Big Changes At The Felton Household...

Hello again friends and family! There have been a few changes since last I blogged! Well, okay, maybe just one major change. But before I get into that with you all, let me tell you about everything else first!

The girls started the Fall season for Soccer in August, and it has basically been non-stop weekends ever since! Just Crazy! Throw in the occasional birthday party here and there and it really doesn't leave a whole lot of time to do what ya need to do as far as stuff around your own place! As much as I love coaching their teams every season, I do wish that we had more time around the house to finish some unfinished projects. But... I digress! The girls team for Fall has been nothing short of amazing. I mean as far as the kids on their team. All are wonderful kids and a whole lot of fun to coach! This is the one team I wish that we could carry over into the seasons to come. Not because they are that good skill wise, but because they are that good attitude wise which makes them so much easier to coach whether they are winning or not. They always remain positive, even when Amy and I aren't feeling that positive during a game that we may be down a few points, seconds before the end of the game. These kids still manage to keep a positive attitude and put a smile on our face every time! Amy and I are going to be sad to see them move on to other teams next season, that's for sure! It's kids like them that make what we do all worth it in the end! The regular season ended last weekend and this weekend we have Tournaments! Yes, the girls have moved up to that division where you get to spend ALL of your Saturday, for the most part, at the Soccer fields playing multiple games to give them a taste of what true tournaments are like. So after this weekend, we get a bit of a break from sports until January where it all starts all over again with Basketball and Soccer again, practically back to back. The girls have also started Third Grade this school season as well! Yes, Third Grade! I know, I get a lump in my throat every time I say it too, simply because I can't believe it myself! So far, everything seems to be rolling along smoothly with very few bumps in the road, which is awesome! They really seem to like everything that they are learning, so that helps too!

Now on to the biggest change on the Homefront to date...

About two months ago, my old company that I worked for (Elco Laboratories) announced to us that they were selling to another company called Chicago Aerosol. Which was all well and good, but they also told us that within a few months they would move the business to Cole City, IL from University Park, IL, which was about 30 miles more southwest of  the current plant. That made my trip in to work about an hour and a half, and another hour and a half back home. Too far for me to travel, especially if they were going to give us a cut in pay at more than half! So, I set out immediately to find a new job, preferably closer to home. It didn't take but a few weeks and I landed a job about thirty minutes closer to home at Albanese Confectionery Group in Hobart, IN! I originally put in to be a Batchmaker there, but at the moment, those positions are filled. So for now, until they get their third line running, I run a machine called a Mogul. What does it do? It forms those ever popular Gummy candies! From Bears to Butterflies, to Snakes to worms! If we've got a printer plate for it, we can make a gummy version of it! The only downfall to the job is that I work 12 hrs. a day, but hey, how many people get to do what I do every day and put smiles on millions of peoples faces every day of the year?! That's right, not many! And besides that, I have three little girls at home right now where I am their biggest hero because I make the ever popular Gummy Bear! And with that, what I do doesn't need to be popular with anyone else except for them! THAT, to me, is all that matters! So, I bid my former company, Elco Laboratories, farewell and it's on to the next chapter! I do wish all of my former co-workers the best of luck in whatever they do, and thank them for a great 14 years! I learned so much there, which helped out in landing my current job.

So, that's all I have for now! Until next time!

