# 545 - Seedling Babies

This week I have finally started to get my seeds. I still have many more to do, but at least things are getting underway for the veggie garden this season. We got a late start, but I was in the hospital a few weeks ago and didn't get to do everything I wanted as fast as I wanted.

Well, I am trying to catch up now. I have some great seeds that will soon sprout...Bell Peppers, Tomatoes, Chives, Sweet Basel, Cilantro, Jalapenos, and a lot more. I will be thrilled to have my OWN veggie garden this season, a raised box garden. As time passes, I will be adding more raised box gardens in the same area to make it our garden zone.

 

I can't wait to be able to eat home-grown veggies. There is NOTHING that can compare than a vine-ripened tomato. We love our sweet Basil and have a pesto we make with our basil and it is a special, highly requested menu item we are always requested to make. This year, I am definitely going to learn how to start canning, especially our home-grown green beans, carrots and such...we are going to try our best to avoid buying such foods at the grocery store. I am ready! 

 

 

Then, our chickens are laying about 12 eggs a day. The past couple of days, the dogs have enjoyed a pan of scrambled eggs as a nice treat. They love their eggs. So, when we get too many eggs, we supplement the dog's meals with some scramble eggs and they are some happy, healthy dogs.

 

Now, we are still working on the house. This week, we are working on running ductwork, both rigid and flex duct. We have learned a lot about the issue through extensive research. We might even run a rigid exposed run through the Great room and that would help solve a lot of ductwork problems to the rest of the house. 

 

 

We will see what our HVAC person suggests. Time is short...we don't have much longer to set our mind on how we want these things to be done. Time for more decisions to be made.

 

 

One thing I can promise is that the chickens will not be allowed to roam around the front porch or the yard of the new house. We have a grandbaby who is ready to run around NaNa and Pappy's country house...the kids get the yard and porch. That means, the chickens need a secure area so they can be happy, but not trespass. I need clean porches for the pitter-patter of little baby feet!

 

I can't wait. My grandbaby will finally be able to stay with Nana and Pappy once the house is finished. We can't wait!

 

Life is good.

 



 

 

 

# 518 - New Flock of Big Girls!

Having lots of chicks follow Sgt. Dave around is a dream-come-true for him. Of course, he never thought they would be the kind of chicks that have no control of their sphincter muscle and that eat with their face, but they are adorable! He's a lucky man!

My chickens are now laying eggs. They began laying over a week ago. I am concerned that some are wandering around the acreage to lay eggs in their own hidden nesting area, but we do have several going to the coop nests every day to do their laying. The best scenario would have been to have the chickens behind a coop fenced area for a bit, until they become accustomed to coming to laying their eggs in the coop nests, consistently.

Regardless, I am getting beautiful white and brown eggs. The eggs always start off small as the hen begins to lay, then the eggs increasingly become more large as the hens gain laying experience.

The back two eggs are the average size of most eggs being laid. The
larger egg in front was the first egg that was more substantial in size.

For now, they are rather small eggs, but the eggs will also help cut down on our dog food costs since I boil eggs and give them to the dogs, as a treat. I just cut the hard-boiled egg in half, and the dogs have a great time digging the egg out of the half-shell.

We have several kinds of chickens in this big flock of 26 remaining chickens.

Our chickens are entertaining. They are functional. They are producers of nutritious food for our table.

I have lost two chickens out of a total of 29. Not bad stats for getting tiny chicks that are only days old and nurturing them until they are egg-laying age and looking beautifully robust!

I love my Plymouth Barred Rock chickens...they are very interactive and chatty.

I went on a hike with the dogs a couple of days ago and the chickens always follow me into the woods for as long as they can, then once they hit their personal outer boundary, they turn back.

My chickens are now becoming big girls...full-fledged egg-laying hens.

I think it's about time for some Quiche with swiss cheese and freshly sliced mushrooms. Oh the yummy goodness of ultra fresh eggs from the coop!

# 503 - Replenishing the Flock - Twenty Chicks!

Last weekend, I went to bed with a heavy heart after putting my only surviving chicken in the coop, for her to roost alone for the night since the rest of the flock was attacked and killed.

