Weird Egg Laying Event Right in Front of My Camera. ~Chicken Pro's Please Chime In!

Tonight when I was spending some time with my chickens, like I do almost every evening an hour or so before their bedtime, the weirdest thing happened.  Maybe you chicken experts can explain this one to me.

I happen to have my camera with me and caught this whole thing in pictures, how cool is that?  Okay, so here is some background information first.  Big Red laid a beautiful egg at about 8:00 am this morning.  A perfect egg in every way.  Then this evening at about 7:30 pm while I was snapping pics of the chickens, I happen to turn towards her.  She was standing still by the door of the run.  She looked like she was about to go poop...you know what that looks like -she pulls her butt feathers in, slightly squats and her tail feathers pull downward as she pushes it out.  Well when she did that I noticed nothing came out.  I wanted to take her picture so I waited another second then snapped a shot (thinking I would miss the actual pooping and get a still shot before she walked away).  Instead I got this shot.

Do you see the bulge at her vent?  Here is a close up with an arrow...

What the heck?!?  That looks like a baby crowning!  And then all of a sudden it is out on the ground.  Even Big Red was shocked by this.

Big Red: "Did I do that?"

She laid an egg! But wait, she just laid an egg about 11 hours ago...what happened to the 25 hour ovulation thing? 

And this was not a normal egg either.  For one, it did not have a shell, and it had a....uh, (for lack of a better explanation), it had what looked like an open umbilical cord on the end.

And the 'white' of the egg was slowly dripping out of the tube opening.  The outer egg sack was thick and did not break when I picked it up. What the heck happened here?  Surely you longtime chicken keepers have seen this before.  Can you tell me why she laid another egg after only 12 hours, and why this one had the open tube on one end?

Could this be like when we humans have miscarriages because the baby is not formed properly?  Could this be a miscarriage of an egg that wasn't suppose to be ready until tomorrow morning? After she laid this 'egg' she took a few steps away then took a standing nap.  She does that on occasion, just her thing I guess.  But obviously she felt comfortable afterwards so she just napped a few moments.

I am not going to freak out or anything, weird stuff happens when chickens begin laying eggs, this I know and understand, but this was just so weird, probably because it happened right in front of me (and my camera fortunately).  Please share your experience on this if you have seen this before.

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Video: "Hazards of Backyard Hens" ~ Misty you should have told me this Before I got Chickens!

Oh My Goodness!  It has happened to me!! I didn't know about the 'Hazards of Backyard Hens' until now, and now it is too late!!!  I have fallen into the 'slippery slope' of backyard chickens and all the dangers that Misty predicted are happening in my life!  What shall I do?  Should we have a 'Chicken Intervention' now or wait until I have gone off the deep end -which is exactly where I am headed?!

You have to watch this video...get the audio turned up so you don't miss anything right from the beginning.






Well, have you fallen in to this slippery slope as well?  Maybe we could just become co-enablers.  Who really wants help for this affliction anyway...not me!   I shared this video with my husband and after watching it he said, "She is talking about YOU!"  Perhaps I shouldn't have shared it with him because now he knows that the property he is clearing for my future goats, will not be the end of it...there will be more!

I do hope you will visit Misty's blog at "One Girls Rant"

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Happy to be home...Chick Photos

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.  The stress from being evacuated all week is starting to dissipate now that we are back in our home.  So for today I thought I would just share some pictures I took of the chicks after getting back in their home Thursday night.

Barry enjoying the tall grasses in the grazing frame.

Big Red posing for a shot...

Big Red: "What the heck is stuck between my toes?"

Tiny sure missed her Chicken Fountain while we were in evacuation.

Buffy: "I know I saw something move down there, now where is it?"

Everyone else was either camera shy or moving to fast to get a clear shot.  So nothing much happening around our coop, how about yours?

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Yarnell Hills Fire Update: The Evacutation of Peeples Valley has been lifted!

The evacuation of Peeples Valley was lifted today at 6:30 pm, however the evacuation of Yarnell is still in effect with hopes of lifting it by Saturday.

We got the news at about 3:00 pm today and it took us about 2 hours to pack up our stuff again, load up the cats, and chickens, take down their temporary chicken run, then head for home.  With a three hour drive ahead of us we didn't arrived home until 8:00 pm, just minutes before the sun went down.

