The Rooster or the Snapping Turtle?

One constant battle when you have chickens is the wildlife things it free snack time. The chicken lady has countless stories of coyote, fox, cougar , racoons opossums and even a wp;f. Now include a snapping Turtle. This isn't the actual picture of the one she found, but we wanted to show you that they are not nice and will eat anything it can get a hold of. Ask the Chicken Lady for her turtle stew recipe.

Here is a story right from the Chicken Lady herself. I went out to collect eggs from the chicken coop and noticed that one of the roosters was way back behind the coop by the fence. The rooster seemed really agitated s he was alone and walking back and forth in a semi circle. It looked strange so I went back there to see what was going on. To my surprise, he was not alone!

He had a snapping turtle about the size of a dinner plate against the fence. more than likely he was keeping the ladies away. I picked it up by the tail and threw it over the fence into the swamp. It must have been hibernating in my pond and now that the weather is getting warmer it came out and crawled up the hill. But it could not get through the fence to get out of the yard.

Who says that roosters don't watch out for their ladies!

Do you have "Courage"

Every story needs a personality. The Chicken Lady's "pets" are no different.  Like people, our furry or feathery friends have their own stories.

To show you that the Chicken Lady actually exists we capture the story of Courage.

Courage's mother was a small brown Bantam chicken that roosted in the apple tree at night. Because it's what chickens do. In late fall of 2014, she hatched out a nest of baby chicks under my porch. There were 7 of them and they were tiny. Then it snowed and she decided that they should all go up into the apple tree to sleep. But the babies were only a few days old. When it got dark she took them all through the snow to the apple tree. She flew up into the tree, but the babies could not fly. they were not even the size of a golf ball.

I was in bed and heard the babies peeping loudly, so I went out in my nightgown to see what was going on. There they were standing in snow that was deeper then they were tall. Mama was up in the tree calling them to come up with no success.

I put on my boots and started running around to catch them. Mind you, it's snowing and I'm in my nightgown. Unfortunately, 2 had already died from being cold and wet. I caught the remaining 5 and took them into the pole barn and put them in a cat carrier. Mama flew down, went into the barn and got in the carrier with her young and that started it all..

Mama and babies stayed in the barn all winter. The babies grew but never got very big. I think they lacked the sunshine to help them grow. They were about the size of a pigeon. They had never been out of the barn for the first 7 months of their life and have never seen the sun. When it warmed up, Mama started going back up in the tree. The babies still could not fly that high. They would stay under the tree until dark then all 5 went back into the barn to their bed in the cat carrier.

When summer finally arrived they would come out of the barn and walk around the yard with the other chickens, but at night they went back in. Courage never would go very far from the barn, she stayed by herself most of the time.

It turned out there were 3 boys & 2 girls. The boys remained very tiny and were only about 1/2 the size of a regular Bantam rooster, but they learned how to fly. By the fall of 2015 they could fly up to the rafters in the barn. All but Courage. She still slept in the cat carrier. She was the only one that grew to be white with speckles, all the others were dark.

One by one they started to fly up into the apple tree with Mama. Then Mama was gone. I think an owl got her. The young ones went back to the safety of the barn rafters. But in the spring when they came out again they started to sleep back in the apple tree with other chickens. One by one they disappeared. Hawks, Owls or whatever.

Courage had never gone to sleep in the tree and always stayed in the barn by herself. There is a foot problem with the breed of Bantam that she is. She has feathers on her ankles and grows calluses on her feet that cause her toes to get hard and sort of grow together with parts of them breaking off, making it hard to walk. Her nails get very long and I have to keep them trimmed and peel off the callus often. She has already lost part of one toe.

Josh my grandson named her Courage because she had the courage to survive alone after all her hardships.

Because I left the pole barn garage door open a little at the bottom for Courage, other chickens decided that was a good place to sleep too. The barn got the look like a chicken coop inside so, this spring all of the chickens that had taken up residence in the barn except for Courage were removed to chickens coops. But the first night after eviction from the barn they left the coops and all are now in the apple tree at night including Courage who has learned to fly up just like all the other chickens. I opened the barn door for her in the morning and she left it. She is now the first one to fly up into the tree every night.
More to come on the eviction story, stay tuned.

Chicken Population

With all the roaming (free Range) chickens hanging around the porch it was clear that they needed a home.  Living in the country you also have to be smart. You might need something later, like 30 years later but, later. Growing up I could not believe all the stuff that my mom held on to, I figured she was just a pack rat. Now I get it and I'm guilty.
She pulled all the materials needed to make a chicken coop and next thingI know BOOM a new apartment complex.

I was wondering when I tried to call and she did not answer. I had thoughts in my head of all her chickens eating her if she fell down.

She put it in a spot that is close to the porch but yet off into the wood line just a bit. Hopefully, it gives them a place to stay warm and lay eggs instead of laying in strange places like the recycle bin, flowerbeds, couch, table, or in a bucket.

We walk around a lot looking at flowers on the property and you never know when you might run across a nest of eggs.