For the next few nights, I found it very difficult to sleep as I was constantly listening for the one surviving chicken to suffer an attack as the predator somehow would steal into her secured coop. I kept the .22 at the front door, just in case. But, so far we have made it through each night with "Survivor" still intact.

It is likely that a large predator with a hearty appetite found our chickens, perhaps the coyote that Sgt. Dave has seen running past our acreage made his way here for a feast.

But, we decided to not allow the predator(s) to win, so the day after I found the chickens...this past Monday, Sgt. Dave took me for a day out on the town with a trip to the feed store to buy chicks. He does sweet things like that, knowing I truly miss my chickens and am concerned about the one chicken being left alone.

No, these are not boxes full of fast food, but they are holding
twenty chicks ready to enjoy their new home.

Knowing the hard truths of raising chickens because of three years of experience with small flocks, we decided to go ahead and buy the largest flock to date for our farm. After all, we have acres of land and want to put it to good use.

I ended up with 20 chicks.

The funny thing is...we went to the feed store and made our first purchase, but we ended back there at the end of the day to get a second batch of two additional breeds.

With this flock, I will have five different kinds of chickens:

1. Rhode Island Reds
2. Barred Plymouth Rocks
3. Buff Orpingtons (same as I had before)
4. Black Australorps
5. Ideal 236 - also known as White Leghorns

If my long-time readers remember, the first batch of chicks we bought were kept in our master bathroom garden tub until they were big enough to move to the outdoor coop in the backyard of our suburban home located in the Greater Houston area.

My niece, Shaye, helping with the chickens that we kept in
our backyard.

They are sleeping in a special cage built by Sgt. Dave that is solid and with tight woven galvanized wire to prevent any predators from breaking in. The cage has a heat lamp shining upon it so the chicks will have warmth and the cage is inside my secure metal shed that I use as a laundry room.

Every day I am in that laundry shed multiple times and the dogs LOVE their "babies."

They sit against the cage with big grins.

The puppy, Gracie, is leaning that we protect the chickens and live peacefully with them.

A few chicks have the beginnings of feathers, so they should be growing fast. Over the next few weeks, we hope our lone, surviving chicken will become acclimated to the chicks so they can peacefully co-exist. Truthfully, I just want that surviving chicken to keep surviving. Her being the only large chicken puts her at a disadvantage.

But, she is laying one nice-sized egg per day. I can't believe we are only getting one egg per day! For three years, we have had an abundance of eggs being laid just a few steps from the front door. I cannot imagine having to BUY eggs from a grocery store. Yuk!

During our trip into town, we also stopped by Lowe's to get more supplies for an expanded chicken coop and to reinforce the one we now use.

No make-up and with laundry in background, but heck, it's a good moment.

Perhaps we bought too many. I don't know. If so, I will try to sell a few as full-grown laying hens in a few months. But, it will work out. I think I will be end up with a considerable amount of eggs. Having extra eggs won't be a problem. Our dogs love scrambled eggs and having too many might help us cut back on the cost of dog food!

Sgt. Dave might have to start taking some ultra-fresh eggs to people at work in downtown Houston

The Circle of Life just began, again, at point "A." And I am happy in spite of our recent farm-loss, even though I miss Beaker with a pang of anguish at her demise, but that is part of Farm Life Lessons that mirrors the ups and downs of reality.

# 502 - Sad - Predator Visit

Well, I recently wrote a post about the raccoon Sgt. Dave trapped. We soft hearted types let it go. But, we live on acreage adjoining the Big Thicket Preserve, so we have more than an abundance of wild-life out here.

I am sad today because I had five chickens and four of them have been killed by some predator. I cannot believe we had a near-wipe-out slaughter episode because we've lived here for over eight months in the country, with the chickens free-ranging, and they have survived. Only one made a complete disappearance, which took my number of chickens from six to five. And the locals said my chickens wouldn't survive the first week out here because of abundant wild-life.