With only minutes of daylight left I grabbed the dog crates the chickens were traveling in and hauled them to the chicken run.  Once all 5 crates were inside the run I opened their doors.  They were a little hesitant to come out of the crates at first, but once they realized they were home they started running around the chicken run excitedly.  They dashed over to the grazing frames to pick at all the grasses that have grown up out of the wire in the last four days.  Then moments later Barry (my rooster in training) ushered them all into the coop.  He then wondered around in the run making his urgent noise looking kind of worried.  They normally go to bed before the sun goes down fully so I think he just couldn't see if everyone was inside.  I turned on a flashlight in the coop and he went inside and saw that all of his girls were inside, so he calmed down.

Interestingly...Big Red was on the lower roost right in the middle of all of the younger girls.  This is so strange because she usually goes to the higher roost and wont let ANYONE except Barry on her roost.

Big Red, third from the left, all on lower roost.

I wonder if her new friendlier behavior had anything to do with this... There was an incident that happened in the temporary chicken run today where she seemed to be having a melt down.  If she had been a human woman in the 1960's, someone would have slapped her to knock some sense into her (like in the old movies).  She was running around frantically, poking her head through the holes in the chain-link, trying to squeeze her body through.  Barry was quite worried about her acting so frantic.  She tried to fly up to the roof to get out but couldn't.  She was running frantically along the walls, squawking.  I put a dog crate inside the run, and she ran inside and started digging around in the wood shavings, then ran back out, then in, then out again.  The next time she went inside I put a towel over the sides and front so she couldn't see out.  She calmed down almost immediately.  She stayed in there for about 45 minutes.  When she finally emerged from behind the towel curtain she was like a changed bird.  She was calm and even went over and laid down with the other chickens...which she has never done! 

A few hours later when it was time to put everyone back in the crates for the trip home, everyone cooperated.  Big Red even put herself in the crate.  With this sitting 'with' the girls on the roost thing...I don't know, but I think she had a nervous breakdown today.  Which fortunately seems to have made her decide to be friends with the others, perhaps to receive some of the comfort they were giving each other.  Here is a picture of them all lovingly cuddled together while she was in the crate having her nervous breakdown.

Young chickens all napping together.

My cats have always been loving litter mates, but today they also showed over the top support for each other.  Here in this picture you see how they are literally hugging each other.  When we first set out and one or the other would get nervous and start panting, the others would lick them until they felt better.  It was so touching to see this.

Cuddling on their way home after evacuation was lifted.

The trip home was so quiet and peaceful.  I was driving my van with 3 cats and 9 chickens and no one was crying out, or acting upset.  At one point I could even hear Barry making his little cooing sounds that he does when he wants to get the girls to come to him.  They (we) also enjoyed listening to NPR all the way home.

How did things look when we got home?  Well, like I said, it was minutes before sundown so I couldn't see the mountains around us that were on fire when we left Sunday afternoon. I will have to see that tomorrow morning.  Our community was not burned (although two houses on the outskirts were lost to the fire).  The strong winds that caused the fire to turn on those 19 firefighters blew everything around in our yard.  My barrels were practically on the neighbors property, chairs where also overturned.  My garden was so dry, but I think most of it will survive, again it was dark so I will survey it closely in the morning.  My planter of mint and my trays of herbs were mostly dead, we will see if they make a come back.  I watered everything by flashlight.

Inside, my spouts were of course molded, and my fermented feed was totally yucky!!! I dumped it all out, sterilized the containers and started a fresh batch of fermented feed.  My mealworms were down to the last nibble of potato left and it looked totally hollow.  I had over 100 new Pupae that needed to be moved to the beetle box.  Many of my previous pupae had turned into beetles, there were a bunch of them running around.  Thank goodness our power was not out (like we heard rumored to be) because keeping the A/C on meant it didn't get too hot in the house, so the mealworms did not bake.

So all in all, everything looked pretty good.  I will get a better look at everything tomorrow.  I am dreading seeing the blackened mountains sides.  I will be talking with my neighbors to see who is organizing what to help out the folks of Yarnell that will need to begin rebuilding, or at the very least, clean up after the fire.  We are ready to get busy putting our community back together again.  This is why I love small towns...you get to know everyone, and when something like this happens, we all pull together to help one another.

Well, I am beat.  This has been a very long 4+ days and I need to get some much needed sleep, in my own bed!  Thank you again for all of your support during this very difficult time.  I am so lucky to know such wonderfully generous people.


UPDATE: Here are some pictures I took the next morning. Sorry some looks so bad, it is hazy here this morning, looks like rain today...hopefully.  I could not get better pictures because we are not suppose to be out in the burn areas.  These are all taken from my front and side yard up on the hill.

A house right at the edge of where it burned.

Burned areas, and retardant areas.

See green in foreground, then burned hills in back.  That road stopped most of the fire, but it crossed in this one location.

The red retardant is spooky to look at.  See the house still standing right behind the retardant?