The problem with having free range is the roaming critters that come out of the woods for a dinner snack. The beautiful part of country living is also hardships of the landscape and its wild life.  She has visits of fox, coyote owls, hawks,and bobcats. She has bears too, but haven't seen them (so far.)

Drives her a bit crazy when the chickens start screaming and running frantic. It's like a scene from the Chicken little movie  and the sky is falling. She runs out with her 22 looking for something to shoot. Most of the time, she too late but she has caught glimpses of predators, and we see them on the trail cameras.

Reminds me, I will have to share the story of me pulling a Tom Beringer in the movie Sniper.
 

Family Vacation with a little work!

I just got back from a family vacation that I was able to tie into with a work trip. We sure felt like the Griswolds trying to get things around. My husband woke my kids up at 4 am with the tune from Family Vacation. I normally blog about my journey of health and fitness or the comical Chicken Lady. But, today I'm so tired and have very little motivation, that I thought that would tell you about it. Booking flights suck when you are trying to find the best price.  We ended up taking a morning trip down, got up at 3am  for a 6am flight and then an over night trip back. I thought we would beat traffic.  Packed flights both down and back, just crazy. We arrived back home at 9 am from a 2 hour drive from the airport and no sleep. I literally slept from 10 am Sunday to Monday about 7 am. I got up up once after a few hours thinking I would stay up. I sat on the porch with a glass of water and said screw it and went back to bed. I have no idea if my kids stayed awake or if the even ate for that matter.

It's 7:30 am and I'm in my beach cover up 2000 miles later with a pot of coffee. I think I brushed my teeth, but I can't be certain. I fumble for coffee as my body ached all over from sleeping a whole day away.

Let me start at the beginning. I was asked to do a presentation with a colleague in Anaheim California for work.  What a great opportunity to wrap in a family vacation with a work thing. Now, if any of you have done this combination before you know how pain staking it is to book personal plans with business plans and to not get things mixed up for reimbursement. Thank gosh I work with a good bookkeeper both at home and work.

My family dynamic is a pretty interesting one. I have a tweener that is going on 30 and ready to take on the world, as long as I cater to him to make it easy. Once he even asked if it was an option to live in my basement when he was 30. My other boy is 22 and has downs. He just wants to see everyone happy and he enjoys everything. My husband has anxiety and is kind of a control freak. I can work around it but it gets exciting. His first stop for the flight was a liquor store for whiskey,he found out that he could carry on 3ozs of liquid on the plane.

We were excited and nervous at the same time as this was our first family trip.   Heck it was the first flight we have ever taken together since our honeymoon. We set the alarm for 3 am tried to sleep a little then we packed up for a two hour drive to the airport. Our flight left at 6 am and was a non stop flight to LAX. We have not taken a vacation since the birth of my tweener and we wanted to make the most out of it. I spent hours researching places, prices and timelines for the biggest bang for our buck. We left 4 days before the work part was to begin for a total of 7 days worth of away time. We banged out a lifetime of memories in that short week.

We rented a car and soon discovered that a mid sized car wouldn't hold all our luggage. I was given a free upgrade and they offered a Challenger. My husbands eye lite up  like a kid in a candy store until he played tetras for 30 minutes trying to figure out how to get our luggage to fit. We ended up with a pick up truck.

We found the hotel and the room was a tight fit but, we didn't care.  we didn't plan on being there much anyway. But, to my husband with OCD a messy hotel room was at another level for him. Again, off to the liquor store.

The weather in California is nothing like Michigan, With all the sun shine you just can't help but smile and want to be out in it. That must be why Californians are rated as one of the fittest states in the US. The need to be outdoors is overwhelming with all the warmth.

Event though we stayed across the street from Disneyland we opted for Universal Studios instead because our boys are more movie buffs than the Great Mickey Mouse.

But, the Mickey Mouse ears are very part of the landscape in Anaheim. It became comical to see what was not Disney related. Along with Universal Studios we went to the  an Diego zoo and Lego-land.  The Zoo was amazing as they really talked about all the research and headway in saving animals from extinction. I had no problem giving them my money.

At any given time we e would jump off the highway and take side roads along the coast to catch scenery. We had no place to be and no hurry to get there.

It was our goal to eat at different places each night to experience California eats. We did end up at a couple usual's for price sake, like IHOP, We were in the mood for pancakes.

In and Out Burger, was "amazing" to quote my boys. It was my husbands idea to find this place because of some famous TV chef made a comment about it being the best.

Other various places we visited included Cheese Cake factory, Jack in the Box, Ice cream places and other gut busting joints.

We stopped at rest areas, parks and anything else that we could say we visited. I really enjoyed all  the blooming plants and trees.

Needless to say our trip was memorable and exhausting at the same time but well worth it.

