What's in my email inbox?

Too much that's for sure, but I can't bring myself to get rid of most of them because they are all important to me on some level.

Let's take a look at the first 10 I see...

• This just popped in, Market Watch. I don't follow the stock market, but my husband does, so by me following I get updates about all events that MarketWatch.com feels is moving the stock market in what ever direction it's going at that moment. So if Terry announces that the stock market is down today, I can insert the email headline and say, "Yep, the "Us Concern Over Federal Rate Policy" is probably what's to blame for the drag on the Dow." And I sound so smart, lol.  Sometimes I am really amazed at what Market Watch feels will impact the stock market enough to generate an up-to-minute email post like, "Happy Birthday Harry Potter!", or "Wozniacki to Run NYC Marathon!", yeah I'm going start selling (or buying?) stocks based on that exciting news!

• Then there are a few emails from Amazon telling me my items ordered yesterday will be delivered TODAY! Oh how I love Amazon Prime and having a shipping center just a few hours south of us in Phoenix. The problem with being rural is that it is almost faster (and costs less if you factor in fuel) to buy most things on Amazon rather then drive over 100 miles (one-way) to the city that has the stores that sell the stuff.

• And then I get to one of my favorites emails, its my evening email from BlogLovin, sharing all the most recent posts from my favorite blogs.  Let's see what's new today... First up I see a post by "A Fly on our Chicken Coop Wall, "Young moms have no idea how good they have it: Photography then and now", and a post by Making Our Sustainable Life "Canning Organic Plum Juice".  Hey, lookie there, it's My recent post too.  (I follow my own blog thru BlogLovin so I know how it shows up for my readers.)  There is a post by Grace Grits Garden "Things I don't need more of (even if I live to be 104)", and there are a few backyard farming hops that I will visit to meet new people and learn new things.

• The next few emails are updates from Twitter about who followed me, RT'd or DM'd me since yesterday and similar updates from Pinterest and Facebook.

• There is an email from "Wendy Davis for Texas" (hey Wendy, just an fyi, "I don't live in Texas").  Wendy Davis for Texas is telling me it's the '13th Hour' and they 'need to reach $35,000 in donations by midnight!'  I guess because I'm a Democrat they feel I should donate to all democrats everywhere.  Well, I have nothing against Ms Davis, I actually like her and would vote for her here in AZ but I can't donate to every democrat in the country...I didn't make enough money in the stock market selling stocks on Harry Potters Birthday.

Once my first-of-the-morning chores are done I get to sit down and relax a bit to drink my morning coffee while I skim through the emails.  If I get through them fast enough there is time to read some of my favorite blogs. Sometimes I leave a comment, but often there just isn't enough times if I want to read lots of them. But either way, I do enjoy the posts and feel inspired by the wonderful bloggers who have written them.

So what's in YOUR Email Inbox?

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!
 

I would love it if you 'Liked' me on Facebook too!

Did this post stir something inside of you? If so, Please leave me a comment, I would love to know what you're thinking!!!

Oh Boy, Has a Year Rreally Gone By Since My Last Post?!?!

Oh boy, has a year really gone by since my last post?!?!  I am sorry for being away so long but I felt I needed to take a sabbatical for a while, I just didn't plan on it being this long.

You are probably asking "Why did you need a sabbatical from a simple Chicken Lady life?  Well, because it wasn't always so 'simple', and I needed to sort out some things within myself.  I originally created this blog to share my journey getting back into chickens, back to country life and living more nature, after being away from that lifestyle for most of my adult life.  But after a while I began to feel that I was boxed in to just blogging about my chickens, gardening, and my living green experiments.  I didn't feel that I could share more about the personal side of 'me' in this journey.  I had so much more I wanted to share and express but felt my readers that came here because they were interested in chickens wouldn't be interested in the other aspects of my life.   This left me feeling that I was being two people -the chicken lady AND the middle aged woman struggling with being middle aged, finding my way career wise or retirement wise, surviving in this hostile political time, and finding place within all of this.  I didn't feel like I was being my true self in only sharing one aspect of myself with you, so I took a break to sort this all out.

