themartianchick

One of my runner hens just hatched 10 cuties! They are in a nice pen with mom. Water in a frying pan for now and feed in a shallow dish. They are enjoying the water but really WANTED to get thru the fence to the pond. I prefer they not join the crowd in the yard just yet.

I must still be tired... I misread your post and thought that you were planning to put 10 cuties in the frying pan with some water. Maybe I should go back to bed...

I did something like this a couple of weeks ago, except I went to the store and forgot that I had been making bread dough in the machine. The next morning, the bread smelled like BOOZE! In fact, my entire kitchen smelled that way. My husband made several jokes, but I kneaded it again and let rise before popping it back in the oven. After it had baked, the bread still smelled like a distillery. I ate a small piece an gave the rest to the poultry over the next few days. I left the bag that it was in open to try to allow the alcohol to evaporate because I didn't want drunken critters and it still smelled strongly a few days later.

I had no intention of dehydrating anything today until I saw this thread... Looks like I'll be doing onions in the dehydrator. I have a few extra that I don'[t want to go bad and I already have some frozen in the freezer.

We buy our honey from a local beekeeper at the the farmer's market. Hubby is allergic, so I don't think we could have bees on this property. It is just too small. It would be nice to be able to shake hands with the bees, though!

That is sweet!

I finally got some lettuce and salad greens in the ground. I don't think that I'm going to have any peas this year. I am renovating my raised beds, so it will be a miracle if I ever get any in the ground. Odd weather...

Good advice, Arby! We had the buckets of rain for the past two days. Today... we have rain and more doom and gloom! The high temperature was around 35.

It looks as though the crazy weather will skip us. We are just experiencing rain and gloom. Yesterday's temps were in the 50's. Right now, it is 47 degrees. So glad that you're safe Mt. Rider!

Take time out for yourself, too! That is a lot of stuff for anyone to deal with!

Happy Birthday, OMB!

I spotted this on the front page of MSN this morning...

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/09/17667125-temperature-suddenly-plunges-55-degrees-in-colorado-its-just-brutal?lite

"Blizzard warnings were in effect Tuesday in Colorado, where the temperature plunged more than 50 degrees in less than 24 hours and the wind chill approached zero. Forecasters also expect hurricane-force blasts of frigid air in Utah and heavy snow in the Dakotas."

Oh my goodness! Bundle up folks...Looks like a spring storm is bearing down on some parts of the US!

I tend to be of the mindset that you really should contact your doctor about supplements. Not because I think that they are the only ones that know about them, but because during pregnancy, they monitor your blood. As an example, if you already have adequate amounts of certain vitamins & minerals, too much from other sources could cause problems.

If a pregnancy were off the table completely, it wouldn't matter as much.

I didn't realize that Trip was writing, too! I will have to seek his books out on Amazon.

From what I have read... Things are going well and her husband is okay right now. It hasn't been an easy road for any of them, but they are made of strong stuff!

She is doing pretty well now, Virginia. She has a few books out. The one called Cancer Dance told the story of her family's battle with her husband's cancer. There is another one called Easter Chicks that I've never read and Almost Invisible is an end of the world type of story from an unusual perspective that is generally never considered. She has written a lot of homesteading articles on the Homestead.org site but the first one that I ever read was about homestead haircuts! As a former cosmetologist with very little haircutting experience, I found her descriptions hilarious!

For those that remember LunaMother aka Sheri Dixon, I wanted to share the link to her new novel, American Evolution. I ordered my copy on Saturday and plan to read it tonight. Sheri is a talented writer and she always takes an alternative (and sometimes comedic view) of serious situations. Sheri is the reason that I first visited MrsSurvival.com a few years ago, when I followed her here from the Homestead.org site.

http://www.amazon.com/American-Evolution-ebook/dp/B00BT6O4WE/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1364680855&sr=8-10&keywords=sheri+dixon

Here is the description from Amazon:

An 'End of America' story for those whose rose-colored glasses have been shattered, but who refuse to hide behind the barrel of a gun.

If you realize that the coming collapse will be more about pulling together and community than everyone becoming zombie road warriors, this is your story.

If you know that the world can be a dangerous place and that people can do awful things to each other, but believe that good people do NOT become bad people under stress, but are more likely to become heroes, this is your story.

