Farm Friday: Allergic?

The chicks and ducklings continue to grow.

The chicks and ducklings continue to be adorable.

I can't hardly stand it.


Here is a picture of the chicks that I promised you from last week.

The goldish ones are the Buff Orpingtons, the whiter ones are the Cornish Rocks.

Don't get too used to those Rocks, they'll only be with us another six or seven weeks.

Well, they'll still be with us, but in the freezer or on the table, not in the barn.





And here is a picture of the ducklings. See the one on the right with the afro? That's the crested runner I was telling you about that I got by accident.

I love her.




Her days might be numbered, though. This morning I put them in the kiddie pool for the first time.

I no sooner put her in then she started flopping all around, twisting and writing like she was possessed.

I think she confused exercise with exorcise.

So I immediately picked her up, and her head continued to spin around.

I put her back in her hutch and she started flopping and twisting and spinning in her bedding.

But I turned my attention to another duckling that had gotten out of the pool and wedged into a little impossible to reach space, and by the time I got her squared away, the crested was upright and looking pretty OK.

I think maybe she had an anaphylactic reaction to water.

I have a duck that's allergic to water.

Figures.



Here are the other three ducklings acting like normal ducklings do when they are placed in water.





This one saw her sister freaking out and just said,

"Really?"

It came out sounding more like a little quack, but I knew what she meant.













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Sister Treat 14

My sisters Mary and Veronica and I go on a sister's retreat every year. It's the brilliant brain child of Mary, and we've been doing it 14 years now, ever since my baby Daniel was about a year old.

When my kids were little, they always called it our "sister treat", so of course that's been it's official name for years.

I just came back from Sister Treat 14, and I shall go into a year long period of mourning till we can do this again next year.

A few times we've pulled out all the stops, whatever that means, and done things in grand style. Last year for instance, we flew to Mexico and stayed at a lovely resort for a few days. Once we went to Puerto Rico, and once to LA. Usually, however, we stay pretty local. Someplace we can get to within a few hours drive, and a few times we stayed right at Mary's place in Manhattan.

This was one such time.

We decided we would make this a Jerry Seinfeld treat. Much as Jerry Seinfeld was a show about nothing, this was to be our treat about nothing. We went into it without an itinerary and just flew by the seat of our pants all weekend.

And it was lovely.

On our second Treat, we had a waitress that could double for Julia Child in appearance and voice that would ask us, "Would the ladies care for some winnnnne?"





This year we had our first dinner at the Italian restaurant downstairs from Mary's apartment. The food was gourmet and delicious and carried us through several hours of talking and reminiscing and home-grown therapy.

Next day we had the most amazing brunch at a place we just happened to be passing by near Times Square. I had French Toast that was sitting in some kind of maple-infused cream and it had caramelized apples and I thought I was in heaven. Weight Watchers can just back off for a couple days. We got massages at a little spa that we almost passed right by and it was serene and cheap and utterly transforming. We laughed ourselves silly at "Avenue Q" off Broadway and finished off the night with another round of therapy, talking till 2 or 3 in the morning.

On Sunday we had high tea, did some upper East side shopping, got mani-pedis, and took in a movie with lots of buttered popcorn and cold drinks (stand down, WW, I'll be back soon, I promise).







Monday brought a few more hours of shopping and little surprises and more talking and laughing.

I didn't want to leave!!!

But all good things must come to an end, I suppose.


At least we have next year to look forward to.

And the year after that,

and the year after that,

and the year after that.....





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If you'd like to vote for me, just click on the image below, then scroll down till you see my blog, then click on the vote button. You can vote once a day till the contest ends on 7/24. If I can keep in the top 25 I can get a cool badge to wear proudly on my blog!




XOXO!


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Wordless Wednesday

Sorry, no time for a Weight Loss Wednesday post today. Back to Wordless Wednesday for now. Returning to more weight loss tidbits this time next week.

And now for some wordlessness....









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Movie Pass Giveaway!

Hey there readers!

I have a giveaway for you!

Two movie passes for The Conjuring (click the link to see the trailer).

Have you seen the preview/trailer yet? It looks REALLY spooky and awesome.

I can't wait to see it.


If YOU'D like a chance at seeing it for FREE, leave me a comment below.

I will pick one winner at random, and will have two movie passes for The Conjuring sent to you asap.



Let the commenting begin!


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My blog has been nominated for the Top 25 Moms With Big Families - 2013 list on Circle of Moms!
If you'd like to vote for me, just click on the image below, then scroll down till you see my blog, then click on the vote button. You can vote once a day till the contest ends on 7/24. If I can keep in the top 25 I can get a cool badge to wear proudly on my blog!




