Random notes from the AtFarmFam

Life is kind of status quo around here lately. The kids and chickens are cute. The weather is perfect. The Boss Lady is working hard and I still have a face that feels like it is melting off.

Not that any of those thing are bad (OK, the face thing sucks a lot, but I have always been ugly.) But there just isn't a lot of blog fodder in the normal routine.

So here are the pictures:

Chickens!

The earlier dark hours have cut into M&M's egg production, but the other hens should be starting to lay in the next month to six weeks.

This may end up being my new favoritest picture of the brood.

The Princess, ready to go to her cheer leading gig at the high school football game.

And now the video:

Just to prove that she really is my kid.
(There are a couple of other vids on my Facebook page
if you are a glutton for the cuteness that is my daughter.)

And the teasing shall begin in 3... 2... 1...

Having the doctor scare the pee outta me in regards to my chances of developing skin cancer, has made me do some strange things. For example, I spent money on myself at the makeup counter this week. Which is something I hardly ever do. Plus, I have been slathering sunscreen on day and night.

Finally, this morning I have been out on the hunt. Big game was not my prey. Instead, I have been stalking big hats. The likelihood of me staying inside all the damn time is slim. So I need to do the next best thing to keep the sun offa my face and neck. Luckily, I live in Texas, so even if I look a little a whole lot silly, I can still get away with wearing a cowboy hat.

OK, remember, this thing is a precision medical device. So be gentle and don't hurt yourself laughing. Dr's orders.



On a little more serious note, you can see how the medicine is starting to tear up my skin pretty good in that first picture. That is, if you can get past the laughing...

Clean up day

Here is how the modern, urban chicken farmer rids himself of unwanted post-Halloween pumpkins.

Happy Trick or Drunk!

A year or two back I stole Halloween back from the kids. I started serving frozen margaritas to the parents as they cruised by. Honestly, we have to have some gimmick. We live on the "retired end" of a long cul-de-sac and never have gotten many Trick-or-Treat-ers. Last year the word was out and we were a hit!

The neighbors seem to have either gotten the idea or they got offended. There are several other outdoor parties tonight. So I had to find a niche once again. The hook this year? 2 TVs for college football AND margaritas.

Oh yeah, there is some candy, glow sticks and plastic bugs for those of the non-drinking age, too. Also, just to be safe, Bugs Bunny isn't drinking tonight, so he is driving the bar.

Scared Shi*less on Halloween

The pic of my face is not SUPPOSED to be the scary part, but there you have it. This week may end up going down as one of the scariest moments in my life. And in the grand scheme of things I pretty much hope it does not get worse than this.

Anyways, after ignoring some raw, sore spots on my ugly mug for far too long I finally hit up the dermatologists office this week. Didyaknow it is a bad idea for a guy with pale skin complexion to be outside all the damn time for almost 40 straight years? Yeah, I knew that too.

Of course, I have also known for years that I should wear a hat, long sleeves and sunscreen. And I have been doing all of those things since I was born since I left the dermatologists office with a prescription for a creme that will hopefully help keep these pre-cancerous spots on my face from developing any further into cancer cells.

The downside of the medicine is that it basically burns your face off for a month or two, causing the bad skin spots to die and slough off. So for the next two months or so I am going to look like The Boss Lady finally threw that vat of boiling acid that she keeps on the stove, on me. Which may not even be much of a change. Also, the medicine buns like a mother @#*)&@#$)(!

I have used it for two nights and so far I have managed to sit an whimper for two or three (or four) hours after slathering my face. All for the greater good of not having my fave turn into a giant tumor.

One side effect of all this attention to my face was completely unexpected. I spent more this week at the makeup counter than my wife has all year long. The dermatologist wanted me to buy a specific facial moisturizer and some industrial strength sunscreen to use all the dang time. And never being one to ignore great advice (except for all of that stuff about sunscreen, hats and sleeves that I ignored for 40 years), I dropped $35 at Walgreens the other day.

All of this to say that this week could have been a lot worse. Still it has made Halloween scary enough I think.

The Boss Lady and I have tried to attack this as we usually do, injecting as much humor, information and booze into the situation as we dare. I do understand that the diagnosis could have been a lot worse. And I can't help but think that if I had remained as stubborn as I usually am, then it might have been.

And finally, here is a little more information about actinic keratosis.

I didn't see it on Maslow's Hierachy,

But I did find it on Aisle 36!

Yes, it is true. I did email the wife today and tell her "I need more laundry soap."



Go ahead, take away the last tattered pieces of my man card. At least I'll have clean underwear when I have no dignity left.

