Honeychick Homestead

Homestead, Health, and Happiness

Check Out Our Chicken Condo! (aka Chicken Coop)

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It has been a busy two weeks since I returned home from my unexpected trip back home to Michigan for a funeral. I’ve finally gotten caught up on housework, homework, and yard work!

Although I had to travel home for a sad event, I was able to spend time with several family members and friends. I am grateful I was able to see several cousins, my great-aunt, and two of my best friends from elementary and middle school.

During the week I was away, my husband put the finishing touches on our “chicken condo” and I was able to have the ladies move in the weekend I returned. This new coop is a HUGE upgrade from the pre-fab one we had purchased from Pet Co.

One of the best things about this new coop is I can walk into it, which is key to having the option to get them inside the coop before dusk. It has been sooo nice not to wait for sunset before we could leave the house. Now I no longer have to make sure I’m home at dusk to put them in!

Another great thing is the bigger coop space means I only need to clean it once a week, the other coop required cleaning 2-3 times a week.  They now have ample roost space and the run is big enough leave them in all day. It’s rare that they don’t free range in the orchard but it’s nice they now have adequate space if we can’t let them roam.

My husband built the coop and run himself and it was the first structure he’s ever built. I personally think he did an amazing job! I think he was happy he got a new power tool to help complete this project 🙂 I did most of the painting. Our coop is three different colors and that’s fine with me! We used left over paint from our shed, house, and a cheap “mismatched” gray color from the paint store.

We loosely followed this design we found at Backyard Chickens (their’s is much bigger than what we built) and I used these coop dimensions and design criteria I found on Hen Cam. I really appreciate the detailed information Hen Cam provides!

My husband worked on it almost every weekend starting the weekend of August 7th and it was officially complete October 17th, so it took a little over two months to complete. He’s going to write a post with specific plans and share things he learned while building this coop. Take a look these photos documenting the process, start to finish! View the pictures →

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Thankful Thursday #23 – Life is Precious – October 2015

I know it’s Friday but I wrote this on Thursday, and thought this post would be a great way to restart my thankful Thursday series for the fall and winter.

This post is a bit of a departure from my typical thankful Thursday posts. I wanted to I write about a friend who passed away last weekend. The friend was my old boyfriend Mack, who I met when I was 19, and he’s the reason I moved from my home state of Michigan to California. Our four year relationship brought so many great things into my life!

As I write this, I’m flying to his funeral in Michigan and I’m watching the plane on the flight tracker follow almost the exact route we drove 19 years ago, which is stirring up emotions and fun memories!

Some of my favorite things about Mack were his smile, his laugh, his ticklishness, his lankiness, (he was 6’8” and very skinny!), his soft spoken personality, how he loved his nieces and nephews (when they were little, he’d play with them constantly), and the love he had for his family and his son. Continue reading →


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After Infusio – Christi’s “100ish” Day Update

Hello! I’m so happy to share this wonderful update from Christi! Her 100th day post Infusio treatment was August 18th, and I was a bit late getting a follow-up email out to her. She replied quickly to my email last week and now I can share her progress with you. Here’s the summary from Christi:

I am well past the 100 day mark and everything continues to improve. I have more energy, less weakness, fatigue, and neurological issues. I would describe my symptoms now as minor or gone, yet still improving.

I think if I were to say before Infusio I was a zero, on a scale from 0-100, that now I would be at about 80-85%. With these physical improvements I have found myself getting tired from what I‘m doing, not from how I’m feeling. This is great news! This also means I can do more.

As a matter of fact, here is a small breakdown of some of the things I have been able to accomplish this summer:

3 camping trips, ice skating, Mommy and me swim lessons, taking the kids to the park, volunteering to assist in my daughter’s class, (classroom Mom!), coaching her soccer practices along side my brother, making a team banner, and now officially being team Mom. These are just a few accomplishments I have managed since returning from Infusio.

I know these activities are daily life for just about everyone else but last year at this time, I spent 85-90% of my time in the couch because I was unable to do anything.

I am also working diligently to repair the damage done to my body by the Lyme and the medications.  This includes probiotics for my gut, liver detox herbs for the damage done to my liver, and self lymphatic massage for my lymph glands.

My symptoms are gone in the sense that they don’t just occur from nothing.  I now have to be doing something or be under stress for them to occur:

Joint pain is GONE
Forgetfulness is GONE
Muscle weakness is only after exertion or when exhausted:  1
Sweating now only occurs when hot, active or stressing out:  1
Headaches are only when allergies or air quality is bad or stressed:  2
Swollen Lymph nodes seem to follow the air quality, allergies and stress.

 

Keep in mind, I live in a region that has a very bad reputation for allergies and have suffered from them my whole life. The air quality has been so poor, (I mean brown air!) due to smoke from all the raging wild fires. So, if I was in clean air, I think some of these would disappear too!

I plan on having a follow-up appointment at the new facility in Beverly Hills. I haven’t set the date for it yet but it will be sometime in the fall. In addition to inquiring about digestive and lymphatic systems at my next visit, I will also inquire about my thyroid because at this time last year it was having issues and I just want to know.

I wish everyone health as I know that is the most important thing in the world next to the ones we love!

Curious how Christi was feeling before Infusio and immediately after? Click here to read her Pre-Infusio update and here for her update immediately after treatment.
Share you encouraging words or questions in the comments!