idispatch4911

The "Other" Rooster

2011-12-04T11:08:00.002-07:00

There was enough rooster poop in the garage to cause you to do the ChaCha if you needed to get something out of storage. Benny, poor Benny. Why couldn’t you be a girl chicken, or you could stay a boy but be mute?

City folk aren’t used to the good morning wake up call of a teenage boy - er... chicken. Eventually, we’ll have to deal with teenage boys hot to trot after our daughters, but for now, the garage was our only hope. The former vegetarian and I both enjoy sleeping in. Cock-a-doodle-doo at 6am is just too much; 5am is out of the question. The temporary solution for the day was to grab the crooner out of his squatty little house and throw him in the garage. Crow in there, you windbag! It was nice and muffled. Sleep ensued. It was lovely. The single day garaging of the nuisance pet turned into three. You’re thinking “days” and you’d be wrong. Three weeks. Three long, early morning wake up call weeks. Each morning, we’d hear lovely tunes being played by the vocal cords of a 5 pound chicken. Each morning at first crow, Ryan barrelled out into the yard in his pajamas, half staggering, and grabbed that cursed beast and threw him in the dungeon, I mean garage. But now, too many quarter-sized floor landmines were visible and other action had to be taken. Passive aggressive wasn’t working in our favor, unless we wanted to start growing corn on the cement next spring.

Ryan tried to kill him twice. A computer nerd apparently needs a stronger grip, or more patience with the grip he already has. Benny recovered quickly the first time. He never even seemed like he’d been in a traumatic “accident” or had brain damage. But the near brush with death hadn’t phased him. Too bad he was too thick skulled - or thick necked - to realize why we wanted him gone. If we could only reason with him, explain that he could start crowing around 11am, then he could live a long happy life in our suburban backyard. Well, chickens don’t reason well since they can’t stay still long enough to make eye contact. We were left to consider other options.

My sister came over out of the blue one day. She had a few computer projects she wanted to get done on our computer. She was always the ‘oddball’ sister, naive and sweet and always said the right thing at the wrong time. Since another adult was added to the attendance sheet of our living room, Ryan quickly planned and executed “Operation Benny’s Secret Ambush - Take Two”. Or in nerd-ese, is that OBSA 2.0? He disappeared for a few minutes, but I didn’t even notice. He’s a super sly kind of nerd with stealth mode and wi-fi.

The next thing I knew, Ryan was standing next to me, slightly winded, and saying that Benny wasn’t dead. Well that sparked every one’s interest, including that of my 4 year old twin daughters. “What’s wrong with Benny?” they asked quite concerned. I had to think quickly. “Mom and Dad are going to go play with Benny for a minute. Auntie will stay with you in the house. And keep the curtains closed.”

I had already gotten plenty of advice from co-workers and friends on how to “off” the next rooster. “You grab them by the neck and fling them around like this and break the neck!” They widened their stance and flailed their arms about. “NO! You take him out to the tree stump and chop his head off” someone else hollered. Yet another coworker chimed in, “Or you could just help him fly over the back fence and forget to go look for him.” All good possibilities considering my history of unsuccessful chicken butchery.

We initially thought we’d keep Benny. If we had lasted a few more months, maybe he would have been a Daddy, but we are impatient modern Americans. It’s quite awkward to explain to your children why Benny is getting a backride from the hens, several times a day. We Americans prefer prepackaged, featherless, boneless, skinless, or nuggets medium sized with a Coke. Benny’s fate would be even less useful and appealing. He was going in the garbage. After all the slime and goop and hard little round things popping out of the last victim a few months previous, I didn’t want to spend another several hours preparing Benny’s 5 pound body for a meal that wouldn’t have enough volume to satisfy our family of four. So, with the option of fresh meat just a few hours away, I thought maybe we’d just order out.

Ryan and I paraded out to the coop, well aware of the finality of the job ahead of us. I’ve never seen a rooster leaning up against the chicken wire with his tongue hanging out of his mouth panting, but remember, I’m a city girl. Maybe this was normal. I rounded up my gardening gloves so my hands wouldn’t be in direct contact with a dying chicken. I had decided I’d try the Twirl-A-Roo Double Full Nelson Neck Breaker maneuver. Several people had demonstrated it for me with air-chickens and they seemed to have experience helping their 80 year old grandmother kill off several of the flock, granted this was 35 years ago when they were in grade school. But if a first grader could commit fowl murder, so could I.

My dirt caked garden glove was awkwardly stiff but my covered fingers fit perfectly around the feathered neck of our reason for the next trip to the garbage can. I picked him up and put my feet shoulder width apart. Everyone that showed me always had a certain stance, so I figured it would make the spinning part less dizzying for me, or something. Ryan turned his back and said, “Bye Benny.” Ryan had named him Benny after one of the members of the group ABBA. We, even to this point, have only named and kept track of that particular chicken - mostly because he had some cream feathers mixed in with the red so we could tell him apart from the others. The mechanics of the neck breaking scheme wizzed through my mind one last time before I attempted moving my body. I proceeded to flail my right arm in some sort of bumpy circular fashion. And nearing the end of the Twirl-A-Roo ride, I contemplated my big finishing move. My wrist was prepared for the quick jerking action neck snap and my brain fired the neurons to move my wrist in the appropriate way. Just so we didn’t have a repeat of the last rooster killing fiasco, I jerked my wrist a few extra times to make sure there was enough damage done by the Double Full Nelson that death would immediately occur. The tiny little bones clicked and crunched a few times over. It felt like I was popping my knuckles.

