Southern Sustainability

Polly Wolly Doodle All The Day

2013-08-17T20:12:00.001-07:00

Or however that song goes. :-)

This is Polly, our very tame and funny red sex link hen. She will answer Charlie Mac when he clucks at her- it's hilarious. Wild times here, wiiiiild!

And this is James Clay holding "Lellow" who is his favorite.

Please Lord don't let anything eat them.

The Chronicles of Beauregard continue...

2013-07-24T17:27:00.001-07:00

For a chicken, Beau has a pretty adventure laden life. The sole survivor of the massacre of his original flock by an unknown assassin, he survived a dog attack just yesterday with only the loss of his tail feathers and a neck wound.

Well... Today, someone left the lid off of the chicken feed bin. It had been left open yesterday as well, and filled with rain. In all of the excitement with the dog vs chicken business, I just put the lid back on and forgot it. Charlie Mac must've left it off this morning after feeding them enough corn mash to start a side business.

Beauregard must have thought he won the lottery when he saw the lid off and jumped right in. I have no idea what time that happened, nor how long he fought the corn mash quick sand. When I walked out for their evening feeding today I found him like this:

He was exhausted! And a mess:

(Note his pitiful tail feathers)

I bathed him in the goat trough. He was either too exhausted the raise a ruckus or he's the chillest rooster in Mississippi. We then wrapped him in a towel and took him inside.

While swaddled he pecked pretzel crumbs out of a spoon

And fell sound asleep while being petted. I think he's on to something.

Goat fence

2013-01-15T16:00:00.001-08:00

Bradley was hard at work on the goat fence- a project that is taking a million years because of his day job. It's looking great though, isn't it?!

When the medical guys are shocked...and goat fences and green HVACs

2012-10-09T03:35:00.001-07:00

So my Dr. has mentioned "your special circumstances" a few times during my treatment and I kinda gathered that my knee was severely messed up, so when my PT guy said something similar today I had to ask about it.
"I don't have anything to compare this to, and Dr. T and you both have talked about (my knee injury) like it's different- what do y'all mean?" And in words not near so crass as these he said something like:
"Well, this usually doesn't happen unless someone's leg is crushed in a car or they get hit with something big and mean."
Oh.
And I was just standing on it and pulling my other leg up in an oblique exercise. "Freak accident" doesn't cover it for me. I'm the kind of person that always wants "an answer" and other than divine intervention into my way-too-busy life I can't at all understand why this happened. I'm an otherwise very healthy 37 year old. So I'm going with the divine intervention thing because I really go slap crazy if I didn't.
PT three times a week has started to try to get it to straighten. After that we will work on strengthening it so I can learn to walk on it again. Fear of re-injury is a huge factor and that's especially enlightening for me because I tended to downplay that sort of thing in others. That won't happen again.

So here's to bravery and stretching and getting this weird looking leg to straighten out. More importantly- here's to me learning all the lessons this is supposed to be teaching me.

In Hi-5 news, DH got a lot of the goat and dog fence done this past weekend with the help of some good teenaged friends. It won't be long before we add to our hooved numbers.

We are researching green options for HVAC systems as well...because our 1988 heater's inoperability has made itself apparent with the first cold snap. This is a blessing in the long run because it was a DINOSAUR. The thing is bigger than a lot of people's first apartments.
XO peeps!! Look for blessings, they are there!!!

Balancing Act, and falling.

2012-10-01T09:37:00.001-07:00

At some point I believe that everyone feels they are in a balancing act...and if you're lucky when you do fall it will be hard enough to knock some sense into you. That being the case, I'm very lucky!

Between moving three times in a year, living apart from my husband for most of it, growing babies, growing my business, Sweet Cheeks, and trying to be a good wife and mother...well --- I was WAY out of balance.

We were rushing every morning and night, I was absolutely not eating healthily, not exercising, not ever praying and - obviously - not writing. Well - not writing anything but near constant texts or Facebook statuses and comments from my phone while I was on the go. Conversations beyond a sentence were a thing of fantasy.

So what did I do when things to help when I realized things were reaching this boiling point? Yoga? Long walks? Regular church attendance? No- I joined an exercise program called "Kick Your Booty Boot Camp." Because my booty needed anymore kicking - right? Yeah, well - God steps in when you're an idiot, Thank Him.

