Fluffy Butt Brigade

~~~" I love having my little flock of chickens.  I have dubbed them the "Fluffy Butt Brigade". 

I am so excited that my hens have started laying eggs finally.  Last week, I found one egg in the box and could not believe my eyes!  After all these months of checking each day, and there one was!  I was surprised they started laying in a cold month and when the days were short.

I checked the next day when I fed in the morning, but nothing was there.  The next day I waited to check in the afternoon, and there were two more.  After taking care of these girls for all these months, it was thrilling to finally see eggs.  One egg was light brown and the other was dark brown like the one I got the first day.  The forth day I had more eggs and one of them was blue.  So I have three of my hens laying now.

In the beginning, I thought I had six girls and my roo.  Ended up, two of the girls turned out to be boys.  I gave one beautiful rooster to a friend of mine and kept the little banny boy in the flock.  My roo, Rocky, is not too happy having to share his girls, so I will get my banny roo, Honey, his own little flock of banny girls this spring."~~~

I came back to my blog and found this draft of one of the last things I was going to post.  Reading  this and the one I had posted New Life on the Homestead, I love reliving the excitement I felt when I got my first flock of chickens.  Now, it has become a quirky obsession.

Unfortunately, the flock I was referencing above no longer exists.  The only one that is left is Mildred.  She is the one that gives me the blue egg.  She survived all the hawk attacks, that eventually took each of her friends.  But never fear, I have learned and I have expanded the flock.  I now have 42 +/- birds.  My favorites are the little Seramas and the Bantam Cochin chicken. But I love them all so! 

New Life on the Homestead

Well, again it has been a long time since I last posted.  Reading my last post brought up alot of memories and tears to my eyes.  Glad I had a box of tissues handy.  Much has changed in the year and a half since my last post.  I am now single and have moved back to my home state of Virginia.  I mourn the passing of the love of my life and best friend.  Even though we had parted in our relationship, we had become the best of friends afterwards.  I miss him greatly.

On a happier note, I am living on a nice little plot of land where I had a wonderful garden this past summer.  There is a heavenly grove of trees in the front yard and half of the property is wooded for those nice walks amongst the trees.  I wake alot of mornings to deer in the grove and all day squirrels are racing from tree to tree.  Here and there are a few bunny rabbits, but they mostly keep to the hedges at the front of the property.

My garden this summer was amazing, even thought I got it started a little late.  We moved to this property in June and by then most of the planting should have been done.  I had loving kept my little seedlings alive and thriving in the temporary living arrangement I was in until I got here and was able to place them in the ground.  Even late, the seedlings took off like crazy.  I had more tomatoes than I could eat or give away.   I grew patty pan squash this year and the plants were so gigantic, reminded me of the gardens from my childhood.  In North Carolina, I could never grow squash because of the humidity.  By the time the plants started to take off, powdery mildew set in and they all died.  I had handfuls of pickling cucumbers and had so many, I was able to make a few jars of old fashioned pickles and bread 'n butter pickles.  This was my first adventure in canning anything on my own.  They turned out quite yummy!

And I finally have my little flock of chickens!  I have six little hens and a young rooster.   The hens will not start laying eggs for a few months yet.  Everyone has a name and everyone gets along well.  I take them out of their pen twice a day, morning and evening, for some free ranging time.  I keep a watchful eye on them because there are hawks in the area.   With the trees as cover they are safe most of the time, but a power line runs through the property and if they get in the clearing, the hawks start to circle.  My young roo is getting smart and brings the girls to the garden and they hide under the tomato plants that are still there. Still, with the hawks around, I will always have to watch them during free range time.  I don't mind, because they are amusing to watch and make me smile.  They scratch and back up and see what they have uncovered and their fluffy butts are funny to see running across the yard trying to catch a bug.

Trapped In A Fat Suit

Well, it seems to have been awhile since I have posted anything on my blogs.  Having just come through a very difficult time in my life, I can now look back and see the amount of pain and misery I was in.  Depression sneaks up on you and engulfs your life without you even knowing it. 

I can say this now, looking back.  But I was definitely depressed, and in denial of it.  First, lets start with the heart condition.  Cardiomiopathy of the heart, where my heart only works at 25-30% of its capacity.  This made any kind of physical activity extremely difficult, from grocery shopping to trying to do some gardening around the house.  I was even too tired to keep my house tidy.  Every day I took a 3-4 hour nap.  I felt trapped.

Lets talk now about being trapped.  Because of the heart problem, I put on weight and was not able to loose any of it.  I could not stay active long enough to burn it off.  My meals I had reduced to eating off the smallest dinner plate I had, referred to as the bread & butter plate.  I ate lean chicken and pork, avoided most carbs and ate very little bread.  I ate alot of salad with a little ranch dressing cut with apple cider vinegar.  (Try it, its good)  That's okay, because I love salad.  Calories were between 800 and 1200 a day, and still not loosing any weight.  I was being smothered by a fat suit that I could not get rid of.  I was trapped!  This extra weight made me a little self conscience and therefore I avoided the majority of public activities.

People can be very judgmental just looking at someone and not knowing the facts.  I have even been guilty of this in the past.  They see a large fat person parking in a handicapped parking space and automatically they think, "if they quit eating so much, they wouldn't be so fat".  Not realizing, in my situation, my bad heart created the extra weight, not food.  But they cannot see that I have a bad heart, I do not wear a sign announcing my heath problem.  People with all kinds of "hidden" painful health conditions do not wear signs either. 

So, the past few years, I have been trapped in a body I hated.  Suffocated by a fat suit that had created a mean, hateful, depressed, miserable human being who just pushed people away.  I had no joy in my heart, and the light of my soul was dim.  I could have benefited from some help.  And I am not talking about help in a prescription pill form.  I personally think prescriptions cause more problems than the correct.  Maybe having an educated person to talk to, who can spot the signs of depression, would have brought me through that dark time a little easier.  I almost lost everything that was important to me in the whole world.  My sanity, and the love of my life.

My only answer to the weight issue was weight loss surgery.  I had researched the types of surgeries there were for almost four years, trying to decide which one would be right for me.  I had my heart issue to consider and the long term effects of the surgical results.  There are four common types of weight loss surgery.  The Roux-en Y  (commonly called Gastric Bypass), Sleeve Gastrectomy, Adjustable Gastric Band, and the Biliopancreatic Diversion with Duodenal Switch. weightloss info  Weight loss surgery is a tool, not a miracle cure.  You have to follow the plan of eating properly and getting regular exercise. 

So now that I have shed over 100 pounds of that awful fat suit that had me trapped, I have become a much happier person.  The light has returned to my soul and I no longer push people away.  I still have about 50 pounds to go to my goal weight, but I have determination to achieve it.   With a slight adjustment to my heart medications, I am now a much more active person.  I can get outside and get my hands in the soil and grow my vegetables again.  I can take care of my yard and keep the inside of my house neat and tidy.  I no longer need a daily nap.  I feel so much better mentally.   But I do realize now, that I was almost consumed by depression.