#121 - Whirlwind Weekend Winds Down!

Whew! This has been an incredible weekend of celebration for my oldest daughter's 24th birthday. It's late Sunday night; Heather and her fiance Henry with their two Australian Shepherds just headed out...for their home near Fort Worth, Texas.

Stefie and her daddy, Deputy Dave, walking downtown
as I trail behind clicking the camera button.

Being in downtown Houston's night-life is always sparkly and
fun, but I still can't wait to get out to the country!

Stefie and I do not like escalators.

Over here in this household, we know how to have fun...too much fun. Some of us were paying a big price for TOO MUCH fun last night at Pete's Dueling Piano Bar in Houston, Texas

Heather, our oldest, is very creative. She made a TuTu for this special night and wore it with a sheer black dress and black tights. Of course, her fiance Henry had to try it on before we left the house. I thought it matched his eyes.

Of course, it turns out that she wasn't the only one dressed in a TuTu at the piano bar, nor was she the most outrageously dressed.

This woman did NOT make her own TuTu.

I love TuTu fun!

The great thing about our family is that we let loose and have some whooping good times.

Heather and Henry make a nice couple.

We have some video of Heather on stage at the piano bar and it's quite hysterical, but you must not be offended by piano BAR material as she is being a GREAT SPORT and playing along with such a great personality that had the crowd cheering so loud that it was deafening.

Our group took up four tables. Reservations Required to get our
good seats. Good thing we made them well in advance.

If you are offended by things that are on the wild side...then I warn you...don't watch the video. It is wild. We were all walking on the wild side last night and it was a great stress reliever. And yes, this is another proud parent moment as we watch our daughter in the blue TuTu on stage play along with the pianist in his little game...Miss Blue TuTu is our Biology degreed, laboratory science geek showing us her "I'm not afraid of nuttin" attitude. If you watch, make sure to hang in there for the entire video because it only gets better and better, even with the shaky hand trying to steady the camera in a packed crowd.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WpkGFVH1HUk

Deputy Dave's back was killing him, but he kept on laughing. My back is partly reconstructed and held together by bolts, screws and metal plates with cadaver bone...I am REALLY laughing!! :-)

My daughters are a lot of fun. Being in downtown Houston is a hoot. I love that my girls know how to be expressive and to not be fearful of really ENJOYING life while there is time to enjoy it. If you are alive, there should be some joy found nearby...grab it.

Yes, this is my first baby. But, she has Deputy Dave's frame with my curves...I am glad that Deputy Dave and I were two ingredients that made a couple of awesome recipes! My oldest began to tower over me when she was in the 5th grade...wearing a size 11 shoe. This is one reason she ended up to be a contestant on America's Next Top Model. She's a doll, a near six foot doll, but she is still a gorgeous DOLL! 

Deputy Dave must take his 6'1" frame and extend it to make sure his daughter is not taller than him in her heels. When wearing some heels, she is 6'2". It's a good thing that her fiance is 6'5" tall.

Deputy Dave is always a daddy first. But, he's a daddy who is always packing...just in case. It's nice to have a body-guard at your side every where you go.

Heather had her sissy with her, her little Stefie who is almost the actual size of a real life-size doll and she has incredible friends.

Here is Henry with his good friend Casey who is a professional ranch hand...I believe his parents' own about a 1,000 acre ranch here in Texas. He is a super nice guy who is a lot of fun, a true Texas guy.

And THERE IS THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!!!!!! 

I'm glad birthdays only come around once per year. Deputy Dave and I had to leave Pete's Dueling Piano Bar at 11:00pm. Everyone was hoping we would stay until the 2:00am closing time, but we were nearly panicked when thinking about how far beyond our bed-time we had already gone.

But you know, sometimes, you just gotta be a little wild. Wahooooo!!! We partied until 11pm and it was worth EVERY MINUTE past 9:00pm!! Living dangerously over here at Farm Life Lessons...living dangerously.