My first day of boot camp I was really into it. While AJ, a wonderful man and trainer by all accounts, was leading everyone with prayer and "1-2-3-4-come on and count!" I was thinking "1! 2! 3! Bi-kin-i! If it hurts, think Mini-skirt!" "look 30 by 40!" and the like. These are not self-loving thoughts about building strength and a whole life. This was VAIN. And in the middle of a simple oblique exercise...I got my wake-up call. Standing on my right leg and pulling my left knee to my left elbow I was gettin' it...and my right knee simply exploded.

After I desecrated the park with sailor-like profanity I realized that something really, really bad had happened...I heard pops and saw white bubbles in black space as I went down. I didn't hit my knee, I hit my nicely cushioned hip on the way down. After being carried like a feather to my dear friend's car and handed off to my husband at his office we headed to the ER. While we were waiting we got a return call from the orthopedic surgeon and headed straight there. An x-ray showed a piece of bone floating around and he ordered an MRI a few days later and sent me home with an immobilizer and pain pills. Husband took me to my mom's. I can honestly say I've never been in so much pain, and I've had three c-sections. I didn't go to the bathroom for 18 hours because it simply hurt too much to get up.

Later the MRI would show that my kneecap dislocated so violently that a good chunk of it was shattered against my femur and took a chunk out of it, too. After surgery the surgeon said he'd never seen so much damage from a dislocation...and he's done a whole lot of knees. There were at least 28 pieces of bone chips floating around and embedded in places things don't need to be embedded. Repair of the patella and femur weren't an option and we are praying they cover themselves with [some special kind of cartilage I was too doped up to remember] and the torn tendons (which were described as "crab meat" by the Dr.) have knitted by this Thursday when I go back.

I haven't stepped on my foot in over a month. I've been confined to my house about 99% of that time. In a wheelchair some, but mostly in my bed. When an extrovert like me is this isolated two things happen: 1. she posts constantly on facebook and 2. she's forced to look inward.

On the plus side, I've caught up on school and passed my third of 4 certification tests. I've worked with my dear cousin to get the website for Sweet Cheeks almost finished and done a lot of the infrastructure work that really needed doing. I've ordered a lot of essential oils to play with and lined up some great guest bloggers and consultants for The Sweet Life. This is all great, but not at all the real blessing in this. The fact that I am talking about it first shows I've got some work to do.

I've been able to do a whole lot of thinking that the rat race had prevented. Most of it has been positive, but there have been moments of dark self discovery and damnation that rival anything this chick has ever seen. I've opened doors in my head I'd kept firmly closed and sealed with cement. I've cleaned skeletons out of closets and given proper burials to long-neglected corpses. And I'm still doing it.

Debbie Ford says to embrace your dark side...that it's just as important as your light side to who you are as a whole person. I'm going there...with balance.

Holding me aloft are my amazing husband who has taken on a load that rivals Atlas', blessed time with my kids, rest for the first time in 8 years and an inability to distract myself from this process...

It's time to return to myself. I thank God for this broken knee - blessings come in many disguises. And nothing that is out of balance is sustainable.

High Fives All Around! We're Home!

2012-07-06T05:09:00.002-07:00

From June or July that didn't get published for some reason:

So it looks like the Hi-5 Ranch is finally becoming a reality...as in fo reals. There really aren't words to describe the feeling when you find your place, but we've found it. We are back in North Mississippi and have moved from our house in a neighborhood development in Oxford into a more manageable house on much more land in Taylor.

We. Are. Thrilled. Everyone is breathing easier and sleeping more soundly. We are on 2.5 acres surrounded by a horse farm and cattle farm. Whippoorwills sing the night away and there isn't a Chem-Lawn truck for miles and miles.

We've added to our number since I last wrote, one labradoodle pup, Lobo and one Pygmy goat, Firework in the last two weeks. Cypress, our lab/chessie/golden super retriever mix joined our family about two months ago.

We are going to retrieve our chicken coop from our friends at Woodson Ridge Farms today, and put a few chickens in it while we fix it up for the kids' school. Other business includes a temporary shelter/yard for Firework...who is a precious little fella. He's doing a great job helping us clear away brush and keeping the edges of our home, patio, etc. weed free. Chomp, chomp!

I'm adding a good camera to my list of things to find somewhere because I'd love to record this life we are living in a little mo' bettah way than my ~~cursed~~ droid can handle.

well, hello there!

