Lesson 1502 – More Chicken Photos from the Northeastern Poultry Congress

Here are a few more photos from the Northeastern Poultry Congress. As you can tell, I’m rather intrigued with close-ups.

My friend, Lauren Scheuer, was there with these delightful *handmade* “Lucy’s”  Read her book Once Upon a Flock to discover who Lucy is.  I now have my very own Lucy sitting on the mantle.

Just look at those baby blues!

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Lesson 1501 – Chicken Photos from the Northeastern Poultry Congress

 

Things have been busy lately, but I wanted to share some photos I took from the Northeastern Poultry Congress – which is essentially the Northeastern Westminster Dog show of chickens.

If you’ve never been to a poultry show, do yourself a favor and check one out. You’ll you be amazed at all the different breeds, you’ll learn things about chickens, and you might even bump into a friend or two.

The birds are kept in small cages during the show (which typically lasts a weekend.) They are viewed, judged, and winners are chosen.

Although it’s easy to feel sorry for birds in stark cages, here’s the good thing about that situation – as anyone who has tried to take photos of chickens knows, it can be near impossible – chickens are constantly moving – when they are in a tight place, you’ve got a better chance for photos.

Here are some of mine from the weekend.

This egg is so fresh you can still see the bloom on it.

And now for a truly colorful cast of characters.

Lesson 1500 – Forks over Knives

 

Oh hurrah for the optimism that is January. After doing a little bit of reading from the Forks over Knives cookbook given to me at Christmas, I decided to go full-on vegan with a plant-based diet this week. I sat down and explained what I was going to do with the kids and they (somewhat reluctantly, at least at first) agreed to go along with it. For the entire week, we are going to try our hardest to not eat any animal products.

Our first dish was Tofu Taco boats. The kids were a little squeamish about the tofu, but I got extra-firm and I pressed the water out of it and so when it was finally sauteed with onions, corn and spices it tasted fine.

Lesson 1499 – I’m one of those people

I wasn’t going to talk about this yet, but with all that is going on in Washington I feel like I have to.

Two years ago, because my mother was diagnosed with a very aggressive and rare type of skin cancer. I made an appointment with a dermatologist for a baseline examination. I figured – “Let’s see what my skin looks like now so that we can compare it to the future.”

All was well but because of my mother’s cancer I was put on a yearly schedule for checks.

This year, what I had thought was simply a mole on my face (that had been there for years but only recently started to look suspicious) was biopsied and it turned out to be cancerous.

Good news is that it’s basal cell cancer, bad news is that it’s a rare type of basal cell that acts like it’s malignant.

We have insurance. No problem right? Then let’s just go ahead take it out.

Except that because of the location (on the side of my nose) and because of the type of cancer, the Dermatologist surgeon told me that they will need to take a nickel-sized piece of full thickness skin out of my face. (Go ahead and hold a nickel up to the side of your nose and see what that will look like. I did, it’s not pretty.)

Because the hole will be so large, a plastic surgeon also needs to be involved.

Due to scheduling conflicts with the docs and changing of insurance, they are now saying that it looks like I’ll be having the surgery in March. Five months after the cancer was diagnosed.

And that’s with a good solid insurance plan and going to good doctors.

Because I’ll be going to two surgeons in two different facilities, this is going to cost us thousands of dollars out-of-pocket even with our insurance.

I’m fortunate. We can cover this.

If we didn’t have insurance, there would be no way (other than selling the house or taking the kids out of college – something I would never do) that we could afford the bills for two surgeons.

And who knows what is going to happen down the line? Once you have cancer, you tend to get it again.

Cancer is a pretty big pre-existing condition

If the current administration has its way, pre-existing conditions won’t be covered. People will have the option of going broke or living.

I am one of those people.

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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com

Also, join me on Facebook to find out more about the flock (children and chickens) and see some pretty funny chicken jokes, photos of tiny houses, and even a recipe or two.

Like what you read here? Consider subscribing to this blog so that you’ll never miss a post. And feel free to share with those who may need a little chicken love.

Lesson 1498 – Crooked little house

 

One of my favorite things I picked up at a craft fair this holiday season is this little clay crooked house.

I’ve since lost the contact information, but it was created by a young mom who makes them for fun. She has a message that she wants people to hear.

Each house is purposefully made crooked to remind us that while none of us are perfect, together as a family, we all combine our talents and contributions to create our own special homes.

This decoration will be finding a permanent spot in our family’s imperfect-yet-perfect little home.

 

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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com

Also, join me on Facebook to find out more about the flock (children and chickens) and see some pretty funny chicken jokes, photos of tiny houses, and even a recipe or two.

