Girls Gone Wild!

Ha! If you got here looking for something "else", I hate to disappoint! You won't find any of that here.

So spring break has been less than productive.  I have not made it to the gym even once yet, we only went on one excursion due to all this massive rain, and not a whole lot has been done around the house.  Oh well sometimes its nice to just be lazy and sleep in.  We did go to the zoo on Tuesday.  It started out really windy and cold but once that died down it was a nice day.  Before we went to the zoo, we played at Kathryn Albertson Park and had a picnic.  Then we walked along the Boise Greenbelt for about a mile and learned some rules of the road and trail manners to get to  Zoo Boise.  It was a really fun day and to top it off after wards we went to Baskin Robbins for a cone.

Boise Greenbelt

Now as for the title of my post... my chickens are being naughty.  Since we live in a neighborhood, our back fence is shared with the neighbors.  The chickens like to take dirt baths right beside the fence and it is causing holes that are creeping to the neighbors yard.

The other day while doing some landscaping, Brent noticed the neighbors filling in our holes.  Brent had warned me for many weeks that we needed to fix it and I honestly didn't know how.  If I put dirt there they would just dig it out again and they are pretty adept at shuffling rocks around as well.  I decided to get some bricks and line them up along the fence.  I was about to go buy some when a co-worker said she had some I could have so I went and picked them up.  So far I have the back part laid out and I think it will work well.  I just want to keep the neighbors happy or else some chickens will find their way to freezer camp!

Spring Break

I usually try and have something planned for spring break and this year.. I have nuttin'.  Two years ago I enlisted them for manual labor and we cleaned the house from top to bottom, and last year the weather was just nasty so we didn't do anything.  This year it looks like the weather is going to be pretty nice with a couple of rainy days sprinkled in.  The manual labor bit sounds like a good idea but I would actually like to do something fun with the kids.

Today is officially the first day of break and of course, it rained over half the day.  We managed to get rooms cleaned and some other small projects done and now they can enjoy the rest of the afternoon outside.  Nothing is nicer than having kids ready for bed at night after being worn out from playing outside.  I am so ready for spring.  We spent a good amount of time outside this weekend too and I had that same groggy feeling at the end of the day that the kids do when playing outside.  Its a "good" tired though and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Last night on our evening walk with the kids, we had a kitty follow us all the way home.  She was a sweet girl and my kids just loved all over her.  When I say she followed us all the way home, I mean she followed us from the other side of the neighborhood, nearly half a mile.  It began raining last night and she curled up on our front porch and then disappeared.  This afternoon she showed back up and the kids are loving it.  Well, most, of the kids.  If you don't know, Brent and my oldest daughter are very allergic to cats, so having a cat was never a question, just a known fact that it would likely never happen.  The only way we would ever have one is if it were outside and we had land.

I have to admit though, she is a really pretty cat.  My other, non-allergic kids are saddened yet still pleading for us to keep kitty.  I am just hoping she finds her way back home.  I am sure someone is missing this blue-eyed beauty.

Keepin' it Trim.. or tryin' to.

I have officially decided to quit being a slave to the scale.  It's making me crazy.  I make good choices with my food, I make it to the gym at least 4 times a week and the scale..isn't...budging.  I have lost about 4 of the pounds I gained over my little hiatus but I have been bouncing the same 3 pounds around for about a month now and it is really frustrating.  I know I am getting healthier and stronger, but something must be off.  

The gym I go to has a staff of personal trainers that try and recruit people to sign up for private personal training sessions. Every new member gets a complimentary fitness evaluation but honestly I came away from mine with zero new information.  I didn't feel like dropping a ton of money on a personal trainer so I kindly asked if I could have someone go over the equipment with me some more. One of the trainers agreed to meet with me and go over some weight training so I can shake things up a bit and hopefully work some of the weight off.

Now when it comes to cardio, I can run all day like a hamster in a wheel because really that's what we are doing.  Just tuning out life around us and running on a conveyor belt or pedaling away to nowhere.  The weight machines though, those are a different story.  I had no idea how to use any of them and was very intimidated by them.
 

Meeting with the trainer was the best hour I have spent at that, or any, gym in my life.  The amount of direction and information I received is really going to help me in this journey.  I was asked to push myself to limits I would have normally stopped short of and now I know that I am stronger than I thought I was.  I am more and more convinced that weight loss and most other challenges in life are about 95% mental, and 5% physical.  You have to have the right mindset in order for the results to be seen.

I think once I let my head stop getting in the way, the results will start to come.  I have been competing with my husband since we started this together just short of a year ago and even though some competition is fun, this sort is counter-productive to what I am trying to acheive.  I will say I am very proud of my husband and how far he has come.  We have both made some tremendous changes and they are starting to pay off.  Now my goal is to steer clear of the numbers on the scale, dedicate myself to doing the work that needs to be done, and to quit being my own enemy. Because like a quote I recently read states, "Its not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think your not" (author unknown).

