The chicks are back....and hopefully they survive....

Yes, more pictures!!
How fitting that we got our baby chicks for the county fair the Wednesday before Easter!  This is the time of year when Jay gets a little obsessed with growing chickens into the size of turkeys.  I bet the topic of raising chickens gets brought up at least once a week in our home, even in our off season.  This year it was probably worse because Jay built the Taj Mahal of all 4-H project chicken coops.  He talked about this house continually even though I didn't understand a word he was telling me.  I just nodded....and probably poked fun at the whole situation a time or two.  He tells me that I don't appreciate how much money he saved me on this house because he has been scavanging the parts for this thing for at least the last 5 years.  If there was a board dropped along a roadway within 30 miles of us - it's been put to use.  The tin on the outside of it came from our rent place.  Jay saw it sitting in the weeds so he traded out labor for the opportunity to pick the tin from the dirt to use on the house.  In this picture it has a more rustic barnwood look, but it really needs a power washer taken to it.  Then notice the tire on the trailer....Jay pulled it home like that going about 15 mph.  Thankfully he got Lyle to follow him instead of me.  I would've been a wreck watching that wheel hobble along.  Jay said he preferred Lyle to help him over me in case there was a problem because I'd be worthless!   Those who are primarily city dwealers have no idea what I'm talking about....those who live in the country and come from a farm background are nodding your head because you know exactly what I'm saying....you've seen your own spouse hoard materials for a rainy day project, you've been involved in moving things in less than safe situations, you've seen the crazed look in someones eye when a 4-H/FFA project is involved, etc.   That's how the ultimate chicken house was born....that and free labor from one of Jay's shop classes :)  

This is Cade's Jay's  3rd year of raising birds.  Up to this point things have gone ok.  Wednesday night (the very 1st night we had them), after Cade was in bed, Jay got a call from a student.  The kid had not made it to pick up his chicks and needed to know where they were.  Jay told him he had them and they were fed and watered for the night.  After that call Jay left to go put his babies to bed...yes, that's a nightly 10 pm routine for the next 6 weeks.  A few minutes later he came running back in saying "I've just killed 15 chickens".  Then I panicked for a moment - killing Cade's chickens would be one of the most traumatic things Jay and I could do to him.  It would not be good...I'd leave the house and make Jay tell him by himself - that's how bad it would be.  Jay quickly told me that it wasn't Cade's chickens - it was the other kids.  He didn't know what had happened.  Jay called his dad, who is our chicken advisor and tried to describe the scene.  Yes, it was sad, but it was also hard to not laugh as Jay described the tragedy out in the shop…Dad, their legs are straight out and their heads are back and they are all wet…what do you think happened? Finally they decided that somehow they climbed in their water to get warm and drowned. Jay went back out and poked on them, five little chicks made some movements. He put those in a box to separate them from Cade’s, but still have them under the heat lamp. Unbelievably they came back to life. I called Jay the Chicken Doctor. Other people asked if he gave them CPR.

So we got through crisis #1 ok. Jay called another ag teacher because he had some extras so Jay’s student did get chickens. Jay didn’t want to give those 5 away in case there was something really wrong with them. But so far they’ve been mixed in with Cade’s and as of now you can’t tell the difference.

Crisis #2 occurred Friday afternoon – the day we were in Springfield. When we got home that afternoon Jay and Cade went out to check on the chicks. Cade came running back and said “they almost burnt up”. Again, anyone who farms will get this…you cobble things together all the time. Jay rigged up a cord that hangs from the shop ceiling down into the chicken pen. Then he takes a heat land and somehow makes a knot and hooks it onto the cord. The heat lamp is just dangling there right above the chickens. Somehow on Friday the heat lamp slipped through the knot and landed on one of the plastic feeders. Luckily feed burns slowly so nothing tragic happened but it could’ve been bad. The plastic feeder is almost melted completely through. Those who know Jay know his sense of humor and how he loves to make little comments…we were watching the news that night and there was an apartment fire in Springfield and X number of families had to evacuate. Jay said “20 chickens almost had to evacuate here”. That gave Cade the giggles and he has repeated the story to everyone. We are a little on edge this year with the chickens. I just hope they survive until the first weekend of June.

Again, you can tell we were trying to get profile pictures.  This is like only the 3rd time I've even been in the shop this entire year...Last year I didn't even visit them while they were babies.  I feel that listening to what I listen to in regards to chicken growing, securing the space in our budget to finance this operation, and the occassional lunch break spent either warming them up or cooling them down is what I contribute to the project....Oh and I usually end up taking the shop vac to them and cutting off nasty feathers from their bottoms the night before the show.  You haven't lived until you've cut off chicken dingleberrys.  I do plenty for this little adventure!!! 

You can imagine the damage the heat lamp did when it fell on this feeder.  Luckily no chickens got harmed in the process.

I love this shot of Charile.  You can see how mesmerized he is by the chickens. 

Lawrence County Youth Fair

I've got several posts of pictures.  I had a lot I needed to update so make sure you scroll down to see...

