Welcome!

Welcome to my blog.  I have no idea where this will go; it may be a wild ride because I'm just going to follow my thoughts and see where they take us!  I've wanted to blog for years, but for one reason or another I've just never gotten around to it.  I spend entirely too much time in front of my computer, much of it I can’t even recount what I spent the time doing.  I've decided if I spend some time here, at least I’ll have something to show for it!

First, a little about me:  I'm Cristyl, a 38-year-old mom of three.  My children are "Baby Girl" (21 years old), "Monkey Man" (19 years old) and "Little Man" (14 months old).  When I had Baby Girl I was a Junior in high school - she was born 11 days after my 17th birthday.  Almost three years later, I gave birth to Monkey Man - I was 19 years old.  I honestly didn't think I would ever have any more children, but my husband "DH" and I decided a couple years ago that "it's now or never" and that we were just crazy enough to start all over.  So, I gave birth to "Little Man" when I was 37 years old.  I’m also a mother-in-law to Wrench , my daughter Baby Girl’s husband; they've been married 1 ½ years.

DH and I have been together over 14 years; we will have been married 6 years at the end of April.  He balances me, knows me, and tolerates me.

We currently live in southern Colorado in a rural area along the Arkansas River.  We moved here nearly five years ago to "live the dream".  Since then, life has been harder than we could have ever imagined.  We have struggled with finances like we never thought possible (like much of America).  We have changed how we live our lives and how we spend money.  We survive on less than 25% of what we "scraped by" with just five years ago.  It's been hard, but it's also been liberating in a way.  Learning how to live on less actually feels good if you focus on the accomplishment side of it rather than focusing on what you don't have.  And in comparison with much of the rest of the world, we live really well on the little we have!

We have two dogs:  Hyper Dog is a three year old border collie and The Cuddler is a seven month old black lab-border collie mix.  We also have 22 hens and a rooster.  Only one of the hens and the rooster have names:  Prissy is my favorite chicken (don’t tell her sisters!) and Quasimodo is our rooster.  Quasi is so-named because his back is crooked – and has been since we picked him up “free to a good home” this past summer.

Prissy is an araucana and lays beautiful light blue eggs, but that’s not why she’s my favorite!  She became my favorite sometime last year when it became apparent that she was the lowest hen in the pecking order.  The other hens picked at her mercilessly, plucking her feathers, refusing to allow her to eat or drink water and chasing her every chance they got.  She was so afraid of the other hens, she rarely even came outside the coop - chickens are mean creatures!  I hated seeing her treated this way and worried that the other hens would eventually kill her.  I cordoned her off on her own, giving her an entire coop to herself (we have two connected to a shared outdoor area), so she could heal.  During her recuperation, I gained her trust and she now seeks me out every time I go into the chicken area.  She follows me around, clucking at me and just a few days ago, jumped up so she could cuddle up to me at eye level…needless to say, she gets the all the petting, snuggles and special treats she wants.  The other hens get chased away if they try picking on her or steal her treats while I’m around.

I’m going to add some photos of the gang (as soon as I figure out how) and call this my first blog post.  Complete, finite, done!  I warned you it would be scattered and it certainly is…a little about my family, me, my life, my pets, and a lot about a chicken!  Go figure!

Thanks for reading!