#119 - Farm and Ranch Jargon...My Brain is Learning

When I first began blogging about our Farm Life Lessons, I hadn't really thought about how city groomed I had become throughout the years.

My first few blogs about us gearing up to take more steps toward moving to our acreage full-time found me struggling to narrow down all the lessons we were suddenly learning. We eagerly look forward to moving from the city to the country. However, my life-long dream of owning chickens became a reality as we took the risk and bought a flock of chickens for our backyard here in the city. I must say, it was one of the best decisions we've ever made.

However, I do remember writing a blog post about checking on the chickens in the "coup." Yep, that's how I spelled it. Lovely. Humiliating. The "coup" in my backyard did not make head-line news, I can tell you that. But, it brought me such happiness that I wanted to shout about it to the world.

These days, I make sure that everyone knows I am actually going to the "coop." Perhaps my initial misspelling occurred because a deep-rooted side of me felt as if I were pulling off an amazing coup after returning from the coop! I did know the definition of "coup," but I can't imagine what possessed me to write about being at the Chicken Coup.

Then, a few times I wrote about raising more food...the delights of raising a bumper crop of corn will be so nice...and similar wordage I loosely used with my deficient farm-knowledge.

And it only makes PERFECT sense that if I was going to be raising my own food, then I would certainly be growing a few cattle.

Best of all, I could only imagine how awesome it would be to increase my herd of chickens.

After blogging for a while, I began to be more careful with my wordage about farm life. After all, I was a legal technical writer for years, for goodness sakes. I can write about things in an intricate, detailed, and complicated format, but farm talk was far from my area of expertise.

I'm learning.

My latest wordage dilemma is when I am talking about our eggs that we gather from our backyard chickens. How do I reference the eggs? These eggs are not grown, and I didn't directly raise the eggs...they are laid. So, I guess I am merely the gatherer of the eggs that are freshly laid...and no...I realize that I do not "harvest" those eggs...Maybe...Or do I?

People who have been raised around farming and ranching have their own technical and expansive vocabulary. They might not even realize how knowledgeable they are in their area of expertise. They might take it forgranted that a city dweller might not really comprehend the difference between a filly and a foal. Undoubtedly, farmers and ranchers grasp unique wordage for their lifestyle on a level that city people can only read about it books. For me, I've not yet hit a comfort level in this area, but my awareness and knowledge toward farm jargon is increasing.

So, I guess I'll be brushing up on exact definitions and studying the distinctions between words that are most used by patient country folk who probably shake their head and wonder about the "educated" city person who can't figure out if they are sitting on a mule or a horse. Yes, as I sit atop a mule, I do know that I am indeed on a mule.

However, for instance, speaking of vocabulary, simply starting with horses can demonstrate the complexity with word usage and country living. The confusion can be tremendous for a city gal when you hear horsey words like...filly, mare, nag, foal, backyard horse, gelding, broodmare, colt, dam, easy-keeper, Jeanette, mule, pony, barn sour, rogue, sire, stallion, weanling, yearling, and so much more! And, this is just with horses...not including all of the other terms relating to horses.

Farm and Ranch talk is an entirely new language for many people. With horses, I'm a bit more comfortable with many of these definitions, but again, I am a Texan. We cannot escape horse talk, even if we live smack dab in the middle of downtown Houston.

And, just so you know, with horses, even with my basic language skills, I've been doing my homework. Will we ever own a horse? Hmmm, I don't know. Deputy Dave wants us to eventually get a couple and there is a very lengthy, enjoyable horse trail near our acreage that would make it worthwhile; regardless, there is so much for us to learn. Yes, I took horseback riding lessons when I was a child and being a Texan means that we often find ourselves having to ride a horse...somehow...somewhere...we end up on a horse. But, the lessons I took as a child were proper English riding lessons when I lived in Scotland. That's another story for another day.

For now, just so you can see where I'm going with all of this "farm talk," I will continue the demonstration as it pertains to horses. In fact, here are a few words strictly referring to different kinds of horses with their definitions.