Like what you read here? Consider subscribing to this blog so that you’ll never miss a post. And feel free to share with those who may need a little chicken love.

Lesson 1497 – Grandma Gatewood’s Walk

I mentioned this book on my Facebook page but I also want to let my blog readers know about it.

I recently had (yet) another birthday (don’t ask) and as per my request I got several books (is there really any other gift to give me?) As I’m still getting over this coughing crud, I had plenty of time to sit and read. (I can think of no better medicine.)

One book in particular looked interesting and so I picked it up and started reading.

I was still reading at 11:00 at night when I finally coughed myself to sleep.

And then I got up the next morning to read some more.

The book – Grandma Gatewood’s Walk – the inspiring story of the woman who saved the Appalachian Trail – written by Ben Montgomery, is the story of Emma Gatewood, a 67 year old mother of 11, grandmother of 23 who, in 1955, decided to walk the entire length of the Appalachian trail starting in Georgia and ending in Maine.

Emma had spent most of her life in an abusive marriage where her husband would routinely beat her to the point of injury. Broken ribs, cracked teeth, bloody head – when her kids were finally old enough, she stood up to her husband and was granted a divorce.

Lesson 1496 – Find the puppy

Haven’t played this game in a long time.

It’s cold and damp, there’s a winter storm warning forecasting 3-5 inches of snow for tomorrow. Coughing is under control but there’s nothing in the tank – days are spent reading and napping – waiting for strength to return. A perfect time to hunker down and stay warm.

Find the puppy.

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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at Wendy@SimpleThrift.com

Also, join me on Facebook to find out more about the flock (children and chickens) and see some pretty funny chicken jokes, photos of tiny houses, and even a recipe or two.

Like what you read here? Consider subscribing to this blog so that you’ll never miss a post. And feel free to share with those who may need a little chicken love.

Lesson 1495 – 10K and a Twenty – Nashua, NH

 

10K and a Twenty

Sojourneying one step at a time

For my first mini-10K journey, I decided to visit the city of Nashua, NH located southeast to our town and considered one of the “big” cities in New Hampshire  (it’s more like a winding and very-active town.) Nashua is right above the Mass border. At it’s furthest end, it supports a large shopping mall where many come to take advantage of our “no-sales tax” merchandise (Live Free or Die) and at the end closest to our town, it simply looks like an extension of what we already have. Houses, land, trees.

The center of Nashua proper is the main street that runs through the old mill, downtown section, it’s where the major commerce is – restaurants, boutiques, bars, – The city has done a lot to revitalize the shopping area and by all accounts, Nashua has it going on. Very cool, very hip.

When Griffin and I completed our border to border walk this summer, we passed through Nashua, but as we were talking to the mayor, we didn’t have much time to look around. This time I took my time – that’s what walking allows you to do.

Lesson 1494 – Lyme Disease and the importance of diet

So let’s talk about Lyme Disease and diet.

I’d mentioned before that I did intermittent fasting (IF) –and while there are many ways of doing it, (don’t eat for entire days, eat under 500 calories in a day) to me, it means that once I’ve finished dinner I don’t eat again until at least 12:00pm the next day.

I drink teas, I drink coffee, and technically I “cheat” because I add the juice of half a lemon to water, but other than that – nada.

It’s actually not a tough thing to do once you get used to I, but it does take a little bit of planning. For the most part, you have to make sure that you have healthy, clean food in the house to eat once you break your fast (if you’re starving and all you have are Christmas cookies, guess what your lunch is going to be?)

I like doing this (in conjunction with an anti-inflammatory diet – no gluten, dairy, sugar, alcohol, low meats) because in a way, it’s a type of meditation for food.

Lesson 1397 – First Annual Father’s Day Rib-Off

This weekend, of course, was Father’s Day weekend. We spent the first half celebrating with my brother and his wife over their son’s high school graduation (go Chris!). The celebration included lobster rolls, buckets of beer (I’m not kidding – buckets), a warm sunny day, and reclining seats on the ride home so I could sleep. (Note to self – next time eat a little more, drink a little less.)

And then that brought us to Sunday. In our neck of the woods we usually have a local rib fest on Father’s Day weekend. It’s a wonderful event, well run, and lots of fun. We’ve gone for many years, but when you take 8 people to a rib fest (you have to pay to get in) and then you have to pay about $25 for each half rack of ribs (and let’s not forget the drinks, sides, and ice cream that all goes with that) we found ourselves often taking out a small mortgage just to attend.

The ribs were good, the festival was entertaining, but my pocketbook cried every time we went.