However, today, I came back onto the property to drive up to a farm-horror-scene. Clearly, my chickens had been slaughtered. I immediately could tell that something VERY WRONG had happened. My heart has sunk to my feet.

I was by myself...well...and with my three dogs in the truck. After seeing the carnage upon driving up, I could not even park the right way. I just pulled further in and jumped out of the truck, then began running around to see what had happened, and if, by some miracle, any chickens needed help.

And you should have seen me, the closest weapon I had at that moment was a golf putting club and I had it ready to wield with fury.

But, it was too late.

Feathers were in huge piles, here and there, clearly signs of a struggle. One pile appears to be an area where the entire chicken was torn apart and dined upon for quite a while. My favorite chicken that I hand feed almost daily, Beaker, is gone and her dark feathers with soft downy feathers are left behind.

The worse part is that some of the feathers were gross with bits of raw gunk on them and the puppy, Gracie, began to eat the feathers...until she got into MAJOR trouble, then she stopped, immediately. That's the last thing I need, for the dogs to think the plucked feathers taste good.

My Aussie, Howdy, is extremely protective of the chickens and I always refer to the chickens as his "BABIES!" And he is in tune, highly, with their various sounds of clucking, from soft happy sounds that have Howdy relaxing with a doggie grin, to their screams of distress that has him jumping any hurdle and knocking down anything in his path to get to his babies.

Even if we are watching tv and a show comes on with chickens in the scene, he jumps up in a panic and won't let up until we allow him to go check out the real chickens.

So, Howdy was racing from one area to the next, jumping the creek, running and running as he searched for the chickens. He was COVERED in mud. He knows their smell. He always goes up behind the chickens to sniff, as if it is his mental "count" of the hens. But, he couldn't find them.

Liyla, our old dog, just stood in one of the big pile of feathers and kept sniffing and looking up, as if to say she knew things weren't right.

And I walked and walked around the land, truly ready to shoot the predator with a .22 rifle.

For over two hours, I walked. I didn't want to give up. I went back and got chicken feed in a cup and walked the same areas while shaking the container, which is a proven method to get my chickens to come running, while knowing I was probably going to come across pieces and bits of my chickens instead of finding them alive.

Regardless, I was going to bury any remains that I found. But, there wasn't enough left to bury.

However, imagine my shock as the one remaining chicken began to literally RUN toward me, as if she were going to fly into my arms. I was so happy to see her. She walked with me through acres of land, staying by my side. Actually, she ran out to me as soon as I got out of the truck and began to inspect the first piles of obvious violence.

She was by herself. None of the other chickens were running behind her, as is usual.

Tonight, it was sad to see that one chicken in the coop by herself because she'd normally be tucked among four other big feathered friends.

All of this has prompted us to know the chicken coop will need to be given priority and a re-design to accommodate the new batch of chicks we are about to adopt for the farm. I can promise you that I am going to sorely miss all the beautiful eggs we were able to pull out of the coop every day. The one chicken remaining will probably give us one egg per day. One golden egg per day.

However, I do believe that the chicken-killing-predator has learned that a feast is waiting at this location and it WILL be back. Whether it is raccoon, fox, rogue dogs or whatever...it will be eager to fill up again.

I'm not kidding, I'm ready to sit in sniper-position outside, waiting patiently with my rifle for a return attempt so I can knock off the killer. For those of you who are regular readers, you know I am patient and determined enough to do such a thing.

The first experience with letting the trapped raccoon be free has been a hard learned lesson of the wrong thing to do and the wrong method of doing it. I am glad to have blog buddies who spoke up loud and clear...trying to warn me. I had already made the first mistake; however, there's no telling what attacked the chickens. I have also heard a LOT of shooting around the property, which means a hunting crew with hunting dogs could have POSSIBLY come through our property by mistake. I would hope that a responsible hunter would have left us a note and reimbursed us for our loss, which is what I would do if my dog caused any kind of property damage for someone else.

And I know that we will be getting more wildlife and security cameras in place so that there will not be any more mysteries about these things. I never thought about putting one up to monitor the chicken coop, but that is next.

