This and that

I thought I might explain a little more about why I had to wipe our little chickies bottoms. Shortly after we got our babies I was visiting with a friend that has been raising chickens for several years. She has lots of great advice and has been very helpful, until she mentioned to me one day that I needed to check their bottoms and possibly wipe them clean. Evidently because of the feathers on their little bottoms some are prone to getting pretty messy when they poop. This is usually not a problem until it gets to the point where they can't poop anymore because their bottoms are too dirty. This was the case with our baby that died. I'm afraid at first I was a little grossed out and couldn't bring myself to actually wipe them clean. I was hoping that they would be okay. One day the littlest one was acting lethargic and was obviously not doing so well. I immediately noticed that he was quite dirty so I pulled him out and tried to clean him off. It was too little too late. He died a short time later. (Add baby chicken killer to my list of talents) After that I immediately examined all their backsides and had to give 4 of them a "bath". Luckily they have been fine since then and I haven't had to do it again. Phew!

I was asked on my last post why we are raising chickens. My answer was too long to put in comments so here it goes.

My husband was raised on a farm. He was raised to work hard and always had plenty of chores to do to keep he and his 8 siblings busy and out of trouble. He is a huge believer in hard work and the many benefits it provides. (He also believes in playing hard too.) He is always worried that our kids are getting too lazy because they don't have enough chores to do. We've tried to be creative in finding things for them to do, but really there is only so much. Short of moving to a farm and raising our kids in that way (which we would do in a heart beat if the opportunity came up) he figured an easy thing that we could do is get some chickens. We do live on a little bit of land (1/3 of an acre) so we have a little bit of space. His plan is that the chickens will give our kids more opportunities for work and chores.

Another reason to get chickens is because the state of the economy right now is pretty scary. You would have to live in a cave to not feel the effects of higher gas and food prices. The price of eggs has risen a lot in the last while especially. Buying chickens and producing our own eggs is one way he sees that we can save money. If we have too many eggs we will probably sell some of the eggs. We also plan on getting rid of the roosters. Whether we sell them or butcher them, that is still undecided.

We are firm believers in learning to be self-sufficient and feel that if we can find ways to take care of ourselves without relying on outside sources we will be better off. We have grown a garden for the last few years and have reaped the benefits of that. Our church really emphasises the importance of these self-reliant principles as well. In fact, they have an entire web-site dedicated to living this way. How was that for a long winded answer?

In other news, last night was our Relief Society enrichment night. As I have mentioned before, I am Enrichment Night leader in our ward which means that I, along with several other women get to plan these nights that we have throughout the year. Each time, I find myself wondering why they put me in charge. It is not one of my strengths. I am great at taking orders or being told what to do, but I don't feel I am very good at leading or directing others. Perhaps that is why I have this particular calling. Sigh....

Anyway, our Relief Society presidency had asked us to plan an evening where we focused on depression. This was a little tricky due to the sensitive nature of the topic. We invited 3 individuals to share different points of view of depression. One was a mental health professional who shared the medical perspective - signs, symptoms, what to do about it as far as medicine and counseling - that type of thing. Another women shared some experiences of growing up with a mother who suffered from bi-polar disorder and who herself has battled depression. We asked her to speak on some practical ways of dealing with depression, beyond counseling or medication. The third woman we asked to speak on how the atonement can help us find help, comfort and even healing from depression. The evening was a little long (one speaker spoke for 40 minutes instead of 15) and I found myself stressing because of that and unable to enjoy it as much as I wanted to. Beyond that I feel it went okay. Not our best, but still good. I hope that those who needed it were able to gain something from it and that it was beneficial to them.

Today I get to breathe a sigh of relief and start planning our next enrichment night for August.....