The command center this morning. They took over Model Creek School at the bottom of the hill.

See the burned hill behind the command center?

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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.

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3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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UPDATE ON YARNELL HILL FIRE ~Fire Perimeter Update

UPDATE ON THE YARNELL HILL FIRE: I just learned from Paul Doherty, PhD that the fire perimeter mapping has been updated and it now shows that Peeples Valley proper (the main housing area) has been excluded from the burn area previously reported. See the current map below...

View Larger Map

Yesterday the map showed that most of Peeples Valley proper was within the perimeter of the active fire area. Why the difference today?  Because the Esri's maps update whenever the centralized source (the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) called GeoMAC) updates their database.  The USGS uses thermal imaging (among other methods) to detect what areas are within the fires perimeters...this is not 100% accurate, but very close.  So it looks like last night they were able to get new information and therefore changed the perimeter.

I also called Liberty Mutual Insurance again this morning to get an update from the Wildfire Resource Team on the ground in Peeples Valley.  She told me that according to their report, the fire had not burned our house or the neighboring houses.  It was close by our community and they did need to do some protective measures (including setting up sprinklers on the roof as a last effort to protect a house) for some houses in Peeples Valley but they could not tell me specifically which ones, so I assume those must have been houses on the outskirts of the primary housing area, such as those further up in the hills to the West and South of Peeples Valley proper.   The person I spoke to said she was looking at a picture of my house from last nights 8:40pm report and it was fine...she identified several vehicles in front of my house so I know it was actually mine.  She said I could call back later this afternoon for further updates.

I want to again thank Paul for keeping me posted of the mapping updates, the wonderful people at Liberty Mutual Insurance,  the Wildfire Resource Team for the on-the-ground updates, and to all the wonderful people who are Praying for our community and the fallen firefighters and their families.  The out pour of generosity has been so comforting.  THANK YOU!!!

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Finally we get some news about the Yarnell Hills Fire ~ From some unlikely sources

Finally we get some answers about the status of the fire burning in our community.  And the answers didn't come from the Fire agencies or the news media covering this fire.

Today Paul Doherty, PhD, Public Safety Technology Specialist, who works for Esri, a software company that supports most government agencies with geographic information systems (GIS), shared an interactive map of the Yarnell Hills Fire on Twitter.   Here is the map:


View Larger Map

Immediately I could see that my community, Peeples Valley, was within the fires perimeters.  When I zoomed in I could see my street, and then my home, all within the perimeter.  Paul explained that the map shows the perimeter of the fire, but there could be areas within that perimeter that did not burn.  So even though most of my neighborhood was within the perimeter, it is still possible that our home did not burn yet.  While I was relieved to finally have some information, I still didn't know if my home was still standing or not.  I tried to call the different fire agencies working this fire to verify that it was now burning in Peeples Valley and to see if they had lost any homes yet.  But I could not get an answer from anyone.  Even the press conference held this afternoon didn't shed any light on the situation for us evacuees waiting and wondering if we have a home to go home to.  They just wouldn't tell us anything.

Then I remember that my home insurance company, Liberty Mutual, had called us Monday morning to tell us about a free service that our insurance provides called the 'Wildfire Prevention Program', where they send in a Wildlife Resource Team (WRT) into the evacuated area to proactively work to protect our home by applying a flame retardant material to the wood surfaces of our house, clear any flammables from around our house, including clearing the land of flammable brush, and they will even set up sprinklers on the roof to protect it from catching fire from flying embers.  And this service does not cost us one penny!

Knowing they were going in to the area to do this for all homeowners who had Liberty Mutual Insurance, I thought, why not call them to see if they knew if the team had done any protective measures to our house yet.  When I called I spoke to a very nice lady who seemed to be really concerned for my feelings and my situation.  She said, "I think I can do even better then that, hold on a moment."  She put me on hold for maybe a couple of minutes, then returned to say she had just check the status of the WRT working in our community.  According to their last update at approximately noon today, the fire was reported to be very close to our home, but our home had not burned as of that time."  She said the team has to leave the area each evening when it gets dark, and at that time they would be submitting a new update for the day.  So she told me to call back in the morning and they would tell me what they new.

Is that Awesome or what?!  I was treated so nice and they were so helpful when I could not get any information from any local agencies.  Now I have a little peace of mind knowing that as of noon today my home is still standing, even though there is fire burning through our neighborhood.  We have shared this information with our friends and neighbors in our neighborhood as best we can.

