Male Dominance

Every morning our chickens and turkeys rush out of the coop. It's like watching a mini-stampede; all the feathers fluttering and little legs running. And, every morning after the stampede our male turkey shows his dominance; or what he thinks is his dominance.

King of the chicken yard. 

Scary fellow.  Look at that blue face. 

He first fans his tail feathers, puffs up his back feathers and begins dropping his wing tips to the ground, all in an effort to enlarge his size. He draws back his head and holds his breathe, turning blue, attempting to give a mean look. It is quite the show. The only problem, the chickens and other turkeys don't care. They go about their business scratching and even turning their heads and walking away from him.

Back end of white turkey walking away from his dominance.  

Chickens too busy scratching to care about turkey dominance. 

Crazy Busy

I've had a lot going on lately. I finally realized it's been a while since I did a post. I thought it would be best if I caught everyone up on all the happenings. 

I've spent a lot of time with my new friend Kat. We've been visiting and going places together. It has really been enjoyable to have a new friend to share things with. 

I went to the orthopedic doctor on March 21st. He thought my knee fracture was healed because it had been six months since the injury. He had me start walking without the crutches and gave me a prescription for physical therapy. I tried walking for one week and the pain and swelling increased. I ended up having another x-ray on March 28th. It showed the fracture was healing but wasn't fully healed. I went back to using the crutches until this past Saturday. Now I am finally able to walk and tolerate some discomfort. 

I began physical therapy today. The therapist was very pleased with the mobility I have in my knee. He stated my knee should make a complete recovery. My back and spine are a whole different story. Having not been able to walk normally for so long, has put my spine and hips out of alignment. I have lots of work ahead of me. I will be relearning to walk normal.

This past Saturday, my husband began work on a new project in our bedroom. We knocked out the wall between our bedroom and our son's bedroom. Now we are in the process of building new closets, bookshelves and storage shelves inside the closets. I'm so excited! I can't wait until my husband finishes. 

Our room before construction (Original Closet Side)

Our room before construction (Original Wall Side)

Our Son's room before construction (Original Wall Side)

Our Son's room before construction (Original Closet Side)

Partial construction of closet in our room

Partial construction of bookshelves in our room

Also, this past Saturday on our way to get more building supplies for our remodeling project, we stopped at the local feed store "just to look at" baby chicks. Needless to say, we came home with eight new chicks: two Brahmas, two Barred Rock and four Crested Polish (Mixed varieties). They are so cute! The Brahmas and Barred Rocks are pullets. The Crested Polish are straight run; mix of male and female. We are hoping for females. We aren't allowed to have roosters in the city. 

Bringing home our new baby chicks. 

Our new baby chicks learning to roost. 

Princess saying "Hi" to the chicks.  (Her head's in the way)

Life has been really good. I enjoy hobbling around without crutches; love having good friends and a husband who is an incredible carpenter. 

Updates, New Blog and Give Away

It has been several days since I last wrote. Many things have occurred since my last post: snow, power outages, our family ill from respiratory viruses and my 91 year old friend becoming ill. I'm still not out of the woods yet with my illness. I have the nasal congestion, cough and weakness.

Being ill has given me some time to think. This blog has been a mix-mash of different topics. I feel I've really gotten off track as I tend to do. I'm going to try to streamline things a bit; keeping this blog about my efforts to a simpler life (frugal activities, goals, self sufficiency etc), priorities, health and my spiritual life. Still a lot, but hopefully still providing information for everyone and my family who is keeping up with me through this blog.

In an effort to continue to share about my my micro-farm and animals, I've started a new blog called Chicken Scrawls. It can be found at http://chickenscrawlss.blogspot.com. I will post more of my fun animal adventures, egg recipes and hopefully additional helpful animal information. 

Best Part!! To kick off getting back on track and starting a new blog I am going to announce two giveaways. One will be on Julia's Life Journey the other on Chicken Scrawls. I plan to have everything prepared to post in the next few days. (I'm trying to get back up to par first). So keep tuned to both blogs. I will announce each giveaway on separate days.

Happy reading and good luck on the giveaways to all of you!!

"I'm going to be watching for those giveaways!"