1. Filly:  a female horse under four years old

2. Mare:   a female horse over four years old

3. Nag:  an old horse or one that is in poor condition 

4. Foal:  a baby horse or pony still at its mother's side

5. Backyard Horse:  a horse that lives with its owner, not in a proper barn or stable

6. Gelding:  a castrated male horse

7. Broodmare:  a female horse used strictly for breeding

8. Colt:  a male horse under four years old that has not been castrated

9. Dam:  the mother horse

10: Easy-Keeper:  a horse that easily keeps his weight

11: Jeanette:  an offspring of a stud and a Jennie

12: Jennie: a female donkey, longer ears than a horse (confused about this one) horse-donkey hybrid?

13: Mule:  the offspring of a male donkey and a female horse

14: Pony:  breeds of small horses under 14.2 hands

15: Barn Sour:  a horse that doesn't like to leave the barn or stable

16: Rogue:  a horse with a bad temper

17: Yearling:  a horse just approaching or just turning one year old

18: Sire:  the father horse

19: Stallion:  a male horse over four years old that has not been castrated

20: Weanling:  a horse under one year old that has been weaned from its mother

21: Bronco:  a horse that has never been broken to saddle or harness use

22: Cow-Horse:  a horse that is trained in roping, cutting, herding out a cow herd

23: Mustang:  a feral horse

I am sure many of you will have additions to make to this list as well as more slang terms that I can't even conceive of grasping unless I'm struggling with one of these huge beasts.

So, my dear blog buddies, I hope that you realize that even though I actually do have a rarely utilized, vast SAT-level vocabulary, I only have a Bambino-level vocabulary when it relates to my Farm Life Lessons. However, I'm sure that will continue to change over the coming years. I am even more confident that each near term I learn will accompany a solid real-world experience that will effectively etch the word into my brain.

If you are a Farming and/or Ranching individual, I bow down respectfully to all the brain etching you've had to endure. Some lessons are hard learned, but long remembered...I feel as if I am in Kindergarten and class is in session. I'm paying attention, for sure.

#118 - City to Country Changes in Monthly Bills

A huge bonus that comes with moving to the country from our address within Harris County city limits, just outside of Houston, is that our monthly bills should be drastically reduced, especially since we're not wanting to build "big." We want a simple, country house.

It is nice living by the bay. We've always enjoyed a day on the water or a day of fishing, but the risks that come with living by the bay are rather large. In fact, in 2008, the inside of our house was destroyed by Hurricane Ike. High winds blew our way --- along with a small tornado and the combo Mother Nature pack ended up ripping our roof off, then the rains that pounded the house that night and the rains that continued over the next several days came pouring into our house. Since practically everyone in the neighborhood lost a portion of their roof or worse, the entire bay area was devastated, it wasn't as if you could exactly call the local repairman to show up to help you out.

We did rebuild and we are paying the extra high premiums that come with living in a high risk area. Our home insurance nearly doubled after the storm. This means that home insurance in our area costs about $3,000. per year. Once we move to the country, our home insurance should be drastically reduced. I've heard that the same kind of insurance we have on a house this size (which we won't be living in a house this large) costs around $600. per year.

The taxes that we now pay are hefty. Living in Harris County means higher taxes...lots of city services in a metropolitan area to keep up with. City living requires more streets, more drainage systems, more street lights, more fire hydrants, more, more more. And we citizens pay, pay, pay. Living in the country brings less city services, but the reduction in taxes is a good trade-off.

Once we are moved outside of Harris County, our automobile insurance will also decrease significantly. Living within the city limits of the greater Houston area includes higher premiums because the risk with driving is increased in Harris County. City drivers are usually in a hurry, red lights are often meaningless, and staying in your own lane doesn't mean the person next to you is staying in theirs as they talk on the cell phone, put on lipstick or eat a hamburger. So, we are looking forward to our car insurance bill to go down.

My Heather & Stefie with their country friends.

