Chicken wranglin'...

I have owned chickens for years and thoroughly enjoy them. Unfortunately, at also means an ongoing struggle with predators. Namely, raccoons!

We built a hen house with a chain link chicken yard, in which they are safe. I like to let them free-range during the day and lock them back up at night. Early spring they began to migrate to roosting in the barn at night. This is not a safe location! Long story short my beautiful flock of 6 ducks and 30+ chickens quickly was reduced to no ducks, one rooster and 5 hens.

Thankfully Sylvia has survived. She is a beautiful silver Araucana who lays green eggs. The only way we would keep the remaining chickens alive was to get them roosting back in the secure hen house. Which would require catching them and keeping them "locked up" for a week or so to retrain them.

I have found the easiest way to capture them is with a fishing net. My first attempt was Sylvia but while I was trying to get her out of the net Mr. Roo came to her rescue. Which quickly prompted me to bring hubby in to help. We were able to capture all of them and they are now safely locked up.

While we didn't get any pictures my barn cam captured a couple funny videos. When you watch keep an eye on Mr. Roo, he is the giant black chicken.

My New Toy...

I have owned an original Cricut for many many years. And while I love it, the allure of the new bright shiny Cricut Explore Air 2 was more than I could handle.

I tinkered around for a little while. Made a quick card and personalized my favorite coffee mug.

I can't wait to spend more time creating fun things.

Peach Crisp...

Oh how I love creating in the kitchen. And as y'all know I love to improvise!  So to be clear the title should be Peach MANGO Crisp

I sliced up 6 or 7 peaches and a mango. Added 1/4 cup of sugar, 2 Tblsp. of flour (for thickening), juice of a lemon (to keep peaches from turning brown), 1/2 tsp. of vanilla, salt and cinnamon. Let it sit for 20 minutes to pull some of the juice from the fruit.

In a separate bowl, blend the following together with a fork, pastry blender or your hands. 

1/2 cup each flour, old-fashioned rolled oats and brown sugar

1/4 tsp cinnamon, nutmeg and salt

1/3 cup cold butter, diced into small pieces

Pour peaches into a baking dish and top with the rolled oat mixture. 

Bake at 375° for about 30 minutes. Delicious served alone, with ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

I Can Do Hard Things...

Saturday I participated in a unique triathlon, the Headwaters Adventure Race. In place of the traditional swimming, we kayaked! It had been advertised on Facebook and thought "what the heck, that sounds like fun".  It was! I loaded up my kayak (which is still a challenge) and bicycle and headed out at 6am.

The first leg was running, which is my usual go-to for cardio. I was excited about my finish time of 20:57 for two miles. Still working towards a 10 minute mile, but making progress.

Next up was the cycling. That proved to be more challenging. MUCH more challenging. There were A LOT of hills and 10 miles a looong way on a bicyle. HaHa!

At about mile 3, as I began to push my bike up a hill to allow my heart rate to come down and catch my breath, I wondered how I was going to ever make it. Closing in on mile 7 I actually said to myself "Yes! You CAN do hard things"!

The cycling was the biggest challenge for me. The hills and being on the road, I'm used to the local bike trail. It was such a beautiful ride though and I felt very comfortable on the country roads. Only one part was on a busy highway and it had a wide burm. I did my best to get a little video to show the scenery, a GoPro might be a good investment LOL.

The final leg was kayaking down the Upper Cuyahoga River for 5 miles. Oh how I wish I could have taken some pictures. It was beautiful! It twists and turns and was so serene with the singing birds.

I was calculating how long I thought it would take me and figured about 2 and a half hours. But, being my first time I told myself if I could finish under 3 hours I would be satisfied. My overall completion time was 2 hours, 37 minutes and 58 seconds!! I am so proud of myself and will be doing this next year! Perhaps I can get my time under 2:30!