I sent Ryan back into the house for a disposal bag - who wants to empty the kitchen garbage tomorrow and open the outside garbage and see a dead chicken just hanging out on top of the pile. Why do we always do this the day after garbage pick up? I held the mostly dead chicken in an oxygen depleting death grip in my right hand. The chicken’s head was pointing down at the bottom of my hand, and his neck looped up through my clenched fist and the body flopped over the top. His body swung around with each slight tilt of my wrist. If the crunching neck bones didn’t do the trick, I’d certainly choke him out and he’d be a goner. I held my grip secure until my hand started to twinge in pain. I’ll just switch hands and keep strangling with the left. I want this bird extra dead.

Ryan sauntered up fluffing air into the white kitchen garbage liner to open it wide enough for quick disposal of the carcass. I raised my arm up and lifted the lifeless lump into his plastic coffin. Ryan gently lowered the bag to the ground and tied a knot. He said “I’ll tie it really tight so he’ll suffocate.” I scoffed. “He’s already dead, Ryan! He can’t get any more dead than dead.” The drawstring knot got bigger and bigger with each twist and loop of the red plastic thread. Finally satisfied at his complex tangled mass, he stood up and we walked towards the house. I went inside and he finished the backwoods burial.

I came inside and was immediately asked by the kids, “Where is our chicken?” Then my sister piped up, “Where is the meat?” I answered them one at a time. “Benny flew away, but we still have our two hens. The meat is in the garbage can.” My sister was confused. “You’re just gonna throw him away?” I put my hands on my hips in a defensive position. “Yep. For all the work it was last time to get a teeny tiny little bird that didn’t feed our family for even a single meal, it’s not worth it. I’m glad I learned it, but he’s in the garbage.”

The kids asked, “Why is Benny in the garbage, Mom?” “No honey, he flew over the garbage and out of the yard.” Little white lies of murder and betrayal.

My sister continued, “I’ll take the meat! I want it! Why would you just waste it like that?” I sighed. I hesitated. I sighed again. “Get a couple of knives and a garbage bag and meet me in the yard. You’re helping. Daddy? Play with us until Mom is done in the yard, and keep the curtains closed please.” I marched toward the shed to find the ax hoping it was at least a little sharp. I haven’t used it since I needed the back of it for a hammer and didn’t want to walk all the way to the toolbox in the garage. Have I ever used the sharp edge? Hmm. Maybe it will be okay. Ax in hand, I opened the lid of the garbage can and pulled out the rumpled white garbage sack. The curtains were closed as I walked by the french doors that lead into the living room. I ended my trip at the old apricot tree, right near the water spigot. I flopped the bag down on the ground and ripped it open.

Just when I started to reach inside, I got quite a surprise. I saw a round, brown, open eyeball glaring up at me. Now, as far as I know, dead chickens have closed eyes. This dead chicken had his eye open, wide open, looking around, then staring me down, mentally cursing me in chicken-ese as to why he deserved this maiming and torture and dark solitary confinement. Why is it so damn hard to kill a defenseless chicken?

You’ve got to be kidding me. I gently picked up the bag with dying roo inside and moved the plastic away from his head. I positioned his head on the hard wooden garden beam. I better get him good and dead before my sister came out with my knives. Chop! Well, that finished breaking his neck. Chop, chop, CHOP! It’s not easy to chop through feathers. Or I just can’t pack a punch with an ax like I can solo a Kenmore washing machine down a flight of stairs and lift it into the bed of a truck. The neighbors called me She-Ra for months after that. Benny’s head tumbled to the ground and blood oozed from his neck. Finally the little eye on his detached head closed for good. As I held onto the plastic bag pressed against his headless body, it started to jerk. His feet kicked out a large hole in the end of the sack and then something ridiculous happened. Well, more ridiculous than anything I’ve already stated here...

Are you ready?

My pocket started ringing. Oh for hell’s sake! I wasn’t really incapacitated at the moment and had a free hand, so I reached in my pocket. I didn’t recognize the number, but I answered anyway. “Hi, this is the doctors office needing to schedule a follow up appointment.” Benny’s kicks continued through her chatter, although they were less forceful. “Uh, I’m processing a chicken right now. Like gutting it and stuff. Can I call you back?” There was dead silence. The weakest, squeakiest, most hesitant “um, yeah” came out of that poor receptionist’s mouth. “I guess you’ve never heard that one before, huh?” I laughed with embarrassment and pride. I had made her speechless. That made this phone call even better. We disconnected and my sister walked up with a few kitchen knives and another garbage sack.

