A Small Backyard Chicken Pen

We have a mean rooster. The kids named him, but I'm not sure I should post his name on here. The kids don't get why I don't want them to tell the people at church what the rooster's name is.....but awhile back some other kids from church were visiting with their families and THEIR kids came up with the same name! (At least it's not just MY kids....I find some comfort there).

The name....is what a mean rooster might do to one's finger if you were to stick it at him. Starts with a P. Ends with -er.  Got it? ;)

So anyway, if we are ever going to leave for a few days, we need to have someone come take care of our animals. No one wants to run away from the rooster(as my SIL did when dh told her a few years ago a different rooster wouldn't bother her--ornery!). No one on Craigslist wants the lovely heirloom breed Delaware rooster. We really don't want to kill him and eat him until we get another (nice) Delaware rooster. So we're stuck with him.

My husband gathered some scrap wood and fencing and such he had collected and got busy building. I got to do the honors of painting. :)

Here is what he came up with:

I am trying that water bottle to see if the rooster can figure it out. So far he is just pecking at it ever so often. It said it was for birds as well as rabbits and such.....I know there are nipple-type waterers available for poultry but haven't seen any IRL yet to see how much they cost. He also has that pan of water in the corner, but I'd like to take it out and give him a bit more room.

I've got a chick feeder in there that is serving the purpose...unless it rains.  I am certainly open to suggestions there too.  I would prefer to have something fairly waterproof that I can fill from the outside and that won't necessitate my opening the door of the pen every day to fill.


Here is a look at the inside, the best I could get. There are a few boards there for roosts, and a door on the far end to collect eggs. I have since put the hens in but they've yet to figure out to lay their eggs in the right place. (bummer)

Still hanging in there

I apologize, once again, for not posting more often.  In a way, that is a good thing since things have been going well for me allergy-wise. I rarely have a reaction now.  The last time I remember having any type of reaction was after my last post in the late spring when the farmers were fertilizing/using pesticides in the fields. I am not sure which it was, as I was exposed at my house(surrounded quite literally by corn and soy fields) and in town at and in Meijer(gotta love all the junk out in the main aisles in the springtime!

That reaction consisted of intense brain fog and inability to concentrate and some body aches and stiffness. I did take Benadryl when I realized what was going on, closed all my windows and doors and became a hermit for the day. By the next day, I was better. Whew!

I still have not gone back in to get tested/treated for pesticides/herbicides/fertilizers. I guess because it's not bothering me anymore and I've been too busy to schedule an appointment.


What has previously been my most horrible time of year is soon to come---Ragweed season in August. I wait, in trepidation, to see what is going to happen and how my body will respond this year.

I am under quite a bit of stress these last weeks as I am losing my grandmother to ovarian cancer quite soon.  So, this might effect how my body responds to previous allergens.  We shall see.....the Lord will carry me through, come what may. I pray He will have mercy on my grandma and draw her to His loving arms soon. <3

Welcome to my new readers!

It looks like I may have a few more readers in the next few days.

If you are interested in my story from the beginning, please start from the beginning of my blog. :)

It took me awhile to finally write my story and to post it--I was spending so much time avoiding everything and finding what I COULD eat and do that I had very little time to write. It was only after my treatments with AAT and then BioAllergenix(BioVeda) that I had true relief and could finally type it all out to share with others.

I hope and pray that in sharing my experiences, others will be helped and will experience the positive life-changing experience that I have had(been having). It is just phenomenal.

I just said to someone the other day, in giving them my story, that even if the treatments only last a few years and I then need more treatments, it is still worth it. It is worth the dollars I paid to have the time I have had so far with the greatly improved quality of life.

Some may say "Wow, I bet you are glad you can go back to eating like you used to!". My response is to say that I have been forever changed by this allergy experience. I am thankful to have gone through it, because without it I may not have ever researched what we eat like I did during that time  and continue to do even now. It is quite an eye-opener when you realize how much of our food is highly processed or contains highly processed ingredients--even though to the naked eye it looks fine. (ever try avoiding corn or soy?) I also have learned about Genetically Modified foods and how they have permeated our food.