Nana and Granddad's Anniversary
Easter
Ash Grove Show

I had some problems getting some of the pictures off of the camera so that's why I'm posting the anniversary and Easter 2 1/2 months later!
The Youth Fair was this past weekend and Cade once again had the heaviest pen of birds.  They weighed in at 24.80 pounds for a pen of three.  This year though Jay Cade got beat by one of Jay's students.  Cade was ok with it because he still got a buckle and a ribbon.  He had a dream that week that he got 2nd place so I think that helped him to be ok with it.

This is also our last year in Clover Kids.  Next year Cade will be able to sell his chickens at the sale and show the cattle.  Jay is glad because he's looked forward for this for years.  I will be glad because we spend a lot of time talking about the fact Cade can't do much at the fair in the time leading up to it.  Lawrence County is pretty strict on it's rules. The other places aren't so that's how we've been able to take him to the other shows in the area.   

Today our 17 chickens are being slaughtered.  Actually by now they should be about ready to pick up.  I have no idea where we are going to keep these frozen birds.  I think I know what we will be eating at every major even this year!  I'm so glad we are done with these birds.  I'm always glad to see Cade win something but I get tired of the electric bill from running the heating lamps and fans non-stop. 

The tradition before the show...washing chickens and using a shop vac to dry them.  Good times Good times.

An irritated wet chicken

Last night we watched the video and there was a shot of Cade just like this.  Last night he told us he was so nervous at that moment.  He was afraid he was going to get beat.  Not sure that's quite healthy for an 8 year old....

Notice the fan on top of the pen?  Yeah, we were the only ones who had one.  Jay is just a touch obsessed with this chicken show.  When he got into bed after midnight Saturday night he was already talking about next years modifications to the chicken pen.  And I'm the one who is blamed for being OCD???

The proud Reserve Grand Champion winner.

Good Eatin'

A couple of weeks ago we finally got around to cooking one of the chickens Cade showed at the fair.  I think we cooked the big one that we called Blue Right.  We're not 100% sure that was the one we ate because their legs had been cut off, but that's what we told Cade.  Sometimes it's just easier that way.  Cade really enjoyed getting to eat it that night.  Look at the size of that drumstrick.  The whole chicken was almost 8 pounds.

County Fair

Our other big news from last weekend was the County Fair. Cade’s (or Jay’s) chickens won Grand Champion. Cade was so proud. He won a big purple ribbon, a belt buckle and $5. After he got his ribbon a couple of people from Miller besides me stopped to take his picture. Afterwards Cade said he would stand by his chickens for awhile in case any one else wanted to take his picture.

Avery also spent the weekend with us. She was really good throughout the whole fair. I was a little unsure of how the weekend would go because Cade at that age at a fair would’ve been a nightmare. Avery stayed right by me the whole time. The only issue of the weekend occurred about 5 minutes after she got to our house. She needed a baby doll. I’m now the proud owner of a Cabbage Patch Kid because Aunt Crystal wasn’t going to let her go without a baby doll. I will admit that picking out the doll gave me a little thrill that I don’t get when I buy Transformers and Hot Wheels.

Catching the chickens to weigh them Friday night

Getting in the final weigh in. Cade showed 3 chickens and their combined weight was 26.35 pounds. The average weight of Jim and Sharon's 6 week old chickens is 4 pounds.

Washing them so they would be nice and white. I did some things to a chicken that I never dreamed I'd do. I'm sure the chickens felt violated.

Our Big Birds

Waiting in case someone else might want to take his picture

By the way this picture looks you'd never believe she was as good as she was.

4-H

I thought about combining a 4-H post with the Flag Ball post but decided 4-H needed it's own post. I was teasing Jay that our first 4-H meeting was the day that Jay had waitied for since we found out in July 2001 that we were having a baby.

When we were first dating and first married we had talked about having kids, Jay was always positive that he wanted them and I was never quite as sure. I knew that we'd have them, I just wasn't as sure as Jay. Finally after those rough months of infancy and toddlerhood I asked Jay exactly what he imagined having kids would be like in our earlier discussions. Part of my hesitation was because of the sleepless nights and the constant watching and the fear of something happening to them and all of those other things that scare you to death as a parent. I also though could imagine me pushing my cart through Wal-Mart with the cute little baby drooling all over the handle and having a cute little baby toddling around at the mall and thought that would be fun. Jay's imagination went straight to the baby being about 7 and standing in a show ring. He really never imagined what the baby/toddler stage of being a parent was like. Since Cade wasn't born with a show stick it's taken awhile for Jay's imagination to catch up with real life. We finally reached that point Tuesday. Cade is now officially a Clover Kid and will be showing a pen of broilers at our County Fair next summer. Showing the bovine variety will happen when he's a tad bit older (and to not cause me as much stress hopefully a whole lot bigger).

On the way home from the meeting we asked Cade what he thought of his first meeting. He said "it was just awful". Out of the three of us in the car Jay definitely was the most excited about the first 4-H meeting.