will arrive the end of the month. To prepare for their arrival we are creating the Fox version of the Taj-mah-cluck.  It is an 8' by 8' shed and another 8x8 of fenced area—tall enough to walk into. I wanted cement board rather than cheap looking OSB or water soluble Masonite siding.  So it will be heavy as ..well cement, and hopefully impervious to predators.

Tom got the materials and started to work on it Friday and Saturday.  He also did a lovely job tilling the garden—ours and the neighbor’s.

Friday night we went to see the new Jack, the Giant Slayer movie—based on Jack and the Bean Stalk.  It was good, I thought.  Suitably grumpy giants—and they threw in a princess, a villain, and a happy ever after.  After we went and bought some lettuce, broccoli and brussel sprouts plants as well as seed potatoes and onion starts.

Saturday I raked the garden smooth and planted seed potatoes, onions, lettuce, spinach, broccoli, brussel sprouts, and peas.  They spoke of rain later on and I wanted to get the garden in.  Later I helped Tom a little with the chicken mansion.  My little seeds I planted indoors last week are up and growing… mostly.  It’s so fun to see them a sprout one at a time.

It started raining last night—steady and deliberate and by Sunday afternoon we had nearly two inches of rain in the gage. 

Since last Sunday was Stake Conference, we had fast Sunday today. I think my teacher development class went well, even though I could not play a short video clip I wanted to.  On the way home, I passed a flock of wild turkeys.  They really are pretty birds, and big.

All in all, a good week.

It's MARCH!

This is what my week looked like, but I feel like I didn't do anything.

s's

What did I do of note?

Job: I finished some articles.  I did some training.  I got a new job writing a performance review for some business man.  He needed to tactfully say this guy is doing a good job here, but not so well here.  And ya’ll know how tactful I am!  But since I spent 7 years telling students what they did well, what they didn’t do well, and how to fix it… I thought I could help him out.  Sounds interesting.

I decided to focus my copywriting on the alternative investment niche.  So I signed up for some groups on LinkedIn and am working to learn more.

Speaking of alternative investing, even after I thought I got everything settled with my IRA trust companies, it took 2 more phone calls to really, really, I think, get it settled.  In the mean time, the Portis sale seems to be moving ahead.  So I have been looking at what to do with the money from that sale.  I went looking at properties on Saturday.  Some were more promising than others. 

Are any of you familiar with peer to peer lending? I’ve been looking into that, too.

Church:  The recipe collection is finished for our ward.  Tom, bless his heart!, helped me type a number of them into the computer.  Now I’m getting the files of the other wards and branches. I have not yet started to collate them.

In the mean time, it’s the end of the month and my information for Seminary and institute teachers are due. I have  four teachers that haven’t put any attendance into WISE since the first of the month.  I will have to ask them to kindly get on the stick.

I didn’t do anything with my Teacher Development class this week as we didn’t have a class today.  See?  I, too, can kick the can down the road… to next Sunday.

Tuesday night I decided to work with clay and made a few small dishes and some that were a little larger. I had some left over clay and decided to make some essential oil pendants.  This is where the necklace has a small hole in the pendent so you can put a drop or two of essential oil in it.  Then you can sniff to uplift or stop allergies or whatever.  Friday I went to Marian's and worked. Some of my test glaze pieces came out and a dish that I just love! 

  I was so pleased with it, I used it to serve brownies at the wedding on Saturday.  I worked on glazing some pieces while I was at Marians as well.  It seemed like slow going.  With glazes, every time you open the kiln it’s Christmas!  You never know what you will find.

Saturday we had another wedding.  Cute couple.  They’ve been coming to church for a while.  They seem like they will be happy together. Saturday I also finally planted some seeds.  I had bought some heritage seeds at the meeting last Saturday and got those planted.  But for the life of me, I can’t figure out where I put the seeds I’d bought last year. Grrr.  And Broccoli is the first thing that can go into the garden.

We ordered chickens this week, too.  From Cackle Hatchery.  We’d gone to Orchlands to look for chicks and ended up talking to another shopper who raised chickens. He raved about the Cinnamon Queen chickens that were laying so well in winter without a light.  So we decided to order 10 of those and 5 fryer chickens.  It’s time to get up the gumption to butcher birds.  People say they taste much better.

Of course the enlarged number of chickens means an enlarged chicken coop… which has yet to be built.  But we went to the neighbors to see his coop and got some ideas.

Tom had an interview in Springfield with the Stake President and so on his way he picked up some Underarmor so he could be a ‘real’ runner.  And he got some fencing for our back fence line. It’s more of a suggestion than a fence in some places.

We have tried to walk/run three times this week.  I walk. Tom runs.  And Tom has successfully navigated through a dozen or so more slide trays turning the old film slides into digital images and labeling them.

Tomorrow is Kenya's national election.  Please pray for the people and the nation that it will be honest and peaceful.