I verbalized my way through the process as I awkwardly chopped off the legs at the knee-ish joint and the tips of the wings at the wing-ish joint, explaining to my sister the reasoning behind different cuts and other options based on preference. The extra parts were thrown into the old garbage bag and the thankfully (and finally) lifeless bird was ready to be placed on the new garbage sack. Sanitary? Not necessarily, but better than doing it on the dirt and wooden garden post like I did before. I recalled that it was about to get extra sticky, so while little Benny was hanging out in the tree upside down for blood shed purposes, I sent her back inside to get a few pairs of “Rachel’s a natural redhead and always will be” gloves. She returned and we put on our protection against goo. I showed her how to skin the chicken and told her why I decided that plucking feathers wasn’t for me and why running water was so handy. Feathers stick to darn near everything, even if it’s not wet. If it was more practical, I’d give up on Post-It Notes and just write important things on feathers.

I asked my sister to pull some skin away from the meat here and there, letting her experience that some parts were easy to pull and other parts were a pain in the wing. We chatted about this and that. Sister talk mostly. About our dad that had died two years previous from cancer. About church stuff. About crafts and food storage. Hey, I can be girly sometimes. Don’t even for a second presume that we talked about makeup and brands of clothing and the next super hot teen vampire movie. We’re much more practical than that. Besides, who wants to break a new Lee Press-On Nail or risk ruining your manicure while you’re gutting a chicken, know what I mean? I’m already getting chicken blood on my killer Ed Hardy flip flops. Oh wait, these are from Walmart. Oh, wait. I’m actually doing this barefoot. Yeah, not that girly I guess.

She was actually quite helpful considering the Neanderthal conditions we were doing this in. She held the hose of running water and rinsed all the feathers off our workstation. I was actually having a good time, despite the fact that I was hunched over hacking up a carcass for somebody else.

The conversation lulled at one point and she asked, “What are giblets?” “Uh, some of the guts I guess.” “Can we save the giblets then?” “Uh, I don’t know which parts are giblets and which parts are... not giblets.” She frowned and asked, “What can you use chicken feet for?” I was annoyed. We were finally getting to the important gutting part and she’s asking off the wall stuff. This rooster should be hanging out in the garbage and I should be doing something productive right now, like raking the carpet so the lines are in the same direction or washing my hair. “How the hell should I know? They poop, they walk in their poop, I’m not interested in chicken feet.”

Now remember that I told you before that this is the odd-ball sister. So, I’m shocked and not shocked by this next statement. She could tell I was getting irritated, but she proceeded. “My one friend is Asian and they like chicken feet. I’ll save those for her. Can you get them out of the bag?” I could tell that this was going to be on her terms from here on out. “Take your damn poop feet, but be sure to wrap them up so the kids don’t see them.” She started for the kitchen and hollered, “And we’ll need a clean bowl for the giblets.” My head fell to my chest in exhaustion. This will be interesting. In modern society, two city girls figuring out how to save each little edible part of a bird when there’s a SuperWalmart a few blocks away seems quite asinine, don’t you think?

I decided she wasn’t here to learn how to process a chicken, she was here for conversation and a free meal. I started making my cuts between the legs to start my giblet search. She came back and dug out the dirty, poop feet and put them in a separate sack. The bowl was placed strategically away from the Shamu Splash Zone so we didn’t contaminate any giblety things we placed in there.

I pulled out the intestines. I knew these were not edible. One wrong twist of the knife near the intestines and you’ve got poo nuggets - not appetizing. So we tried to be careful. I could feel that my fingers were wrinkly from excess moisture inside my plastic glove. And I couldn’t wait to soap them up. I felt gunky and we were only at the beginning of the slime-fest.

I reached my hand into the chest cavity to try to separate the lungs from the ribcage. Benny was a little bigger than “Rooster #1” but my hand still didn’t have much room to articulate. Lumps and bumps and wiggling mucus. Well, let’s just pull out this lump and see what it is? A hard red walnut sized thing. “Well, this could be the stomach or the heart or some other giblet. If it’s the stomach, we throw that away. Who wants to eat what a chicken already did?” It was connected by some intestine or veins and arteries and I gave a slight tug. Nope, still attached. Maybe if I pinch the little tubes really hard and pull at the same time, it will come off. That did the trick. We saved our hard red walnut in the bowl after a thorough rinse from the hose. I needed another potential giblet for comparison.

Another reach inside the gaping hole and with a little swishing of chicken parts, I found another little hard thing. A small white bobble about the size and shape of a peeled green grape was between my fingers. I looked at my sister. “What is that?” she asked. I shrugged. “How should I know! It’s a white thing.” I reached back inside and felt around some more, still holding the grape in my left hand. I pulled out the next bumpy rock and beheld an exact duplicate of my little peeled grape. I was dumbfounded. My mind quickly searched through a rough anatomy chart. “Are these chicken balls?” I asked. We both laughed. We had no idea what we were doing at this point.

Thankfully, my sister had been through several years of college. Who knew an Associate of Arts degree could take almost 4 years and being 2 semesters away from a Bachelor’s could take 4 more? Glad I just stuck with the basics of a high school diploma and a good, solid job. She used her “edjamacashun” and reasoned that chicken balls wouldn’t be that big. “You’re probably right. Maybe these are the kidneys.” She nodded in agreement. “Are kidneys giblets?” I shrugged again. “I really have no idea. Cook them up and I bet they taste like pee. I wouldn’t want to eat that. I don’t know what a giblet is and I wouldn’t want to eat one, so I’m just gonna finish this.” I tossed them in the bowl for her to decide. This wasn’t my problem. I’ll just throw guts at her and she can make the ultimate resolution when I didn’t have my hand wrist deep in chicken slush. (A curiosity Google search while writing my story revealed that indeed, the grapes were chicken balls. Good to know.)