2011-11-14T19:50:00.001-08:00

SO - it's been a while! Tons has happened and all is well. There's no way I can get it all on here, so I'm just going to write from now forward. Today was a good day - we are still beat from the trip to Oxford, where we acted like we were in college. We so aren't in college. I'm hoping to be over Saturday by tomorrow (Tuesday) when I'm heading back up to Oxford for Dr appt and a Juice Plus meeting. I'm really looking forward to the JP thing. Joining JP at this time is so good - we are really on a wellness journey here at the Hi Five Ranchero and the two clearly go hand in hand. Driving up and down the road three days a week is not at all healthy though - and we have months to go of that. Juice Plus will help our bodies with all that stress!

Sweet Cheeks is poised for take off - but has been sitting on the tarmac for the last couple of months. I'm stressing out about it - but it will happen when it's meant to. Moving five hours and then going back and forth constantly puts everything way down the totem pole somewhere under keeping the kids and ourselves sane. Just a few more months.... Weaning James Clay...weird. I've been preggo and/or b-feeding for almost 7 years straight. I have no idea who I'm going to be after I'm done with these cabbage leaves...I keep thinking I'm suddenly going to have more energy and clarity. Wouldn't that be nice? Here are me and my Boogie Bear doing what we do best - burning up the pavement:

Good night! Gotta hit the road early tomorrow! Woop!

Blondie's first day in the hen house

2011-07-22T19:09:00.001-07:00

Well, I put Blondie in the run/coop with the older chicks today. I put her in, then went to get the feed. I was back in all of 20 seconds and she was up on the coop ladder. The other two don't seem to realize it exists until sundown, so I figured she was safe enough for me to go on to work.

I came home at lunchtime to check on her and she was peering out the coop window. She was still in there when we came home at 5:30. I'm going to go outside and check on her one last time after I get the monkeys to sleep. Hopefully they will all be roosting together peacefully. I'm hoping she's not terribly hungry or thirsty from her day of hiding out. She seemed very energetic when I checked on her, so I'm thinking she's perfectly fine.

....ok, so, she hasn't been invited to the roosting branch, but she's doing ok!
Have any of you ever gotten side-eyed by a chicken? To be fair, I think that's really the only way they can look at you, but I'm pretty sure they were annoyed by my after-dark flashlight shining tonight...

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Listening to the hens wake up over cheerios.

2011-07-15T04:54:00.001-07:00

Or...

2011-07-12T04:28:00.001-07:00

I could just hang out on the porch swing with my early rising fella " target="_blank">fella

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Mama Hen's survival plan whilest she's sans Her Rooster

2011-07-11T21:14:00.001-07:00

If i don't make this into a project with goals I'm going to descend into Pity Purgatory. So, the goals are: keep the kids healthy and happy, train the new pup, lose 15 pounds, continue raising the chickens into prize winning layers, grow our little vegetable garden, and, oh yeah, launch my company. I can do it, and I'm excited about all of it! Go, Lizzie, go! This plan starts with my waking up at dawn so I can feed the chickens, dogs, cats and plants before I feed the monkeys....so, goodnight!

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Blondie's new digs

2011-07-06T06:34:00.000-07:00

To be filed under "awesome repurposing" Blondie is spending her still-too-little-for-the-coop days in an old play pen we found in the attic of our last house. The thing is nice and big, but doesn't keep my car out of the garage. She flys up to the top of the railing to roost at night, and then back down to her food and water with the sunrise. No escape attempts yet... knock on wood!

I've lined the bottom with cardboard for lickety split cleaning, and done the same under the big girls' roost in the coop outside. Recycling at its best! Then, we can compost it maybe. I'm going to see how that works out.

Hello, Summer! Whatchew know good?

2011-07-06T06:26:00.000-07:00

Well here we are and it's summer for damn sure! It's been as hot as blue blazes, but the last day or so had been a lot cooler and pleasant outdoors.
Here at The Hi Five, we've added two furry and feathered family members:
Blondie Chick and a to-be-named Giant Schnauzer puppy! The picture of Blondie is from when she was tiny, she's much bigger now. As soon as I can get my damn Android phone to mail the new pic of her I'll post it!
Work at Woodson Ridge Farms continues to be wonderful and good times are abounding. God bless America and y'all, too.
Talk at ya later!
Lizzie

Chicken Mansion

2011-06-06T19:27:00.000-07:00

My husband is nothing short of a badass. Please look at the coop he designed and built all by himself:

TA-DAAAAAA!!! It's WONDERFUL!!!!

And it's hot as blue blazes outside, too. Go Bradley! He's my man! If he can't do it, no one can!!

