Katie is the adorable twelve year old  daughter of my  friend Jessie and also a friend of my Emily.

Katie was diagnosed with diabetes when she was very young, and hasn’t had as easy a road as many other kids her age. There have been some very scary moments over the years.  Somehow, despite the many restrictions she faces every day she manages to be down to earth and full of grace.  So recently when Jess announced that Katie was going to take part in a clinical trial to test algorithms used for an artificial pancreas I wasn’t really surprised.  But I was proud.

You see, this was Katie’s decision.  Although she knew she was to be compensated handsomely she also knew she’d be subjected to A LOT of intrusions on her personal comfort (I’m being nice here) for the duration of her hospital stay.  She wanted in anyway.

And you know what?  It wasn’t easy.  Her first round of this trial was very well, trying and painful.  When things got particularly tough Jess told her she could quit if she wanted to.  Jess would even give her the money she’d be out by excusing herself from the trial.

She told her twelve year – old she could leave the pain behind and still be paid.

Katie stuck with it.  She said she needed to let them finish the research, because it was important to her.

I wanted to share this story with you not only because I am ridiculously grateful to be their friend, but also because everyone needs to remember that kids can do amazing and selfless things – I kind of think that in a lot of ways they can be far more selfless and wise – and stronger -  than we adults are.

I hold my children to higher standards in many ways than I do my adult friends and occasionally I catch flak for that.  You know what? I think they can handle it – I think kids deserve far more credit than we give them.

But it happened – we got SNOW!  Not only that, we should be around 4 inches by the time it stops – a positively HUGE amount for us!

The recipe for the French Onion Soup comes from Susan and it can be found HERE. It is AMAZING.  I made some crusty bread today to go with it and pulled out my French Onion Soup pots, filled them with soup, stuck a thick piece of bread in each one, topped with grated gruyere and OH MY GOODNESS.

Best way to warm up on a snowy, blustery day!!!

We all look forward to Valentine’s Day because of dinner.  Every year since Paul and I have been married we have had Chinese for dinner on Valentine’s Day.  The first two or three years it was a fluke (we were living in NY, restaurants were impossible but there was great Chinese take – out), and then once we realized there was a pattern going it became tradition.

So tonight we are all excited for Chinese, and we are adding a new element.  I got a fondue pot after reading all of Susan’s blogs from Zurich this week and tonight we’ll have chocolate fondue for dessert (I cannot wait to try cheese fondue, though. Maybe tomorrow?) with strawberries, marshmallows, pound cake cubes and pretzels.

How about you? Do you have any fun Valentine traditions?

Well.

Not in the Caroline Fryar sense of “on fire”.  Seriously, that girl can knit. Not only that, but she is quite the up – and – coming designer.  I’m ridiculously proud that my Emily got to model some of Caroline’s garments for the JMF spring books, because before long that girl’s name will be all over the place.

Anyway.

I have been keeping my head down and zooming through some projects I’ve had going for awhile.  I’ve still got at least 5others  going on needles now, but that’s a story for another day.

I finished a hat for myself while Paul was in surgery – I wanted a slouchy but simple thing to keep my head warm around the house (and possibly in bed) while the cold winter settled over us.

Unfortunately the cold winter never materialized, so the broken upstairs heat pump has been not much of an issue.

And I haven’t really gotten to wear my hat at all.

I got the pattern HERE.

The yarn is Debbie Bliss “Baby Cashmerino”.  It’s light, it’s soft, it’s a perfect icy, wintery blue.  If only it were really winter instead of fake spring.

The other finished thing was actually finished for quite awhile now but awaiting blocking.  It’s a good thing I finally managed to get it done because it’s a very belated Christmas gift for my grandmother.

It’s another “Far Away, So Close” shawl, this time knitted in Malabrigo.  I don’t remember which Malabrigo or even the colorway because I lost the tag.

Surprise grandma! I’ll have it in the mail ASAP.

It’s super – soft and warm, and Emily is upset that once again she was asked to model a shawl that she does not get to keep.  Yes, I get the hint.

It’ll be nice and cozy with my grandmother, who lives not far from Buffalo, where it’s much colder than it is here.

Usually.

Just not this year.

Cozy handknits, warm fires, hot tea…….citrus fruits.

Yup, citrus fruits are in season now, and we have plenty of my favorites: clementines and Meyer lemons.  I’ve never actually been able to find Meyer lemons locally before, so I was surprised to find them at (of all places) our local WalMart.  (I know….I am not a WalMart fan.  But…..when they carry Concord grapes and Meyer lemons, how can you resist?)

