The After Christmas Summary

Shortly after Christmas, our 3 adult chickens began to lay eggs after taking 3 months off. Yay!  I had done everything that I could think of all at once to make that happen so I'm not sure what worked.  I lymed the whole pen area to counteract the pH of their environment from chicken dung, bought nesting boxes and a bale of straw, powdered all the chickens for mites, put apple cider vinegar in their water, put a light with a timer in the yard for warmth and light to give them 14 hours of light, and placed a porcelain egg in their nesting boxes to show them where they were supposed to lay.  I anticipate that the rest will be old enough to lay in a month or so. 

I also bought 2 more chicks. I don't know why except that they were the kind that Jay was looking for months ago. They're called naked necks or turkens and I think they look like little ostriches.  Unfortunately, one died.  Jay and I tried valiantly to nurse it back to health and there were a few tears at her passing.  We placed the other turken in with the older chickens yesterday and found that she was missing some feathers and had a peck mark on the back of her head.  I guess that means she's at the bottom of the pecking order.  We put her back in a cage within the chicken yard so that they can get accustomed to each other a little more before we reintroduce her.

Two turkens named Knick-Knack and Bo-Peep.

Kids enjoyed a two week break from school.  Jonny also took two weeks of vacation time and it was wonderful having him home. We got a lot accomplished and just enjoyed being together.  Jonny built me a fire pit out of an old propane tank for my Christmas present.  It was a spherical tank about 4 feet in diameter. He cut it in half. It already had a pedestal for sitting upright. Then he welded a chain along the rough edge on top. We painted it fire brick red and have enjoyed roasting marshmallows and hot dogs in it. I just need to paint a brown glaze over the red to make it look especially nice and rustic.  On New Years Eve at midnight, we lit some firecrackers then tossed the remnants into the firepit. It has come in handy. I love fires.  We also took down the small lean-to shade and huge vine that was hanging over one of our back doors to make room for pouring a sidewalk along that side of the house.  We put my old, green, hospital scrubs to good use as painting/working clothes.  Jonny gave the boys a lesson on chopping wood. 

On Josh and Darren's birthday, we met another family at McDonald's and let the kids play. I made a monster truck cake basically by baking a bundt cake, pouring frosting over it like a mountain and sticking monster trucks on it. The kids liked it...they're easily pleased.

Darren with his buddy Aaron (just 10 days apart in age).

Amini, Darren, Nikki, Jay (above)
Britton and Josh (below)

Darren is officially a "Sunbeam" in Primary now.  (That's the youngest group of kids in Sunday School.)  On his first Sunday in Primary, he sat in his chair the whole time until he leaned over on his teacher's lap and fell asleep. Then they carried him back to nursery to finish sleeping there. He is talking better all the time...still not toilet trained yet but getting closer.

Jonny's been growing a beard for a couple weeks now. It's finally just starting to get long enough to where it is getting soft to touch but still not very thick. He thinks it will give him a little more warmth and he won't have to worry about how to get his corded shaver to work in England.  Jonny got a Kindle Fire for Christmas so that he can access email, internet, e-books, scriptures, family calendar etc.  He leaves in a couple weeks for England.  He'll be there for 2 weeks.