We pulled out a few more gobs of tissue and she turned up her nose. Fine by me. I let her put her hand in there and feel the ribs and smoosh some parts around. I separated the intestines and other unwanted parts and threw them in the garbage bag. Almost finished!

We rinsed and scraped and wiggled. Finally, we had a dressed chicken. Coincidentally, why do they call it a dressed chicken when it’s as naked as it can get? Chef sarcasm? Who knows. We bundled up our work: I got the guts and she got the glory, so to speak. We sauntered into the living room naked chicken dangling from her hands. The kids were quite interested. “What’s that?!” I said, “It’s a chicken for dinner.” They smiled from ear to ear. “Oh, can I have chocolate milk please?” They weren’t as concerned about Benny as I thought.

I cleared out the kitchen sink for the water-vinegar solution bath for our little friend to have a soak. Vinegar has many uses I’m finding. The antibacterial property of vinegar is one that comes into play here. So we soaked Benny’s useful parts in our sink bath. “Do I put the giblets in too?” “Stop asking me stuff about giblets, I have no idea!” I washed my hands and got out the largest pot I own for Benny’s hot tub debut.

I let her put in salt and whatever else she wanted. She didn’t want much, just the chicken. I didn’t ask what she was going to do with it - I didn’t care. As Benny was enjoying his spa treatment, I continued on with laundry and normal housework. She decided the best place to keep poop chicken feet wrapped in a plastic sack was our freezer, and sat back down at the computer.

After a while, the deliciously sickening smell of chicken filled the house. Chicken is good, don’t get me wrong. But shove your hands up a chicken’s hoo-ha and you’ll want pizza that night. I turned the stove off once Benny was done and let the broth start to cool down. It was going to be dinner soon. Maybe we’d have macaroni and cheese.

At 5:30pm, my sister suddenly said, “I have to work at 6!” Our house was about a 20 minute drive from her work. I glanced at the pot of salted bath water with hot floating meat. She knew what I was thinking. I didn’t want to have to clean up this mess. “Can we put that pot in your fridge until tomorrow?” “NO! You’re taking him with you.” She furrowed her eyebrows at me. “I don’t have a way to take it with me.” I got out my Mommy-Is-Mad voice. “Take the pot with you. Here is the lid. Here are 2 potholders. Put it in your car. What you do with it from there is your business. Just get it outta here. If you leave it here it’s going in the garbage. I’m not dealing with it.” She sunk in her chair, then stood up to start complying with my demands. “Do you at least want the broth?” “NO!” I screamed it almost before she was done with her syllables.

She scurried around the kitchen cleaning up and getting her to-go pot ready for transport. I was seriously finished with all this chicken butchering business. She left her Asian Friend's feet treats in the freezer on accident, and just as on accident, they went in the garbage when I discovered what the wrapped freezer mass was. When my sister closed the door behind her, chicken bath pot lounging on the floorboards of her Nissan, I turned to Ryan and said, “I’ve been thinking that it would be more worth it to raise turkeys. More meat, you know?” Ryan got out his Daddy-Is-Mad voice. “NO!”

Maybe I’ll just stick with eggs.

In His Honor

2011-09-14T23:21:00.004-06:00

I recently had an interesting experience

with a chicken.

If you know my dad Rex, he would have loved this story.

I wrote it up

just like he wrote

about some interesting things in his life.

In honor of his passing

on September 26th, 2009,

I decided to post my chicken story

on his blog.

You may visit his blog: RexMcBride.com

I love you Dad! You're always in my thoughts. I am so proud of the life you lived and the example you were to me and everyone around you. You are truly missed!

MUH!

Happy 5th Anniversary, Ryan!

2011-09-02T00:51:00.001-06:00

I wrote this letter to Ryan on our very first wedding anniversary - the same still holds true today.

To Ryan on our first anniversary…

My, what a year it has been. Yet, it doesn’t even feel like a whole year has gone by. I never suspected in my life that I could ever be so happy. I always knew that I’d get married and have children. But just imagining those times happening just can’t compare.

This year, although hard at times and shocking at other times, has brought me joy that I’ve never felt before. I never knew joy like this. I never thought I’d live for someone else: to believe in someone else’s dreams, to wish for someone else’s success and ultimate happiness. But I live for you.

I want you to know how much I respect you as a husband and father. I never imagined I’d have the privilege of being married to such a wonderful man. Seeing you with our daughters melts my heart. You are so tender and gentle. Our girls are so lucky to have such a caring father. And I want you to know that I am so very proud of all you have accomplished. Starting up a business isn’t easy, and it does take a while to really get going, but I see that you have worked so very hard to build this business for the betterment of your family. You have done a great job and I have never been disappointed. I am proud of you every day.

No one can ever say “Rachel could have married a better guy” because I married the best guy. I really don’t deserve you, but I thank God every day for letting me be a part of your life. You have made me a better person this year. I only wish I can continue to live up to your expectations as a wife and mother.