There will be some shocking daily changes to our lives that will immediately impact our monthly outgoing costs --- a big one will be our AT&T U-Verse services that gives us over 200 channels, six televisions with all of these channels at the touch of a remote control and DVR's in all the main rooms so we can watch our favorite recorded programs at leisure.

As far as we know, our land is located in such a remote area that cable or high-definition television via digital boxes are not yet available. But, here in the city this bill runs, which includes internet usage, runs us about $180. per month. Ridiculous. However, the add-on of internet services is pretty important in my world...that little add-on means I get to read your blogs and have fun writing on my blog. Wireless internet means I can do research as I please and keep in touch with family and friends through Facebook, blogging, email and such. And let's not forget, there is not hardly any kind of personal or professional business that we conduct these days without the Internet.

This is how I picture all of us on Sunday afternoon at the farm.

As for home phone services, we did away with those this past year and bought a Magic Jack, which we love. It is wonderful not having high telephone bills. Since we already have our cell phones, we don't need fancy home phone services any longer. We simply plugged in the Magic Jack connection to a USB port on our computer, then plugged in the phone wire. As long as the computer is turned on and the Magic Jack connection is connected, then we are in business and I have a home phone. I use my cordless phone as usual with the Magic Jack connection. I am not sure if we can't be without a regular phone line in the country...I'm not sure if we will need a phone line in order to get Internet. We might have to suffer through good old dial-up once again after we move to the country.

It will be incredible to not have such a large house to air-condition. The savings in that area will be tremendous. Here, we have a house that's near 3,000 square feet and our country house will probably be approximately 1,500 square feet...tucked beneath the trees in the forest. It should be cool and breezy. The insulation will be carefully considered and installed with high-rating, as appropriate, to give us a noticeable energy savings.

Of course, we will also save on heating the house, but we're not quite sure about how to go about this part of construction. We've always had gas heating, but being in the country will rule that out, unless we want to deal with propane, which I don't. So, I guess we will have electric heat for the first time.

Here in the city, our water bill includes our trash pick up services. Since we won't have trash pick up services in the country, we will be utilizing a dedicated area with a burn barrel...as most people do in the country. This will wipe this fee off of our monthly map.

Sitting down and crunching the numbers, I figure that we will save approximately $800. per month, at the least, just in cable television and utility costs. That's a hefty chunk of change.

Plus, we won't have a monstrous house with a house payment that is too much...all this space we are paying for and we use 1/4th of it on a regular basis. As we are growing older, we enjoy big open spaces where it counts, but we no longer want to pay for a bunch of extra rooms that we rarely see. Besides, it is too difficult to keep up with a house this large on my own. Since I am the main one doing the bulk of daily work in this house, I don't see the point. And it doesn't matter if a room upstairs isn't used but one day per month, I still feel the need to dust and vacuum it weekly. It adds to my work load.

With one of my last posts discussing the increase in how many eggs we are eating since we have been raising our backyard chickens, we touched upon the savings in gasoline. All of those saved trips from having to go out to eat do add up to savings in our gas expenses. This is an area that will increase once we move. Deputy Dave will still be working in downtown Houston, but the drive is about 50 minutes from our land to downtown. We will be buying an economical vehicle to help reduce these costs. And, he will certainly be making trips to the grocery store on his way home from work to prevent us from having to drive near 13 miles one-way to the closest grocery store from our acreage. In this area, careful planning will help us to save money. However, we will also have much more land and we will be raising farm animals for consumption and growing more crops than ever to enjoy on our plate.

Anyway, I keep thinking about the changes that are to come in our monthly expenses. I think we will be spending our first six months out in the woods with our jaws hanging open from sticker shock reduction. We've been spending big city money on so many hefty expenses that come with city living for most of our lives that I don't know how we'll react to not having those kinds of bills come in the mail any longer.

And if anyone has any suggestions and details --- you know I love details so don't be skimpy on the comment size --- about different kinds of satellite systems, satellite dishes, internet suggestions and such for rural living, I am listening closely. Next week, I'll probably be calling a little convenience store next to our acreage and see what they use and recommend as well. However, they are closer to a main highway which opens many doors for services to them, unlike us country hicks who will be living off the beaten path.