During my break, I considered starting a new blog where I would blog about the other 2/3's of my life, but that just felt inauthentic.  So I did what a deer does when faced with headlights of an on coming car...I stood there doing nothing, waiting for the car to hit me.  Fortunately for me the metaphorical car went around me.  Leaving me just standing there still confused as to what to do next, which direction do I go?  So just like that deer, I wondered off into the woods and pondered my decisions.  I doubt that's what the deer really do when they are barely missed by a speeding vehicle, but I would like to think that they at least learn something from the event and stay off the road in the future.

For me the time away gave me some clarity.  I began to realize that to be my true self I had to be willing to take a chance that my readers wanted to know ME, not just the Chicken Lady part of me.  So after much thought, consideration, and soul searching, I am back!  I loved this blog so much.  I loved interacting with my readers, and reading your blogs.  I just hope my readers are still around somewhere willing to give me another shot at this.  I have decided that I am not going to box myself in to just talking chicken (which I do love to do) because there is so much more to me than just that.  This was suppose to be about sharing my journey... chickens were just the springboard to that journey.  You can now look forward to me sharing my thoughts on other subjects, my opinions, and my personal feelings about things other than just chickens.  But don't worry, I will have lots to say about chickens!

Thank you for coming back and understanding that I just needed some time to figure out what direction I wanted (needed) to go in.  I hope you are willing to get to know the true me and take this journey with me fully! 

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

I would love it if you 'Liked' me on Facebook too!

Did this post stir something inside of you?  Leave me a comment, I would love to know what you're thinking!!!

Distraction can really help in trying times ~ my funny observations

This is our 3rd day of evacuation and emotions have been like a roller coaster for us, but today we got some really good news so we are feeling a lot better.  The hubby suffers from ADHD so he has re-textured our daughters kitchen and fixed every little thing around her house.  I've been using the internet to distract my thoughts.  It was sort of going well until I read a few of my favorite bloggers talking about how their gardens are progressing and how they are canning and freezing their harvests.  This made me think about my own garden that was just getting started, and now due to the evacuation it is not going to get any water for a full week.  I hope it somehow survives.  I did water it on Sunday, but it doesn't look like we will be allowed back home until at least Saturday.

Distraction, I need distraction...Okay, let me share a few things that made me smile in the last few days.

"We each have our own reality to deal with." Our dogs are use to traveling with us everywhere.  When we were evacuated they probably didn't even notice something was going on, we just opened the truck door and said, "Let's go girls!" and they jumped in.  While evacuated we are staying with our daughter in Payson, where we have had monsoon rains every day.  With monsoons come thunder.  Our miniature Schnauzer is afraid of thunder.  So every afternoon when it starts she gets all freaked out and wants to stick to me like glue.  She sits next to me and puts her paw on me somewhere, just to stay literally connected with me until the thunder passes.  So here we are uprooted from our home and she doesn't have a clue, the only thing that stresses her is the thunder.  Okay, maybe that isn't really funny because thunder is scary to her, but it struck me (pardon the pun) as funny because she is oblivious to the reality of our situation.

Big Red -with her dirty beak looking like she just won a grapenuts cereal eating contest! (I had to wet their food so it was like their fermented food they get at home.  They were upset when I gave them dry food to eat.  More on that story soon.)

"Chickens don't lay eggs in times of stress...or do they?"   With all the recent trauma the chickens have been under and the fact that I forgot to bring any oyster or egg shells for Big Red (my only laying hen right now) and she didn't have her coop or nest box, I figured that she wouldn't be laying any eggs right now.  She laid an egg about 30 minutes before the evacuation notice was issued, so I thought it would be her last until we got back home and things settled down.  But last night, while my daughter was letting her little dog out in the back yard to potty, Big Red walked to the middle of the kennel, squatted down and laid an egg!  My daughter has never seen a chicken lay an egg before.  I haven't had chickens since she was a toddler (she is 28 yo).  We were away from the house so she called me to tell me that my chicken just laid an egg!  She was afraid to go in the kennel to get it because she thought the hen would peck her, ha ha.  My granddaughter volunteered to collect the egg.  She went in, picked it up and thanked Big Red for the egg then went inside and put it in an egg carton in the fridge (just like we do at my house).  My daughter was so impressed with her 6 yo daughter for handling this situation (so she didn't have to, ha ha.).

