Snow and the Story of an Egg

We've had a rather frigid winter so far and I am one happy girl to be moving into the month of February.  I know February is still winter, but its a short month and after February comes March, and March means warmer temps!  The chickens and ducks have not enjoyed being confined to the coop so when some of the snow finally started melting, they were elated to have some free-range time.

I found the video below on YouTube and found it quite informative!

Cold Weather Cabin Fever = Mall Scavenger Hunt!

Well today made a perfect 5-for-5 on no school this week.  Snow, ice, and single-digit temperatures kept our kids out of school.  Mom was on-point for most of the week but had some appointments she had to keep on Friday, and it was Dad's turn to take off work and find something to do with three cabin-crazy kiddos.  

So Dad and the kids headed up to Lexington to do a scavenger hunt at the mall - the goal was to find something for each letter of the alphabet and have AJ photograph it with his iPod.  Rules: (1) no taking pictures of people, (2) the item had to be a "thing", not an adjective (green sweater) or store name (Macy's) or just a word on a sign (SALE!).  (Another good rule that would've made it better would have been that the thing had to be for sale, but we didn't think of that early enough.) The mission was a success, and we got some exercise in the process.  Free fun on a frigid winter day!

Mallrats for a day

A is for airplane

B is for babies

C is for crabs

D is for DVDs

E is for escalator

F is for fairies

G is for gumballs

H is for hats

I is for ice

J is for jewelry

K is for key

L is for lights

M is for minions

N is for necklaces

O is for oars

P is for pillows

Q is for quilt

R is for rods and reels (double letter bonus!)

S is for shirt (too easy)

T is for tractor

U is for umbrella

V is for volleyballs

W is for wigs

X is for XBOX (that was the hardest letter to find!)

Y is for yogurt

Z is for zipper

(The only bummer of the day was when the Subway at the mall food court informed us after we had completed our order that they did not participate in the JanuANY foot long for $5.  ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  I have to listen to those obnoxious $5 foot long ads on every commercial break, and your location doesn't participate!?!?  I drove past four participating Subway locations to get to yours!  Beware, shoppers.  Beware the food court Subway and their non-participating ways. They are on my list.)

UK Game

My friend Kerry offered a couple extra tickets to us for Saturday's University of Kentucky basketball game against Tennessee.  The seats were in the lower arena, the closest I've ever sat to the court.

This is how close my friend Kerry's seats were.

Our's were about 20 rows up but still great seats!

Alex Poythress, Andrew Harrison, and Dakari Johnson get up some warmup shots.

Dakari Johnson

Willie Cauley-Stein

Julius Randle

Clark Kellogg sighting

The Goose!

(Jack Givens-former UK player)

The eRUPPtion zone

Jarrod Polson in-bounding the ball.

Jarrod is from Wilmore and his sister and mother are counselors at the summer camp our kids attend.

In our house, Jarrod is known as "Ashley's brother".

Jarrod with the ball!

UK won!

After the game, we headed home to AJ's basketball game.  

Note quite the same level of play, but AJ's team is improving!

Box out!

AJ with the ball.

Final score 19-13L

Homestead Discipline

It's been a bit since I've posted.  We've had some sub-zero temps earlier this week, which extended the kids' Christmas break from school.  Before and after these few days, we've had a few days of temps in 40's and have even hit 50 once or twice.   One such day, the girls made some bad choices and some creative discipline was required.  Matt asked me if I had a job outside that the girls could do and of course, I knew there is always some poop to scoop!  I've been trying the deep litter method in the coops, but since the coops are so small, the litter had piled up as much as I dare let it.  Perfect opportunity for some creative discipline. 

Of course the hens had to check out what was going on

Also this week, I fed the last of the salvaged fall decorations to the hens as well.  They would have lasted longer, if we had continuous freezing temps but with swinging temps, the whole pumpkins had begun to soften.  I didn't cook these pumpkins and they have lasted a few days.  I just cut them in half with a shovel and the hens have enjoyed eating them right down to the skins.