As for the raccoon we had trapped, I now am reconciling the fact that releasing a prowling predator is not a smart decision. On a farm, in the country, the wildlife must be battled so that the livestock can survive or we must drive a far distance to release the wildlife so it won't be able to easily find its way back to a farm feast.

For now, I am grateful for my blessings, but feeling really down about having my little flocked nearly wiped out, save for one little hen that somehow survived. I think I will rename her, "Survivor."

And I will start over.

# 481 - Hens Adjust to Daylight Savings

My five remaining free-ranging chickens on our acreage are happy and healthy. They are approximately three years old and this new lifestyle of having land to roam has made them more physically fit. Moving to the country has benefited all of us.

Over the past couple of weeks, their egg-laying activities have seen a reduction in the number of eggs laid every day because of the time-change and seasonal difference in daylight hours. Last year, we figured it out and rigged a heat lamp into their coop to offset the cold nights and to increase their laying business.

It's not consistently cool enough to add that heat lamp because our Texas weather remains rather warm for a longer period of time...as the rest of the country is starting to shovel snow, we are still wearing shorts. Even so, the reduction of daylight hours makes a significant difference upon the hens egg-laying routine.

This coming Spring, I am truly thrilled about the prospect of getting some chicks to add to our growing farm.

Once we've added more full grown chickens to our farm, I will not worry about having too many eggs because extras are cooked up as a treat for the dogs.

For now, we are preparing for cooler weather on a consistent basis. Our chickens will hopefully adjust and begin laying a bit more frequently. This bit of getting 1-2 eggs per day from our five chickens is rather embarrassing.

Girls...we love those eggs, don't let us down!

# 420 - Chickens, Confetti and Cancer

The chickens are doing great. Every day they lay an egg each, so there are a dozen eggs every two days. That's a lot of eggs.

My sister is now addicted to these ultra-fresh large brown eggs.

I love being outside with the egg-laying girls. I think they are beautiful and full of fluffy goodness.

Having chickens has taught me that the majority of expense and hardship is with setting up their housing and designating a safety-zone for them to roam, whether it be a fenced-in zone or protected chicken-run. After that, you can develop a relatively easy system to feed, water and collect eggs.

As for cleaning the coop, for a long time my preferred method had been to carry a large bucket with a handle and to tackle the nests in the coop with the help of a small hand-held garden prong to sift through the hay to remove chicken poop. I'd use the garden prong to shake the hay over the bucket, the prongs would trap the hay in their poky-thingies and the heavy poop would fall into the bucket with a little shake of the prong.

This effort helped to save money on hay and is easy to do. Of course, it's easy and enjoyable when no one is constantly taking your bucket and prong away to make the daily task impossible. I don't like people messing with my routines nor do I like them removing my designated tools that are in a particular place to enable me to accomplish my routines. It's kind of like going to brush your teeth first thing in the morning and finding that someone has, again, taken your toothbrush and toothpaste and put them...????

Augh!!!

The picture below is my Aunt and Uncle's house that was renovated years ago to restore it -- this photo was taken a few days ago. Can you tell that organization runs in my blood-line? I can promise you that if ONE THING were out of place or if an area was not adequately sanded and painted, my uncle would know it, right way. The two of us are a LOT alike.



 

I've asked if we could just move this house from Houston to the acreage, but my uncle and aunt are not agreeable to the idea.

In fact, I am a very routine person who likes for things to be organized and in the SAME place for twenty years. Period. Don't mess with what works and don't make life harder on yourself by having to search for the same thing ten times per week. Upfront organization prevents a lot of wasted time. That said, this will be the difficult part with moving. Things will be changed...my mental map will have to be re-worked until a new pattern is in place.

So, if someone is thinking it's no big deal to mess with YOUR system of organization...maybe a few threats of "misplacing" the other person's important tools might be in order or perhaps a strategically placed Karate-Chop might work well so you can enjoy a non-interrupted routine.

And this weekend I was dealing with eggs, the kind that are filled with confetti. My head got pummeled and the confetti became a part of my attire. The Texas sun burned my eyes, but the Easter gathering at my sister's house was awesome!