Since we do get AT&T cell phone service on certain parts of our land, I might have to buy one of those cards to plug into the computer to get internet service. I'm not sure. Maybe we will really be stuck with dial-up services with the local phone company. Regardless, I am extremely interested in my fellow country folk giving me a heads up on how all of this is accomplished on their land...and since I've only recently become addicted to the cable network channel of "Lifetime," I guess I could hook up my old VCR and start recording right now, every day. Maybe that will hold me over for a while as we get settled into our country house. Maybe.

For a while, we will probably hook up the old bunny antennae ears to a few of our older model televisions and I bet we will get so many great channels and good programming that we'll never want to pay for tv again. I've always said, "Give me PBS and I will be content." True. I love PBS shows such as "This Old House," and "Victory Garden" and "Antique Road Show," among so many others that I just adore! So, we probably won't even try to bother ourselves with cable television for our move. It would just clutter up our time and bog down our limited funds.

I already tried to start taping Lifetime Channel tonight on my VCR and DVD Recorder...FAIL. But, I'll keep trying. Hopefully, I'll get a good collection of stories to fill my down time on the farm.

Closer and closer, each week we are taking steps to bring us closer to moving to the country.

Today, I finished painting the entrance of the house, the Grand Foyer area and that's no small task.

The country cabin will NOT have high ceilings like this house!

Deputy Dave got home and took over painting the high corners and crevices...thank you Deputy Dave! Tomorrow, there will be more painting, but mostly cleaning because my daughter Heather will arrive sometime in the afternoon. I'm sure I'll wear myself thin. I always do. But, I'm a mom and our get togethers are precious to me. Besides, any extra work that I do in the house right now will only benefit us in a few weeks once we sell the house. More work now means less work later. Sounds good to me.

But, this weekend, we'll be having some fun. Well, as much fun as you can have with FIVE dogs in your house. Yes, Count Them...one, two, three, four, five...that's FIVE dogs in the house and FIVE chickens in the backyard. And what would all of this be a recipe for I hate to ask?

Chicken-n-Dumplins...maybe.

#117 - Upcoming Weekend of Excitement!

This coming weekend we will be having out of town company, mainly my oldest daughter Heather will be coming to celebrate her 24th birthday. Her fiance has been working on a job in the Corpus Christi area, so he will be driving in to join us as well. Several of her friends will be joining in on the festivities. A few friends will be traveling long distance and others live right here in Houston. It will be a fun weekend.

I guess we'd better really enjoy these times together in Houston, in our house here in the city because next time at this year, for our daughter's birthday, we'll be living in the country. But, I'm sure our family gathering for her birthday on the land will be extra fun with a bonfire, catfish cook-out, horse-shoe competitions and perhaps a BB-gun competition with a few pyramid tin can setups.

 

Part of her weekend will include Heather taking her bridesmaids to try on bridesmaid's dresses. That should be fun. Stefie will be Heather's Maid of Honor, her sister will stand up for her and I am sure Stefie will be the family member and best-friend who will stand up for Heather throughout their lifetimes. Having a sister is truly a blessing. It's wonderful to see them hit this "big girl" phase. They aren't just playing dress-up any longer; this is the real deal. It's still just as much fun, maybe more so.

But, the main event scheduled for the weekend is for all of us to celebrate her birthday. This weekend, the entire gang will be going to a piano bar in downtown Houston so that our daughter can be picked on in front of everyone. I believe this is a dueling piano bar and if you've never been to one of these venues, it's something to experience and to always remember. It's a great time for young and old alike.

My sister and I are both May babies. One year my entire family went to a dueling piano bar in Austin off of 6th Street for our birthdays. Of course, when they called me up to one of the pianos, the pianist was saying, "I got the sister with the HOOKER name while you've got the sister with the sweet little bird name."