As long as we’re together, I have no fears… I love you so very much. Thank you for this year, and many more years to come…

Your adoring wife

My kids are officially in Preschool!

2011-08-30T20:20:00.002-06:00

I feel quite old.....and lonely, but not.

Today was the girls' first day of preschool. They were both so excited that it was finally "Tuesday" and they popped right up out of bed. They got booster vaccinations yesterday so they both had sore little legs (4 shots a piece!). So we gave them some Tylenol right before school so it wouldn't be an issue.

For the teacher's sake, I decided to dress them differently on purpose but they both wanted to wear a skirt. So, we did what we could. When little kids start getting their own fashion sense, trouble is ahead!!

Their teacher is "Miss Amy" and they go on Tuesdays & Thursdays in the afternoon. There is a max of 16 kids in each class, but so far there's only about 10 in ours.

They walked right up to the line up area to walk into their classroom and started asking the other kids their names, etc. So friendly.

When we went to pick up the girls, I asked what their favorite part of school today was. Chloe said "I colored a spaceship. It was pink." And Ady was pouting because she knew I had to go to work tonight. But she finally said that her spaceship was purple. They both love Miss Amy and they are excited to go back to school.

Plans for tomorrow include letting the girls pick out their backpacks. Miss Amy said that they will be bringing home papers, etc and they will need a backpack every day. THIS IS PRESCHOOL! I never thought a preschool kid would need a backpack. Sheesh!

Pictures

2011-08-05T10:09:00.000-06:00

In no particular order......

Too Much Zucchini? Here's a yummy recipe...

2011-07-25T14:23:00.004-06:00

Zucchini Brownies

I know it sounds weird, but I've made these several times and no one guesses that there is zucchini in these... If you're skeptical, it's worth a shot for all the extra zucchini at this time of year!

2 cups shredded zucchini (frozen from last year works too!)

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 egg (eggs make these more cake-ish, so if you want fudge brownies, leave out the eggs - they still turn out fine)

1 1/2 cups sugar

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups flour (wheat flour works great)

1/2 cup chopped nuts or chocolate chips - optional

Combine all ingredients. Grease a 9x13 pan.

Bake at 350 for 25-30 mins.

Frosting

6 TBS cocoa powder

1/4 cup melted margarine

2 cups powdered sugar

1 TBS milk (use more or less for desired consistency)

1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine and spread over cooled brownies. SUPER YUM!

Super Easy Dessert Bars

2011-07-22T18:08:00.001-06:00

I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com and thought it was so easy and yummy. I just had to share!

Oat & Jam Bars

1 cake mix, yellow or white

2 1/2 cups oats

3/4 cup margarine

Mix that in a bowl until clumpy and sticky.

Take about 1/2 of the mix and press it into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan.

1 1/2 cups of jam - strawberry, raspberry, whatever

1 TBS lemon juice or water

Mix that together until smooth. Spread evenly ontop of the pressed in layer.

Use the rest of the cake mix to sprinkle/crumble the top.

Oven at 375 - 15-20 minutes...............How quick is that??

And it uses food storage oats and can be adapted for anyone's taste!! YAY!

(Chloe even "helped" stir - aka eat the crumbles - while I spread the jam.)

SGPD Life Saving Award

2011-05-18T16:59:00.005-06:00

I feel strange getting an award for just doing my job.

But, I did.

The short story is, I took a 911 call from a woman who

was frantic and I helped calm her down so she could

do CPR on her husband. Thankfully, the officer arrived

quickly and took over CPR - she was getting

exhausted.

Pictured below is the "patient" 72 year old Dave

Thomas, first officer on scene Zachary Maughan

who took over CPR, and me. Dave walked out

of the hospital only two days after his near

death experience.

Here is the award. I'll have to put it in a shadow

box with the nice letter that Dave & Mary

wrote to me.

72 Kits - DONE!

2011-05-03T19:56:00.000-06:00

So, all my life I've heard about having 72 hour kits. Recently, I've heard them called "bug out bags" etc. Well, doing food storage is about preparedness. So, now, we are prepared with our own "bug out bags" ....

I went to Deseret Industries and purchased 4 backpacks (only $3 each at DI). The pink one is "Barbie" and the girls have been fighting over it, so I might have to change to a plain backpack.

Adult bags have 4 liters of water each, some food and fire starting supplies, a water filtration kit, and a first aid/medicine kit. The kid bags have 2 liters of water each, some food, and hygiene supplies like toothbrushes and soap. Each bag has 1 blanket.

The girls had a fun time helping me pack the bags and even wanted to take a "nature walk" as soon as their bags were zipped closed. Ryan walked with them while I finished packing the adult bags. The girls were so happy to have a backpack and go on a walk. They walked through the door about 10 minutes later. Poor Ryan was carrying both backpacks and the girls were happy as could be. LOL! Maybe adults should carry the water for everyone and the kids can carry our lighter blankets, etc. We'll see.

I still would like some SpaceBag type storage bags to add a change of clothes each. And a copy of important documents like birth certificates and marriage licenses would be good to have handy.

Can anyone think of anything I'm missing?

Making Mixes...

