A Blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
Remember Kaboodle and Mrs. Howell? The two who share a roost.
I’ve noticed recently that Kaboodle and Mrs. Howell are no longer roosting together at night.
I wondered what happened.
Even more important, does anyone know a good chicken counselor?
A Guest blog by Brandon Butler
Photo Credit: Pixabay
Changing jobs, getting divorced, having a baby, and moving to a new city are all major life changes. Some are planned; others are not. While some are happy experiences, others aren’t.
Regardless of the circumstances, major life transitions shake up your routine. Routines and habits go hand and hand, so take advantage of the shake-up, and change your life for the better.
A breakup or divorce often means having to move to a new place. You’re going to be single again, but don’t look at it as a negative. Take this time to learn to value your own company and alone time. Make a habit of making time for yourself, whether it’s doing yoga, exercising, meditating, or participating in your favorite hobby.
Not only are these activities good for your health, but the simple act of being alone can spark creativity, boost productivity, increase relaxation, and clear your mind. A blend of alone time and social time can actually help fight depression, and doing activities alone can be just as fun as doing them with others.
After your divorce, you’ll likely need to make new living arrangements. This is an intimidating situation, but you can make it more pleasant and use it as an opportunity to change your habits. When planning a move, choosing a location and a home size are the most important decisions and the best starting points.
Downsizing is common, and for many divorcees, it’s the perfect opportunity to go through your belongings and let go. Not only can you move forward from the relationship, but you can also work on becoming less cluttered, which can improve your overall energy and mood and make you feel more focused, optimistic, confident, and motivated.
Purging items that remind you of your ex may be liberating, but don’t be too hasty; items you detest when the divorce is fresh can serve as nostalgic memories later. When in doubt, place an item in storage instead of tossing it.
Moving requires planning, start by determining where you’ll move. The longer the move, the sooner you should start planning and the more help you’ll need. Arranging how to handle the move so it’s not as taxing as other decisions is important and fairly straightforward. Plan the logistics of packing, unpacking, transporting items, and arranging furniture.
A quick and simple move is important for your sanity and your children’s welfare, so consider hiring moving professionals to achieve this and to allow you to focus on supporting your children instead of focusing on moving logistics.
If you’ve been guilty of not focusing enough time on your children or not communicating well with them, change that now by keeping the doors of communication open—something with which many parents struggle.
Talk to them about what they want in the new home and take them with you to look at homes if they want to go. When you purge belongings, remember that items that don’t matter to you may be sentimental to your kids. If you don’t want to keep an item, but your child does, compromise and let the item stay in his or her room.
While getting a head start on moving is important, it’s also critical to keep the lives of your children as normal as possible during a divorce or move, so don’t get too ahead of yourself.
Divorce and moving are major transitions, but any big change can spark an opportunity to swap bad habits for positive ones. Whether you need to stop smoking, start recycling, improve your diet, or make a better effort of staying in touch with friends, a variation in your routine may be just what you need to get started.
However, be aware that the window of opportunity is limited to the first three months after the transition, so don’t wait too long to seize the opportunity.
My ancestry contains German DNA. That’s why I enjoyed this infographic by Jennifer Frost at GrammarCheck.
Some of the words like daschshund, lager, and frankfurter I recognized. Others were a surprise.
Check the list below and see how many you recognize.
Source: www.grammarcheck.net
Reading Ludwig Wittgenstein’s quote, I was reminded of a school friend of mine named Phyllis. In junior high, I’d sometimes spend the night at Phyllis’ house. Every morning at breakfast, her father would share a word for the day. He always gave us the correct spelling, pronunciation, and definition then made us use the word in a sentence.
Every morning at breakfast, her father would share a word for the day. He always gave us the correct spelling, pronunciation, and definition then made us use the word in a sentence.
Once he thought we’d master the new word, he’d say, “And now you’ve had a worthwhile day. You’ve learned something new.”
I guess you could say Phyllis’ dad nurtured my love of words. I still remember the very first word he tossed into our conversation.
It’s an uncommon word, but I’ve managed to use it in a few discussions over the years. Sometimes it falls on doubting ears and, I’m sure, the hearer went home and checked a dictionary to see if it is a real word. Whatever the reaction, interjecting that new word grows a discussion just as the Austrian philosopher says.
Btw, ratiocinate means to reason; carry on a process of reasoning.
George R. R. Martin writes fantasy, horror, and science fiction. I write women’s fiction and romance.