The girls are definitely singing the Jefferson's theme song. These digs are waaay better than their "nursery."

Here's are the five star nesting accommodations:

I almost want to take a napper in there.

Here the girls are enjoying their new shaded yard:

Here they can scratch and peck to their hearts' delight. And this is their new water fountain. No poop gettin' in this one! (shudder!)

Lastly, here is the people door:

I'll get some pics of the very cool contraption he put together so the kids can easily collect the eggs and post soon. I'll be painting it over the next few weeks, too.

Oh I love my husbin!

Willa Ann loves her some homegrown "pomadoes!"

2011-06-05T20:53:00.001-07:00

See her sweet little hand? On the very immature tomato? She was very excited about the prospect of making our own spaghetti sauce. Both the reason and the result of her enthusiasm are evidenced below....

My baby loves her some spaghetti sauce!

(if you didn't see it already, please note the noodle by the belly button. Seriously, how much cuter can accidental noodle flingage be?)

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Colors, colors

2011-05-30T07:21:00.001-07:00

I found the cokors for the coop, because we all know that's the most important part.

The Coop Cometh

2011-05-27T18:18:00.001-07:00

My precious sweet awesome and handy hubby got a great start on the coop today!

My awesome, awesome job

2011-05-26T11:49:00.001-07:00

This is what I get to look at and share with North Mississippi and Memphis three days a week. It's ok to be jealous. :-)

Pix of chix

2011-05-26T07:52:00.001-07:00

Here are the lovelies this morning, happily roosting (and probably pooping) on their water bucket. Aren't their almost-grown-up feathers pretty?

Raised beds, new jobs and adolescent hens

2011-05-25T20:37:00.000-07:00

Since the tornado kicked off our month of "Life In A Blender" a few developments have occurred in our little slice of America. Husband and I both got new jobs, mine part time, husband graduated from law school, children finished school for the year and the hens have been moved outside....

Except for tonight when I moved them back into the garage because we were under a tornado warning and we don't have their permanent coop built yet. Miss Cluck hurt her foot while we were herding them with their cage, and I'm hoping it heals without any problems. She's walking/roosting on the pole just fine with it, so I think it's just the skin that got hurt. We are building the coop tomorrow, so they will have somewhere nice and sturdy to ride out any storms.

I'm so over tornados.

We're seeing some promising results from our bell peppers, cukes, corn, basil, thyme, sage, squash, mint, marjoram, onions, chives and tomatoes. We actually ate some of our basil tonight and it was dee-lish if I do say so. And I do.

Speaking of margaritas, you should try Skinny Girl Margaritas. They are the bomb. Just don't try a whole bottle by yourself or you might feel like I do today.

Back to the chicks. They've been enjoying pecking and scratching in the yard and eating scraps from the kitchen. Their plumage is coming in beautifully and I'm looking forward to their red combs joining the show. Yesterday I was feeding the cats and heard Juanita cheeping excitedly. Turns out she's just a narc. Miss Cluck was proudly strutting around ON TOP of their mobile pen. Lord knows how she got there, and I wish He'd post the video on YouTube, because I bet it was hilarious. The gap in the wire on the top, in the middle of the roof was only about three inches at it's widest. Anyway, I ran down and caught her and put her back in, then added some more scrap plywood to the top. (cue sanford and son theme song).

Speaking of the Lord, Good Him I'm tired.

'Night, y'all and God bless.

Storms!

2011-05-01T14:56:00.000-07:00

Well, we were kissed by the tornado, but were blessed to receive only minimal damage. The pond flooded the yard almost to the house, but the spillway kicked in and we didn't get any water inside.
The scariest part is that we had no warning. The sirens aren't audible where we are if you're inside. We awoke to our french doors (all three sets) blowing open as the tornado was reaching our house. I've never heard such a sound. Bradley flew up the stairs and pulled the kids from their beds upstairs as pieces of roof and siding were being pulled from right over their heads. We got into the basement and then about 1 minute later it was just...gone.
It rained a lot through the night and the next day. We watched as the pond rose up over our 5 foot fence and approached the house. The guy who built our house and the ones next to it brought a boat out and went over to the dam to be sure the spillway was working and once we knew that it was functioning, we breathed easy. I still don't like that it flooded our yard, but I'm counting my blessings!
Poor Tuscalosa got it so badly that I feel like we shouldn't complain a single bit.