And my dad enjoyed his built-in confetti-preventative physique.

Baldness came in pretty handy this past Easter Sunday. No confetti hair for dad.

Me and my dad, Easter 2013.

I was glad to spend a lot of time with my dad this past week because the surgeon finally implanted the port in his chest that will deliver his chemo treatments. He had that surgery yesterday and said he felt like he's been punched in the chest. I remember when my mother had this same procedure for the chemo treatments she received that became more and more aggressive. This past Sunday, upon the confetti moment, I realized my dad is starting his chemo without hair...that's a plus, I think.

I am digging deep right now!

In all, my mom went through five different chemos. Sadly, M.D. Anderson didn't get to add my mom to their "success" statistics, but to be honest, her body was already worn out from the Polio that chewed up her body at five years of age. Polio continued to prompt physical complications for the rest of her life. Before the cancer fight began, she was already physically weakened. That made it seem more unfair, but life is never fair to any of us. That's the reason we must gain our strength from more than what we can see.

So, it's hard to watch both your parents go through these measures in an effort to defeat cancer, but never fear, my dad is a true fighter! I mean...really...he was a fighter. For the light of heart, it might not please you to know my dad bit off another man's ear during a serious fight on a construction site when I was young. The man who ended up without an ear almost killed my father on the job because of idiotic behavior and dad let him know that he didn't appreciate it.

I told my dad that he needs to think of the chemo port as BODY ARMOR! The battle is about to start; those cancer cells better hold onto their ears!

# 404 - A Rainy Day and Old Skills Kept Alive

It's Monday. It's President Day. It's been raining. The humidity is heavy in the Texas air.

Our neighbors across the street sold their house and have officially moved out, so that means new neighbors will be moving in. Eek!

We had someone new want to put a contract on our house, but they needed to put a Contingency Contract in place that says they will follow through with buying our house once they've sold their house...big problem...they didn't even have their house up for sale yet. Answer from us...Come back once your house is on the market and you have a serious buyer.

But, I am still enjoying my roses that my husband gave me for Valentine's Day.

This evening, we have more buyers coming to look at the house. So, I've been doing laundry, dusting and preparing. However, I need that buyer who wants a big house. Then, I can move out of this big house.

Along with hoping the house sells, I am celebrating the gift of life every day because my oldest daughter, Heather, is expecting her first child. Heather and Henry are going to have such fun being parents.

I am going to be very happy to be a grandmother. It's weird to me that I am going to have a grand-baby; it doesn't seem that I'm already hitting this phase in life, but I'm about to be 45 years old.

Me...this week. Hello to my Blog Buddies!

It's a good age to be a first-time grandma.

Then, I realize, one day, most likely, both my daughters will be mothers, and this means I'll have more wonderful grand-children to spoil!

While she was growing up, my youngest daughter, Stefie, would always say that she wanted ten children. I remember negotiating with her, trying to get the number reduced to a manageable level. However, I must say, I think she'd be a great mom of one child or of ten children.

She might find two or three kids fairly manageable.

As for me, having a grandbaby on the way is pulling me back into certain things I enjoyed as a mother of younger children, things such as sewing. In preparation for being a grandparent, I've been drawn back into the magical world of Hancock Fabrics.

I have to provide some back-story...as a mother to young daughters, I was constantly sewing. Mostly, I sewed to create adorable outfits for my daughters because my husband and I produced children who were super skinny and extremely long-legged, which made it difficult to find certain outfits at a department store.

In the photo below, my daughters are getting to walk around in the dresses I made for them as they have fun beneath their little umbrella during a light rain.

Stefie and Heather wearing dresses I sewed.
They had so many clothes sewn by me through
the years. Soon, sewing
became a family project.

One of the most fun parts of sewing for my daughters had been the creativity they enjoyed by their involvement in selecting favorite fabrics for their new outfit. They also got to pick out patterns they preferred. Later, as they grew into teenagers and wanted to shop in department stores for their clothes, they would still want something sewn for them every now and then. However, they graduated in the creative process to the point of drawing out their own design instead of using a pattern, selecting their fabric, then HELPING to sew their outfit.