How I Quit Facebook

Chances are, you or someone you know is on facebook.  Heck I have seen pets with their own profiles!  I really didn't realize until lately how unique it was that I am not on it.  Now of course I used to be on it but due to a bet between my husband and I, I no longer partake in that sort of social media.

I had it, my husband had it, and most of our friends and family had it..  it really was sort of fun at first.  I got back in touch with my best friend, talked to old co-workers, friends, classmates, and family I would only see at reunions or funerals.  It wasn't hard to see how it became so popular.  The games were cute and fun and it was hilarious to see what some people posted and gave us a lot of things to talk about. Soon it became a chore to keep up with it, I realized I was wasting a lot of time on facebook and it was pathetic that I would keep refreshing to see what the latest pictures were, or who sent me a gift for my farm.  It was then that my husband gave it up and bet me that I couldn't do the same.

I love a challenge so I took him up on his bet.  Slowly I began deleting people.  I only had about 130 "friends" at the most.  Ten people at a time would get deleted.  Some took it personally and sent me a friend request almost immediately after I deleted them.  Eventually I narrowed my list down to the top 20 or so people that I found it hard to "un-friend".  After I took down all the names, email and physical addresses, and phone numbers from those last people, I sent out a message explaining that I was quitting facebook.   I made sure they had my address as well so if anyone really wanted to contact me, they could.  Then I deleted my account.

Honestly I thought it was going to be harder than it was.  I was a die-hard fan, a daily user and game player.  I used the chat function to talk to people I hadn't seen in years.  Since I moved so far away it allowed me to somehow feel connected to all that I had left behind.  I missed my 10 year high school reunion, I lost touch with some of my closest friends when I left and through facebook I had felt like I belonged in a way.

It has been a while since I deleted my account and not once have I looked back and regretted it.  In fact, being off of it has led me to realize a few things.  Many of those "friends", weren't real friends.  They don't miss me and my virtual profile, they didn't really care about what my kids were up to, or that I had a bad day and was tired of doing laundry. I feel betrayed that I found out about certain events that were going on through a public, online social media site.  Things that I felt should have been told to me over the phone. I realized that I was replacing real relationships with real people, with virtual ones.  I think if used properly, social media sites can be a good means to bring people together, but it scares me how little privacy people have anymore.  I also feel that the fact that some interfaces require you to have a facebook account in order to use their product is discriminatory and unfortunately it seems to be the trend.

I am glad I took my husbands challenge and to know I can lead a normal life without using something that millions, or even billions of people use on a daily basis is gratifying.  I was told the other day that I was someone's hero because I was able to go along in life without a facebook account.  I don't know about being a hero, but I do feel empowered knowing I can control who knows what about me and my life.

Preparing for Spring

It seems weather all over the country is pretty bizarre.  Here in Idaho we are no exception. Spring is trying to show up but if you are a local resident, it is well known that you do not plant outside before the snow is off Bogus Basin, our little ski hill. Then, and only then is it safe from frost.  When I worked in the garden center, many customers would come back to buy new plant starts because they jumped the gun and planted too early in the season only to let Jack Frost claim the lives of the tiny seedlings.  I have to be patient and not allow this to happen to me.

It was supposed to rain all weekend but Saturday turned out to be really pleasant.  We managed to get some yard work done only to be surprised with a dusting of snow this morning.  I have been planning my garden for nearly a year now.  It was a year ago March 11th that we became homeowners and chicken owners.  I had decided long ago that when I owned my own home I would have chickens and a garden.  It's hard to believe we started out with 5 fuzzy chicks and now have 7 mature laying hens.  They have been doing a great job and we get anywhere between 4-7 eggs each day.

With our busy schedules I wanted to get a jump start on the raised beds we are planning.  I want to do it as organically as possible so I don't want to use chemicals on the ground where they will be going.  I am going to have 2 - 5x10 ft raised beds and 2 - 4x4 potato planters along our back fence, next to the chicken coop.  My goal is to have them installed and filled by the end of April so I can get them planted in May.  So this week, Brent and I laid down some black plastic and weighted them down in order to begin killing the grass where the beds will go.

Spring Rhubarb

Last fall we covered the Rhubarb plants with straw to protect them from the cold weather.  I had never grown a perennial plant like that so I wasn't sure if it would grow back this year.  We decided to peek at them and see how they were doing under their protective covering and lo and behold!! We have baby plants growing!! This year we will actually be able to harvest from it so we can have fresh rhubarb crisp!

I am so anxious and excited to have a real garden this year.  I only hope it will be as successful as my chickens are.  Now I have to decide what to plant.....

Happy Birthday!

My chickens are now a year old!! Happy Birthday chickies and thanks for giving us delicious eggs!  You are beautiful ladies!