2014 Shaping Up To Be A Whirlwind Year!

Geez! I can't even remember when the last time was that I posted something here! It's not that I've forgotten about it, I've just not had a whole lot of time to really post! Things have been crazy busy around here. In case you didn't already know, and I'm quite sure by now almost everyone does know by now, the original set of 6 chickens we were raising last year were killed just before Christmas. They met their untimely demise from a Raccoon, or a few of them anyway. Crafty little buggers they are! Of coarse, with as hard as last winter was, I'm not sure they would have survived anyway in the tiny coop that they lived in. But even though we were out witted by a pair or family of Raccoons, we didn't let that stop us in getting more chickens! This time, instead of getting them already full grown, we decided to get them as chicks and hand raise them ourselves. In order to do this, this past May we had to embark on building a new Coop from the ground up. Amy came up with the design and was the lead Carpenter on the project! She had a vision of how this thing was supposed to look and she ran with it. And when she gets those visions, I've learned to just step aside and let her do her thing! Good thing I did too, because she constructed a damn sturdy Coop! Me, when I get to building things, I turn into Tim the Tool man Taylor from the show "Home Improvement"! No Lie! I do more damage to myself and other things around me more than anything else! I wish I was kidding! So thanks to my lovely wife, Amy, we now have a very sturdy 6'x6' Coop that can hold up to 15 chickens! We settled for 12 though. They are not laying eggs yet, but should start as soon as September!

Aside from the Coop and the chickens, we have been extremely busy with the girls! They have just finished their second year of Homeschooling and are headed into 3rd Grade this Fall! Not to mention that they will be 8 years old in just a few short weeks! Where does the time go?! Of coarse, they are looking forward to starting the Fall season for Soccer! This Fall, they move up a division to U-10! Bigger field, two more additional Refs and a few more added rules. They'll be fine, I'm sure, but it's going to take a little getting used to for Amy and I.  Amy and I are also on the Board Of Directors for the Soccer league. I know, as if we don't have a busy enough schedule as it is, we get ourselves on the BOD to add to the mix of an already busy schedule! We do still take Karate with the kids, but being that June and July tend to be our busiest months other than December, we took them off and will resume Karate next month. Hoping to test for our Yellow Belts once we get back into the swing of things! And yes, once Soccer is over for the Winter, we then have Basketball to think about again! The girls really loved playing their first season last January so much, that they want to keep playing! Who am I to say no?! As long as they want to keep playing Basketball and Soccer, I'll keep coaching them for as long as they will let me!

A lot of people ask me and Amy all the time about Zack. He now lives in Lafayette, IN, and seems to be really getting it together down there. He has some pretty good friends that he hangs with and is steady working on his GED. He has applied for several jobs and hopefully will be getting one soon!  In fact, we just seen him yesterday and took him out for a bit! He looks healthy and happy and seems to be enjoying his new life down there! We couldn't be happier for him! It feels good to see that things may finally be settling down for him! Well, that seems to sum things up for now! And, yes, I know, I say this all the time... I will try not to let so much time pass between updates! But I can't promise anything! Until then, enjoy some of these pictures!

The top picture is of the girls with Polly, our Australian Shepherd/Beagle mix, the second picture is of Hope and Faith helping with putting together the new Chicken Coop, and the third pic is of Charity doing the same!
And yes, before you ask, Charity did want her hair cut short! She loves it! Til next time!

The Crazy Chicken People Down The Block...

As some of you may know, at the end of Spring last year, we decided to take in 6 Hens. We did not start them as chicks, we got them as full grown Hens! In the beginning, this was my idea from the previous year. In case you haven't noticed, the price of eggs is edging up some. Actually, the price of everything is edging up. I have a theory on the reason why, which really isn't a theory but a known fact. And at the risk of starting up some political debates that I absolutely hate getting into, I'll stop with that! After all, this is a blog about family, not politics! At any rate, eggs do seem to be on the rise some. My theory of getting chickens was this:
1.) We'd have eggs all the time, no matter what and not have to pay store prices for them!

2.) It would be fun and somewhat educational for the girls to learn about how we get some of our food!

3.) No matter what, chickens are pretty fun to watch as they peck around the chicken run trying to rustle up sum grub!

Well as the Summer of 2012 went on, it developed into something more that I didn't expect... the girls could show them in a 4H club! This was Amy's contribution to justify having chickens around the house, lol! Because until that moment when Amy and the girls saw the chickens at Newton and Lake County Fairs, she really wanted nothing to do with the idea of having these funny looking feathered creatures around. Now, I have had a little experience before with chickens. My Dad's  Dad had them on his farm, and every now and then when I was there I would help him feed them. But truth be told, that was the extent of my experience with chickens. After all, how hard could it be to raise them?