Last week I made a lovely Shaker Lemon Pie, and we’ve been snacking steadily on clementines, but as of this morning I still had plenty of both.

So I rooted around a bit on Pinterest until I found what fit the bill for some lovely citrusy fare: recipes for Chinese Orange Chicken and Meyer Lemon Pudding.

Oh yeah.

Neither one was particularly difficult to make, and the results were outstanding.  Seriously.

Paul declared the chicken “The best orange chicken I’ve ever had”.  That’s saying something, because we are quite fond of Chinese food and we’ve tried quite a lot of it.  It was fresh, bold and bright, with a strong orange flavor.  If you like orange chicken, you HAVE to try this recipe.  The only change I made was when frying the chicken, I simply coated the raw chicken pieces in cornstarch (I didn’t use the egg or flours at all).  This was due to simple laziness.  The sauce I made no changes to.

We followed the chicken with the Meyer Lemon pudding served on a slice of pound cake (which Paul picked up from the grocery – I didn’t feel like baking any).

After all of this it is a very good thing that I have been following a workout routine for the last week.  SO MANY CALORIES!!!

We’re making headway in our efforts to bring them home, though.  Trees are coming down, cleaning up is underway, plans are in process.  It’s very exciting!  I can’t wait to be able to look out the window again and see my flock.

Sophie and Adelaide’s baby-daddy, Jack – who may or may not be the future baby -  daddy of kids that Milkshakes may or may not be already carrying.  She’s been sneaking into his pasture to spend some “quality time” with him.

I got to see Coconut, who is 18 kinds of adorable, and I just want to rub those ears!  But, aside from nibbling at Susan’s fingers, he’s a bit skittish still.

Mr. Jefferson here gave me lots of nice, wet cow kisses.

Sophie and Adelaide are almost as big as Milkshakes, and they won’t let me near them.  On the plus side, unlike Frodo and Finnegan who thought they were lapdogs, these little ladies know they are goats.

Wren!  She’s gotten just about too big for me to be picking her up and snorgling her now.

As for Jerry, he likes to make it difficult to get a decent picture.  Once he knows your game he’s either INYOURFACE or lurking just behind you.

This way you either get NO pictures, or ones like these:

I miss that crazy llama!

It has taken me this long to get it nicely blocked and to photograph it so I can show it off.  None of these things have stopped me from wearing  it, but I realized I really needed to get it posted here before it didn’t look so nice and new anymore.

The pattern is Fair Enough by Wendy Bernard.  The yarn is Fine Cormo wool from Juniper Moon Farm.  And the model who was making a weird face that she wouldn’t have loved me posting for the world to see is Maddie.

I love the colors – I picked them out because they all looked so lovely together.  I didn’t realize that the blue and pink in the fair isle portion would blend in so well.   They were supposed to “pop” a bit more.  But now that I’ve worn it and gotten used to ti I quite like the subtlety.  It’s actually better this way because the main color has a lot of green and pink hues in it that look almost variegated in spots.

Also I got to use brighter – colored buttons (thank you Susan!) than I otherwise would have done.

Now if it would only stay cold enough for me to wear it!

Today it’s been practically t-shirt weather.  And since a lot of the eggs Emily has been bringing in from the coop have been dirty, I decided I’d use the warm weather to see how coop winterization was faring.

NOT GOOD.

People take care of their chicken coops a lot of different ways.  Some people use hay or straw, some people use pine or hardwood mulch.  I’ve even heard of people using grass clippings.   Personally, I like to use pine shavings.  They’re nice and fluffy and comfortable for the chickens’ feet, and they do a great job at drying out all the many droppings that chickens leave behind them and absorbing extra moisture and odor.  I’ve used hay and straw but find that the poop doesn’t get dried out at all and the hay doesn’t break down as easily.  If you’re going to use hay or straw, you’ll need to clean it all out more frequently.   As for grass clippings….I imagine it would be like the hay but even less absorbent.  The last thing you want is a moist coop to harbor bacteria and parasites.  You’re going to have those anyway, but you don’t need to put out a welcome mat (and you don’t want to chance introducing any droppings from wild birds that might be on that grass).

Anyway, pine or hardwood shavings.  You don’t want to use cedar because the aromatic oils are bad for the birds.  I really wish that wasn’t the case, because my coops would smell SO much better.