2011-04-30T13:26:00.004-06:00

So, with all the food storage knowledge I have now, and trying to save money and use food storage for making everyday meals, I've decided to stop paying $1.00 a piece for gravy packets at the store.

I made my own mixes!! Chicken Gravy Mix, Brown Gravy Mix, Onion Soup Mix, and Pancake & Waffle Mix. I'm sure a few more will come along eventually, but this is all we need for now.

I researched recipes for mixes online and came up with ones that were simple and tasted good. I bought some airtight containers and made some labels. I took some pictures, but nothing will load. I'll try again in a few days.

I'm pretty happy with how these turned out. I even put the recipe on the back of the container so I can just make another batch when we're getting low.

I'll post the recipes for these mixes on the 911Recipes site, if anyone is daring enough to make their own.

YAY!

Food Storage Room

2011-03-21T20:07:00.003-06:00

So, our little food storage room is coming along nicely. I love these shelves we bought at Costco for $60 each. All I needed for set up was a rubber mallet. I've got the "fruits" of my first tries at pressure canning on the shelf on the right. Some potatoes, carrots, celery, and even chicken and pork. I've added some tomato sauce (Ryan's Grandma's Recipe) and did a taco soup and a beef stew as well. Glad we're getting some food and other supplies put away.

I'm also trying to encourage others to do the same.

So far in the garden, I've got carrots and onions planted and some bell pepper and tomatoes started from seeds. Hopefully, I'll be able to plant my beans in the next few days and some squash and melons before it gets too hot!

My next attempt at being self sufficient will be to build a chicken coop (maybe even a chicken tractor) and start to raise chickens for eggs (and maybe I'll even learn to butcher a chicken if need be). I'd like to get 4-6 hens for laying, just enough to have plenty of eggs for us since the girls like eggs for breakfast and Ryan has been into cookie-making lately.

Well, that's it from us. We'll be in SLC visiting the Sharich/Jarrett side this next weekend. Then back to gardening and chicken cooping.

It's Been A While...

2011-03-05T16:16:00.003-07:00

Well, with not much time in front of the computer at home, and websites blocked at work, I don't get much "blogger" time.

We're still working on food storage stuff. I purchased a pressure canner.

I've canned some veggies, cubed pork, some soup, some potatoes, and some chili. It's really nice to make a huge batch of soup or chili and know that I don't have to freeze it and use my freezer space! In fact, I've got some taco soup in the crockpot right now - it's a big enough batch to feed Ryan and me a few times and can a few quarts! YAY!

I'm learning how to use dried beans and hope to can up some different kinds of be

ans at $0.06 per jar instead of $1.00 for a store bought can. CHA-CHING!!

I've got some tomato & bell pepper seeds started. The girls love to help spray water on the little baby plants. I also planted a raspberry, a blackberry, and two blueberry plants on the side yard. I hope they do well!

We bought a light duty chipper/shredder (thank you tax return!) and I've been chipping up tree trimmings from the peach and apricot trees and rose bushes. It's amazing the difference in volume when you've got a dumpster

size pile of tree trimmings and only a wheelbarrow full of compost material from it.

In other family news, Ryan buckled and took in a dog that looks pretty similar to Ginger. I have to admit, I'm loving on Ginger more since this new dog. She's not my favorite. The girls like her and Ryan likes her,

so I guess that's what matters.

So, that's about it. I hope everyone is doing well. I miss blogging, but I've found other ways to occupy my online time at work - like looking up stuff on canning and food storage. I'm such a preparedness-nerd!

1/12th done with 2011

2011-01-28T17:48:00.004-07:00

Ryan and I just said today that we can't believe January is over.

I've been working on Food Storage - and per this super awesome

food storage calculator to find out that so far, we've got about 58 days worth of food storage until our shelves are bare. It's a far cry from 1 year of food storage, but it's a good start. Couponing has helped alot, but I haven't done that in a while either. Shame!!

Last night I bought Freeze Dried Blueberries (food storage help and something we'd eat and use NOW) and decided to make some blueberry muffins since Ryan has been eating store bought blueberry bagels like a madman. Ryan, Ady and I all ate up the muffins today, but Chloe wanted "Honey Toast."

Oh, and I bought a breadmaker from CraigsList. It was a great deal, the previous owner only used it twice so it was in pristine condition. I've had it for 2 weeks and we've made a loaf of bread at least 6 times a week. I've been using wheat flour that Ryan ground by hand (using a hand wheat mill). I've tried lots of recipes, but so far,

Ryan likes "Portuguese Sweet Bread" but I like "Light Oat Bread" and the girls really don't care as long as there's honey on it.

I've also gotten a little crafty - Dad had given me woodworking tools over the years but I haven't had time to do anything about it. He gave me 2 scroll saws, a 1inch belt sander, a router with table, and tons of hand tools. I've wanted to make wooden holiday decorations for a while, but cutting them out, sanding, painting - it just takes so much time. So, a friend at work said her husband was looking into doing some woodworking as a hobby and wanted to buy some tools. I told her that I'd let her borrow the tools if he'd be my personal craft guy. So, I've gotten a few projects done already because of him, and I've started several others in the works. (Thanks, Ed!) Our house is decorated with Valentine stuff now and I'm plotting St Patrick's and Easter as you read this. I have even set up a little craft area in the garage since we've got plenty of space.