If you've been smacked down by abuse, poverty, discrimination, addiction, violence of all nature and have come out the other side stronger but not callous, even more compassionate than before, this is your story.

If you believe in a better America for everyone- not just the powerful and mighty, but also the small and insignificant, and that this can be accomplished by ordinary people who are willing to fight without violence and be courageous in the face of adversity, this is the story I've written.

Good advice, Momo! How is it that you happened to get the refunds? Was it a class action suit or something else?

While so much of this has fallen on you in the past, I am so glad that you don't have to deal with this completely alone. You sound strong...So much stronger than you did before. Mini-meltdowns are natural. This is a trying time for you and for so many reasons. I will definitely keep you in my prayers... God bless!

Happy Easter( to both of you) and Happy Birthday (to Lori!)

Tell them it stops the alpha waves from draining when you wear the clothes...

But what about those pesky gamma rays, Cat?

Aluminum foil balls in the dryer? Philbe's never heard of that! Game on...

HA! Another (crazy) Extreme Cheapskate is born!

Lumabean, my husband and I are often found on opposite sides of issues. Over the years, he's gotten me to see his side and I've inflicted my opinion on him. I think that the middle area is probably where "reasonable" resides.

That being said, I asked his opinion of this... He feels that it would be wrong for this law to be passed. When I asked him about his rationale, he said, 'What if you were accused of child abuse and you were innocent?' It might be hard to undo the damage. He also said that he didn't think that a kid would necessarily open up to someone that he'd just met. 'What kind of questions would they be asking?'

I assumed that the questions would be rather generic in nature. General conversation about sports, favorite subjects, names of pets, favorite doll, etc... He brought up the point that they might ask a child leading questions in an attempt to implicate the parents.

I then asked him to compare two homeschooling families that we know. One family is the type where the kids are enrolled in all sorts of activities through their church-based homeschooling organization. For the extra-curricular things like band and sports, they participate in groups that include a mix of homeschooled and non-homeschooled kids.

The other family is one where the father is a rather quiet alcoholic and the mother is deeply religious. She is so religious that she had determined that no local church can meet their needs. Her God is vengeful and doesn't seem to have any compassion at all. She doesn't allow the kids to feel pride over anything that they do and always tells them that they are being sinful. She has shut the children's grandparents out of their lives for years at a time, because she believes that their own highly religious view/interpretation of God is wrong. They believe that God has love and compassion for people and are deeply hurt by the fact that they cannot see their grandchildren. At one point, the family moved to ensure that there was no contact with the grandparents.The kids cannot belong to any outside groups for longer than about 2 weeks before the mother accuses the program of being corrupt in some way. The kids are allowed to have no friends because other parents are not so fanatical (yes.. I did use that word!) These kids are completely isolated. Who would they be able to turn to if there was abuse going on in that home? Do we suspect that there might be some abuse going on in that house? That's hard to say...there probably is quite a bit of psychological abuse. We don't know if there is physical abuse. I think that the ideas being proposed in Pennsylvania might give these children an opportunity to speak up. There'd finally be someone around to listen.

While NY has grandparent visitation rights that can be won in court, they don't extend outside of the state if the grandkids move away.

Let's see my crazy is homemade washing soap, homemade cleaning products with left over orange and lemon peels, ^{_{foil balls for dryer sheets}}. Kitchen towels instead of paper towels, real napkins instead of paper napkins. Homemade feminine products. Haven't gotten up the nerve for family wipes but if prices keep going up I guess I will have to. Cooking from scratch and then some; yeah even though I am from the south and we bring our crazy out for all to see I am not doing TV. You know TV makes you look fatter right? Move over Mt. Rider I am joining you

Mommato3 boys is such a cheapskate that she washes her aluminum foil in the washing machine and dries it with the towels so that she can reuse it later to bake potatoes in. The potato skins are saved and carefully flattened to make writing paper for her children. She stays up until the wee hours with a ruler and a ballpoint pen carefully etching lines and a margin on each skin so that her youngest will grow to have the best penmanship in his homeschool class!

See? I can crazy you up a bit!

Jeepers taking notes from TMC. Can we can that soup?

Ask Violet...She is our resident canning expert. However, if any of that residue came from a milk or cream-based food, then it is definitely not safe!

Very nice!