Tuesday SNAP Challenge and Chickens!

I didn’t take many notes today about my experiences, but today was easier than yesterday. I do think that eating a healthy, filling breakfast combats many issues for me. It prevents me from overeating and I also feel full for a long time, which eliminates cravings.

Tuesday’s meals:

Breakfast

English Muffin with Peanut Butter (this kept me full longer – I may make this a regular staple)

Banana

Fridge oatmeal topped with strawberries

Lunch

Monday’s dinner leftovers (rice, beans, ground turkey, tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, cheese)

Dinner

Spaghetti with ground turkey meat sauce (~$4.90 for meal, 4 servings [leftovers for lunch])

 

He had a meltdown that there was spaghetti on his nose (he put it there)

The real excitement today is that we got more chickens! It has been a few years since we raised chickens from chicks.

I picked up 5 ISA Brown pullets, an Amberlink, and another Silkie from Tractor Supply (last two were straight run). I couldn’t help myself, the Silkies were just too cute and they had nice feathering on their legs.

I told Jay before I went that I heard they had straight run bantams, but not to worry, because they were probably Silkies and I didn’t want another one of those. Maybe this time we’ll end up with two hens out of our straight run purchases instead of two roosters. I think that eventually I’d like to transition our flock to a RIR rooster and hens that will hatch out sexlink chicks (chicks that you can easily tell male from female at hatching).

Tuesday's Coffee Count

 1 pour over, 2 K-cups

Weekly Coffee Count

3 pour overs, 4 K-cups

25 Things Update

Life has been so great this year that I nearly forgot my quasi-resolutions from the beginning of the year!

Here is an update:

1. Be more positive
   I'd like to think that I am doing a much better job of this. If I had to pick one reason that I've been successful, it's that I have much more realistic expectations - of people in general (including myself). I've also pushed my comfort level with some of the things that I've done and challenged myself. My fear of heights? I repelled into a cave. My fear of deep water? I'm now a certified PADI Open Water Diver and have been down to 40 feet with no problems. 
2. Lose ~13% of body weight (or eat healthier and exercise at least 3x a week)
   I have no idea what I weigh right now and honestly, I don't much care. I think that earlier this year I was so focused on the numbers on the scale that I lost sight of what being healthy is. I started running again, am trying to swim regularly, and I try to eat better. This is not to say that I'm perfect, but I am happier with where I am today than where I was a year ago.
3. Start a few plants from seed for the garden
   Due to that Australia trip, we kind of screwed up the garden.
4. Come up with a new budget and stick to it
   This is a work in progress, but I am happy to report that we are doing pretty well with the budget. We were doing better before SCUBA on this. Turns out that diving is an expensive hobby. Once we acquire all of our gear, we shouldn't be spending quite as much. At any rate, we have a budget. And we also started a new savings goal with Smarty Pig. They earn a fantastic rate (1% APY!) and deposits are FDIC insured. Although we currently have more than enough in our savings account for our Emergency Savings Fund, we decided to take some money and move it to Smarty Pig. We'll be putting 6% of our income into that account and should have our Emergency Fund built up to ~5 months of expenses by early 2015. We will be opening additional savings goals with Smarty Pig for vacations and furniture, which brings me to #5.
5. Get rid of the red couch and chair that I freaking HATE
   We still have them. Unfortunately. I can't wait to give that crap away. I thought that we'd found a sucker someone to take that junk  them, but apparently their apartment fell through. Here is what I want to replace it with: Witiker Brown Reclining Sofa Set. The cool thing with SmartyPig is that you can convert your savings to gift cards and get additional $$ with it. So I could get an extra 7% ($112 off of the couch) if I chose to redeem my savings with an Overstock.com gift card. Not too shabby!
6. Purchase new furniture and decorate downstairs
   That's a work in progress. Downstairs is fairly well decorated. We also ended up with an extra dining room table and some other furniture. In my opinion, it doesn't go that great with what we have, but it belonged to Jay's grandparents, so we will keep it in the family.
7. Put together a time capsule for our house
   I have this, we just need to put it into a closet and cover it up.
8. Blog at least twice a week
   I think I've been okay with this. If I average 2 posts a week, then I should have 104 at the end of the year. I suppose I'd better pick it up in November and December. I have 25 left for the year.
9. Get organized - important documents, books, seasonal items, etc.
   This is also a work in progress. We've finally found a good system for our important documents, but I need to go through some stuff. Seasonal items are in the attic. We're also going to need to find a good spot to stow our scuba gear.
10. Be in good enough shape to hike the Tongariro Alpine Crossing (aka Mount Doom) in New Zealand
    I definitely would have hiked Mount Doom if it weren't for the snowstorm happening while we were there. Next time we'll visit in Summer! So yeah, I think I can mark this one off. 
11. Raise a small flock of chickens for meat (at least six)
    We kind of did this. There are two roosters in our freezer right now and we've decided to cull the last rooster and have nothing but hens. I get to help with the last one. Gulp.
12. Sell some eggs, otherwise we'll be overrun when the new chickens start laying
    Did this! Although these new chickens are kind of slackers. I thought we'd be getting 12-20 eggs a day, but we're getting more like 6-8.
13. Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef, even though I'm scared of being eaten by a shark|
    Even better, I dove the Great Barrier Reef and became a certified diver. OH. And I even saw sharks while diving. Carpet sharks and a reef shark. And I didn't freak out - it was awesome.
14. Snuggle a koala
    Did this and have photographic proof.
15. Install the heat pump downstairs
    We went without heat downstairs (except for the pellet stove) that I forgot this was even installed! We turned it on earlier this week when I was chilly.
16. Make room in the budget for a cleaning service
    Not sure if we'll do this. We're going to see if we can handle cleaning ourselves with a schedule.
17. Get the crawl space insulated
    This is undecided. We're going to see how we get through this winter to see how badly it really needs it. 
18. Have photos done and send Christmas cards out this year
    In process. We may take photos ourselves or get Laura to do them.
19. Fence in yard
    We are 95% done. Just a few places left that we need fencing.
20. Hatch out some silkie and black/red star mixes
    Did this and are eating them - 11. They were ALL roosters.
21. Say no and not feel guilty afterwards
    I am doing so much better at this.
22. Have an awesome time at the Mardi Gras Ball
    It was a fun time. Next year will be better and less work. We've learned a lot.
23. Can tomatoes from our garden
    No garden = no tomatoes.
24. Print "before" collages to frame and hang in the house
    Still need to do this. When I tried to do this, the computer spazzed out on me.
25. Use at least one week of our time share
    We planned to do this, but then learned that it would be cheaper to use Leslie and Bob's Shareholder status. We'll be going to Puerto Plata with two other couples during the second week of December.

