Poor me

I have a cold. I HATE having a cold. But I really shouldn't complain too much. I don't want to be like my coworker, who can complain about absolutely ANYTHING.
Its not really that bad, not yet anyway, and I have Dayquil for days and EmerGen-C for night. We are having the Mystery Quilt meeting tonight though, rather than Friday. I am probably shedding virus, but I will just inform everyone not to kiss me and they should be fine.
It is cloudy today, and I would normally love that (It happens so seldom) But with a cold, the cloudiness only contributes to the stuffy head feeling. Bitch, bitch, bitch. I am going now; got to feed the chickens and see if I can work on the chicken yard without DH. It is both easier and harder to work on it without him. He has lots of knowledge and knows how to do everything. This means that the way I do IT is wrong and I must do IT his way, whatever IT is. So I do anything I can when he is gone. When he gets home, the task is already done and he can't tell me how to do it.
Since we are both strong-willed, compromise is often necessary (on my part, usually).
Why is it that faced with ANY decision, no matter how trivial, we automatically decide the opposite? Does this happen to everybody?

Too many topics

One thing about this blog: Everytime I start to obsess about something now, I just tell myself to keep that thought and blog it. Of course, by the time I get around to blogging, I have forgotten most of what I was going to say. That's good though; at least I didn't spend as much time uselessly obsessing as I used to. That alone is worth the cost of admission.
I have a sore throat and have to keep blowing my nose, so must have picked up a cold. I hope it doesn't get any worse. After DH left for the grocery store, I went out and spent some time doing finish work on the brooder house. Yesterday we worked all morning on the yard fencing but I will need to get some more chicken wire before I can completely enclose it. Once we build and hang the gate, DH considers that his part is done and the rest is up to me. I hope to finish within 2 weeks, but I have to work next Saturday. Darn, this working gets in the way of life!
We ate our first home-grown chicken last night. Very tasty. Chewy, not like store bought chicken at all, and a whole lot more taste. I wish we could switch to eating only our own, and not even buy chicken any more, but I doubt if I can raise that many and keep them coming along. Especially since DH wants to keep everybody that looks the least bit interesting and see how they turn out.
Well, got to hang out the clothes now and then get back to quilting. I am almost finished with the Gila Bend lady's quilt and hope to deliver it back to CF tomorrow. But if not, I will take it Friday when I go there to knit and then stay for the Mystery Quilt class. So busy, LOL.

Lazy Friday

But it shouldn't be lazy. I should be quilting madly on a quilt for a GIla Bend lady right now, so that I can deliver it to CF early next week for her. I believe she goes to a chiropractor in Avondale every week, just like I do.
I gave all the chickens a treat of alfalfa sprouts this morning and the Fayoumis REALLY went for them. It may just be my imaginations, but they seem to be smarter than the Ameraucanas, and especially smarter than the Barred Rocks. The Rocks are handsome and friendly but they really don't have much personality. I guess its because they all look alike. Its hard to have a personal relationshipwhen you can't tell who you are talking to.
Knitting group this afternoon so I'd better get to work now. I think I'll take the shawl I just started and save the sock for DVD knitting. I've made so many socks from that pattern I can knit them in the dark even with sock yarn. Can't say that about a lot of other things.

CIC Knitting

I am sending 7 pairs of fingerless mitts to the drop site in MD today on my way to work. They have really been fun to knit and some are marvelously soft. I was tempted to keep a pair but it IS getting hot here already, and I can always make a pair for myself at some point in the future. I guess I should have taken a photo of them, but I already click-n-shipped the label and sealed the package.
I will try to knit furiously on UFOs for the next week until the next challenge is posted. Dumb me, I got all excited and joined several new KALs yesterday and can't wait to start every single one. So, when will I make a living? Better go do that now.

Avian Influenza

This chicken flu scare is getting more and more surreal. Why have all these governments suddenly decided that THIS is the year to make a very big deal out of birds dying from the avian flu? This happens every year and nobody seems to care. Its really hard to avoid jumping to conspiracy theory conclusions. Bush, at least, has a lot of very good reasons to want the public's attention diverted from the abject failure of all his war and economic policies.
Now, egged on by radio and internet news, the public is being whipped into an anti-chicken frenzy. The large producers, with their homozygous birds, small genepools, and extremely overcrowded conditions are understandably leery of the flu getting into THEIR operations. But they seem to be handling this by convincing the government and the public that small farm flocks will spread the flu and must be eliminated wholesale if the flu shows up here in the US.
BAHHHH! THis will probably happen, with big business owning this administration, but it will be such a crying shame. Wiping out small farm flocks, with their genetic diversity and natural living conditions are really our only chance to have avians that survive and resist the flu. If the flu could be allowed to run its course, the birds that would be left should be our breeding stock for the future. Alas, that is very unlikely to happen.
From what I've read, any bird found dead, whether from AI or not, will prompt the government to invade and destroy all fowl within 2 miles, period. All my chickens are under roof so they can not even come in contact with wild birds flying over, and the wire we used for the chicken houses blocks even sparrows and vireos from entering them. LOTS of people are taking these precautions, and LOTS more would be willing to do so if they could believe that it would save their fowl from the government killing team.
Rant, rant. I'd better go do something useful for a while.

Sensational Knitted Socks KAL

Sensational Knitted Socks KAL
I just discovered this today and am going to see if they will let me join. Uh oh, now I have a whole new resource for groups that I want to join but shouldn't because I am overstretched already. I periodically plumb yahoogroups.com and now this!

To begin

Well, first post and I'm suddenly struck dumb. I don't really have time to do this right now, but I read my SIL's blog with her newspaper columns in it and was SO impressed I just decided I must have my own blog. As if I needed something else to do every day.
In future posts, I'll be talking about life, health, marriage, chickens, living as naturally as possible, and about families. Can you think of anything else I should keep in mind? Anyway, I am living now because I must get dressed and feed my chickens!