Spring is coming

It really does only take about a month to break some habits. This past month of mostly not being on social media has changed my neural pathways more than I thought. I feel less need to report on my life like a documentary than being able to enjoy moments and savor them without needing photographic or written proof it happened. Being able to share moments one-on-one with specific people rather than adding to the noise. That being said, I know at least some family and friends enjoy periodic updates on the goings on of Kilby Cottage and its residents. So here's a brief update on our last few weeks:

We continue to have fun messing around with our chickens. Millie--our silkie bantam--laid her first egg for us and it's so cute! Nathan is working to tame our newest additions. Also found buddies Penny and Alice even laying eggs together because only one nesting box is good enough. The other one full of hay is definitely sub par.

Joel, on of our regular volunteers, was recently featured in a local periodical about his work here. In addition to his work on the slave name indexes, I enjoy chatting with him each week about chickens, gardening, and beekeeping. A few years ago we split an order of chicks (that's how Matilda joined our flock).

A couple of weekends ago we helped my sister-in-law work on her turkey and hog pen. In a few weeks some piglets and turkey chicks will be arriving to the farm. Already looking forward to our portion of the meat! While we were at the farm that Saturday, I was able to walk around and enjoy how beautiful the lettuce is looking on a sunny warm day. The salad greens have been hanging in there despite the polar vortex.

Speaking of sunny days, Nathan and I have been enjoying the fair weather by planting perennials. We finally finished planting all of the daffodils we purchased for our wedding flowers last year all around our front yard, lining the driveway and more! My mother also gave us day lilies and iris roots she thinned from her yard to add more layers to our landscape. When the weather turns warm again we'll divide up some of our other hostas, daffodils, irises, and propagate some of the shrubs to continue the no-cost additions to our front yard. Can't wait for things to bloom this spring! In the mean time, we're enjoying both of our camellias giving us flowers here in winter.

Our elimination diet began almost 2 weeks ago and we're already feeling the benefits of extra veggies and less sugar. My energy levels are back up and I'm not feeling as mentally foggy. Also, my gut is thankfully operating normally again. The antibodies test was negative for celiac, so hopefully the elimination diet will illuminate what foods are the root cause of my recent issues. Most of the recipes we have tried turned out fantastic, but a few of our attempts at vegan paleo muffins didn't even pass the Nathan appetite test. We are really looking forward to being able to eat eggs again!

Related to food, we found a local restaurant that we are able to most things on their menu despite our elimination diet. So Nathan brought home a delicious jerk chicken for dinner one night and surprised me the next day with a sugar-free, gluten-free, soy-free, etc. doughnut from the same place that I ate promptly without a photograph.

(Real) tea is not allowed on the elimination diet, so I've resorted to trying a variety of herbal tea bags. One bonus of this change is the quotes they put on the tags. I'm a sucker for good quotes. So I'll sign off with one I had last week:

P.S. Daisy would like to assure everyone that she is still being treated like a proper princess.