Here are some pics:

early morning

it took about an hour to cover the fence completely

we had moved the composter up the hill, but the garbage bin that had blown into our yard (not ours) had a nice float around the yard! The water eventually was about halfway up the beds. I'm so glad we made them so tall!!

five foot fence was completely covered not long after this was taken.

it rose a few feet closer to the house than it is in this picture before the spillway kicked in.

Pics of the Hi-5 Ranch

2011-04-26T09:55:00.000-07:00

Here are some pics of the stuff I was talking about yesterday. Please forgive the fact that they are all over the place. It's taking forever to figure out this new picture uploading thing on Blogger and I DO have another job I need to be doing... :-)

The Girls, Juanita and Miss Cluck

The Nursery

Corn, Bell Peppers and Romaine Lettuce

Brussels Sprouts!! Mmmmm!!!

Easter Sunday

2011-04-25T06:44:00.000-07:00

April 24, 2011

Easter! After a wonderful morning hunting eggs and finding “giant bunny tracks” in the yard, we went to church and then lunch with my parents and sister. Big Boy was the first to discover some “tracks” by the fence, and to be truthful, they look a lot like the Easter Bunny dug in right as he hopped over the fence. Good eye for tracking that boy has, a very good eye.

All three of the children went to the Easter service with us in the Nave. They were very good and quiet the whole time. I wonder if our days at the church nursery are over…maybe it will depend upon the day. Anyway, I was very proud of their behavior and focus at church today.

Today we moved the chicks out of the guest bathroom. They have grown tremendously in the last three weeks and have learned to get out of the tub. Bird poop in the tub that I can easily bleach is one thing - knowing that the longer they stayed in that room the longer I’d be scrubbing it to sanitize it inspired me to get kinda bossy about getting them outta there.

My Sweet Husband is heading into his last law school exams ever so spending time to build a super nice coop just isn’t in the cards for a few more weeks. The chicks are also still just a little small I think to be outside all alone at night. (I’m a mother…hen…get it?) Anyway, we’ve come up with a solution – using a lot of repurposed parts we’ve built a temporary chicken run to keep on a tarp in the garage. Sweet Husband did pretty much everything, God bless him. It’s a big rectangular cube, wrapped in chicken wire. There’s a little bit of a roof on one end in case we want to take it outside and use it as a chicken tractor. We made it out of our old compost pile cube from our old house, some wood we had from other projects and another roll of chicken wire we got by returning some light bulbs. I love making new things without spending a dime!!!

It’s not beautiful by any means, but I feel good about Juanita and Miss Cluck living in it for a while. Tomorrow I’ll disinfect the guest bathroom and feel civilized again.

Also in the yard today we watered the two raised beds both morning and night. The corn, lettuce and pepper seedlings (planted yesterday) wilted by late afternoon, but perked up again once they were watered. We’re just going to have to be really good about watering them a lot until they are established.

The two eldest children planted purple petunias in a border around the front flower bed. It’s a sweet story that began with tears. I was beginning to mow the front yard with my super awesome manual lawn mower (more on that later) when Precious Daughter burst into tears crying “you’re mowing my flower land!” Oh no! Her “flower land” was made up of all of the wild flowers that grow in our “native” lawn….aka “weeds.” But in the eyes of a three year old with a beautiful imagination, I can see how it was indeed a Flower Land. What to do?

Luckily, I had two flats of purple petunias that I had been meaning to plant for the last two week -- I love it when procrastination pays off. I took her sweet, tiny hand and we walked together to the flowers in their trays and I told her she could plant herself a new Flower Land wherever she wanted in the flower bed. I’m so happy to report that not only did this help her with the loss of her wild flowers, but she did a great job with the help of her big brother! He dug the holes for her, and she put the flowers in and patted down the dirt around them. I looked up from my mowing to find that they’d made a lovely border around the main flower bed. Not bad for a 5 and 3 year old, huh? I’m so proud! After they were planted, Precious Girl was going to each one and watering it with a water bottle she was refilling and talking to them. SO SWEET.

Tiny Baby was determined to be held most of the time he was awake today, so I didn’t get to help just a ton. What mowing I did was while he was asleep. But I know too well how fast this time will pass and I’m cherishing it. He’s so precious and small and making all his baby sounds. Oh my little Boogie Bear. I’m going to go join him in bed right this second, co sleeping is the BOMB. I’m so glad we’ve slept with all three of our babies. There’s nothing that compares to it. Snuggles rule.