Swamp-water Blueberry Smoothie

    The blueberries gathered by our hands in the steam bath of last summer- have been waiting in limbo in the deep freeze for a winter day like today.
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    Our weary bodies, abused from a dearth of tooth rotting and waist expanding sweets from Christmas, are in desperate need of some real food. Not another breakfast of greasy bacon and toast. That sounds yucky and heartburn inducing.  It was time to break out the juicer and make some swamp water juice, containing carrots, collard greens, apples, pears, pineapple and celery.

     That took forever. The next step was to use the precious blueberries to turn the ghastly juice into a smoothie that was wonderful. With my eldest boy sick and the rest of the clan moving sluggishly, this drink was today's salvation. Vitamin pills do not work as well as fruit and veggies. God makes the good stuff, not humans.
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     Nothing was wasted. The pineapple rind, leftover carrot peels and vegetable pulp from the juicer got spun around in the food processor with some duck eggs. The mess was taken to the chickens to be devoured by their greedy beaks. It will be recycled  back into eggs and useable chicken manure for the garden. My crew of poultry pets are great at completing a process which is good for us, them and the land.

    I wish I could do this every day, but it takes a ton of effort. The payoff is worth it when we are all feeling run down because it really helps. Even if you do not have chickens to feed the scraps to; the fruits and veggies will help you. Do whatever you can to ride out the worst of winter.

A Chicken With It's Head Still On

    The arrival of snow is wonderful. Impending doom is more like it. That is how this corner of the world is responding to the vast winter storm that is will arrive tonight. The parking lot of the St. Robert Wall-mart was as busy as a Los Angeles freeway during rush hour. It seemed as if everybody was panic shopping in preparation for the forecast six to ten inches of snow. I was making my own panic run to the pharmacy because I did not want to be without my fibromyalgia meds just in case I got snowed in for a week or two.

 
     Our driveway gets impassible with the smallest amount of ice, so getting out once the weather hits is not conceivable. We are only one mile from city-plowed blacktop but we might as well be living off the grid when glacial weather freezes our little farm to a standstill.

 
    After a two hour wait at the pharmacy (everybody else was panicking too) I had a monster headache and wanted to quickly eat and get home. John and I stopped by Wendy's and ran into Victoria Carriger. I miss her. She was a good friend years back when we lived here the first time before the military moved us to Colorado and then Korea. She has had a tough ride in life and is finally being blessed after nearly a decade of effort invested in building a career in music. That girl sure can sing and God is providing a way for her to take care of her family using her voice. He is using her pain and trials to remind me that he is looking after my dreams too. In due time God will lift me from obscurity. My art, writing and photography will be used to impact the world, just like he is using Victoria's voice to do so now. I need to tell her thanks for being an inspiration.

    Going to Wendy's was a God appointment. Do you get those too? Chance meetings that you know were not planned by your own hands, but were vital nonetheless? Panic driven thinking is stressful. My headache could have been avoided with better planning in regards to my medications. However, if we had not been running around today, if I had not gotten a huge headache, and if I did not try to fight off that headache with a much needed meal; I would not have run into my old friend.

    The day made sense when I was putting my chickens to bed. As I sat on a bale of straw cuddling one of them, I thought that there was tranquility in the chicken shed. As a matter of fact, there is always peace to be had while sitting and cuddling a chicken. The caveat is that I have to slow down long enough to experience the same assurance that a chicken has. There is no panicking over unfilled prescriptions, there is just the moment. It is simple and filled with quiet clucking. Chickens can be extremely philosophical, you just have to ask them the right questions, then shut up and listen.

    A good friend, a full tummy, and knowing extremely smart chickens have brought wonder to my heart today. God appoints all of them at just the right time. Sometimes all it takes is to slow down and live life at the pace of a chicken, one with it's head still on.