These two girls literally grew up around a needle and thread. I even purchased tags that said, "Lovingly Sewn by Mother" to put into their clothes. Sometimes, their friends wouldn't believe that their outfit was custom-made, so they'd have to show the tag.

Part of our sewing committee.

Well, now I'm drawn to sewing again. Perhaps not the same things, but I am being pulled toward making some very unique things for my grandbaby that is on the way...things that can be enjoyed whether the baby is a boy or girl, items that will be one-of-a-kind. It's important to me.

Deputy Dave is very supportive; he goes with me to Hancock Fabrics and he's well versed in how to search for certain items in a pattern book. He's the BEST at knowing exactly what I'm looking for...often, he finds it before I do and he knows precisely how to go to the pattern drawers to retrieve the pattern I'm ready to buy. I think that's awesome. Not many husbands would know how to do such things, but he is sharp, and he cares about this part of my creative side because he enjoys it as well. He likes to help and to be part of the process.

As for sewing, my Nanny, my great-grandmother (pictured below) was a professional seamstress.

She and her husband owned an upholstery shop in Madisonville, Texas for many, many years. I grew up with much of our furnishing custom-upholstered by my great-grandmother. She helped me develop a love for sewing. Often, she'd make a few articles of clothing with left-over fabrics that were suitable for clothes. She'd make the drapes in our house from remnants. To this day, I always have an urge to re-cover certain pieces of furniture because it's in my blood to have this urge; I grew up with this kind of craft being utilized as a profession.

So, I feel very at home in a fabric store. I could be happy there for hours. In fact, for our grandbaby-to-be, I have gone several times over the past few weeks to pick out fabric, and Deputy Dave was on task, helping to find perfect fabrics and materials for my projects. He may not want to handle a needle and thread nor does he want to put a pair of scissors to fabric because he could not cut a straight line if his life depended on it, but he helps in various other ways that are important.

So, this week, I will be spending time conducting a comfortable, timeless skill that I learned from my great-grandmother, my grandmother, my mother, and that I helped to further teach myself.

Perhaps the tradition will continue as the grandbabies arrive; there is no doubt that I will do my part to maintain family appreciation for the needle and thread.

# 397 - Chicken Poop on the Patio

Chickens roaming free in the backyard is nice, but it's not working out. Six chickens create a LOT of chicken poop, most of it seeming to land near the back patios, at one of the two entrances we have to the house from the backyard. This is a major problem because the dogs like to go in and out of the backyard and if there is poop in their way, it's more likely to be tracked back into the house.

Not good. Disgusting, It stinks. It's messy. It makes much more work for me that is really unnecessary.

Finally, Deputy Dave moved the coop to the nice area behind the garage. He'd already built a fence in that area to create a dog-run for the times we have family gatherings and don't want the dogs coming in and out of the house with our guests. It's worked out nicely.

I love having chickens. I love having them even more now that they are no longer leaving poop bombs all over the backyard, which makes it hard to enjoy that beautiful space.

I also had not realized that my old dog, Liyla, had been disliking being in the backyard for long with the chickens running around. She doesn't seem to mind the feathered gals, but once they were relegated to the section behind the garage, Liyla began to lay outside in the grass beneath the sun, for two hours at a time. She hardly wanted to come back inside since she had the yard to herself again. That was nice to see.

The good news is...the chicken move hasn't not impacted their egg production. We've got some fantastic layers. Our chickens are dutiful in their egg-laying efforts and we get at least 4-6 eggs every day. Not bad!

But, I must say that it is nice to no longer worry about poop on the patio, especially since we are trying to sell the house. It's one less hassle for us to think about. And that is good, keeping your life low-maintenance is a good idea. overall.

Speaking of poop...how's this little home-made contraption look for a country bathroom?

A jaw-bone being used to help out the business end of the tail-bone. I was on the subject of pooping, so I had to include this great usage of old skeletons that might be laying around your land, or that might be hanging in the closet.

For now, I am smiling a bit larger and my sense of smell is experiencing radical freedom again as I don't have to be afraid to take in a big whiff as I open the back door or step into the backyard.