I do a thorough cleaning out of the coop twice a year, in the spring and the fall.  At those times I’ll completely remove all bedding materials and the leave the doors all open for a few hours to air it out well.  If you’ve had a bad time with parasites or illness this is the time when you also want to scrub the surfaces a bit with some hot water and dish soap.  You can bleach it if you’re so inclined, but be careful to dry it out completely and remove any residue before the chickens go back in.

Personally, I like the method that Zac over at Juniper Moon Farm used this past spring after a bout with mites.  He used a propane – fueled weed burning tool (read: flame thrower!) and lightly charred the entire inside of the coop.

Anyway, once the coop is aired and dried out I dust it down with Poultry Dust.  This is an insecticide powder to ward off lice and mites.  Then I add the pine bedding and let the chickens back in to mess it all up.

Like I said, unless we are having an infestation of some sort or there is some major illness afoot, I only do this twice a year.  The bedding and the poop break down together and whenever it’s looking more “muddy” than “piney” in there I’ll throw a layer of more pine on top.  The composting of the under layer of poop and pine creates some heat and insulation during the winter that helps keep them warm.  In the summer, it breaks down a lot faster with the heat and I replace bedding a lot more often.

But back to today.  Today I intended to check the bedding and add some fresh stuff on top.  That’s not what happened.

The winter this year has been very mild and very, very, very wet.  The chickens are spending more time inside trying to stay dry and therefore pooping a whole lot more inside.  It hasn’t been cold enough to keep the waste in any kind of deep freeze, and it’s been just cold and wet enough to keep everything gross and damp.  No drying.  Not breaking down as fast.  Gross.

Today I cleaned out the coop.

The good news is that all the “muddy” compost I shoveled out can be used as……. compost.  I chucked it all over the area that will be the garden this spring.

And while I was at it I spent time listening to the chickens, observing their behavior and taking stock of their general health and well – being.

Speckles – our Egyptian Fayoumi – just started laying for us.  We’re getting the cutest little cream – colored eggs from her.  And it took her long enough – she’ll be a year old in about a month and a half.

Miss Harriett, a pretty black Cochin.

Roobert, the resident jack-ass.  He likes to attack boots.

ETA: Emily and I have been calling him “Mad – Eye” because he lost an eye a few years back, and that’s when the bad behavior started. Nothing worse than a grumpy one eyed rooster.

This handsome boy was one of the batch we hatched out in August.  He’s  called “Tevye” and he’s a bit off a mutt.

One of Speckle’s adorable little eggs next to a normal – sized egg.

And speaking of eggs: last summer our hens were on strike.  Nobody was laying.  For months we were in an egg drought.  I couldn’t figure it out.  I treated them for every possible ailment, checked thoroughly for any and all problems.

We’re pretty sure they were all in a slow molt.  Nobody looked bald or shabby, but there were a whole lot more airborn feathers than usual.  So this fall we installed a light into the back coop so that once the molt was over they wouldn’t go immediately into winter mode.  ( chickens stop laying in the winter due to loss of daylight, not the cold temperatures.  Increase their light, and they won’t stop laying)

Now it’s January and we are overloaded with eggs.

There are no fewer than 6 dozen eggs in my fridge at this very moment, and we haven’t collected yet today.

Anybody want an omelet?

Yesterday morning Paul underwent his neck surgery at our beautiful new  local hospital while I waited it out in the hospital lounge.  I brought my knitting (and finished a hat for myself) as well as plenty of reading materials and the time flew by.  It helped that my lovely friend Sallie brought me lunch and offered a friendly face amid the sea of waiting and worried strangers. Staying connected to the outside world via social media was a great help and I am ridiculously grateful to everyone who wished Paul well.

Maddie stayed with the girls and they got her hopelessly hooked on “Dr. Who”.  In fact, they stayed up ALL NIGHT watching it (and eating ice cream).

I got to spend time with Paul as he recovered from the anesthesia and adjusted to having a neck full of staples (seriously – staples.  They come out next week, thank GOD).  I spent a lot of that time helping him in and out of bed for potty breaks and fluffing his pillows, switching out ice packs and holding a straw to his mouth so he could have water.   He does fairly well on his own now for short bursts during the day, but it’s going to be a long couple of weeks for me helping him manage.   So, if the winter gods would just smile on me and dump a bunch of snow right now, we’d all be pretty happy since we can’t go anywhere anyway!

I’m doing my best to enjoy the temporary quiet that has fallen around the house as the girls are reading by the fireplace, and Gully is curled up in his new dog Snuggie on my lap.  I think it might even be time for a cup of Harney & Sons tea.

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Back later for our regularly scheduled blogging (unless SOPA has its way………)