I Finally Have Chickens!

Yes indeed, I have chickens!  YEAH!  I've been wanting them for years and finally got 4 today!  This was my belated Mother's Day present.  My husband started working on the coop Mother's Day weekend and we finally finished it up yesterday.

It's not the fanciest coop.   It was our neighbors eight grade project from last spring that he never quite finished up.  It sat in their yard unfinished for the past year and my husband bought it from him for $50 and did a few minor modifications and now we have a coop.  We had some old wire fencing that we had taken down after moving into our house and we are using that for the day pen to give them some more room.  Eventually I'd like to figure out some electric fencing or some sort of portable coop so they can go out in the yard and also in the garden in the fall and spring.

I wanted to start with chicks, but my husband wanted instant egg layers.  It didn't take us long to find some people who had too many chickens and were looking to get rid of a few. 

We haven't come up with names yet, but the girl on the right is a Silver Laced Wyandotte, and the girl on the right is a Light Brahma, she is quite fluffy and even has feathers on her feet.

These two girls are Partridge Rocks.  I've already figured out how to tell the two apart! 
Luckily the people who we got them from have 4 kids, so they are used to children being around them.  My kids went running at the fence and the chickens didn't even flinch. 

They are also used to dogs being around too, which is nice.  Our dog Cosmo was intently watching the chickens.   Years ago she was an almost chicken killer, but was stopped very quickly while visiting a farm a few years back.  I already caught her stalking the chickens once today.  She is not to be trusted!

And look at this, we already got our first egg this evening!  What good little girls!  The kids were so excited to find this already, jumping around and singing with excitement!  Fischer doesn't want us to eat it, he thinks we should save it!  

Much of my afternoon and evening was spent watching the chickens.  I think I'm in love already!  My husband wanted to make sure that they were all tucked in for the night, very sweet, which is what I'm going to do before I head off to bed myself!

What's in a Name?

 Rock outcropping at the Kickapoo Valley Reserve

Three years ago we decided to move back from Idaho to our home state of Wisconsin.  My husband was born and raised in Madison and I'm from the Milwaukee area.  We picked a small town  on the west side of the state to call home, Viroqua.  My grandparents (both sides) lived in this area of the state, which is called the Driftless Area.  This region of the state was left uncovered by the glaciers.  Because of this,  the land didn't have the leveling effect of continental glaciers, and so it has been exposed to weather and erosion which has resulted in deep valleys that drain into the Mississippi River over the span of 243 million years.   To me this means beautiful rolling hills, valleys and very fertile soil. 

                                                                                            Viroqua is just Southest of La Crosse


Within this region is the Kickapoo River, named after the Kickapoo Indians.  The name means "one who goes here, then there."   The river is very crooked and doubles back on itself in places.  It is 130 miles long, but as the crow flies, it is only 60 miles!

My grandparents had a farm along the Kickapoo River and growing up I was always so fascinated with the name.  I always got such a kick saying the name and telling people that my grandparents lived along the Kickapoo River, because not too many people had ever heard of this river, so it was a totally new word to them.  I suppose also as a kid there probably was the silliness factor of the word "poo" being at the end! 

This area of the state has always held a special place in my heart.  All of my grandparents have since passed and all of my relatives moved out of the area as soon as they grew up, except an uncle who lives a 1/2 hour away.  It's hard for me to understand why anyone would want to move away from this beautiful area, but back then farming was pretty much the only option and this county is actually one of the poorest in the state, so the cities had a lot more to offer back then. 

When I was looking to start a blog, I wanted a name which reflected this area and the meaning it held for me.  It was between Driftless and Kickapoo for the name in the title, and I opted for Kickapoo because of my family roots and Chronicles because this blog is a time line of events in my life.

This blog has become mainly about my art, but looking at the meaning of Kickapoo again makes me realize that maybe my blog needs to go here and there a little bit more, just like the river!

