Chicks: Four Weeks

If you were wondering, yes they are still my little ugly chicklings.
They are starting to put on some weight now.
I don't think it will be much longer before we will be moving them to the big chicken pen, which will be their permanent home.
They have to be big enough to fly up into the boxes before we move them. And right now they can only get about a foot off the ground.
Soon they will start growing their cones, and then they will be little chickens.
Can't wait, they aren't winning any beauty contests at the moment. That's for sure!

Leah's Lazy BBQ Chicken

Just wanted to give you a quickie ;9)
This is a fast dinner that makes BBQ chicken and gravy for your potatoes all at one time.

Take your chicken straight from the freezer and drop it in a pot.
Pour about half a bottle of your favorite BBQ sauce over it. Pour about a half a coffee cup of water over the top.
Cook on medium for about 45 minutes.
Until your chicken thaws all the way, you need to check on it every ten minutes or so. The BBQ sauce will burn if you don't.
Once it's cooked down you have BBQ chicken and gravy.
I always make potatoes with this and we pour the sauce over them.
Wicked good!

Recipe: Porkchop and Potato Casserole

Ok my girls, here's another fast, easy and delicious meal.

You're gonna need
Pork chops (however many you need for your family)
Potatoes ( good rule of thumb for how many? I peel one potato for each person except PB who gets two)
Cheese ( velveeta is my fave, but if I'm out, sliced cheese is just as good. Probably would be good with shredded to , sooo, whatever cheese you have hanging out in the fridge.
Onion (1 unless you don't expect to be near anyone for a day or two) or more if you're trying to run somebody off ;0)
In a glass pan layer
A couple of tablespoons of butter
Seasoned porkchops
Potatoes cut in the round
A few more spoons of butter
Onion sliced in rings
Season to taste
I do garlic salt, lots of garlic salt and since we are both eating it, we can kiss without the other person gagging ;9)
Cover with tinfoil and bake at 350 for about an hour and a half. Check in about an hour by testing your potatoes with a fork. When they are done it's ready!
When times up pull it out and drain off all that water and grease. I know it's nasty, that's why your pouring it off. It does make for some juicy pork chops.
Completely cover with cheese and pop back in the oven until melted and a little brown. I turn my oven off to finish the cheese, but that's up to you.
That's it! Like I said fast easy and delicious!

Chicks: Three Weeks

It was a rough weekend for the baby chicks. Our temperature dropped to 31 Saturday night. I know all my Yankee friends are going "woman please!" But for me and my chicks it was way to cold!
PB went out Saturday and hooked up a second light in the pen, closer to the bottom, and as soon as the heat touched them they cuddled up, hunkered down and went to sleep.
Today we are back up in the upper 60's with sunshine, so I went out and dropped one side of the sack and let them out.
It wasn't just a minute before they were all enjoying the fresh air.
As you can tell by the pictures the yellow one is the leader and the boss.
I named her "Lil Pecker" a week or so ago, because if there is someone or something that needs straightening out, she's all about it. She really has no fear.
You also maybe able to tell that right now they are in between looking like chicks and looking like full blown chickens. It really is the ugliest stage they go through.
Pretty soon they will have all their feathers everywhere except their heads, that's just the "what the hell is that!?" stage.
They are trying out their wings so they basically flap and hop everywhere they go.
They really are a hoot to watch.

Chicks: day 3 and all is well

PB went out to the pen last night and hung an oyster sack in front of their door to help keep the heat from the light in.
I felt so bad about the cold I was ready to haul them all back inside.
They seem to have made it ok, and gotten braver.
Shiloh walked out to the pen with me and stuck his nose in to say "Hi" and they were rushing him, flapping their wings and pecking at him! Keep in mind they are only two weeks old today.
They are already figuring out their pecking order, these in the pictures are the soldiers. They come check everything out and make sure it's ok, while the others huddle in a corner and watch.
I think they wanted my rings more than the grit in my hand.

Chicks: day two

The baby chicks have officially been moved outside to the little chicken pen.
Thank God, I didn't think I could stand that smell in my bathroom anymore! 14 babies in one long laundry basket do make a mess!
They finally have enough feathers to be moved out.
The little pen is just a wooden pen up on legs (to keep the animals out) with an enclosed "porch" so they can come out to get some sun. That is where I put their water bowl.
I didn't realize they are way to young to go exploring so the poor things went all night without water.
Cracker Jack and I fixed that and now they are all happy again.
They are so sweet. They come when I call them and they will eat right out of your hand.
They are getting into that "ugly duckling" stage. This is the time that only a mother could love them!
But they are still cute!

Sunset

We have finally had some sunshine in Grand Bay. I was starting to think it had disappeared like the Mayans.
Great sundown! Looks like a painting.
I love this time of year, washing a load of clothes means shirts, tank tops, wool socks, jeans and sweaters, all at the same time. Weird weather, but I wouldn't live anywhere else!

Waffle House is a wonderful thing!

With a couple of minutes before I have to be at the doc's for my annual "titty sammich", I decided to stop in at Waffle House.
It is one if the best places to people watch, ever!

I've seen a Purple Heart veteran who sat quietly eating, eyes constantly darting around. To me he looks a little paranoid and I am pretty sure he didn't like the crowd. He left fairly quickly.
The booth in front of me was occupied by what I am pretty sure was a hooker and her pimp. All business those two! Each with a phone in their ear and whispering back and forth.

There's the usual coffee lurkers just waiting for someone to come in that they recognize, and all the regulars that come in for a quick cup and some conversation.

I know when I am out at night, dancing and drinking, before I head home, it's Waffle House. That's when all the really crazy people are there. That's when I fit right in ;0)

Ze bathroom, she is fini!