I want to send a special "Thank You" to Paul Doherty and to the folks at Liberty Mutual Insurance company.  One thing is for sure...if our house is still standing after this fire has burned out, because of the efforts of Wildfire Resource Team, then we will be switching All of our insurance policies to Liberty Mutual Insurance...because they certainly earned it with their proactive approach to taking care of their insureds. 

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3 cats, and 17 Chickens!

 

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Pets experience the trauma from fire evacuation similar to us humans

Being evacuated from your home with no more than 20-30 minutes to leave can effect us in surprising ways.  For my husband it made him feel more in control instead of less.  He took the lead and is my hero for doing that because I felt suddenly lost and out of control over my own life.  I felt a huge responsibility to protect my grandchildren and my pets, and was overwhelmed by that responsibility.

When we saw the fire growing out of control we knew evacuation was imminent.  That is when I started grabbing the cats and placing them in the crate.  Harry and Molly were both inside the house so they went in the crate first, but I had to go looking for Marvin.  I ran around outside the house calling him but he didn't come, that is not typical for him.  The cats all know their name and they all come to me right away when I call them.  I went back inside the house and did another search of the house, specifically the guest room that they think is their own.  My granddaughter crawled under the bed and found him up in the box frame hiding.  All of this commotion and smell of smoke in the air must have scared him.  We got him out and placed him in the crate along with his two litter mates.  They were obviously shaken up.  Harry was spinning in circles and his eyes were huge as he tried to take it all in.

We drove for three hours to my daughters home.  The last half hour the cats were crying so loudly that my husband could barely hear me on the cell phone (we were in separate vehicles, they were with him and the dogs).  We happen to have our 5th wheel parked in an RV park in the city where our daughter lives because we have been working on a couple of house remodels there.  So the plan was to take the chickens to her house and set up the kennel in the back yard, then the cats and dogs would stay with us in the RV.  But with the cats so upset we decided to take the cats straight to the RV to get them out of the crate where they could calm down, then we would go to our daughters house and set up the chicken housing.

When we released the cats in the RV they were so scared.  They hadn't been in the RV since they were tiny babies so after being put in  a crate, driven around for hours, then dumped in an unfamiliar place, they were nearly in shock.  Their cat litter box was still in the trailer from when they were kittens, so I just filled it with litter and gave them a bowl of fresh water.  I did happen to find a small package of their cat food that was also left from when they were kittens, so I offered it to them.  They were not interested in eating just yet.  We gave them some loving petting, and talked to them calmly for a few moments, then we had to leave to get to our daughters to get the chickens set up for the night.

Once at my daughters house it was dark so we assembled the 6' x 6' chainlink dog kennel in the light of a porch light, while holding a flashlight.  This was much less room then they are use to having at home, but at least they were all safe.  After nearly not being able to catch Big Red we were so relived that we did finally get her because this would have been a very sad time if we had to leave any of them behind.  We put plywood on top of the kennel to keep the chickens in (they do not have clipped wings) and other critters out.   Then it was time to release them in their temporary shelter.  I placed each of the crates inside the dog kennel and locked myself inside.  Then I opened each of the crate doors.  Big Red came out first because she wanted out of that crate so bad.  She didn't have much room to walk around in the small kennel, especially with me and 5 crates inside.  A few of the other chickens came out of the crate but some of them refused to come out.  There were all very upset.  I reached in to one crate to pet Barbara, but she was so scared she pecked at me.  I continued to talk to them calmly, trying to coax them out.  Eventually they all came out but they were not happy.  They pecked at each other, flew around like they were insane, and pecked at me if they bumped in to me.

I felt so bad for them.  I worried that they might hurt each other or themselves being all cooped up in the small space without a coop to bed down in, especially after driving in the back of the truck in a crate for 3 hours.  I know I would have been freaked out myself.  I did have the forethought to grab my single water bottle waterer so I wired it up to the wall of the kennel.  I stayed with them a little while longer trying to calm them with my presence but it seemed that they were all so traumatized that my presence seemed to be making them even more upset so I closed them in the kennel and turned off the lights.  I was hopeful that with darkness they would just go to sleep and feel better in the morning.

The next morning I got up early and went to my daughters house to check on the chickens.  They were hungry and letting me know it too.  In our haste to leave our home I only grabbed a  gallon ziploc bag of dry chicken feed that was in my can from when they were babies.  I poured some of it into a cake pan my daughter had but the chickens were upset that it was not their usual food...I have been feeding them fermented feed with seeds and goodies mixed in. (that post is coming soon)  This dry dish of crumbles was NOT what they expected and they were voicing their distaste for it too.  Barry got in the dish and was kicking it out of the dish...searching for his delicious wet food!  Big Red was squawking loudly over this awful dry, plane food.   I grabbed my bottle of water and poured it into the dish and used a stick to stir up the food.  Then they calmed down a bit and ate their food.  This was at least closer to what they were use to.