15 Random Things About Me

                                                                                           "Nature in Red"  available here

1. I love, love, LOVE to play hockey.
2. Running is my anti-depressant.  I feel so much better physically and mentally when I do it.
3. I started out in college in Fine Arts, changed to nursing after a year and a half,  graduated as a RN,  went back to art school 3 years later but was only able to do a year because it was just too much for me to go to school and work evenings and night shift at the hospital.  I quit working as a nurse 2 1/2 years ago to be a SAHM and work on my art.   Now I really wish I had my art degree!  Maybe someday:)
4.  I haven't used shampoo or conditioner on my hair for 3 years!  I used to use organic hair products until I read an article in my local food cooperative about carciogens in "organic" personal care products.  You can find loads of information about this and so much more at the Organic Consumers Website.  I now use baking soda and water to wash it and then apple cider vinegar to rinse with.  I only wash it once every 2-3 weeks.  I do get it wet everyday in the shower though.  I've never used anything on my kids either!  No one can even tell the difference.  I got my inspiration from Amy Karol over at Angry Chicken, and my recipes from here 
5. As soon as the weather warms up I go barefoot as much as I can.  It makes for  some pretty dirty feet, especially when I've been out in the garden!
6. I look forward to Mondays.  It always feels like a fresh start, new beginnings and wide open possibilities.
7. I love the sounds of crickets, thunderstorms, rain and waking up to Howler monkeys in the tree tops at night.  (I got to experience this in Costa Rica, Panama and Brazil)
8. I've always dreamed of going to the Amazon and made it there 9 years ago with my husband.  What a truly amazing and spectacular place.  Someday I'd like to take my kids there to experience it.
9. I take a nap every afternoon with my 4 y/o Amelia!  I never used to be a napper  until 2 years ago when my husband laid down with her a few days in a row and then she wouldn't sleep by herself, so I started laying down with her.  Initially it was very hard for me to take the time out of my day to do this, but now it is something I look forward to.  Our little saying before we fall asleep is, "pillows together, hands together".   She has  to hold my hand in order to fall asleep.  Very sweet!
10. I fell in love with chickens after traveling in Central and South America.   Ever since then  I have always wanted chickens.  Part of the deal when we moved back to Wisconsin from Idaho was that I could chickens.  We've been back for 3 years now and I still don't have chickens, but I will soon!
11. I get REALLY obsessed when I am reading a really good book.  I can't think about anything else except reading it.  I even make deals with myself in order to read more.  For example I will tell myself things such as, if you vacuum the kitchen you can read a couple more pages, or once you hang the laundry you can finish up the chapter, while supper is cooking you can read a few more pages.  It  can get kind of exhausting!  Needless to say I haven't read any fiction books lately, though I'm starting to feel the urge to get lost in a book for a few days.
12. I could listen to Moby all the time.  ( actually I do!)
13. I am allergic to horseradish and celeriac(celery root).
14. My favorite late night snack is peanut butter toast with a glass of milk.
15. I'm an introvert.  I was so shy in high school that everyone thought I was just stuck up, but really I was just too terrified to talk!  I thought that going through nursing school and being a nurse would help me face those fears and force me to interact with people and it did just that and I'm very thankful.  I can't wait to read the book by  Susan Cain, "Quiet:  The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking." 

Our Smiling Family

 drawing by amelia

The prompt for today was a picture of me smiling!  What do you think?  I love it!

Too Busy To Paint But Up For A Challenge

As you can see by this picture of a blank canvas laying on my table, there hasn't been any painting going on!

It seems in the last few weeks there really has been a shift around here.  Fischer's last week of school is next week, but I already feel like summer has started.  My days have been filled with lots of gardening, yard work and lots of time outside.  The days are longer which means our normal routine has shifted.  Supper used to be at 5pm and has now been happening at 6 and a few times even later.  Bedtime for the kids used to be 7:30, no later than 8:00, but now we are lucky if we can get the kids in bed by 8:00.  It rarely seems to happen lately.  This shift in bedtime has effected MY time.  I would usually paint after the kids are in bed, but I have found that by the time the kids are all tucked in and my chores are finished that it is 9:00 or 9:30 already.  Most evenings I find myself too tired to paint.

My inspiration has been side-lined during all of this.  I know that it will take a few more weeks to settle into our new routine and then the inspiration will be back.

In the meantime though, my garden is all planted.  We had our first large harvest of strawberries today which means many more days of picking are ahead, along with jam making, ice cream making, freezing and dehydrating.

Amelia and Fischer tasted their first raspberry of the season today so raspberry picking will soon follow.  My raspberries are loaded this year and can't wait to make raspberry ice cream for the first time. 

A few days ago I rendered lard for the first time using this recipe which I found on SouleMama.  I'm not sure if it worked.  It isn't as white as I'd like and it also has a bit of the "piggy" smell.  I'm going to try it with some chocolate cookies to see how it tastes.  I have 6 1/2 pints and another 1/2 of  a bag to render so hopefully it works!  I had no clue going into it what I was doing, so the next time I'll have a better idea of what I'm looking for.   And those cracklings, they are the crisp bits you get at the end after rendering, wow, they are yummy!

Tonight I would have loved to have painted, but  I opted for a bonfire with the family and some warm strawberry rhubarb cobbler with ice cream instead. 

