More Chicks

Actually these little guys (and girls, hopefully) are turkey poults. At a day or two old they look an awful lot like baby chicks, though. You can get an occasional turkey look when they stretch out their necks.

I got the call to come pick them up from the post office at 6:45am. I was just walking out the door to take my son to the bus stop, so it worked out perfectly. It is supposed to be quite difficult to teach the babies how to discover food and drink, but these guys took to it right away. They also seem to like to peck each other, unfortunately.

We have 3 different varieties, 5 of each: Bourbon Reds, Slates, and Royal Palms. Their adult weights should range from 10-25 pounds. I am hoping to keep a pair of each breed in order to hatch my own eggs next year. The rest will either be sold to customers that want a smaller turkey or will go into my freezer. These types of turkeys (called heritage breeds) do not have the huge breast like the Broad Breasted Whites, but they are said to be superior in taste. We will see, as I am getting some BBW turkeys at the end of June. I can't imagine the meat tasting any better, but I suppose it is possible.

Royal Palm




Blue Slate




Bourbon Red

Chick update: There are now 4 little chicks under their mama. Three look like Black Australorps like their mama, and one looks like a Houdan. They are out of the box and pecking at their food, running back to mama when she makes her little clucking noises.

Baby Chicks

When I went out this morning to check on my daughter's broody hen, Henrietta, (pronounced Hen-ree-ta, since my kids are hooked on phonics) I heard some little cheeps beneath her. She was sitting on eight eggs--there were more, but the dog kept going in and stealing them from under her until we closed off the door--and so far 4 of them have hatched.

Two chicks were dead (and rather smelly) but 2 seem just fine. Out of the remaining 4 eggs, 2 have little pecking sounds from within so I expect they will hatch out some time this afternoon.

We moved them to a little box in the field pen so we can leave the babies with their mama to raise. If we left them out, the cats would get to them.

Tuesday Ten: Books

I like books and reading. I was going to list 10 books I liked well enough to read again, but I could only come up with five. So scratch that. Ten books on my waiting to be read list---I don't have one. I just go to the library and pick out what looks good. If I like a particular author, I read everything ever written by that author, whether I like it or not. Call it a small obsession of mine.

Ten Things I Like About Books

1. They are not movies. If I get sleepy, I can just nod off and then pick up where I left off when I wake up. With movies I usually don't get around to finishing if I fall asleep.

2. They don't call me mom. In fact they don't call me anything. How nice. Books are so quiet.

3. Books can be funny. I love funny books. Though I must say I had to stop taking Richard Lederer's Anguished English books to the gym to read while waiting for my daughter. I would start giggling uncontrollably. I prefer not to giggle uncontrollably in public.

4. Books are great for reading aloud. My kids love books and they love it when I read aloud to them.

5. I can get lost in a book. If I feel like getting away for a while but can't leave the house, reading a book is a good way to do it.

6. There are so many of them. If I feel like reading about turkeys, then I can. If I want to know about gardening, no problem. Any subject I can think of I am sure there is a book. And then there are fiction books. Oh, books without end.

7. Books make me happy. I. LOVE. READING. I often read when I should be doing something else, like cooking dinner or cleaning the refrigerator. I don't care.

8. Without books there wouldn't be libraries. That would be a travesty.

9. Books are a quiet activity. Unlike the current activity going on in my living room--fighting over the roaring dinosaur. My kids like to read, thank goodness.

10. They make good memories. Many of my memories from growing up revolve around books--acting out books, being read to every morning while waiting for the bus, reading, reading, reading.

My Vacation: Day 7, Going Home

I planned this vacation for almost 2 years, but the whole time I was dreading it. Eight kids, hotels, amusement parks? What, was I crazy??? Taking 8 kids on a vacation like this, including one under 2 years old, couldn't possible be fun. It was going to be a chore--dealing with crabby babies, potty accidents, hungry children, and unfamiliar sleeping arrangements.

"Stop it," I said.

"It's for the kids," I said.

"It's not about you. It's about making everything run smooth and wonderful so they can have the time of their lives," I said.

And they did. I really believe that they will remember this trip forever. But the unexpected happened--My husband and I had the time of our lives too. So much so that we are planning on doing it again much sooner than 10 years from now.

For the trip home the plan was to take 2 days. Day 1, drive to Eureka. Day 2, drive home through the Redwoods. Once we got on the road, though, the doubts crept in. What if we can't find a decent priced hotel at the coast on a Saturday night? Is the Redwood National Forest worth an extra 3 hours of driving just for a drive through? We have to be home by 3pm to get the van back to the rental place, so that only leaves 2 hours or so for sight seeing. Should we risk ruining an otherwise perfect vacation with this side trip? Should we risk ruining an otherwise perfect vacation by disappointing the kids?