Adios poop on the patio, I do not miss you at all!

# 345 - Lawyers and Chickens

This past week, I have been dealing with high stress matters. Isn't that the way life goes? For me, this is a season of whirlwinds. Part of it stems from a hurricane that hit us in 2008, but it seems the hurricane still hovers over my house.

In 2008, our house was destroyed by Hurricane Ike and we had difficulty getting our insurance company to pay on the claim. We had a great policy, but the people behind the policy were dragging their feet, so we hired a public adjuster...thinking they would work on our behalf to expedite our claim and to get us the most possible for our structure claim. Little did we know, the P.A. would adversely impact our desperate situation.

Sadly, the public adjuster (P.A.) did not do their job because they were too lazy, too passive, too prone to make blatant mistakes in writing, and to top it off, they could not do simple math associated with policy numbers and insurance claim payments. This was the type of representation that made me realize that I should have kept doing the claims process on my own because I still had to continually direct the P.A.'s attention to their repeated mistakes. All that hiring a P.A. did was to allow a third party to enter the scene and for them to create more work for me to handle. I had mistakenly been led to believe the Public Adjuster would take a load off my shoulders, not pile an unbearable load on my head.

For those of you going through a nightmare for an insurance claim, beware of Public Adjusters. I would suggest hiring a solid contractor who is accustomed to dealing with insurance claim paperwork and that is not thinking that his billing methods are adjustable for him to take extra funds to line his pocket. If he is billing your insurance company for $45,000 worth of work, you better get your money's worth. Some contractors will want to do $30,000 worth of work and pocket the extra $15,000 from your policy amount because they know how to alter the paperwork to make it look like they are doing more. To protect yourself, get a line-item bids from three different contractors, check their references and do not even discuss your policy limits with them. All the contractor should be concerned with is preparing sufficient documentation to show detailed repair itemization for the damages to be handled.

Regardless, when an insurance policy is involved and a contractor is necessary, it is strictly their job is to provide goods or services within your budget and this is the reason for getting bids. A good contractor will make sure all the bases are covered for necessary repairs. But, it is a home-owners responsibility to not let a contractor pump up charges just because they feel an insurance policy is their ticket to pocketing money. So, you have to be very careful. Our neighbor had a contractor who would do work on their house and never give them a breakdown of the costs involved because he was had full access to their policy information and he had been submitting paperwork to the insurance company for work that far exceeded an appropriate charge. All that did was eat away at the policy limits they had for structure repairs and leave them with less funds and less work done on their house. Not a good combination.

In our situation, due to the negligence and deceptive trade practices of the P.A., we had to obtain the services of an attorney to get the insurance company to pay on our claim and we won our case against the insurance company. As for the Public Adjuster, we were willing to let bygones be bygones and to not call attention to them being the reason for our claim problems. However, the P.A. got a case of the greedy-guts because of our judicial award, and I found myself amazed, again, at the sense of entitlement that some people seem to embrace.

After we had to go through hell and back to get our claims resolved, the Public Adjuster had the audacity to feel entitled to our legal reward. The legal reward that did not include extra "fun" funds, we only received enough to put our house back together. As for the P.A. and their philosophy...Isn't that a great way to make money? To not represent the client, then when the client is forced to go the legal route to get paid...the P.A. continues to sit back, see the claims process finally resolved through the court system, then file a suit to see if by chance it will benefit their own bank account. Seems like so many people think it's easier to make money by suing rather than by working for it. If the P.A. had worked for their money and adjusted our claim and helped us to obtain a settlement, we would have been thrilled to pay 10% of the adjusted funds to them. But, the P.A. dropped the ball, leaving us with no option other than to hire an attorney.

Since this worthless public adjuster sued me, I was forced to counter-sue. Not exactly a merry-go-round experience, but it is necessary. Therefore, over the past year, I have been spending a major amount of time sifting through old emails, documents, notes and making sure the attorneys have everything in their hands. It doesn't get into those hands unless I put it there and it's been a tedious process. Between my photographs and HUNDREDS of documents that have been provided, I am tucked out.

