Halloween 2011: A Primer in Fame

Since we have been married, Rob and I have never dressed up for Halloween. Until this year. I saw the idea for this costume on Martha Stewart dot com and knew this was the one. I knew these costumes would serve Rob and me for years to come. You can read more about how I made the costumes here.

Fast forward to tonight. We have a Halloween tradition of going to the annual Boo at the Zoo event at the local zoo. This was our first public outing as a complete Yip Yip family. From the moment we stepped out of the car, we were stared at, gawked at, pointed at, photographed and approached. You could hear parents whisper to children and people shouting at us from afar. Children laughed and children cried. We stopped just short of signing autographs.

So, once we warmed up to the idea of all the attention, we started to have a little fun with it. I have to give a shout out to Parker and Marin who stayed in character, only answering "Yip yip yip..." when asked a question.

There were a lot of people who recognized us but couldn't quite remember what we were. Our answer was simply, "Yip yip yip yip." This was almost always followed by, "Oh, yeah! I remember those guys!" Little kids didn't know who we were, but were either fascinated or afraid. I "yipped" at more than one curious little kid who then started to cry. We were even stalked by one woman who was just dying to take our photograph. And she wasn't the only one.

Near the end of our stay, we participated in the family/group costume contest. We won second place, but I am convinced it was because our first place win would have been too obvious. A radio DJ guy interviewed us on stage to ask what we were (I don't think he was old enough to know). In turn, we each answered, "Yip yip yip yip." He never did figure out quite what we were. Oh, what did we win? A bag of candy.

So what was it like to be famous? Well, with the added advantage of complete anonymity, it was fun for a couple of hours. Although I can't imagine having to live my life like this, I sure will look forward to it next year!

(Just for fun http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxWGr8VhzQ&noredirect=1)

Madison County Fair

This year our kids wanted to enter their chickens in the Madison County fair. Marin entered Mesitos, a buff orpington, and Parker entered Bowser, a barred rock. We had to take the chickens in for judging on a Wednesday and got to pick them up on a Saturday. They were on display the whole time for the community to see. This was a source of great pride for the kids. They had fun going with Rob and/or me to feed and water the chickens daily. The kids and Rob got to see their first rodeo and Parker even scored a $1 bill chasing a calf.

Parker's chicken won second place for her breed and Marin's chicken won first place for her breed. Both kids were over the moon that they won a big fancy ribbon! Both of them can't wait to do it again next year!

Parker and Marin standing in front of their prize winning chickens.

Mesitos, first place buff orpington

Bowser, second place barred rock.

Parker and Marin standing in front of some of the chicken entries at the Madison County Fair.

Youth Triathlon 2011

It's the post you look forward to all year! For the third year in a row, the kids participated in the local River Rock Youth Triathlon. Marin got to participate in the triathlon for the first time year as she was a week away from turning 5. The kids raced in the 5-7 year old age bracket and had to swim 50 yards, bike .8 mi., and run .5 mi. They had a ton of fun and did great! Both are looking forward to doing it again next year.

Parker swims.


Parker bikes.


Parker runs.


Proud finisher!


Marin swims.


Marin bikes.


Marin runs.


Another proud finisher!

Green Eggs

Yesterday I remembered a story that Lindsay tells of her time in Rwanda with the Peace Corps. She would often go to the local market for fresh eggs and such. Most of the time the kid/person selling her eggs would try to sell her green eggs. She thought they were trying to sell her funky or diseased eggs because she was an ignorant American. She insisted on buying only brown or white eggs.

As it turns out, she was an ignorant American indeed. Certain breeds or varieties of chickens do lay green eggs. Just as chickens have different feather colors, the pigment that they deposit on their eggs before laying can also be different. Chickens will lay eggs within the same color family. For example, a chicken that lays brown eggs will not lay green eggs, and vice versa.