We still hadn't reached a decision by Redding, which is where we needed to turn off to go to Eureka. We stopped for gas, discussed it with the kids, and decided to push on to home. We were a short way from Shasta Lake, so we decided to stop and spend some time there as a compromise.



We ended up spending over 3 hours at the lake. We ate lunch at a little picnic area, then went and played in a little playground. We considered going on a tour of the Lake Shasta Caverns but arrived only about 15 minutes before the last tour of the day left. So instead we went on a hike beside the lake. The oldest kids went swimming in the lake. The lake was extremely cold, but it didn't stop them.






Now we are planning a camping trip to the Redwoods, with stops at the Oregon Caves and Crater Lake. Maybe next summer...

Tuesday Ten: Things I Will Never Own

Ten Things I Will Never, Ever Own

1. Barry Manilow cds. Nope, not going to happen.




2. Chocolate Fountain. I don't like chocolate. I certainly don't like chocolate from a fountain. Somehow it doesn't seem sanitary.



3. A Great Dane. What a huge dog. They must eat a lot. No thanks.






4. Tacky yard art. No flamingos. Or those little gnomes. Or one of those big pinwheel things.












5. Brand New Ford Mustang GT Convertible. Not because I wouldn't want one, but because it is out of my price range. Maybe I should take up a collection.






6. Platform shoes. There isn't a whole lot that could induce me to own some shoes like this, even if they would make me taller.




7. A Roomba vacuum. What a name. Roooooom-ba. The ultimate in useless items. In my house anyway. I wonder if it would vacuum up Legos?









8. Digital photo frame. I am having trouble seeing the point in something like this. Aside from being a novelty item that you end up putting in a garage sale after the batteries run out. Some even play music. How annoying.





9. Drum set. And no one had better think about getting one for my kids, either.

10. Toe socks. They just plain look uncomfortable. I'll pass.

My Vacation: Day 6, Knott's Berry Farm

Knott's Berry Farm was our last theme park stop. There are far more "big kid" rides at Knott's, so the little kids didn't have as much to do. There was a lot to look at though, so they didn't seem to mind.

There was this ride:




It has two big No's in my opinion: Super spinning and getting wet. I sat this ride out.

Throughout all the days leading up to KBF, no one said no to any ride they were tall enough to ride. My 6 year old even went on the Tower of Terror at California Adventures and wanted to go again. There were a few times someone said no to a second ride, but there were no first ride refusals. Until today.

No thanks:

---

Forget it. Four kids went on this ride and afterwards my 10 year old said "I feel sick." Ya think?

---

Yes. But I didn't like it. Who knew that going through a bunch of loops and twirls backwards could be so scary?

---

Heck, no. That ride tops out at 205 feet, then drops off at a 90 degree angle. Are you crazy?


My husband was. He went on it four times, the last 3 within about 30 minutes. One of which he dragged me along on. Fine. So it was fun. But it was just as scary as it looked.

My favorite ride was the Silver Bullet. I don't have any pictures, but here is a good site to see what it looks like.

I would also like to recommend SKIPPING the wooden roller coaster Ghost Rider. Oh, sure, it looks fun and scary and spectacular--And it was, what I remember of it, that is. I was kept pretty busy trying to keep my son from rattling out of his seat and trying to keep my head from rattling off my shoulders. I had a head ache afterwards.


We found a few nice gentlemen that wanted to sit and chat...



Those crazy kids were tired and wanted to go home.

"Come on kids, can't we go on the Xcelerator one more time? PLEASE???"

Wondering

Is it wrong for one to get a little crabby when she drops her husband off at the airport and then she has to turn around when halfway out of the airport because said husband called and said he forgot to remove his knife and keys from his pocket before he left?

Is it wrong for one to get a little crabbier when one's husband calls her up after she got home and crawled back into her cozy warm bed and asks her to come get him BECAUSE HIS FLIGHT HAS BEEN CANCELED? WOULD IT???

ahem.

Would it make a difference if I mentioned that the airport is 5 minutes away?

Would it make a difference if I mentioned that it was 5 AM?

Just wondering.

My Vacation: Days 3 & 4, Disneyland

Look at that deserted street behind us. There was no one else at Disneyland, just us.

I wish.

The scene behind us is really just a painting on a wall. The crowds weren't bad, though, and we got to do just about anything we wanted to as many times as we wanted to do it.

Including riding on the California Screamin' roller coaster 4 times in a row. The last time we sat in the very front car. This was my first ever real live roller coaster and the thing that got me the most was the fact that it takes off so fast. One second we were just sitting there and the next we were going 60+ miles per hour. The loop was fun too. Too bad I don't have any pictures. I guess I was too busy riding.