Meaning...my sister's name is "Robin" and she was put at the other piano. Regardless, me and my "hooker" sounding name had a great time. Just so you know, they used my middle name, not my first name, "Lana." So, "Lana" was not the hooker name. We all know that Lana is a movie star name. Duh. I guess my name symbolizes the hooker movie star kind of namesake. What can I say? All I can offer is that my parents WERE Hippies.

Anyway, on 6th Street that night so many years ago, these dueling pianists brought the place to hysterics at the expense of myself and my sister. Getting sisters on their birthday is quite a reason for these clowns to cut loose, let me tell you. But, I admit, it was hysterical. My parents were there, my brother and his wife, our friends and our little crowd brought in some hefty numbers for the piano bar. It was a lot of fun, so I'm looking forward to going to the the dueling piano bar for my daughter's 24th birthday, and I'll try to get some of it on video to post here next week.

And for the record, "Heather" is named after a beautiful flowering plant indigenous to Scotland. Not a hooker.

Us three girls having lunch in downtown Houston with Deputy Dave.

We are a family who enjoys doing fun things together. We go to the rodeo, we go to comedy clubs, we go to live theater performances, we enjoy festivals and more. Most of all, we enjoy being together.

My father won't be able to join us this coming weekend because he'll be out of town doing his normal yearly thing with his cousin. Every year, my dad and his cousin fly out of town for stock car races.

Heather and her Paw-Paw on her Texas Aggie ring day.

As for the flying part, they don't have to go to an airport since my cousin handles that part on his own.

Will, my cousin in Hawaii as he is surfing for the first time
at 60 years of age. Sure looks like fun, probably as much fun as flying.

My cousin lives outside of the Houston area in a very unique development. His custom to-die-for home is on a beautiful tract of land that backs up to their own private landing strip in the backyard. Will also has a private hanger behind his house which holds his three planes. So, he can come and go in the skies as he pleases...directly from his house. Will has had his pilot's license for as long as I've known him. Every year, Will personally takes out his plane for him and my father to soar toward their next destination.

Here I am with my daughter on the day she received her Texas Aggie ring.
My dad and us gals are having a great evening! Next is the Ring Dunk! Oh Lord!

So, even though my dad will miss the piano bar fun, he'll be enjoying the races. After the races, they are flying out to their next jaunt which will be to drive their own race stock cars for the day. My dad is like a little kid when thinking about this opportunity. He and his cousin have been teasing each other relentlessly about who will "win" with the best time around the track.

Will tells my dad, "Old Man, it's going to be so sad when I beat you to the curb, literally."

And my dad challenges Will, "No, what will really be sad is when I blow you away...here I am, the old man who drives the Chevy truck every day while you are driving your Porsche on Houston's freeways, so even though you get all of that practice in your sport's car every day, you'll still eat my dust."

I guess we'll see who eats whose dust.

Here is my dad with two of my brother's children.

Meanwhile, I am trying to prepare for our weekend of company. Since I've been doing extra work in the house to get it ready to put it on the market, this means I am painting and getting an ever growing massive garage sale pile ready. As usual, I'm burning fires at both ends and in the middle as well. I'm feeling a little singed lately.

I remember telling my Momma after she'd chastise me for procrastinating that, "Mom, I'm not a procrastinator, I just work very well under pressure."

Yeah, that's me...chaos at work under pressure.

To be honest, this week began slower than I expected and that's because I babysat my niece Shaye on Sunday and Monday. My sister is a counselor for a school district and she had to work on Monday while Shaye's school district had the students off from school on Monday. So, my sister and her family came to our house after church on Sunday and dropped off a sweet looking Shaye in her Sunday dress.

As usual, Shaye and I had too much fun, so all that fun gave me a bit of a break from the house work. And my dad came by to spend some extra time with his youngest grand-baby.