Trying to remember the details of happenings from 2008 is not always easy. But, I keep working at it because I have no choice. And this past week, my attorney several bombshells that had me fuming to the core. It turns out that the company we hired did not even have a public adjuster license at the time of signing our contract. Two of their people had their licenses, but I would never have signed to have them represent us because I was told that the "company" was a public adjusting company and had a team of experts on their behalf. Turns out, that was not exactly the truth. For public adjusters, the individuals must be licensed, but the company itself can be licensed as well. In my situation, the company that I thought I was hiring did not even have a current license of its own.

About a week ago, I had given my attorney a copy of licensing information I discovered online for the Texas Board of Insurance...she took it further and did find out the company was in the midst of a lapse. Just another disclosure the company kept from me at the time I signed to have them represent us for our claim. Even though my attorney does not magically have the information needed to move forward with this lawsuit, I am more than willing to work hard to give them all the ammunition I can provide. Good thing I did not forget to share that little "simple" piece of research I had conducted with my attorney. That little detail has blossomed into a big issue. All those details add up and better help the attorney put an overall picture together so they can put their dukes up for a solid fight.

As for me, I will not shirk in my duties to defend myself in this lawsuit. I will prepare in every way necessary. Things do not simply get accomplished on their own or because we have high wishes, God gave us appendages, a brain, to ears, a mouth, and the ability to put it all to work in preparation for a good cause. The efforts will be worthwhile.

As Abraham Lincoln said, "Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four hours sharpening the axe."

So, I am being diligent in my preparation. It's always easier when someone else does the preparing, but I am not taking the easy way out...I confront it with knowing that I am taking the precious time needed to sharpen my axe.

During the week, to decompress, I go outside and spend some time with my chickens. This past week we got a lot of needed rain, so the girls were pitter-pattering around in a couple of mud puddles and loving it.

Beaker, my girl with the top beak missing, is the happiest of all. Every morning she flies up into my arms and I am ready to greet her with a smile.

Beaker always looks as if she has a little pouting expression.

Since her upper beak is missing, her food must be in a high pile for her to be able to get a few morsels into her mouth. The pecking action is not the same without a top beak. Here, she has eaten her little pile until nothing is left,, so I will pour another little pile of her own. She never gives up.

Her lower beak at least helps her to still do chicken-like pecking. But, it's much more difficult for her to eat than it is for the other birds.

And she is laying eggs. The egg on the bottom right is one of Beaker's eggs. I was delighted to find her sitting in the chicken coop, snuggled into a spot and ready to lay an egg! Finally, there are more eggs to be found everyday.

Even with the mud and the muck, this old girl is looking pretty good. She's keeping an eye on me as I take a few pictures.

Just so everyone remembers, she makes it clear that she is the "A" bird around here.

Now that it's on the record, she can strut her stuff in the opposite direction, but she is still watching me closely.

My chickens are a lot of fun. I look forward to the day when I am living on my acreage and able to watch some chicks join us the old-fashioned way instead of purchasing them through a store's check-out.

The yard is thankful for the drenching rains. The chickens have pecked the garden clean of anything they find tasty. Gardens and chickens do NOT mix. Chickens have halted all my gardening activities because all of it will be wasted energy. The chickens rule the yard. But, I will eventually have a garden design on my acreage that will cater to my need to grow vegetables on a manageable scale while enjoying the chickens in an area that is far from my home-grown goodness.

All six girls are happy and very accustomed to me hanging out with them. They are good at striking a pose on cue.

As for this chicken in the picture below...I still do not have enough chicken knowledge to determine whether or not this is a Jack or Jill. If this is a rooster, he's sweet enough. I don't believe there are any spurs to be seen. It's hard to tell if this is a rooster because this chicken is healthier than its buddy because this bird has both beaks intact; I cannot mistake the larger size for any sign that it is a rooster because Beaker would probably be the same size if she had her upper beak. I guess time will tell. This bird is about five months old.

I can tell you this...it is more fun being with my chickens than sitting with attorneys. On that note, at least my attorneys are not chickens.