One ride I refused to go on was this one: The Maliboomer. It is similar to the Tower of Terror, which drops you from a dizzying height (and which I also refused to ride) except instead of dropping, it shoots you upward 200 feet in 2 seconds. No thanks.


The four bravest people in our family took a shot at it. They look nervous.




Tell me, does it look like they are having fun? I am not going to say what comes to mind when looking at the faces of the two on the left.





Too high for me. Or, so I thought. I was to be proven wrong later, when we went to Knott's. It sort of looks like they are smiling. BUT: No one wanted to go again, even though there was NO LINE AT ALL. Hmm, very telling, in my opinion.

Ah well, that was all over at California Adventures. We spent most of our second DL day over there. There were not as many rides for the littlest ones, but they didn't seem to mind riding the merry go round over and over while waiting for the wild and crazy roller coaster riders.

Here are my two little princes removing the sword from the stone:



My sweet princess in her crown:




Mickey let us borrow his car and go for a spin:



Mark Twain let the little ones steer his riverboat. That was so nice of him.




I made a great sacrifice and went on the spinning teacups ride, just so I could see this smile:




On the way out of the park, after a very satisfying day, we saw Cruella DeVille.



She noticed that we had a lot of kids and told me, "You really ought to do something about all those children, dah-ling."

Don't worry, I stepped on her toes, pushed her down, and stomped out her cigarette. I told her, "You really should do something about all that smoking, dah-ling."

Too bad we didn't get any pictures of that.

Tuesday Ten: Going grocery shopping

I don't go grocery shopping very often--I tend to avoid doing things I don't enjoy. If I can get away with it that is. Looking at my checkbook, I notice that I made a large shopping trip to my 3 stores--WinCo, Costco, and Canned Food Outlet--on March 14, and the next large trip wasn't until May 9. With 5 small (under $30) trips in between. There is nothing wrong with having tuna sandwiches 3 days in a row is there? Homemade bread and home canned tuna. No need to go to the grocery store.

I buy a lot of things in bulk from my mother-in-law --rice, beans, wheat, oats, split peas, peanut butter (in a 5 gallon bucket), organic cane sugar, honey, molasses, some spices. Also, I can my own tuna and have 2 freezers full of chicken, pork, and venison (if you open my freezer, that is NOT a box of corn dogs in there. I am using that box to hold something else. Am too.) Even so, whenever I do go to the store (aside from a quick fresh fruit/vegetable run) my cart gets full. Very very full.

I think it would be easier to list what I don't have in my grocery cart. Yes, much easier. No meat, no avocados, no velveeta cheese. The end, have a nice day.

Tuesday Ten: Ten Things in My Grocery Cart

1. Bagels. I eat a bagel every day for lunch. A toasted bagel. Sometimes plain, sometimes with cream cheese, sometimes with egg salad, sometimes with mayo and tomato. YUM.

2. Noodles. My children would surely perish if I didn't prepare some sort of noodle dish at least 4 times a week. At least that is what they say, and I believe them.

3. Butter. None of that fake margarine stuff around here, no way. Only real heart clogging fats for my family.

4. Fruits and vegetables. Apples, oranges, bananas. Other cheap, on sale fruit. Lettuce, broccoli, celery, cabbage, potatoes. Mushrooms (I know, but they are in the vegetable section)for quesadillas. Carrots. Onions. No avocados.

5. Staples. No, not the poky, office supply kind. Stuff like peppercorns and salt. Cinnamon. Sometimes white flour for when I am feeling lazy. Parmesan cheese from the bulk section. My mother is cringing right now. I did that on purpose, Mom.

6. Refried beans. I have tried making refried beans at home, and they just aren't the same. So I buy either the vegetarian or the fat free refried beans. My children thank me.

7. Tortillas. I have a tortilla press. It is very cool looking. I am sure it would make wonderful tortillas, but I have never used it. I think I am afraid that it won't work and I will be scraping dough off the inside, getting it under my fingernails. I hate getting dough under my fingernails.

8. Eggs. Just kidding. Although, in the winter when eggs are sparse I will get eggs at the store for hardboiling. Not now though when I am getting almost 2 dozen eggs a day.

9. Yogurt. Specifically, Nancy's whole milk yogurt. The doctor's office thinks that my littlest guy isn't growing fast enough so they want me to get more fat into him. Actually what the problem is, is that he is growing up (15th percentile) but not out (under the 5th percentile). This is a change from the last appointment where he was at the 5th percentile in both height and weight. Personally, I think he is growing just fine, but since it doesn't hurt anything to stuff things like yogurt, milk, cream cheese, and cheese in him I will humor them. He would be perfectly happy with this arrangement as well if he wasn't teething. When teething, he doesn't want to eat anything. Naturally, as soon as he can eat anything he wants, he won't eat anything. Stop snickering Cathy, he isn't picky, he's just not hungry.