Genetically Modified foods are my bandwagon issue right now. I have a sneaking suspicion that the GM foods are messing with our bodies(and our children's bodies) because our immune systems just don't know how to handle the mutated food. So far, perhaps only the immune compromised/weaker of our people are being effected...the children and those prone to allergies and sensitivities.   What's going to happen next? I don't know...so I try to avoid GM in myself and my kids, though I know it's nearly impossible in today's culture.  It just floors me that a company can continue pushing this technology, even knowing the deaths it is causing and the harm it is causing to the environment and how it is limiting our future food supply. I think it's all about Money and Power.... *sigh*

So, No, I don't want to go back to how I used to eat, because my eyes have been opened to what is in and on our food and I don't want that for our family.   I still read labels because I want to be informed. But now I can get away with the occasional potluck where I don't know what everything has in it, where before I would have had to avoid everything on the potluck table and bring my own foods and hope the smells of the foods on the table, or someone's perfume or the fabric softener on their clothes didn't set off my allergies.  I have much more freedom these days.

So, here's to my readers. I hope you find my blog informative and that in sharing my experiences I can in turn help you to better your life.

BioAllergenix/BioVeda and How I'm Doing

I am doing pretty well. I had a few weeks  that I would have off-and-on environmental flareups, but they were few and far between and nowhere near as bad as in previous years. Even last year, as I was beginning treatments,  it was a near-constant battle.

I recently tried a radish from our garden and seemed to do fine with it. Awhile later I had like 4 more and soon after I developed an itchy throat. So, guess I will call and make an appointment one of these days for a little "fine-tuning".  I did pick up and carry our outdoor cat in between eating the radishes and the itchy throat(all happened within 5 minutes) so it may have been something on the cat that got me.  (Cats tested fine last time I was in)

At any rate, it was a short-lived reaction. I'll take it. :)

Farm Update

We've been busy with stuff around the farm. I finally got the rest of the main garden planted this morning. We usually plant on Mother's Day or shortly thereafter, but due to late frost we were about a week late. Then, on Saturday, when I was finally planting the garden, it decided to rain......I had to wait until today to finish the planting.

I must say that this year our soil is the best it has ever been! My hubby was amazed at the ease in tilling and how fluffy it is this year! I think the grass clippings, leaves, ashes from our outdoor wood furnace, and chicken manure are really making a difference! It is now Soil, not just Dirt. When I compare the soil in our garden to the soil in our field(that we are renting out still and is still farmed with GMO corn/soy---we're trying to work up to not needing to do that) the difference is phenomenal.

This year, we went minimal on buying seeds and are mostly using up our stuff from last year/s.
We are growing in the main garden:
~Yellow tomatoes
~Red Italian tomatoes
~Thai tomatoes of some sort(these and previous tomatoes were generously given to me by a friend)


~Chocolate Cherry Tomatoes - I did buy seed for these this year-couldn't resist!
~Beefsteak-from my Boyscout son
~Some sort of Mountain tomato-from my sis-in-law

~Banana Peppers(purchased-these are the only ones hubby will tolerate other than jalapenos, which no one else will eat)
~Rainbow peppers(we'll see how the seed germinates)

~Rainbow Chard
~Vulcan Chard
~Monstreaux Spinach--different family than regular spinach and very heat tolerant/slow to bold
~Baby Romaine
~Organic Buttercrunch

~Waltham Butternut Squash
~Royalty Purple Bush Beans
~Early Wonder Beets
~Cherokee Bush Beans(yellow)
~Those beets that look like a target--alternating red and white
~Bush Cucumbers and some pickling ones that, again, are supposed to tolerate heat and be prolific-not much luck with those last year but we'll give it another go
~Golden Zucchini
~an Italian zucchini
~Yellow Crookneck squash

And of course the usual sunflowers, nasturtiums and marigolds strewn throughout. And soon to be transplanted borage around the tomatoes.

After the rain ALL DAY yesterday, there is water still standing in part of the garden. Thankfully I had already mulched pretty heavily over the part I needed to get into this morning. I didn't get all muddy tip-toeing along the row planting greens. :)


Oh, and on my Overwintering Box Experiment. It's kind of overgrown.
I have discovered that overwintered Kale and Chard bolt very easily. I have decided to let them do their thing, especially after seeing a few bees loving them, and I will harvest the seed for planting this fall or next spring.
I had transplanted some teensy carrots into the box last fall, and those are also focusing on greenery/seed production. Today I pulled those out of there to give the peas more room. I smelled the sweet carroty smell from the carrot greens as I carried them over and gave them to the chickens to enjoy. The chickens have been confined to their chicken run since the rooster has decided he needs to attack everyone when they are free-ranging and also because I don't want them eating every seed I have planted/kicking up the seedlings.

I had a volunteer lettuce in there that I harvested today and that we will have with dinner tonite.

And some French Breakfast Radishes that I planted next to the box with some onions a few weeks ago:

To finish up, one last picture of today's "Bounty", including the eggs so far today.