Who knew you could swing and eat cobbler at the same time!

 With all that has been going on lately, I've been neglecting my blog.  I really dislike writing so it is pretty easy to do, but at the same time I'd really like to connect more with the online community.  One of my favorite new blogs that I've been following is Nature's Nurture which is written by Sarah and is "a blog about everything simple, natural, and homemade."  All of which is right up my alley.  While looking at her blog today I saw that she is doing the Summer Blog Challenge

with Going Green With the Grizls, and it starts today,

and I thought why not?  I'm always up for a good little challenge.  I know I would never initiate this on my own, and my blogging needs some improvement and help.   

Hmmm, now will I really be able to post for 90 days straight?  We will see! (to be honest, I'll be surprised if I can do it for a week straight!)  Luckily there is a list of prompts to give us some directions.  Some of them are kind of personal which I am a very private person and this will help me share more.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

Finch and Crow

This little guy was inspired by the sweet little purple finches that have been coming to our feeder this spring.  A beautiful bird with a wonderful song to sing.

I played around a bit with this piece.  I started with some nice splattering of coffee for the background and then drew in the bird.  I used a lot more watercolors in this piece than I'm  normally comfortable with.  I still haven't quite figured out watercolors yet, but I keep trying to work with them and find a technique or style that I like using.   The feathers were done with painted recycled coffee filters and tea bags.  The outlines were done with some homemade walnut ink.  Originally I was going to leave the background alone, but it just looked so plain and empty to me, and then I just kept adding and adding with watercolor, painted tissue paper and tea bags.  Hopefully I didn't add too much!

The crows around here have also been entertaining us.  This little guy left the nest on Friday and anytime ANYTHING got near it, it's parents would cause quite a raucous.  Cawing and cawing until whatever it was left.  They even chased several cats over the weekend, at one point there was about 8 crows going after one cat!  When our kids or our dog would go out to the swing set, the crows would sit just above in the trees and yell and yell  at them.  Very impressive parenting!  Today I found him out on our fence.  The parents were near by cawing a bit, but then left.  I'm wondering if they think he is old enough now to take care of himself?  I'm not sure.  This little guy stayed on the fence for about 45 minutes and then finally flew away to the top of our neighbors chicken coop.  I love watching the crows, so big and really quite beautiful,  such a smart bird that doesn't get the respect it deserves!

Weekends

 A few little wonderful snippets from our weekends this month. 

Pink

For some reason I had a strong urge to use A Lot of  pink.  I'm not sure why, but maybe it had something to do with all the pink tutu's from the dance recital,  or maybe  all the beautiful spring flowers in bloom, or perhaps Amelia's love of all things pink is starting to rub off on me.  Hmmm??   For what ever reason, this painting is the result.  I had no plan except I knew I wanted to use pink and I wanted circles in it.  This painting has a lot of both!  I hadn't used my recycled coffee filters in awhile, so they made it in the painting, along with my favorite material which of course are the tea bags.  I also used one of my least favorite art supplies quite a bit, Prismacolors.  I wish I liked using them, but I'm never happy with the results, maybe I just need to learn how to use them.  

Today I found out I was accepted into my first ever art fair!  The Driftless Area Art Festival in September.  I've been wanting to do a few art fairs but have never had enough nerve to apply.   The thought of talking to people about myself and my art for a whole weekend terrifies me, but I figured it was about time to face that fear and go for it.  I had nervous butterflies just applying for it, I can't imagine how I will feel come September.  Tomorrow I'm going to write my to do list and get started so I'm not totally scrambling and freaking out come September.  I'm always sad when summer is winding down, so this will give me something to look forward too.

Dance Recital

 After talking with my mom today, I realized that I had forgotten to post these beautiful pictures of Amelia from last weekend, I had started this post but somehow was distracted and had forgotten I hadn't published them.  Amelia had her very first dance recital and it was one of the cutest things that I think I have ever seen!  She was so sweet to watch!   Luckily there wasn't any stage fright!   I was never into all of this girly stuff as a kid, but as a mother, it has been a lot of fun to watch.

Amelia was so excited for  the rehearsals and the recital.  She loved being with all of her little friends, watching everyone dance and she especially loved watching her teacher dance, for  her that was very special.

Sweet little roses for a sweet little girl.  She loved it!

Illustration Friday: Hitched

The swallows were circling over the tree tops as they hitched a ride on the wind.

 

I've noticed the swallows swooping and circling above the tree tops lately while hanging out my laundry.  They dive, swoop, circle and change direction with incredible speed and swiftness.  It's quite a sight to watch!