Last year when we got chicks, we picked two of a variety that were known to lay colored eggs. They are a hybrid chicken that are commonly known as Easter Eggers. Depending on the individual chicken, Easter Eggers (EE) typically lay blue or green tinted eggs. Finally, in the last couple of weeks they both started laying eggs. Debbie, the white EE, lays a very light blue egg. Little Jerry Seinfeld , the brown EE, lays a dark olive green egg. Olive Eggers are highly sought out by the members in the chicken community. I guess we got lucky with our $3.00 chick! (As a side note, the pinkish-brown egg comes from Mesitos (yellow hen) and the darker brown egg comes from Bowser (black/white hen)
Each of the eggs above were laid by each of our four chickens. Right now we are averaging about 3 eggs per day. Not bad for the girls!

So, my fellow ignorant Americans, the moral of the story is that green eggs are not funky or diseased. So why don't we see more colored eggs in the store? Because most of us were raised on and/or still eat conventionally produced white eggs, colored eggs seem weird. Egg farmers know that most people would be weirded out by colored eggs. Secondly, colored egg layers are not bred for high egg production like the typical white, battery hens at egg farms. Farmers want chickens that will lay a huge egg every day. Our EEs lay 3-4 medium-large eggs per week each.

A pic to show their feather colors. I should also mention that the girls LOVE leftovers!

Farewell, Dear Friend

Our beloved Zekie died this past Tuesday peacefully at home. He was 13 1/2 years old, which as I calculated, is an impressive 94.5 dog years.

I won't lie, the past couple of days have been rough. I had personally known Zeke for over 10 years, which is nearly 1/3 of my life. When I think about how long I knew and cared for him, it is no wonder his absence is saddening. I met Zeke shortly after I met Rob. Rob adopted Zeke from an animal shelter in Baltimore during college when he was about a year old (Zeke, not Rob).

Sometimes I like to joke that I fell in love with Zeke before I fell in love with Rob. While I am not sure that is true, Zeke was my first doggie love. Sure, we had a couple of dogs growing up but I was a cat person and mostly tolerated the presence of the dogs. Zeke was the first dog I actually felt like hanging out with. He was the reason I ended up with Katie. If one dog was so awesome, why not get two?

Before Rob and I had kids, the dogs were our kids. We took them on road trips to visit family, we took them camping and even to ward activities. We even took them to get their picture taken with Santa at PetSmart.

Zekie will be truly missed. We are ever grateful for the joy he brought into our lives.

Below are some pictures of Zeke and his life with us.

Parker (almost 2 yrs.) and Zeke. Parker was a big fan of Zeke from the time he was little.

Zeke tolerated many of Parker's toddler antics.

The three Stooges.

Best buds.

Look closely and you will see Pedro the rabbit next to Zeke. Zeke was a lover not a fighter, then again, there was the incident with the mouse...

Marin was always on the lookout for a sleepy Zeke.

Parker's Second Triathlon

This year Parker participated in the second annual River Rock Youth Triathlon here in Rexburg. It is a non-competitive event aimed at getting, and keeping, kids active. Kids participate in three age groups: 5-7, 8-9 and 10-12. Kids in Parker's age group (5-7) swim 50 yards, bike .8 miles and run .5 miles. It is a blast to watch and the kids have SO much fun! Parker looks forward to training for the triathlon every year and it is a good excuse for the rest of us to exercise a bit, too. We are so proud of Parker and his accomplishments!

Parker (in the green shorts) getting ready for the start horn.


Swim!


Bike!


Run!


Done!

Fruits of Their Labor

Last night as I was attending to what I call "farm chores", I looked in the egg box (nesting area in coop) to see if it needed cleaned out and was pleasantly surprised to see that a couple of chickens had layed their first eggs.
We have two chickens that lay brown eggs. I am pretty sure that both of them layed two eggs each because I did check the egg boxes a couple of days ago and saw nothing. Our other two chickens will lay green eggs.

Marin was asleep but we quickly brought Parker out to collect eggs for the first time. He was elated! The eggs were small by comparison to large grocery store eggs, but this is to be expected the first time a hen lays an egg.

Parker awoke early the next morning in anticipation of his first home grown egg breakfast. Both kids agreed that it was delicious!

The scrambled eggs are dark because the yolks are a deep yellow/orange. This is most likely due to a rich and varied diet that consists of organic chicken feed plus just about everything else they can find in our yard/garden (grass, leaves, bugs, worms). The fruit du jour are the green tomatoes in my garden. I must also add that they have all but eradicated the ants in the backyard. Good chickens!