I also *finally* cleaned up the rose bushes in the front yard. What a mess they were. It was battle!! Thanks to Ryan for helping. And thanks to the shy little neighbor girl for playing with the girls while we worked.

So, that's what we've been up to.

Vote for Your Favorite Family Photo!!

2010-12-29T00:56:00.009-07:00

I thought I'd do a quick blog of our adventures in SLC. But Ryan has all the photos uploaded to Flickr.com and not our desktop computer. So putting together a few pics was going to be a mega pain in my pahtootie. I decided I'd take a pic I really liked and just mess around with different effects.

Which one do you like best to hang up in our house?? Vote box is over there ------>
I'm kinda leaning towards #3....
(It will have a black frame around it if that helps....)

Click on the images to make them larger if you'd like.
#1

This one is just a quickie crop with a few touchups.

#2

This one is using a "filter" to have the whole image changed just slightly.

#3

This one uses lots of different effects on colors. Can you even notice the jeans are slightly blue and a few decorations on the tree behind us are in color?

Christmas Card Photo 2010

2010-12-17T23:42:00.004-07:00

I can't believe I actually got some Christmas cards mailed off. What a project. I'm SO proud of myself!! It's gotta be a working-full-time-mom-of-twin-toddlers record!!

Jubilee of Trees

2010-11-19T23:34:00.002-07:00

Making traditions is hard. But we've started going to the Jubilee of Trees to get a picture with Santa. It's been fun for us to get dressed up and show the girls all the beautiful trees.

This display had a miniature ice skating rink with little magnetized dancers
moving around. The girls LOVED it.

Photo Op

Showing the girls the Nativity Scene at this display.
They love the story
of Baby Jesus.

2 Cameras plus 2 adults trying to smile (between giving directions to kids) and two toddlers does not a good family photo make....

Our Pic with Santa. They were brave enough to say "We want a toy for Christmas please, Santa." And barely brave enough to sit on his lap.
Mrs Claus wouldn't get outta the shot..... Whatever.

Working Long and Hard...

2010-11-09T12:32:00.003-07:00

Since overtime is available for dispatchers until December 31, I've picked up several shifts. I've been working 12 hour shifts a few times a week, 8 hour shifts the rest of the time, and working on one of my days off.

The paychecks are nice, but the sleeping all the time and not seeing the family sucks. But its only until December, and then I'll be a 40 hour week girl again. YAY!

Now I'd better get off the computer since I'm home!!

Don't Use the Internet...

2010-10-15T14:09:00.003-06:00

So, work is getting interesting.

They've now blocked many sites that all the dispatchers frequent, like Blogger, GMail, most couponing sites, and basically anything that could pass the time during a slow shift.

One day I came in and saw Blogger was blocked, so I did a little couponing. The next day, those coupon sites were blocked. WOW.

Now, I don't dare get on any website just because it might be blocked by the next day.

"Interesting" to say the least...

Bummer Dude....

2010-09-21T18:53:00.004-06:00

Well, I guess I can let the cat out of the bag.

I got the times mixed up on my phone interview for Spanish Fork Dispatch. I called right back but they considered me a "no show" - so I'm officially out of consideration for the position.

...WOW... that's pretty hard-core.

I know that nobody is too sad about it. Ryan and I are disappointed but relieved. They were looking at having me start in early November. So we were having to quickly find a place to live, pack up all our stuff and move up there in less than two months.

Now we can just relax and enjoy the holidays.

I liked their dispatch center so much that I don't think I'm going to pursue any other dispatch centers right now and I'll just wait until the next go around for them...

Too Big of a Bite...

2010-09-16T23:24:00.003-06:00

I've been feeling guilty about never picking up extra shifts for people. I really haven't worked too many overtime shifts since the girls were born. I had my time doing long stretches in dispatch, working for other people who were off doing family things with their kids.

There are so many people right now who have to use 100+ hours by the end of the year, or they will lose all that time. So, I'm signing up for the overtime...

I've been doing 10 and 12 hour shifts. On a day that I only work an 8 hour shift, I feel like it goes by so quick!

But being so willing to work has had some consequences too. This week alone, I've got 22 hours of overtime. I'm exhausted. Ryan is watching the girls by himself all day so I can sleep since I worked until 4am. Then he watches them all evening while I'm at work again. I feel like I've hardly seen the girls this week. The house work has gone downhill. We've been sick. It's been quite a week.

Next week is a little easier for my schedule, so maybe we'll have more time for enjoying the week...

Four Years...

2010-09-02T00:09:00.002-06:00

I love you Ryan.

I know we've only known each other four weeks and three days, but to me it seems like nine weeks and five days. The first day seemed like a week and the second day seemed like five days. And the third day seemed like a week again and the fourth day seemed like eight days. And the fifth day you went to see your mother and that seemed just like a day, and then you came back and later on the sixth day, in the evening, when we saw each other, that started seeming like two days, so in the evening it seemed like two days spilling over into the next day and that started seeming like four days, so at the end of the sixth day on into the seventh day, it seemed like a total of five days. And the sixth day seemed like a week and a half. I have it written down, but I can show it to you tomorrow if you want to see it.