The next task at hand was to make their temporary home more homey.  My hubby rustled up two more kennel panels so we were able to extend the kennel our another 5 feet (increasing another 30 sq ft).  We put tarps over the top of the new section and around the back side where the sun tends to shine the most, giving them the feeling of being enclosed.  The hubby cut the ends of a few 2x4's to make them two roosts.  As we did all these things to make the new run more homey you could almost feel the tension dissipating among the chickens.  They stopped being so aggressive with each other and with me as well.  Barbara, Goldie, and even Alice and Lucy let me pick them up and talk to them while petting them.  This helped me feel calmer as well as helping them calm down.  I think we are going to be okay.  At least until the day we pack them back up in the crates and head home.  Fortunately, last time we left the RV I left my van here, so for the ride home the chickens can ride in the van without all the wind they had to endure on the ride here in the back of the pickup.  It should be a much easier ride home.

The chickens temporary home.

Chowing down on their wet food.

Checking out the 2x4 roost hubby installed.

The first night in evacuation the cats were still stressed, jumping at every new noise or movement we made.  But now after two days everyone is settling in.  We are giving everyone lots of extra love and attention and I think it is helping us all get through this time of uncertainty.  Now that my babies are doing better, I have been calming down as well.  The first two days I could not eat.  The thought of putting food in my mouth made me feel like vomiting.  My heart ached for how this was effecting my pets, and the feeling of having no control over my own life, and the tremendous sadness I feel for the 19 firefighters who died in this fire.  But as I relax knowing that my pets are going to be okay and I deal with the emotions I am feeling for the lose of young lives, I have been able to finally eat some food and keep it down.

Harry, Marvin, and Molly eating on the bunk bed

Barbara resting calmly.

I wish we knew what was happening with the fire.  The news is either not getting reports from the fire crews or they are just not sharing that with us.  When we left the fire was encircling our community and the news says it is still very much out of control, so we have no idea what has been burned in our neighborhood.  I assume that if our house burns down someone will contact us.  We hope the evacuation will be lifted soon so we can go home and start to put our lives back together.  I continue to feel heart ache in my soul for the firefighters who have lost their lives, and to be so thankful for the ones that are continuing to fight this fire.  I am so sad for those in Yarnell who have lost their homes.  We are ready to join forces with others in our community to begin to rebuild their homes and our community.

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

 

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Yarnell Hills Fire continues to burn as our hearts mourn the loss of the 19 Firefighters killed in this fire.

I was hesitant to write this post because I don't want to draw any attention to myself, but the tragedy that I am involved in right now is so overwhelming to me that I need to write it.  Writing has always been like therapy for me, and today I need it more than ever.

My husband and I live in Peeples Valley, AZ where the Yarnell Hill Fire is burning out of control.  The fire started on Friday and it is believed that it started by lightening during our first monsoon storm of the season.  The area where it started is high in the mountains between the small towns of Yarnell and Peeples Valley.  The rough terrain is covered with chaparral pines, scrub oak, and manzenita's and it is all very dry...the perfect fire-storm just waiting to happen.

From what I understand (from a reliable source) the BLM thought the small fire in the mountains would burn itself out so they sent home some of the fire crew.  Saturday mid-morning we saw the smoke from the fire.  It appeared to be a few mountains over and looked pretty small at that time.  But within just a few hours the wind kicked up and so did the fire.  We watched the fire growing in size and intensity from our front porch in Peeples Valley.  Saturday night it was obvious that the fire was rapidly approaching our community.  We were afraid to go to sleep that night for fear that the Sheriff's office would be evacuating our town while we were asleep.  We don't have a home phone so we would not receive a reverse 911 call (which is the standard practice), so I left our bedroom window open a little so we would at least hear sirens if they were going door-to-door during the night.  We had a restless nights sleep that night, but no evacuation came.

On Sunday morning, after we checked the fire out our kitchen window and it appeared to still be smoking but didn't look too much worse than the night before, I went online and registered our cell phones with the Code-Red system so we would get an emergency call if our location was evacuated.  We thought at that time that maybe they had it under control.  But by about 10:00am the winds picked up and the fire followed suit.  We could see flames cresting the last mountain that separated us from the fire.  The flames where higher then houses that we saw in the distance and the smoke became very dark, building into huge plumes as the fire consumed stands of trees on the hillside.  Earlier on Sunday the fire command center was set up at the Model Creek School which was on the only road in or out of our community.  With the command center set up there we assumed the road out would stay clear for us to exit if need be.