However, now I've only got a couple of days left before the weekend begins and a ton left to do. I figured that this afternoon I'll break out all of my painting gear and the mess will begin. After I begin painting, I don't like to be disturbed. Besides, we all know that when you stop painting, the clean-up process must begin, and I thoroughly dislike that part. Therefore, once I drag out all of the paint materials and get going, I can't stop...for hours. At least my walls will look fresh and clean and ready for this weekend and for their next owner!

My dad and I several months after my cervical spine reconstruction in 2009.
Here he is on his way out to yet another Houston Rodeo event.

And, when I'm 65 years old, I hope that I too will be able to drive around a race-track in a stock car at top speeds. For some reason, I think that I'd be a serious heavy pedal driver. How do I know this? Because I LOVE to drive Deputy Dave's Dodge Ram truck with the upgraded package that has dual exhausts...Mama likes the powerful V8. Vroom Vroom.

For now, my colorful life will amount to a paint brush in my hand while looking forward to our piano bar laughs. As for laughing, I am an expert in this area. My hand may not be perfectly steady with a paintbrush, but I am good at letting go and laughing with abandon.

Let the abandon commence!

#116 - Eggs from the Backyard Chickens and Big Food Savings

Over the past several months, I've done a lot of reading about the pros and cons of raising your own chickens for the eggs. Some people were concluding that the cost of raising the chickens did not make it worthwhile compared to the old eggs we get to purchase at the grocery store.

However, I have an added consideration to the mix that I've not really read about. I've touched upon it in one of my last posts, but I feel the need to elaborate. Yes, me, elaborating.

We get approximately 35 eggs per week from our five backyard chickens. Granted, Miss Speckles, as a Bantam, lays some pretty small eggs, but they are just as tasty and as healthy as the others. So, this gives us plenty of eggs every week to meet our every "egg" need.

Before we began to gather eggs from our backyard coop, we were purchasing grocery store eggs once every two weeks. We usually bought a carton of 18 eggs and over the next two weeks, we would have to be careful about how many eggs we used so that they would last the full two weeks. Since we are a family that has a heavy baking side to it, that means we use a lot of eggs. Also, we love any kind of egg dish.

So, the savings with having backyard laying hens translates to more than the egg carton of savings at the grocery store. First of all, we save approximately $6.00 per week in the basic cost of buying the 30+ eggs that we gather in the backyard coop throughout the week. That's $6.00 that we do not have to spend at the grocery store.

However, the savings go further than what initially meets the eye and pocketbook.

If I pull eight eggs out of the refrigerator...eggs that came from our backyard and I whip up a couple of gourmet style omelets that are light and fluffy, filled with sharp cheddar cheese, fresh mushrooms and ham, then we are saving a brunch price here in Houston that is approximately $12.00 per gourmet omelet. For Deputy Dave and I, this equals a $24.00 brunch bill. Now, if we go to Denny's restaurant, we might get that same omelet for $4.00, but that's still an approximate $10.00 bill for for two omelets.

Out of the 35 eggs for the week, with two omelets, Deputy Dave and I have already saved at least another $10.00 for that meal because we had the eggs at the house to create the meal that we would have otherwise gone to a restaurant to enjoy.

Another delicious meal that we love to eat is Quiche. There is a tea room near our house where you can get a swiss cheese and broccoli quiche. It is melt in your mouth deliciousness with a buttery crust. To order one piece of quiche, it cost $8.95. But, Deputy Dave makes a heavenly home-made quiche, even rolling out his own pie crust. The filling, if you eat quiche and know, is also made with eggs for the base ingredient. Having eggs in the refrigerator means we can have quiche and since Deputy Dave makes an entire quiche pie for us to enjoy, we get about eight slices from the pie and that is more dining out that is no longer needed. Having fresh eggs on hand also ensures that our quiche is more delectable than ordering one in a restaurant.

Of course, we enjoy having eggs over easy...simmering in a bit of bacon grease. Enjoying eggs and bacon for dinner is one of our favorite meals. Again, no need to purchase a breakfast platter at Denny's or I-Hop because we've got the fixins in our refrigerator. More out-to-eat money that we've saved.