Bring on the Trick-or-Treat-ers

We never go too crazy with holiday decorations around here, but I can't resist a little something for Halloween. Add to that, Pops brought us two big floats that had drifted ashore on Matagorda Island and the kids and I could not resist.

I bet we have the biggest pumpkins in the neighborhood this year!

Besides that, who else has a ghost made of a bed sheet, a beach towel, a soccer ball and a couple of zip ties?

I think we can all see how this is going to turn out...

The Boss Lady's dog woke me up at 4 am. With a 110 pound dog I really do not want to wake up and find a big wet surprise on the hallway floor, so I got up to let him out.

But of course he can not STAY out. He would bark away the rest of the dark and tick off neighbors all over the 'hood. So I waited at the backdoor with a treat, to bribe him back in.

Of course he fell back asleep immediately. Didn't even make it out of the living room. Me? No more sleep for me, thanks.

And.

We are out of Dr Pepper.

Field trip day!

I am taking off in a few minutes to go with The Princess' class on a field trip. We are heading down to the Zach Scott Theatre. I have no idea what the show will be about. But I bet the side show, trying to keep a couple of dozen Kindergartners content during the show will be just as much fun.

News from the coop

I tried to take full advantage of the first sunny afternoon we have had in about two weeks. I spent more than an hour cleaning the chicken coop today. Cleaning up after the birds is a messy job anyways, but it is almost impossible to do in the rain. Still, I had let it wait too long.

The chickens have decided to boycott the outdoor chicken coop that I created for them out of a re-purposed dog kennel and a couple of the big, plastic dog houses. They have started heading into my storage shed at night, where they had lived until I thought they were big enough to handle the weather outside.

The birds have less room inside the shed, but they evidently prefer it to the yard. I still had the brooder space in the shed set up, so they have taken that space back over. I'll be keeping the kennel/coop though. Hopefully the birds will be back out there when the rain lets up.

M&M (Mystery Meat) Our year old hen.
She has survived two dog attacks without a scratch and she still lays 5 eggs a week.

The Talker finally settled on a name for his girl.
This is Roadrunner, a 3 month old Ameraucana pullet.
She is one fast bird!

This is Gold Diamond, The Princess' 3 month old Buff Cochin.
Also known as GD Chicken. (Hey, the girl named her, I didn't!)

Yesterday we ran out of eggs. No big deal, except that The Boss Lady was cooking cornbread for dinner and she needed one more egg. Since our first birds started laying last spring we have not bought any eggs (except a few that we decorated at Easter).

I was about to go door to door to mooch an egg from neighbors, when I remembered to check the coop. M&M had laid a rare late afternoon egg. She saved my dinner! Hopefully in another 2 or 3 months M&M will have some reinforcements and the other birds will be laying eggs also.

Log time, little blog

I haven't had much to say lately. Odd, I know. But every time I sit down to blog, it just sounds like a big whine-fest.

The kids have settled into school, The Boss Lady has gotten herself into the groove of a new job and here I am, hanging at the house and watching the world go by.

One reason I haven't blogged much lately is that I just don't think anyone really cares that I watched ANOTHER episode of Hitler's Bodyguard on the Military Channel. To put it mildly, this whole staying at home without kids around really hasn't turned out to be my favorite thing.

Over the years I have joked many times about being The Boss Lady's personal mooch. But I have always been really secure in my knowledge that my having a paying job was unimportant to our family. Letting the kids grow up at home has always been a much more important focus than whatever income we were giving up. However, I had a little part time job for the last couple of years and now, without those few hours of work, I am realizing that I bore myself to tears.

The Boss Lady and I are also big supporters of public education. So no one should really be surprised that we never considered home schooling or private schools as viable options for our family. I will refrain from entering into a discussion of the positive and negative aspects of different educational systems. But there are days that I think 'if the kids were home, doing school, at least I would be of some benefit around here.'

I put in several job applications a month or so back. I did not hear a single word from any of the employers, so I have pretty much given up on finding a part time job. For the time being I am trying to keep busy by making myself healthier and trying to benefit our community. I have started hitting the gym a couple of times a week. It has been at least a year and I really want to lose 25 pounds that seem to be following me from couch to couch. Seriously though, I am trying to limit my couch time by volunteering at our church. Plus, I have some other commitments with community organizations that I try to fulfill in the evenings, after The Boss Lady gets home from work.

Anyways, all that whining was really just to say that things are about the same around here. Even though I am pretty much ready for some change and the TV and couch are probably ready for me to find something else to do, too.