Wordless Wednesdays

West Virginia, Chicken Drama, Running and SCUBA... BUSY!

Last weekend we packed up the family and headed down to visit our friends at Snowshoe, WV.

It also happened to be the same weekend as Blues, Brews & BBQ. Perfect timing.

Our friends' daughter Grace was turning 2, so we brought her some books. However, we didn't want her almost 4 year old brother to feel left out, so Jay picked out a book for him.

Blues, Brews, BBQ and... ziplining?

I tried the Nutty Blonde from Morgantown Brewing Company. Oddly delicious!

Grace grew tired of her birthday tutu, so everyone took turns wearing it.

Jay... everyone's favorite uncle.

Double yolker from one of our Anconas

We arrived home to discover that two of our new girls finally started laying... AND one of our roosters was missing. A few feathers were the only clue of his disappearance.

Post-run and filthy from wing clipping. This is Lucky, no worse for the wear after her neck degloving injury when she was two weeks old

Monday morning I received a phone call from one of my girlfriends. A neighbor had posted on my Facebook page that a dog was attacking our chickens. That explains what happened to the rooster!

I'm pretty sure that the dog belongs to one of the neighbors at the end of our village, but of course they don't keep it confined to a yard or tied up. I can't blame the poor dog, it's the people that are the problem. Our neighbor called animal control who caught it and took it to the humane society. The animal control officer said that someone pulled in the driveway after they caught the dog. The person claimed that the dog had been hanging out there and they thought that the previous owners had left it. I don't buy it for a second... I'm sure that the person was just worried about getting in trouble.

The neighbor managed to get the hen away from the dog. It looks like it was my silver laced wyandotte, who is a gorgeous bird. She doesn't appear to have any blood or wounds fortunately. Poor girl.

The flighty hens (Anconas, White Marans, Easter Eggers and Wyandottes) all had their wings clipped when I got home from my run at Adkins Arboretum. No more escaping their run to get into trouble. Only supervised free ranging from here on out!

Running is going well. I'm slow, but I've been sticking with the C25k program. I start Week 6 with my next run. Last night I was supposed to run 20 minutes straight with no stopping. I opted for a lovely wooded path that turned out to be narrow and filled with roots and spiderwebs. So between the arachnoleptic fits and tripping over things, I made it to 11 minutes before I had to walk. However, I only walked for a minute & a half before finishing the rest of the program. Not too shabby.

Our SCUBA class is almost over. It's been a lot of fun and I will miss the regular pool work. I never thought that I would end up being so comfortable underwater - especially considering my fear of deep water. The difficulties that I had doing the skills during Discover SCUBA in Australia are almost laughable to me now. I can now set up my gear, doff and don my SCUBA equipment at depth and the surface, remove & replace my mask and clear it, use an alternate air source, recover my regulator, maintain neutral buoyancy (it's admittedly a work in progress), do a tired diver tow, all sorts of things.

The final exam is on Wednesday and we'll be doing our open water checkout dives on September 28th and 29th at Lake Rawlings. I was hoping to get our Advanced Open Water course completed next... which we really could do by mid-October. However, we are hoping to buy a new car by the end of the year and we need to put any extra cash towards a down payment. Not to mention that we'll probably be spending a lot of money when we get our puppy! No word on a breeding yet, so it looks like we'll be bringing home puppy closer to Christmas or even January.

That's the latest dirt!