We had opportunities to drive up and down the coast line as we quickly leaned that driving in the LA area is a mess of hurry up and stop. We spent an afternoon at Seal Beach, We went to 3 beaches in total and my son collected sand from each in a FUJI water bottle.  Each beach had different textures of sand that my son found fascinating. We didn't see any sharks or marine life but we did get chances to play in the sand and see lifeguards that reminded me of the TV show Bay Watch. We saw some California Highway Patrol and my husband would start singing the tune from CHIPS. We would start in on the song and my my kids just looked  at us like we were weird. Along, with souvenirs my boys did manage to pick up a California sunburn. I clearly did not apply it very even as they looked like they had red zebra strips on their backs.  But, they never let it get them down. Every down time moment my kids had they would walk around in search of Pokeman GO. This game has taken the world by storm and I would catch tidbits of the news and hear stories of people falling off cliffs and getting robbed in search of these little critters. I was nervous about them going off on their own with this game, but we set some rules and all worked out.

Over all it was a successful vacation/work trip as I sit on my deck and reflect with a cup of coffee in the hot humid weather of Michigan, thinking of all the chores I need to do to get my life back in order. Piles of laundry, no healthy food in the house, a burnt lawn with only weeds, and countless work responsibilities to deal with. Oh, well, tomorrow is another day.

Chickens at Random

A few of the tiny velociraptors or chickens like to hang out on the couch.   The chicken lady has several different breeds chickens. She has laying hens, which are the ladies that are breeds like Leg horns, Rhode Island Reds, Orpingtons and the list goes on. They are in a lovely gated community complete with pond, trees, and plenty of bugs. She also has free range Bantam chickens that run all over the yard.  They are just like regular chickens but much smaller in size.

It's really cool to see all the different sizes, shapes and shapes of eggs. The shell color is pretty cool when you can make a dozen with brown, blue, green, speckled and white eggs. We call them a rainbow pack. Makes you wonder about the commercial industry. How many eggs get thrown away because we are looking for the perfect egg.
Anyway, those little guys are not fenced in and can pretty much go where ever they feel like it. Some wander up by the road and do get run over occasionally. they head back to the woods and then a fox might see a snack. Population control.

They do have a coop, but quite a few of them would rather hang out around the house and lay eggs under the porch, under the bushes, in the flower garden, on a table, in the recycle bin, or j
randomly on the floor. Every spring  she is bound to see babies that just appear out of the fields and under the porch with half a dozen babies. At night the ones that don't go into the coop roost in trees instead. That does make them vulnerable to night time critters. She told me about an owl once or two that picked off a few. When an owl hits tree branches its sounds like a tree crashing into a million pieces.  Very scary.

My mom has a perfect full length porch facing the woods  so she can sit back an enjoy what nature has to offer.  flowers bloom, birds sing, see a deer or two. Its breezy and calming to stretch out on the couch... until the chickens found the couch. Usually the ones that come onto the porch are ones that were born on it.  This is Smudge, she happens to be one of the bantam hens that my son was around when she came out of the egg and he named her.

We go through this ever year. In the winter she buttons up the porch, and puts up framed plastic to protect from the wind. A handful of her chickens end up hanging out to stay out of the snow. Its keeps them from being lunch on most cases. Every spring she has to go through and pull off all the furniture and scrub down the porch to reclaim it for human use again.

The really creepy part that always gets me is when they turn around on the couch or chair and stare at us through the window. The TV is right next to the window and you can't help but get distracted. Chickens staring you down is really unnerving. Good luck sleeping after that visual.

Grand Opening for The Chicken Lady Blog

I have so many wonderful stories to share that I don't even know where to begin. I should have started this blog years ago but, as you all know life has a way of getting away from you and I was afraid of the commitment. I am still afraid of it, but what the hell.

The Chicken Lady aka my mother, is one of the most incredible women I know. She raised two kids on her own with very little to nothing. Putting her self through school, working thankless jobs to put food on the table and being the dad role model.  What started as a single trailer on a hill on a chuck of land has flourished into what is now a paradise that most people only dream of.

My blog isn't about us kids and our hardships growing up.  It's the next chapter in my mothers life. The one where the hard part is over.  When do you get to that point that you in your life that you can enjoy its simplicity?

She's surrounded by nature a on plot of land in the middle of Pure Michigan that she has called her own for over 40 years. She's made a paradise out of nothing and it's  pure serenity to get away from the fast paced life of social media, horrible news, and bad politics.

After my brother and I grew up and flew the coop my mother really started living. Living they way she wanted to live. Peaceful, simple and not answering to anyone.  Total dream right?

No credit cards, no outstanding debt, just living and sharing her life with her pets. She has multiple chickens of various breeds. Bantam chickens that roam free and do just crazy things. Geese that guard her spring fed pond. Cats and dogs that are both entertaining and purposeful when wild life comes creeping up for a snack.

When you're not caught up in dead end job spending more time at work than with family. She's artsy fartsy with wood crafts made out of recycled lumber, she designed hand bags and tote bags made from up-cycled juice bags and animal feed bags, sells crafty items on Etsy and Ebay and not to mention her mad skills with a chain saw cutting down trees the young age of 68.  I don't mess with my mom!

My goal is to share tidbits of her relaxed often humorous world so you can live vicariously through her. Enjoy

Bucket of Chicken?