"How well would you pack in an emergency?"  With about 30 minutes to pack everything you, your family, and your pets might need for an overnight (or 7 overnights) away from home, you are bound to forget some stuff.  I forgot many things.  None that I couldn't survive without, but very important things none the less.  Because it was Sunday, it was laundry day at my house, so most of our clothes were sorted out in piles on the laundry room floor.  I grabbed an overnight bag and through in clean stuff from our bedroom.  Since I knew this could easily turn in to '7 overnights', I grabbed a trash bag and scooped up our dirty laundry.  Thank goodness I did that because somehow I managed to forget to pack any clean pants for my husband or socks for me.  So after our first night away I went to take a shower and realized I didn't have clean socks, so my 4 yo grandson gave me a pair of his socks to wear while I did laundry.  Thank goodness for heelless tube socks...his little size made perfect bobby socks for me, Ha ha!  He got a kick out of bragging that his Nanny was wearing his socks!

"Wishing you a long evacuation" Today as my grandkids were leaving to go to their dads house for the 4th of July holiday (not to return until Monday), we had the news on and heard that the evacuation may be lifted as early as Saturday.  My granddaughter asked what that meant.  I said, "If they lift the evacuation on Saturday then we can go home on that day."  She said, "I hope they don't lift your evacuation...I wont be home til Monday and I want to see you more."  Aw, that was the sweetest 'non-well wish' I have ever had.


Writing (blogging) is so therapeutic.  It has really helped me during this tough time.  Thank you to all of my virtual friends for listening.

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

I would love it if you 'Liked' me on Facebook too!

Did this post stir something inside of you? If so, Please leave me a comment, I would love to know what you're thinking!!!

If you hide your blog, I can't find you and become virtual chicken-keeping friends!

Are you and your blog hiding in the background?  You should step out of the shadows so like minded people can find you!  It's as easy as updating your blogger profile.

See that box over there in the right-hand column that says "Join this site with Google Friend Connect" and has little thumbnail under it with your picture (hopefully it has your picture)?  Did you know that if I click on it I can see your Google profile, a link to your website, a link to contact you via email (if you want me to be able to contact you), along with other things like what other blogs you follow?  Well, it shows me all that unless you are hiding. 

Many people don't realize they are short-circuiting everyone's ability to easily find their blog/website because this information is not up to date.  When I see a new follower over there, I click on their thumbnail and hopefully find a link to their blog so I can go visit their blog too.  If I want to contact them about their blog, I look for a link to their email address there too.  But if they have not updated their information, our ability for future networking ends right there.  You're visiting blogs to socialize, so lets make it easier to do.

Updating your information is really easy. 

1.) First, click on your own thumbnail (that hopefully is there because you are now following me).  When the pop up box opens, do you see a link to your blog/website?  If not then click on your profile name (to the right of your profile picture, or stock silhouette if you haven't added a picture yet).

2.) Next, click the "Edit Profile" button in the upper right corner of the new page that opened.

Under "Privacy" check the boxes to 'share my profile', 'show my email' (this is optional, you can leave it unchecked, but enter your email so I can contact you even if I can't see your email address), 'show my blog', etc.

3.) Scroll on down and fill out the "Identity" information.

4.) Add a profile picture...either of yourself or your blog picture.

5.) Go on down the page and enter your blog/website URL

6.) Fill in any of the other information that you are comfortable sharing, then go to the bottom and hit the "Save" button.

Now when I click on your thumbnail picture over there in the right column...I will be able to see you (or your blog picture), and I can easily go visit your blog/website!  This is what online social networking is all about.  You visit my blog, I visit yours...we become virtual 'chicken keeping friends!'


GFC is only one place that your profile helps bring people to your blog/website, so go visit any other places where you have profiles that need updated with your blog url such as Pinterest, Google+, Facebook, Twitter, etc...

Keeper of 1 husband, 2 grandkids, 3 dogs,
3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

I would love it if you 'Liked' me on Facebook too!

Did this post stir something inside of you? If so, Please leave me a comment, I would love to know what you're thinking!!!