Spring hatches a variety of home chicken duties

Written by Shana Thornhill Tuesday, 21 May 2013 15:52

Well, it’s been quite a month. Winter, summer, winter, summer—and finally some rain.

This past week has been especially busy. My son graduated from preschool, and let me tell you, if you ever need some entertainment, you need to go to a preschool graduation. The kids are usually singing or shouting at the tops of their lungs, making faces at each other, or running around like wild Indians. It’s a real hoot—until your kid decides to run off and hide. Yeah, hide and seek is fun, right?

This weekend really got busy. We planned on slaughtering the meat chickens I’ve been raising, even though they’re still a little small. I thought they’d be great to cut up for fryers.

Of course, we were running late. I used to be chronically...

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‘Normal’ days can turn pretty ugly pretty fast

Written by Shana Thornhill Tuesday, 23 April 2013 12:43

Last Wed­nes­day started normally—or at least as normal as we get around here. Mom and Dad haul themselves out of bed, start hollering up the stairs to wake the kids up and get some breakfast.

Of course, we had to go through the litany of available choices: cereal, oatmeal, eggs, toast or reheated pancakes. They finally made their choice—cinnamon toast. When I turned on the porch light and saw the freezing rain falling, my good mood evaporated.

We have quite a few fruit trees around here, and I was hoping for a good harvest. Seeing the blossoms crusted with ice was a real blow to my hopes. I had enjoyed seeing the buds come out and ever so slightly turn green on the trees—were they going to be killed? Talk about a down...

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Finally, a good deal for the silly-product buyer

Written by Shana Thornhill Tuesday, 19 March 2013 13:35

Most of you know that going to the store with small children can be quite the adventure. If they’re not touching everything in sight, they’re asking for something. “Can we get this?” is repeated ad nauseam.

Some of their requests are a little outlandish. I really don’t think that a 5-year-old wants that tin of caviar.

That habit seems to perpetuate itself into adulthood. It’s easy to justify this or that, just because. Personally, I don’t spend much money on fancy shoes, manicures or makeup simply because the chickens really aren’t that impressed when I do.

My purchases tend toward the practical: farm implements, tools, boots and jeans. But, give me a seed catalog or show me some chickens or horse tack, and I could...

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Some dumb things just aren’t that funny

Written by Shana Thornhill Tuesday, 19 February 2013 13:37

Friends, Romans, countymen (no, that’s not a typo), lend me your ear. I come before you to write something funny that you won’t laugh at.

While it’s true I try to find humor in almost everything, and some things take a little longer to laugh at, there are some distinctly nonfunny things going on in our county. OK, the Romans probably don’t care, but we should. So, here are some things not to laugh at.

Take, for example, my experience a couple of weeks ago. I had made noodle soup for supper, and discovered we were out of crackers to go with it. I hopped into my trusty truck just after dark and headed into town to get some crackers.

I proceeded at a moderate pace down our country roads. All of a sudden, a small grayish blob...

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