XOXO!


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Farm Friday: Preparing the Nursery

The feeders and waterers were scrubbed and shiny.





The duckling room was prepared.




The chick room was prepared.







And they're here!!!!

I say ducklings, you say cute.

Ducklings
CUTE!

Ducklings
CUTE!














I got two White Pekins and two Fawn Runners.
Runners are funny things. Bowling pins.
And it looks like they sent me one Crested Runner by accident. She's adorable. She looks like she's sportin' an afro.

These ducklings are just hilarious. Hilarious I tell you.
And cute. SO cute.

Pippin's dubious. He says, "They're no cuter than I am."

Yes, Pippin.
Yes they are....






I have chicks, too, and they are almost as cute as the ducklings, but the pictures didn't come out.
Poop.

Did I hear someone else ask what types of chicks I got?

I got 18 Cornish Rocks (meat birds). 12 for me and 6 for my friend Theresa.
And I got 5 more Buff Orpingtons to supplement my older layers.

Buff Orpingtons are awesome sauce.

They're nice.
They're good layers.
They're hardy.

Did I hear someone ask what possessed me to get ducklings?

Well, I heard it told that ducks will lay all winter, where hens (over the age of about two) will slow down in production significantly. Mine certainly did this past winter. Lazy good-for-nothins.
I also heard it told that while duck eggs may not be as good for eating breakfast-style, they're perfectly fine for using in recipes.



I got the call from the post office that my chicks were in.

This was 7:30 Thursday morning as I was on my way to Lancaster to get my Summer Son Obrin to his bus to take him back to New York.

So I called my friend Theresa and asked her if she would schlepp two towns over at 7:30 in the morning to pick up my poultry (truth be told, some of the order was hers).

And she did.

Everyone should have a Theresa in their lives.




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My blog has been nominated for the Top 25 Moms With Big Families - 2013 list on Circle of Moms!
If you'd like to vote for me, just click on the image below, then scroll down till you see my blog, then click on the vote button. You can vote once a day till the contest ends on 7/24. If I can keep in the top 25 I can get a cool badge to wear proudly on my blog!




XOXO!


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Weight Loss Wednesday

Stress.

High blood pressure.

Sleeping poorly.

Gaining weight.


Ugh.


Time to get serious

REALLY serious.




Image source



To that end, I've gone back to Weight Watchers.


I did the program years ago, and had great success, but then I let life get in the way of being faithful to the program, and I ate with abandon, and surprise, I gained the weight back and then some. And THEN some.

Recently I tried to cut back on my own, but I wasn't really taking it seriously enough, and wasn't getting anywhere.

I think I was afraid to make any kind of real commitment because I thought it would just be one more source of stress and that was the last thing I needed in my life right now.

But I finally decided to just do it.

And I am so glad.

I've been doing well with the weight loss (about 15 pounds so far), but more importantly, I'm at a place in my head where I feel like food doesn't control me. Like it just doesn't matter if I can eat the whatever-it-is-that's-in-front-of-me-at-the-moment.

I don't know if that feeling is with me to stay or if it's temporary since I'm all eager-beaver right now and all.

All I know is that getting fit and healthy right now is important to me.

Very important.

So I thought I'd do a weekly thing on my blog that shares thoughts, tips, progress, set backs, etc.

And I have a before picture, but I'm not ready to share it yet. Maybe in a few months when I have a decent after  in progress picture to put up.


If anyone else is going through something similar, I'd love to hear from you. Maybe we can form our own little support group.






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My blog has been nominated for the Top 25 Moms With Big Families - 2013 list on Circle of Moms!
If you'd like to vote for me, just click on the image below, then scroll down till you see my blog, then click on the vote button. You can vote once a day till the contest ends on 7/24. If I can keep in the top 25 I can get a cool badge to wear proudly on my blog!




XOXO!


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Thanks!

4th Festivities

Obrin (our Summer Son from the Fresh Air Fund) is diggin' the corn.




Finnegan says "Where's mine???"



Crope says "I got some."



Kickin' back.




Lightin' Up



Success!



Sweet.




Very carefully....



Run!



Awesome.




All done.












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My blog has been nominated for the Top 25 Moms With Big Families - 2013 list on Circle of Moms!
If you'd like to vote for me, just click on the image below, then scroll down till you see my blog, then click on the vote button. You can vote once a day till the contest ends on 7/24. If I can stay in the top 25, I get a badge to wear proudly on my blog!




XOXO!


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And don't forget Top Mommy Blogs! You know the drill by now. Just click the juggling chick and you've voted. You can vote every day till like, forever.



Thanks!