View of the fire from our front yard.

By noon the fire appeared to be getting seriously out of control.  We saw several helicopters and small planes dumping water on the fire but didn't seem to be having any effect.  Then finally we saw the DC10 fly over and dump a massive amount of red fire retardant on the fire line.  We were hopeful this would hold the fire back, but instead it appeared that the fire spread sideways and was now surrounding our small community.   I took the following video at that time, panning left and right to show the span of the fire.



We knew this was not good and I finished packing for our emergency exit that we knew would soon come.  I had my three cats already in the large dog crate, our trucks were loaded, and the grandkids who were visiting had all of their bags already loaded in the truck as well.

Once most of our stuff was packed we were watching the fire to the south and east (two ends of a very wide fire line) of us burning out of control. Then all of a sudden we saw the fire to the south of us flair up and quickly burn towards the school where the fire command center was set up.  They were trying to fight that fire while mobilizing their vehicles and pulling them and the school buses out of the parking lot.  They moved out to the highway & Hays Ranch Road.  Then we got the Code-Red call to evacuate!

The next task was to try and catch my 9 chickens in the middle of the day!  Thank goodness my granddaughter was visiting...she is a 6 year old chicken whisperer.  Most of the chickens will walk right up to her to be picked up, like they don't want to, but know she will get them anyway, so they squawk and hold their heads down while walking right up beside her and stand there waiting to be picked up.  We opened 4 small dog crates just big enough to hold two chickens each, and one large crate for Big Red by herself.  My granddaughter caught two chickens, I caught two, then she helped me team catch four others.  I did my best to put two chickens closest to pecking order in the same crates...good thing I pay attention to these things while spending time with them.  Catching Big Red was another story.  While we were trying to catch her the Sheriff drove up our driveway and order us to get out!  I had to enlist my husbands help...he is afraid of the chickens and Big Red is equally afraid of us, so she was doing anything she could to get away from me.   We made the sad decision to get our other pets and grandchildren out of there, and leave Big Red since we could not catch her.

We ran and loaded the kids, dogs, cats in the crate inside the trucks, and the only room left was in the back so that is where we had to put the four crates of chickens.  I looked back to the chicken run and saw that Big Red was not in the run, she must have gotten scared and decided to hide inside the coop.  This was my chance.  I ran to the coop and pushed the automatic shut button on the ADOR Automatic Door to lock her inside.  Then I went in through the human door.  Then feathers began to fly as she and I went after each other inside the 6'x6' coop.  I caught her!  I then put her in the big wire crate and my husband helped me carry it to the truck.  I put her in the back seat next to my grandson.  She was thoroughly panicked -squawking and pacing around in the crate.  After about 20 minutes with the cool A/C on and my grandkids talking sweetly to her, she did calm down some.

Now that we had all of our pets and grandkids in the trucks we took off.  This was so scary because as we were driving out the only exit road from our community the fire was so close to us.  If it continued to burn much longer it might close off our only way of getting out.  About 15 minutes after we left Peeples Valley the wind shifted with the monsoon storm coming in from the north.  This southern wind was very strong, it almost blew me over when I was pulled over to check on the chickens in the back of the pick-up.  This change in direction of the winds is what pushed the fire back towards the town of Yarnell.  The winds were so strong that they moved the fire so fast that the fire crews were not able to do anything to stop it.

The fire quickly burned into Yarnell and trapped the 19 Hotshot crew members, and burning on into the town of Yarnell, burning a large number of homes.   I learned about the change in direction causing the death of the 19 young men from my daughter who was at home in Prescott Valley watching the news.  She called me on my cell.  I almost could not believe what I was hearing.  My heart felt so heavy, I began to cry for the loss of these young lives.  I have not been able to stop the tears every time think about them.  They gave their lives to save us and our homes.  It is so unfair...their lives were not a fair trade for our homes.  Homes can be rebuilt, but their families will forever be without them.

I am forever indebted to these heroic young men.  Please Pray for these young men and their families.  If you are not a Praying person, then please just take a few moments of silence to think positive thoughts for them.

The fire continues to burn around our home and community.  We are still evacuated and have no idea when we will be able to return home.  My heart is so heavy with what I think might be survivor guilt.  There were so many homes lost and 19 lives ended because of this fire.  My family and my pets are safe (yet scared and stressed) and as far as we know our house is still standing and I feel a kind of guilty about that.

I will probably share more of the fallout of this tragic event in future posts, but for right now, I just needed to share this with someone, anyone, so that hopefully someone understands how so very sad I feel at this moment in my life.

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

 

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My first Fried Zucchini of the Season ~ Recipe

Today I harvested my first zucchini (and a few more okra) and fried it up for dinner!