Honestly, it's really not that hard to take care of them. Once they are full grown, they are pretty much self sufficient, other than you having to come down to the coop to feed, water and change their bedding out now and then. And even this isn't really all that hard to do. Especially if you make it the job of the entire family to help out with their care! We had made a family project out of them! Someone would take care of the food and water, and the rest of us would take care of  keeping the chicken run and the coop itself clean. Not really all that bad if you keep up with it! We had bought a kit for the coop, which later ended up being a bit of a boo-boo for the simple fact that the wood it was put together with that they give you, really isn't all that sturdy, and second, you can NEVER, EVER go by what they tell you on how many chickens can actually fit into the coop you purchase. For instance, our coop was rated to hold at least 10 big chickens. In reality, the six we had barely fit in it together! So if this is the route your taking, keep in mind, the bigger the better! Your chickens will be happier if they have room to spread out a bit. Now, they do make designer coops at Niemen Marcus, but who can afford that with the exception of the top1% in America!? And even then, those people probably have people who take care of their things anyway, so they would probably never see their chickens to begin with! At any rate, your probably better of building your own coop.

We had our first flock from the end of last May all the way up to almost a week or two before Christmas. That's when our entire flock was ravaged by a Raccoon. Yes, those masked bandits may look all cute and Innocent, but if you keep chickens, you know all too well how much damage they can do to your flock! A Fox or A Coyote will get in, get what they want and then leave. A Raccoon will not only get in to get what they want, but they will also kill everything else left alive. Such is what happened to our flock. All six of our birds were massacred by those little masked rascals! So unfortunately, our birds would not get the chance to participate with our girls in any 4H events. The girls were saddened by this for a bit until they realized that we were going to get more this Spring! Now, that's all they keep talking about. Oh, and... me too! I must admit that in the beginning, I just thought of them as a food source. All they were there for was to give us fresh eggs and that was it! But, as time went on, they became a little more than that. Heck, I think Amy and I were more upset by their demise than the girls were! The only way I can describe a chicken is this. After a while, they become like feathered dogs! They follow you around the yard and with the right breed, become very affectionate animals! I know! Who'd of thought, right!? And for these reasons, we decided to get more of them. Now, what makes us the crazy chicken people down the block? We actually attended a 2 hour seminar last weekend on chickens! The girls actually sat still for this and I think we all walked away with a little more knowledge of these animals than we walked in with! There were all sorts of Door Prizes like: A baby chick feeder, plastic egg cartons, small 5lb. bags of feed, hats, T-shirts and more! Amy and Charity each won a hat.

So here we are, Spring of 2014 and we have decided on the breeds of chickens we will be getting hopefully by Easter from Meyer Hatchery. We will be getting a few Light Brahmas, a few Buff Orpingtons, a few Barred Plymouth Rocks from our friends Chuck and Laura, and also from Meyer Hatchery a breed called a Golden Laced Wyandotte. All told, we will end up with 12 chickens after giving a few to our neighbors down the block who are also interested in keeping chickens! We are all pretty excited and can't wait for their arrival! And... apparently... neither can the rest of the family!

Well, that's kinda were we are at right now at this point! Oh, and Soccer season is once again upon us! Opening day for us is April 5th, provided the ground is okay enough for us to start. This will be the girls last season as U8's and they will be U10's this fall. So I plan to get lots of pictures of both the girls during Soccer season this year and with our new chickens! All of witch will hopefully make the next blog update! I'll try to make it sooner between updates, but with all that the girls are involved in now, it's just the matter of time to fit it in with everything else! But, keep checking back here anyway, because you never know when the next one may pop up! Until next time!