An Afternoon Drive

2010-08-27T17:15:00.008-06:00

My Mom called us on Sunday to see if we wanted to go for a drive to Zion. SURE!

So we packed up some snacks and wore our best hiking sandals and headed out!

The girls stopped several times to get rocks and sand out of their sandals.

Ady loved to look through Grandma's "noc-a-lers"

Everyone had fun out in the open running around

Chloe ran and ran and ran and ran and ran!

Thanks "Damma Tisti" for taking us to have fun!

The girls both loved picking baby acorns (Chloe calls them 'a-torns') and putting them in their pockets to bring home. She wouldn't let me throw them on the ground.

Two Years From Now...

2010-08-05T21:28:00.007-06:00

Where will you be 2 years from now?

Why do I ask?

Because Ryan and I have been toying with the idea of moving to "North of Cedar" which to a Californian means Salt Lake City - to any Utahn it means Enoch or Parowan. I guess since I'm now officially 30 years old and I've lived in Utah since I was 15, I should consider that I have dual citizenship in CA and UT.

I know - you're shocked. Frankly, so am I. But don't fret. Our plan involves no rushing....

Time frame : Move before the girls go to kindergarten which means within the next 2 years.

I'm looking into dispatch centers in the "North of Cedar" area - Salt Lake City proper, Salt Lake County, Davis County, Utah County, Weber County and a few others. I'll go check out each one and sit in for a few hours to see where I feel like I'd be best suited. That might take a while...

"But, Rachel! You already have a dispatch job."

I know, I know. But I've been here 9 years. I don't want to be a shift supervisor here. My pay is maxed. The City hasn't given raises, even for cost of living, in two years. I'm the top bid for scheduling, I have my choice of days off - and I don't even care what days off I have. I just don't feel challenged anymore. Even training new people isn't very challenging anymore. So I guess I'm just looking for a change. Something that I'll have to work at - like new streets, new policies, new officers, new jurisdictions. Sounds crazy, right?

We're thinking about getting Ryan into a computer-nerd certification course that he wants to do. Down here, the only place that offered it was SUU and we talked about it before we got married that commuting that far everyday would be lame.

Anyway. This is longer than I thought, so, I'll shut up now.

Coming of Age

2010-07-27T19:57:00.003-06:00

We had a little birthday party for the girls on Saturday.

It was fun to prep the party and decorate, but it was so stressful trying to get everything ready, and then clean up after! I think future parties will be at Chuck E Cheese or somewhere!!

My Grandma, My Mom, 2 of my aunts, and my sister came to play

I also had a few friends from work come and bring their little kids to swim

Poor Ryan was on grill duty the whole time

It was pretty hot, but we did have alot of fun

Squirt Guns were quite a hit with the birthday girls!

Thanks to Aunt Aubrey for making the cool Princess Castle Cake

All the kids loved when we started to cut the cake

I was so happy to take a nap when it was over. Ryan was too.

Thanks to everyone that came. The girls love all their gifts!!

If it's not one thing, it's dentures...

2010-07-21T20:23:00.008-06:00

Just a little update from our side of the fence....

The girls turn 3 on Monday, the 26th. We're having a short notice little kid swim party at our new house for them which should be fun. Just a few people I know from work and the neighborhood with little kids - no big kids. Swim, hot dogs, popsicles. Should be fun.

Then, I'm turning 30 next week. Yeah, 30. That's what I said.

Ryan is still having trouble with getting his meds right. I'm tired of going to the "Family Practice" doctor for something so specialized. Right med, wrong dose on Abilify. And wrong med, wrong dose on everything else. We decided that since this bi-polar thing isn't going away and isn't fixable, that we'd better start seeing a specialist: a psychiatrist. We need someone who knows exactly what they are doing instead of just a general doctor who kinda knows a little about some meds that might work. I'm looking forward to getting some counselling and medication from a knowledgeable source. So, wish us luck with that!

Next. Due to finances, we've decided to become a one-car-family. So, we're letting the little red car go back to the bank. I just can't keep up on everything and it's not really doing us any good to have two car payments, two vehicles insured, etc. Lots of times, I carpool with people at work anyway to save gas. So, bye bye little red car.

Another thing: I was called into the Bishop's office recently and given a calling. I'll be one of the Relief Society teachers. I'm actually really excited about it. I gave a lesson about 6 weeks ago as the substitute teacher. I learned so much about the topic and really enjoyed the interaction with all the ladies in there. Now, there's a new RS Presidency. I don't even know their names, but I look forward to getting to know them.

Last on the agenda, Ryan's teeth. He's been having such horrible dental issues for years. His dentist recently told him that he's suffering from periodontal disease which is basically super-bad gingivitis. It's so bad in fact, that it's actually contributing to some bone loss in the jaws - his bones are shrinking!

HOLY CRAP! So, we've got some high dollar decisions to make. If a few of his teeth are strong enough to handle it, we could maybe do a bridge on top. If his bone loss can be stopped and corrected, then maybe we could do titanium implants that would be stronger than bridgework. Otherwise, we really might be looking at dentures. HE'S 30!

So, any insights into dentures, dental implants, bridges, huge dental procedures and putting money into your mouth, give us some info!