I love zucchini just about any way that you cook it and even uncooked too!  My favorite way is fried.  I don't make it that way too often because of the extra fat from being fried, although I use olive oil to cook it in.  It is my summer time guilty pleasure.  If you have never tried it, you should!  Here is generally how I make it.

I usually have an entire zucchini to myself, but since I only had one so far I had to share this one with the hubby (so double or triple as needed).  I sliced it into thick slices (almost 1/2 " thick).  I placed the slices into a small Ziploc back and added 1 beaten egg.  Roll the back around a bit to thoroughly coat the zucchini.  In a separate bowl I mixed 3 parts flour with 1 part cornmeal (corn meal is option but I like the flavor).

I dropped each egg-covered slice of zucchini in the flour mixture and turned to coat all sides.

While doing this I was also heating a little olive oil in a frying pan.  When the oil was good and hot I dropped each floured zucchini slice into the hot pan of oil and allowed it to sizzle for a few moments.   It is important that the oil be hot enough to actually sizzle when you drop your zucchini in.  This locks in the juices and prevents the zucchini from soaking up the oil.  To test the temperature, sprinkle a pinch of flour in your oil -if it sizzles instantly, then it is hot enough.

I added a little salt and pepper on top, then peeked under the zucchini to see that it was sufficiently browned, then I turned them over to fry the other side.

Once both sides were sufficiently browned I removed them from the oil, placing them on the serving plate.  The heat softens the zucchini so it is tender and juicy.  I served them up with a little light ranch dressing on the side.  Oh My Goodness these were Good!!!

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

 

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Goodbye Google Reader ~ Hello BlogLovin! Have you switched yet?

Just a quick reminder to those of you using Google Reader to manage your favorite blogs...it is shutting down on Monday!

If you haven't already made the switch to another reader, or you have but aren't happy with it, you should give BlogLovin a try.  I switched to them a few weeks back because my email inbox was getting sooo bogged down with emails to the point that I was missing some of my favorite blogs in the pile.

(BlogLovin could really use some better icons.)

BlogLovin is FREE and so easy to work with.  And right now, if you sign up for BlogLovin before Monday you can easily move all of your Google Reader blogs you follow over to BlogLovin with just a few clicks.  And adding new blogs is as easy as entering their blog url in the search box then clicking 'Follow' once BlogLovin finds the blog for you.  That is too easy!

To help you keep your blogs organized you can use categories to sort them out.  You create the categories so you decide how you want to sort them.  Say for example you call one category "MY FAVS" and another, "Like", and another "Tues Blog Hops", etc.  Then you can view all of your blogs in a single list or just your favs, or on Tuesday read those that have Tuesday Hops.  You get the idea...just be creative how you categorize them in what ever way works best for you.

My favorite thing about BlogLovin is that I get '1' email each evening with all of the most recent blog posts included.  So when I have time to sit down and read in the evening I just go to BlogLovin and read the ones I want.  If I get free time any other time in the day I can quickly visit the BlogLovin website (or their app on my iPad) to catch up on everyone's posts.  Once I have visited the blogs on the list they automatically change to 'read' so my unread list is always current with the most recent, up-to-the-minute posts at the top!

So if you have not signed up for BlogLovin yet, give it a try, you have nothing to lose.  If you are already using BlogLovin, be sure to Follow Me with BlogLovin too!  Please share your BlogLovin url in the comments below so we can all find you!

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

 

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I've been keeping a secret, but now I can share...

I've been keeping this under my hat so to speak, but now I can share it with you!

When I decided to start raising chickens again, the first thing I did was call the county planning & zoning department, because unlike decades ago when I had chickens before, there are now zoning laws in many places that prohibit raising livestock and specifically poultry.  I learned that on our 1 acre rural property I was only allowed to have 8 adult hens and NO roosters.  However there are other chicken keepers in our community with way more than 8 hens, and I hear the lovely sound of roosters crowing each morning so I know there are either outlaw chicken keepers or different rules for different folks around here...so I asked about this.  The zoning department person said that in our particular community, which is surrounded by livestock (mostly cattle) and hay fields, we have restrictions on the number of hens for lots that are under 1.6 acres (ours is 1.02).  So out of curiosity I asked, "If we owned the vacant lot next door that is over an acre, combined with ours it would be 2.32 acres, what would our poultry limit be?"  She looked up the property next door to verify the size and told me that if we owned both pieces of property then I would not have a limit on the number of hens, and I could have roosters too!

