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A smaller flock – Goodbye Dinner

Yesterday we gave our first rooster away. We have 6 hens, and two roosters were one too many. We decided to give away the larger of the roos (the kids named him Dinner when he was a chick) because he was really doing a number on the hens. We had to make saddles and he would rip them off. He was a really big bird and beautiful rooster. It as a semi-difficult decision, we raised him from chick afterall. I remember he was the aggressive chick that would peck at me but run away when my hand got near him. He was skittish, but if you picked him up, he would be calm. He had a big, loud crow and he owned the chicken coop. If he hadn’t frostbit his comb on the roof, we would have had the kids show him for 4H. But he did stifle the other roo. He wouldn’t let him crow and the smaller roo only got the hens after the big one had a go at them first. He will be happy though, he is going to a farm in Berkley with a lot of chickens and other roosters to free range. I wish we could free range our flock, but there are too many dogs and cats around here. Our other roo started crowing this morning for the first time. A pathetic attempt, but he will grow into it. He is also making the adjustment to the top of the pecking order, keeping his girls in line.

Dinner, strutting his stuff.

Gavin saying goodbye.

The Yellow and Black Attack-No, not Stryper.

The dandelions are out so that means I am gathering them. It’s a slow start, I like when there are so many I can site down and fill a bucket from where I sit. Soon. I’m not sure where these will end up; dandelion mead, dandelion wine, dandelion jelly, dandelion tea, dandelion cookies, maybe a dandelion beer. Someday I plan on planting a bed of them and bring them into our diet regularly.

What my fingers look like after processing dandelion heads.

Small harvest for this early in the season.

The petals separated from the stems.

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Mahmahmallow Potty Time!

My 3 year old son loves marshmallow (mahmahmellos). Did I say love? He LOVES them. He doesn’t like going potty on the toilet yet. Got me thinking… marshmallows and potty have got to be a good thing. It works!

We go on the potty.
We flush the toilet.
We wash our hands.
We get mini-mahmahmallows for #1 and a big mahmahmallow for #2.
He actually asks to go potty most times now.
Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches with children.
Last diaper days soon?

Bad News

My son has ADHD-bad. My little brother had it bad too so it isn’t surprising. Many people don’t believe in ADHD. I agree that there is probably over-diagnosis with many children who don’t have ADHD being diagnosed with it. But believe me, my son has it. The difference when he is on his medicine and when he is not is night and day with him. You want to throttle him when he is off.
One thing that has bothered me is that his medicine is Adderall which is an amphetamine. They put young children on this. My brother was on Ritalin and my parents fought to move him onto lesser medication when he got older. We started that battle too. Our Dr. suggested Strattera. One issue with Strattera is that is can affect the length between heartbeats, called QT length. So before children go on it, they run an EKG at the pediatrician’s office. My son did his. BAD NEWS.
The Dr was concerned with the QT length he had already so immediately contacted a Children’s Hosptial branch for an appointment with a children’s heart specialist. Scared.
At Children’s they were really concerned about his QT length and said he had Long QT Syndrome. Looked it up. SCARED. They want to put him on a 24 hour heart monitor. Ordered him to immediately be taken off all medication. And ordered him to go to Boston Children’s Hospital.
So off his meds, we want to both throttle him and hug him at the same time. It will be a trying week until he goes to Children’s. If I could take his place I would. Cross your fingers for him, and if you pray, we’d appreciate the thoughts. Hopefully his medications did this and taking him off will reverse it all and he is a normal, healthy boy.

You Make Your Own Food? – More Apple Processing: Apple Chips

Slice the apples, then give them a bath in water and lemon juice to keep from browning.

Lay them out on the trays and set the food dehydrator to 135F and wait.

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