Our genres are different, but our process to a finished book is much the same. I also start with a seed. There’s no telling where a story idea will come from, but I rarely have a plan for the story. Except I do know there will be a satisfying ending.
I greatly admire those who can plot with colorful sticky notes and checkerboard graphics designating scenes. I envy the ones who know the percentage of each portion of three act structure or hero’s journey. I can’t do that hard as I try.
I begin with my happily-ever-after seed and watch it sprout and grow into a full-fledged story like a gardener. Sometimes I have to do a lot of pruning along the way to keep the story working. That is precisely what gardeners do for their plants.
If you’re a writer, what’s your writing process like? Do you garden or follow a blueprint?
A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
I am a morning person. I wake up before my alarm goes off at 5:00 most mornings. I enjoy seeing the sun rise over the chicken yard and hearing the quiet before everyone else wakes up. Another thing I enjoy is seeing the morning glories in our back yard.
Originally they were along the fence but this year I have noticed them out in the back yard.
Then I noticed them among the canna lilies in the front yard.
Next they appeared on the fence outside my classroom then on the grass close by.
I’m thinking there is a lesson in these morning glories. They spread their beauty and cheer wherever they go. Perhaps I should do the same.
I went to take pictures of the flowers one afternoon and discovered they were wilted.
I think there is a message here also. If every day starts at 5:00 am, it is ok to wilt, i.e. take a nap, every afternoon. I like that plan.
I love this quote by Emerson. Though the picture shows a gate on an Irish path I once walked, the application is the same as though that gate were a door.
Emerson’s words can have different meanings. Simply put, when we open a door, we do two things:
I didn’t have to open the gate in the picture, but I did choose to walk through and siege the opportunity. On the other side, I found a farmer with his dog, and we had a lovely conversation.
When you encounter a door or a gate will you do what Emerson suggests and be an opener?
We tell people we bought the massive hundreds-of-years-old live oak tree in our front yard and the house came with it.
So far, all who see the tree agree we made a wise decision.
But the wonderful tree is not the only thing that attracted us to our lovely little cabin house in a wooded development.
There was this sign.
The real estate agent explained the owners had landscaped the yard to provide a sustainable habitat for wildlife then submitted their yard design elements to the National Wildlife Federation and received the certification.
I loved that!
Coming from the Rio Grande National Forest in Colorado, I didn’t expect to see bears, moose, or fox like we had there, but a mama whitetail deer and her twin fawns can be seen in our backyard. Several other does, their fawns, and a couple of bucks are usually around on our early morning walks.
Sitting on our back porch glider, songbirds serenade us, toads croak, colorful butterflies dart among the flowers while squirrels scamper in the grass. We constantly dodge hummingbirds zooming to feeders. 
We recently spotted a blue jay in the front birdbath with a chickadee patiently waiting his turn on the ground below and a cardinal at the bird feeder hanging nearby—all at the same time.
And there are always birds and butterflies in the waterfall the previous owners created as a water feature for wildlife.
It’s so relaxing. It almost makes the heat and humidity of the Texas Gulf Coast bearable. Almost. I’m a native Texan, but I don’t think I’ll ever fully adjust to Texas weather.
Curious about how to invite wildlife back to your own yard and neighborhood? It’s not as hard as you might think. Your landscape must include:
Food: Native plants to provide nectar, seeds, nuts, fruits, berries, foliage, pollen and insects for wildlife. Feeders can supplement natural food sources.
Water: All animals need water to survive and some need it for bathing or breeding as well.
Cover: Wildlife needs places to find shelter from bad weather and places to hide from predators or stalk prey.
Places to Raise Young: Wildlife needs resources to reproduce and keep their species going. Some species have totally different habitat needs in their juvenile phase than they do as adults.
Sustainable Practices: How you manage your garden can have an effect on the health of the soil, air, water and habitat for native wildlife as well as the human community.
Already have those things? You might be eligible to have certified wildlife habitat status too. Check out the National Wildlife Foundation website for all the details.
A blog by Chicken Wrangler Sara
I recently posted pictures of the silver and gold laced Wyandottes. They are quite lovely. There are also other laced chickens.
This is a blue laced red Wyandotte..
This is a splash laced red Wyandotte.
Not to be outdone by the lacey chickens, here is a Welsummer rooster. 
His feathers almost shimmer. As with most species, he is more beautiful than the female Welsummer.
We hatched these birds from eggs we bought from a hatchery in a nearby town. I think it was worth the drive and the money to add them to our flock.
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