Overall, my point is that each week we are preparing foods at home with those eggs that we've gathered from the backyard and the meals that we are preparing are secondary savings added to the savings from not having to buy any eggs from the grocery store. All of the meals that we get from our eggs help contribute to our savings.



Each day that we eat omelets is another day that we are not spending money on another food item. So, the savings multiple on themselves. The more you eat the eggs that you are gathering from your own coop, the more money you are keeping in your pocket.

For us, the weekly savings I translate to about $45.00 per week between saved egg costs and foods prepared with the eggs from our laying hens. Not bad. In a month's time, we are saving near $200. in groceries because we are eating so many eggs.

Give me a loaf of bread, some butter and eggs and I'll give you a meal.

Give me a package of tortillas, a bag of potatoes, eggs and cheese and you'll get some delicious taquitos and with some pico de gallo in the wrap, your mouth will be eating a burst of flavors.

The eggs make a meal spread out further. Eggs pack a lot of protein in their little shell and that protein in our body goes a long way. One little egg is a nutritionally dense food. In the old days, an egg to a farmer was a life-saver. A sturdy little versatile food source with great flavor.

Anyway, I am so amazed by how far the eggs go in this household and I cannot express how thrilled I am, for the first time in our lives, about how free I feel with eating as many eggs out of the carton as we'd like because there is a fresh supply on the way...God willing.

No longer do we have to look at the carton and be bummed out about being one egg short for a recipe...we must simply wait for the next egg to be laid. So far, we have not run out of eggs. I can tell you that, even as fervent egg eaters, we are hard-pressed to eat 35 eggs per week. If we become too bogged down with too many eggs, we present them as a nice gift to those who value super fresh eggs, always gathered within an hour of being laid. Can't get fresher than that!

Since the USDA allows an egg to lay around for 20 days BEFORE it is even put into the carton, I am thoroughly pleased with my backyard eggs. I know they haven't even sat around for half a day much less 20 days!

I love eggs. With one large $12.00 bag of chicken feed lasting about a month along with kitchen scraps and free-range pecking...the cost is so low. We purchased one bale of hay for the nest several months ago and it cost about $11.00. On a daily basis, that's about all it costs.

In our area, fresh farm-raised eggs such as ours cost at least $5.00 per dozen. The grocery store variety is much less expensive, but for discerning egg buyers, the quality of eggs we are eating would cost a person quite a bit more. I am so thankful that we have high quality eggs waiting for us in one of the nests in the backyard and every day it's a fun treasure hunt to find the next egg. It never gets old and I don't think it ever will.

So, if you are thinking about raising chickens, do it. This is one endeavor that I've enjoyed wholeheartedly. Perhaps it's because we started out nice and slow. Our five chickens suit our family perfectly. The chickens are entertaining and they know their routine.

I guess that once we move to our land in a few months we'll be able to finally take our chicken raising skills to a new level. We'll be able to expand the chicken coop to a walk-in variety and will will have one side with a rooster so we can have chicks replacing the older gals.

And, yes, we will eventually be processing our own chickens so this entire experience will lead us from having fresh eggs to having fresh farm-raised chicken on the table. That idea still grosses me out quite a bit, so I am not quite tough enough to approach that challenge, but I'm working on it. I'd much rather have our own farm-raised chicken on the table than the grocery store version.

I will leave you with a thought I've had this past week as we've been trying to find a builder and after I've been going through a bit of freak-out mode of being confronted with our new approaching reality...I decided it's worthwhile, but

...it sure is hard work trying to live a more simplistic life.

To those of you already living this life, I am holding my imaginary crystal champagne glass (which is filled to the brim) up in the air to toast you and your determination! A toast to all who desire a return to our roots, to all kinds of roots, to digging your hands in productive roots, to growing all kinds of roots and eating all kinds of roots, to watching those roots grow into things you savor...and to chicken-raising-people of all kinds, whether only in spirit or with birds in your yard...I salute you!