Things I can not live without.

Confession time:

I started writing this blog on the 17th.  I had all these great ideas for things I couldn't live without.  Alas, I woke up that morning to a sick chicken.   I thought she actually died in my arms, she seemed so sick.  Now, for those of you who do not have experience with chickens, and I am assuming this is  most of you, I have to admit, chickens are what you might consider a little bit of the drama queens of the bird world.   They are easy prey because whenever anything goes wrong with them, they flop down and seem dead.   Problem is, it makes it really hard sometimes to figure out if they are okay, in shock, or dying of some incurable chicken illness.   SIGH!

Patches suffering with Scrambled Egg beak!

Okay, so that is Patches and she has Fowl Pox.  No, not the scrambled eggs on her beak.  That is her poor table manners.  They are, in her case, little black spots all over her comb and waddle (That is the red stuff) and basically it is Chicken Pox for...well, chickens.   After her very dramatic attempted death, I brought her in the house and she acted just about dead for 30 hours.  So much so that Hubs was about to put her out of her misery, so to speak.  I convinced him to go hunting and because I was suffering from some hideous bug that was most likely really a terrible migraine headache that had me pretty much thinking wishing I were dying.  Anyway, I stayed home and by Saturday morning, after I had begun hand feeding and watering the chicken, she made a great turn around.  Now here is the bad news, Fowl Pox is highly contagious and I don't know if I isolated her soon enough.  I have 33 other chickens to worry about.  She has to stay isolated for at least 10 days which means, she is going to be celebrating Christmas with us.  So obviously from the scrambled eggs all over her beak, she has managed to feed and water herself again, thank goodness!  I mean it was like I had a baby with wings to spoon feed.  Seriously. I am too old for this.  So yep, in the middle of baking Christmas cookies I have to stop to burp the chicken.


Okay, without further chicken stories, here are the things I can't don't want to live without.

Kindle Paper White 

Kindle:

I was dead set against this.  I liked books.  I liked the smell of books.  I like the feel of paper.  But, something happened.   I got married and couldn't really read in bed without waking up the snore master husband.   Hubs is funny and sweet but he does not like to be awakened.  In fact, he becomes down right grumpy when forced awake.   If he wakes up normally, on his own, he is pretty much Susie Sunshine but if you wake him it is Oscar the Grouch.  I love my reader.  I have previously done most of my reading on my iPad mini and the thing I prefer about the Kindle is the size.  It is just so much easier to hold in one hand.   

To go right along with my Kindle is my Amazon Prime account.  First they ship for free.  Next they give me access to movies and music.  Finally, they give me books.  I mean, what isn't great about that.  The kiddo likes to read too, so much so in fact we got her a Kindle Fire for Christmas but that's a secret.   Anyway, it became clear to me early on (read when she stole my full sized iPad and started begging me for books) that I needed to get Kindle Unlimited for the books alone.  So, yes, I am an Amazon junkie.  

Source CDN.BGR.Com

iPhone/iPad:

Much like the Kindle, I resisted having a cell phone until 2000.  Can you believe that?  I felt like nobody needed to reach me so much that they couldn't reach me at either work or home.  Like anyone gives out their work phone numbers anymore.  Like anyone has home phone numbers anymore.  Anyway, my first iPhone was a refurbished bust.  What that experience taught me was never buy refurbished stuff but I digress.   I moved on to an Android phone and I was happy enough until I got my iPhone 5.   I loved that phone.  It was so good to me.  Then I upgraded to an iPhone 6 and now I am awaiting anxiously the iPhone 7 and all the rumored Apple goodness.   Somewhere in there I got my first iPad then my iPad mini and I officially became an Apple person.  

So yes, I love my modern toys.  I don't need them to survive but I don't really want to survive as much without them, now that they have spoiled me.   

Sleep time

Okay, seriously, I can't live without my dogs but I am only including them because my chicken got top billing and the dogs get so jealous when they aren't included.  I mean, don't they look jealous?  They are actually alive, I promise, even though in this photo they look like they have been smothered by pillows and blankets.  They like to burrow and prefer sleeping under something, pillows, blankets, my legs, hub's back, our bed, our pillows on our bed.  You name it and they will sleep under it.

Also on the list of things I can't live without but not pictured:

Super hubs.  I can actually live without him for a few days and sometimes I want to live without him for a few days.   Still, when he is gone a few days hunting, I am super glad he is home and I usually do something stupid to spoil him like, make him enchiladas or what he calls Norwegian Tacos. (It's a long story and no they didn't create tacos in Norway, to my knowledge.)  What can I say, I have grown accustom to him constantly talking my ear off. 

Some form of transportation, currently my Ram pickup.   Why?  Because I don't own a horse and buggy.  

Emergency Wine.   Really, the emergency could be forcing me to watch the nightly news and listen to Donald Trump and his latest hate quest of the moment.  Seriously, who doesn't he hate and who doesn't need wine after listening to him?  

Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips.  Okay, I really need to learn to live without these things but I just can't.   Nestle is just not good enough for me anymore.   These things are the bomb.   

Things I am living without that I wish I wasn't:

Ah, you speak to me you beautiful mixer you!

I am dying for a Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer.   I have been price comparing them and debating on the sky blue (left), cherry red, or the silver (not pictured).  I even found the best price imaginable on them at Sam's.   I still walked away without one.  I want it.  I need it.  I mean, my little, crappy, one blade falls out whenever I try to use it now, 20 year old hand mixer has done it's time and it's time is now up.   Still, I can't force myself to pick one up and put it in my buggy to checkout.

Okay, honestly this need didn't become apparent to me until I started Christmas baking.  I mean, mashed potatoes not withstanding, cookie dough is incredibly stiff at times, especially if you are like me, and forget to get the butter out early to soften.   Anyway, the other day making Chocolate Chip Cookies (I capitalize this because I am so annoyed that I can't come up with a really amazing recipe and yes, I have tried a ton of the "the best chocolate chip cookie ever" pins and none of them really rock my world or my Ghirardelli bittersweet chocolate chips) I realized that the hand mixer was about to just clunk out and therefore I ended up finishing the cookies by hand.   I felt like at any moment my husband was going to come in from milking the cows with two pails of fresh milk, I was going to have to go collect the laundry from the line after hand washing it in a tub, and there was going to be a pig to slaughter for dinner as soon as we got the wood burning fire going in the stove and/or the fire pit.   However, reality struck and I knew it wasn't 1845 so I could just go buy a new mixer...someday.  

So long story short, if anyone wants to donate a cherry red Kitchen Aid stand mixer to me, shoot who am I kidding, if you want to donate one, I don't care what color it is, I will make you the perfect chocolate chip cookies, as soon as I find the right recipe.   (How hard can it be?  We know there needs to be butter, eggs, flour, brown and white sugar, vanilla, baking soda, salt and Ghirardelli chocolate chips. It has to be easier than I am making it!)