Month: July 2017

Easter Eggs!

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Easter Eggers

Finally !!! One of our Ameraucana pullets is a big girl now !! A hen!

We found our very first “easter egger” bluish-green egg yesterday !  Our six EE girls were born last February – we got them in mid-April – and we have been waiting for this day since then!!  I was soooo surprised when I went to collect our 5 eggs yesterday (our 5 laying hens are usually on it daily…sometimes we only get 4 though if one is taking a rest day!)  and there were 6 eggs – a smaller bluish green egg along with the normal 3 white, 1 brown, and 1 light brown collection.

Pullets (“baby” hens) typically start laying eggs around 6 months old, but that depends on the breed.  Larger breed like Wyandottes, Plymouth Rocks and Orpingtons will start laying a little later, but smaller breeds such as the Leghorns, Stars, and Australorps will start laying sooner.

We got all of our laying hens when they were already laying, so this is a learning experience for us!!!  We are excited that our other 5 Ameraucana (Easter Eggers) will start laying soon, and we also have a Barred Rock and a Blue Andalusian that are the same age, so they will be getting ready to put their eggs into the mix too!

Here is one of our Easter Eggers…maybe this “big” girl is the layer of our first blue/green egg yesterday!

 

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GERD – do you have it?

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GERD (Gastroesophageal reflux disease) is no joke!!! Even so, I do LOVE my coffee in the mornings but I have got to cut it out !!! (I need to find something new to put in the {{awesome}} mug my oily friend Elizabeth at Living the Nourished Life gave me!!)

no more coffee

Some of you may know that I had gastric bypass surgery (RNY) in 2004, and after this surgery it is highly recommended that caffeine (and a myriad of other things that can cause damage to the stomach lining) be avoided – so, my daily coffee has really affected my stomach negatively.  This is one of the things that I have had a hard time giving up – although I did cut out coffee and caffeine of all types about 3 years ago after a short stint in the caffeine world, but somehow this little culprit snuck back in within the last year !

blog - me coffee

My GERD has gotten worse since my coffee binge, and it will have to go !!!  Having a “pouch” instead of a stomach with working acid pumps (I can just envision little pumps in my stomach!), make any irritating drink or food “off limits” for gastric bypass patients!  Check out this article on what foods and drinks to avoid if you have heartburn here.

After my gastric bypass surgery I was prescribed Prilosec for occasional GERD flare ups, and for many years I didn’t take it at all…I didn’t need to!  Since the coffee, I have had flare ups and have taken it occasionally, then daily for awhile – but these 2 articles changed my thinking drastically!  The first one is from Science Daily and the second one from a Canadian Health website.

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Photo from https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/07/170705113546.htm

What a scary thought that a prescribed medication may actually do more harm than good!!!  But this is NOT unusual!  Another reason we started using essential oils for a healthier alternative!

The icing on the proverbial cake is that caffeine also decreases bone density!  I also have Osteopenia (pre-Osteoporosis) and caffeine is a HUGE no-no!  Read more about osteoporosis and  coffee in this article at WebMD.

 

osteoporosis

So, my diet and coffee intake MUST change y’all !!!   I have also started using my DiGize Essential Oil in a roll-on form over my abdomen, and it has helped soooo much (what took me so long to do this????  Hubby uses it daily!  Hello?)

DiGize

My next project is to get some help from my friend and followers to make a list of yummy (and healthy) smoothies to replace my coffee in the morning! Does anyone have any suggestions for me ???  Leave them in the comments!