10. A treat for my husband. Did I mention that my husband goes with me on these large shopping trips? He is indispensable. He deserves a treat. Without him, I have to haul a 300 lb. shopping cart around the store on my own. No lie, I think it must weigh that much by the time I am done. Last time I had to go without him, and the cart was so full I had to move my purse to fill up the child seat with groceries. I couldn't push the cart, I had to pull it. AND, since I go to the cheap place, I had to bag it ALL BY MYSELF. Sometimes I get a little crabby because when my husband bags groceries he does it wrong (that is, not my way), but NEVER, EVER, MORE. He is welcome to throw everything in the bags willy nilly. And I will get him some peanut butter pretzels, too.

My Vacation: Days 2 & 5, Legoland

The original plan was to visit Legoland on Wednesday and Thursday, with a hotel stay in Carlsbad Wednesday night. After I booked the hotel and purchased the tickets I noticed that Legoland is closed on Tuesday and Wednesday. It never occurred to me that the park would close during the week. Duh. So we changed plans and visited Legoland on Monday and Thursday instead. This could not have worked out better.

Legoland is probably about 1/3 the size of Disneyland, not including California Adventures. So for a family that has never visited a theme park all together, LL was a nice low key first day. We were able to work out how we could do the ride lines in an atmosphere that wasn't so overwhelming. By the time we hit Disneyland the next day, we were pros.

A lot of the rides have height limits so the kids enjoyed measuring themselves.



LL was great. The lines weren't long and the weather was cool but not cold. Until we hit the water rides, that is. Some of us don't like to get wet.




The first day we spent a lot of time going on rides. We were full of energy and the kids didn't want to stop for anything (except to pick out legos at the bulk lego store). The second day was different. After 2 days at DL, I was pretty tired and I think the kids were too although they didn't show it. That day we did more looking and activities that involved working with legos.

I took my youngest daughter to get her face painted.



While the big kids went to do a robot lego activity, I took the younger ones to build a lego race car.



This activity was the cause of the one and only meltdown during the entire vacation--not counting the 4 and 1 year olds of course. When I told my six year old that it was time to leave the race car building, he started crying. WTH? He builds with legos EVERY DAY at home, including building race cars. It may have had something to do with the cool racing ramp--and the fact that he was tired. Could be.

There were a lot of fun picture posing opportunities around all the big lego statues. The kids had a great time being silly.





Of course you can't let a day at Legoland go by without posing with the Lego Pirate Guy.




Next: Disneyland and California Adventures!!

My Vacation: Day One, the Drive

We rented a van and drove to California. This was a much better plan than stuffing 10 of us into our 9 passenger Suburban that may or may not make the trip without breaking down.

Mapquest said that it would take 13.5 hours to drive from our house in Eugene to our hotel next to Disneyland. Since we can't go the whole way without stopping, I told the kids 15 hours. I was right. Aside from stopping to fuel up the van, we stopped once for breakfast and again for lunch. My kids are good travelers and don't require a lot of stops.

I am sure it didn't hurt that we bought 2 portable dvd players for the trip (one had 2 screens and oldest son had the one he bought so everyone had something to watch, except the baby). And lots of snacks. And Will's blankie.




Good news, I didn't have to read to my husband. NOT ONCE. Instead, I downloaded P.G. Wodehouse's Love Among the Chickens for him to listen to. I remember it as having been one of the funniest books I have ever read. Like many things, it wasn't quite so funny the second time around, but I lived through it. Anything to keep from having to read aloud a drippy Grace Livingston Hill novel. (Not that GLH is all that terrible, it's just that I have read most of the books, some more than once, and I have had more than my lifetime dose of her tra la la life is so wonderful novels. Sorry.)

Not having to read left me free to take a picture or two out the window.

Not where we are going, but it sure looks fun.

We left home slightly after 5 am and arrived in Anaheim at 8:15 pm. Sweet. Traffic wasn't all that bad even when we got close to Los Angeles. About 60 miles out things started to get heavy, but still fast. We were going 70-75 and cars were whizzing past us at 80-90 mph, crossing lanes and weaving in and out(including the state trooper in his SUV). I mentioned to my husband it was like watching a choreographed dance. His comment: "This is fun!"




Almost there!



We drove straight to our hotel, no mistakes, thanks to my superior navigation skills. We checked in, unloaded the van, went to Burger King for dinner, then back to the hotel to go to bed. We had adjoining rooms so the boys slept in one and the girls in the other with my husband and I. Anticipation and excitement for the next day was running high.

Next: Legoland California!!