It got cold!

Last week I was chatting to the mister about possibly making some changes to the chicken's set up. Winter is coming. Our first Winter in Texas and I'm not really sure what to expect. I've heard 85 one day, ice layer the next. This got me thinking that the current chicken house is really a summer dwelling, since it was intended to help the girls sleep safely through 86 degree nights. They free range the backyard from dawn til dusk, rotating with the shade and so survived the grueling heat.
Now, about winter... If we owned the garden the shed in the property, we'd modify it and be done. But alas. We rent. We recently had a couple night dip below 40 and the days took a bit to warm back up due to 30 mph winds! I turned my imagination on overdrive and tried this;

The girls seemed to appreciate the snack break out of the wind. I didn't really expect eggs because the weather change was sudden and they get a little preoccupied staying warm on grey days anyway. Fortunately, it warmed up by afternoon for them to comfortably use their preferred nest on the porch. Now we've returned to "normal" Texas fall, a girl on winter egg-strike, and a broody hen who has now started molting. This should be interesting.

Winter chats before Halloween

A little early, I know, but Pete and I revisited the idea of what Christmas traditions our tiny family will honor this year while we picked up Legos last night (a typical stocking stuffer for us). With our budget being as tight as it is, leaving the chickens with a pet sitter to be with family 1000+ miles away is not really an option.

We both come from different families (obviously) with different religious and economic backgrounds and therefore even more varied holiday tendencies. Blending these has been okay so far, we generally cater to whoever we are spending the time with so as not to offend anyone. When we all lived close to each other, it was even easier: one family celebrates on the 24th, the other on the 25th. But now that we are way out here, are we celebrating on both those days, one of them, or on a different day?

Trying to blend our personal solstice leanings with America's 'Corporate Chrustian Santa Claus' was not really a problem until Emagene's most borrowed library video became Mickey's Twice Upon a Christmas, full of Santa images. Do we add a visit to Santa, complete with ridiculously long lines, whinny, snotty-nosed kids, in a mall to our doings??

Anyway- I'm rambling.

The "grown-ups" in this house discussed all this and what makes the holiday season special to our family. Living in Texas, having a fresh pine-scented house may not be affordable without artificially scented candles, but we are still determined to price and decorate a tree. We also plan on going to see something with way too many lights on it, hang and fill stockings, put at least one gift for each person under the tree, drink a ton of hot chocolate, bake lots, and eat way too much food while watching the seasonal claymation, animation, and live-action classics. I would hope for a snowball fight somewhere between thanksgiving and valentines day, but I don't think that's possible down here.

What traditions make the season special for you and yours?

Happenings

These last 2 weeks have been crazy! Playdates, building of a hen house, sprouting of more peas, pumpkins, carrots, lettuce, squash, battle with the indoor bugs, making yogurt and cheese, shredding letters from another life, picnics, crafts, swimming in a lake, cleaning and general life. Whew! I'm tired thinking about it!

Moving

It can be difficult to find breathing, let alone thinking, time when changing cities. Often an observation will spring to mind in the middle of an activity and I'll try to stay with it as long as possible; hoping to savor the perspective or awareness that either stimulated or appeared after the thought. These are the moments I usually want to write profound journal entries about but end up with lists of shorthand bullet points quickly jotted down in effort to stir the memory back into the forefront my conscious mind. The following started as this list. I'm trying to fill in the holes so you, who were not apart of this transition, can makes some sense out of my madness.

•The list keeps growing instead of minimizing with every box I pack
• left tulsa 1025 Friday night, drove 5 hours through nasty thunderstorm, only stopping once to potty and gas up.
•Dog acclimating to bulls next door: by Wednesday, she only barks a good morning warning
•E excited about Her Room, so excited she became fully awake upon our 330a arrival and ran around the house shouting 'Ya!' and repeating the names of all rooms
•Chickens under deck, i have feeling of critter safety
•Cleaning is exhausting!
•Annoyed that we make a place sparkle when we leave and move into shitholes.
•Dropped stuff under deck still thinks she can have my phone!
•in 2 days she has broken a jar, her new mug twice, dropped a necklace under the deck, fallen and tripped on everything and spent a lot of time sitting on the kitchen table.
• lots of ideas for our garden!! Love moving into a place with a pile of scrap lumber that we have full access too!