Longest project ever! Award

It's Fall Y'all

It is trying to get cold, well ok more like cool, outside here on the Gulf Coast.
We actually were able to sleep with the windows open a couple of days last weekend! Yeah we were pretty excited about it too.
The grass is starting to turn a lighter shade of green. That's about the best you get around here for fall colors.
Outside is starting to look pretty fun again. What with the humidity finally down to a tolerable level and all.

For Aunt Julie: a warning to all women

My Aunt Julie had her mammogram (or tittie sammich as she likes to call them) every year.
Cysts in the breasts run in her family, so it was habit to always go for a check up.
It seemed like Aunt Julie was going for a biopsy of a cyst every other year. So when she went for the results of her last biopsy, she went alone.
We all expected the normal phone call saying "everything is fine."
Not this time. It was cancer.
We all cried and apologized for letting her hear this news all alone, then we got down to the wheres, whens and hows.
I personally let her feel sorry for herself about a minute, then I asked all the normal questions, how bad, how big, how far had it spread, and what do we do now.
We don't have time for pity parties,. we need a plan.
Think I was being mean? I felt like I was being mean, but it helped her, we started talking about plans and what happens next and what everyone needed to do to help. And what a pain in the ass it was to have boobs!
Luckily Aunt Julie's cancer was stage one. Why? Because she never missed a mammogram.
Self exam, nor doctor's exams detected the mass. It was the mammogram.
Now my Aunt Julie doesn't consider herself a survivor of breast cancer.
She has this weird idea that because she didn't 'suffer' through as much as some women do, she doesn't think she should call herself a survivor.
1. They removed half the muscle out of one side of her breast.
2. She went through very painful radiation treatments.
Now she is cancer free. That's a survivor!
I keep trying to tell her had they not detected it so early, she would have had full blown stage two, at the least, breast cancer, before it was detected.
That makes her a breast cancer survivor!
I tell everyone about Aunt Julie, yeah, she had it easier than some, but you know why? Because she did what everyone one of us should do, got a yearly mammogram. 
She is slowly adjusting to the idea, and I finally have her convinced that her story could help convince allot of women to do the one thing we hate most to do, get a tittie sammich once a year!
It saved her life, it could save yours!

The nature of the beast

This little guy is suffering walking around on this hot asphalt.
I thought about picking him up and moving him, but he would just sting me(nature of the beast) and die anyway.
No sense in us both suffering.

Do whut???

Someone is going to have to explain to me why you would need windshield wiper for your headlights.

Straight up country

PB and I don't live on a farm, but we do have one.
12 chickens and a garden that is being planted as we speak.
Broccoli and brussel sprouts going in the ground for the fall.
100 plants! Not bad for a home on a half acre of land.
This morning, for breakfast I got some eggs out of the bucket, cleaned them off and cooked some breakfast.
Do you see this egg? That you can only get straight from the chicken. Dark yellow, almost orange yolk. Rich and so much flavor it will make your taste buds pop!
That my friends, is a farm fresh egg.
No pale yellow yolks full of hormones and anti-biotics.
If you ever get the chance, you have to try an egg straight from the chicken, they are awesome!

YouTube testing

Just testing out you tube integration. Oh snap this could be fun! 

Things I like about the new IOS

Ok, I admit it, I have been posting all kinds of things about new iPad apps, and completely forgot I could take screen shots to show you what the heck I was talking about.
I've had coffee since then and am now back in control!
And for those " not in the know" hold your sleep button and your home button at the same time and wala! screenshot!
Works something like this....

The first change I really like is the fact that they have gotten away from Google maps. Sorry Google, still love ya, but you're getting a little "boggy".
I understand Google is an advertising based company, but it's gotten so much that they are bogging down.
Plus this map does a 3D version. Too cute!

Podcasts! Now they have moved all your podcasts into one little neat area. All by themselves, where they don't even have to look at your music, if they don't want to.

iTunes U
I thought this was a great little addition to the new iOS. It has the look and feel of iBooks but you can search their, this surprised me, extensive library of free, yeup, free courses.
Just taking a quick glance through, I noticed "Learn Spanish","College Calculus" ( which seems useless to me, tho I am sure someone, somewhere would like to learn more than 2 plus 2).

Another, damn! What a great idea, Find Iphone
You log in with your apple id and password, it picks up your iPad or iPhone and "locates" them and shows you a map of where they are. It also allows you to wipe your iPad if you catch that thing going into a bar with some strange iPhone that isn't your shade of red. ;0)

And my absolute favorite! Find Friends
This app allows you to invite your friends to allow you to stalk the hell out of them!
It's awesome!
I watched DD#1 driving down the interstate yesterday.
Of course it sent me straight to panic mode when her "signal" stopped in the middle of the interstate for ten minutes.
Yeah,"mom you have to allow for lag time" "oh, so your not wrecked on the side if the interstate then?" "Um, Mom, turn that thing off, it's making you paranoid" "fine!"
Anyway..... You can't stalk ex lovers or the judge who gave you community service with it, if that's what you're thinking. Someone has to accept your request before you can thoroughly stalk their every move!

Well that's my un-techy list of what I like about the new iOS.
Pictures and all this time!

...and Grand Bay

Yeah, just a lil bit!

More rain?

Pascagoula is going join Atlantis if this keeps up!

Great picture show

On my way to work

I saw the sun!

Isaac just will not go away!
He came back down, brought us some more rain (cause we were kinda dry) and is trying to reform in the Gulf as a depression.
They say it won't come back our way, but jeeze Louise!
I did finally find some sun, and only a few clouds this morning.