We were okay with only having 8 hens, and joked that if we wanted a rooster we would have to buy the property next door, making that one really expensive rooster!  But the idea of buying the property next door was not a new one.  We had considered it when we first bought our property because we wanted extra space.  However the people who owned that property wanted way too much for it, so we didn't give it any serious thought.

Then a few weeks ago the hubby was trying to figure out where he could build a new shop on our property.  We do have an acre, but part of it is up a hill so you can't really build there.  The long winding driveway getting up to our house takes up lots of space in the front of our property, leaving very little room for a shop.  We were discussing the placement one day when I suggested that we rethink the property next door.  If we could get it at a reasonable price perhaps we could build the shop on that section...and I could have roosters, and maybe a big garden next year, or more critters!  "Whoa!" my hubby said, "remember they wanted way more than it was worth last year?  I'm sure they haven't come down that much in a year."

The property next door.  It will need lots of clearing work to make it useable.

Well I went that moment and looked up their MLS listing.  It was still for sale and they had dropped the price just recently...by nearly half!  Now it was within range of us being able to buy it.  I did a little deeper searching and learned that the couple who owned it were now divorced, and not amicably so, plus the Mr, had a huge tax lien recently filed against his business a few months ago, so they might now be ready to negotiate on the price for a quick sale.  So we made an offer.

It was..........ACCEPTED!!!!  The property is now in escrow and should be closing very, very soon!  So my little Barry the Barred Rock Rooster can legally stay!  Hubby can build his shop, I can start my first compost pile, and maybe, just maybe, I can get some pygmy or dwarf goats in the coming year.  I have wanted to raise them for a very long time for their milk to make my own goat cheese...and because they are so darn Cute!

I want a couple of these! (Source)

I've wanted to share this news with you for a few weeks now, but didn't want to jinks things.  But now all of the escrow hurdles have been jumped and we are running for the finish line! Hooray!!

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

 

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Victorio 4-Tray SEED SPROUTER ~ Product Review

If you like sprouting seeds then you've got to get a Victorio 4-Tray Seed Sprouter!

I bought one on Amazon for only $15.12 (with free shipping) and it was delivered the next day!  I already had a 1/4 cup of wheat seeds that I soaked the night before, so I placed 1/2 of the wheat seeds (1/8 cup) into each of two trays.  I then put one tablespoon of alfalfa seeds in a cup to soak.  Later that evening I put the soaked alfalfa in the Seed Sprouter in the third tray.  I left one of the trays empty so I could stagger my sprouts.  I did this on Tuesday.

On Thursday (2 days later) here is what I have!  I have never seen growth like this before.

Look at these wheat sprouts.

Wheat Sprouts Day 2 (1/8 cup) Tray 1

Wheat Sprouts Day 2 (1/8 cup) Tray2

I could go feed them to my chickens right now, but I will wait until tomorrow.  I wont be able to leave them in the Sprouter any longer though because they are so tall already.  This thing is Amazing!

Here is my alfalfa after less than 2 full days.

Alfalfa Sprouts Day 2

This Seed Sprouter is by far the best method I have found for sprouting seed super fast and super easy!  You just put your soaked seeds in each tray, stack them up with the reservoir tray on the bottom, then pour in 2 cups of fresh water 2-3 times a day.   The water slowly drains from the top tray down to the one below, until it all ends up in the bottom tray.  Before you add water the next time, you simply empty the bottom tray, then rotate the bottom tray to the top position, and pour your water into the top tray.  Once the water has run all the way to the bottom reservoir tray you just lay the lid on top (this keeps the top tray from drying out), but don't seal the lid.  (You only seal the top lid if you are going to store the trays.)  When they have grown to your desired size you can store them in the refrigerator to stop the growing process.

I didn't pre-soak in bleach water and I didn't get any mold either.  You don't sit the Seed Sprouter in direct sunlight...these seeds sprouted sitting on my kitchen counter with only regular room lighting and the A/C kept the room about 72-75 degrees the whole time (according to the manufacturer 70 degrees is the ideal growing temperature).  I am totally impressed with this product.  I'm ordering a second set of trays right now!

The Trays are BPA free, made in the USA, and comes with a packet of Organic Alfalfa Seeds.  I'm adding this item to my "Things My Chicks L-O-V-E" page.  If you want to buy one (or several) of these, please do me a favor and use one of my links which are affiliate links through Amazon.

*Disclaimer: I purchased this item myself, I was not given any compensation for this review.  The opinions stated in this review are my own personal feelings about this product (that I love).  I do ask that you please use my affiliate link to purchase this item from Amazon, but the teeny tiny commission I would receive, in no way influenced my review.

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

 

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

 

This post was shared on the "HomeAcre Hop!"