Emma took no time in naming our little fluffy pets. She's been into Greek mythology lately (thanks to those Percy Jackson books), and the chicks names reflect that. We have Selene, Athena, and Pan. We also have Pig, who is named that because she seemed a bit of a pig initially. She now seems to be the littlest of the four.
One of my big concerns with getting chickens is how our other animals would react to them. We've got 2 dogs and a cat (and a snake and some fish, but I wasn't too worried about them). Darrel said "It'll be fine." He says that whenever I express worry about anything. It'll always be fine.
So far, it's been fine. Jack (our border-collie mix) sniffs them a bit, then seems a bit freaked out and leaves quickly. Carmella (our cat) seemed more interested in the box than in the chicks. Rose (our poodle-maltese mix) is the only animal that shows any real interest. She will sit and watch them for minutes at a time, even when no one else is around their box. They've gotten pretty used to her too.
Below are some chicken/dog videos for your viewing pleasure.
The 2009 holiday season will forever be known in Rodriguez-Mayers family lore as The Christmas The Chickens Came.
A little background:
Darrel has wanted chickens ever since we moved into the 23 (as the hipsters are calling our neighborhood now, apparently) 12 years ago. He grew up with chickens and has fond memories of them. I didn't grow up with chickens, and assumed that they were noisy, smelly and annoying. When he insisted they weren't, I figured that since the house he grew up in sat on many acres of land, he probably just didn't notice it - they were most likely kept far away from the house. He continued bringing up the idea of having a little flock of our own, and Emma soon joined his side of the debate. I remained strong, however. Until, the Guinta-Moore family got chickens.
GG (Isabella) Guinta is Emma's best friend, and her family lives in Hyde Park. About 2 (?) years ago they got 4 chickens. They were little baby chicks, ordered on-line and send through the mail. Who knew? Emma fell madly in love with them, and, through spending lots of time at GG's, became an expert handler. Seeing Emma with a chicken sitting in her arms, my defenses weakened a bit. When we were told by Elizabeth and Weston that they were good pets, fun to watch and interact with, and not all that stinky, smelly and annoying, I began rationalizing. We do have a large back yard. It'd only be 4 chicks, max. I do LOVE birds, and will never be allowed by Darrel to have a conjure or a parrot, so maybe I should settle for chickens. OK, OK, we'll get chickens!
2 years later, we were still talking, but doing nothing, about it. In early December, Darrel came up with the idea of getting some chicks for Emma for Christmas. I tried to reason with him, and assumed he'd either forget about it or realize it was a crazy idea. He did not. He found out that Callahan's here in Austin sells baby chicks - some as young as a week old. He also found out that they'd need to stay in the house for the first 4 to 6 weeks of their lives, so we wouldn't need a coop yet. He brought 4 baby chicks home on Christmas Eve day while Emma and I were walking the dogs. We hid them in the music room, and assumed that Emma would hear them peeping away. She didn't. She thought we had bought her a new bed and that's what we were trying to hide.
Christmas morning came with the secret still only known to Darrel and myself. My folks were in town too, and we hadn't told them either. We opened all our presents that morning, and then blindfolded Emma. We led her into the music room, placed her next to the box and took off the blindfold. "OHMYGOD! CHICKENS!!!" She then squealed and laughed in a higher pitch than I've ever heard come out of her mouth. She couldn't believe it. Best. Christmas. Ever.
They are adorable. Tiny and fluffy and sweet and precious. We are all desperately in love with them.
I've not posted anything here for about a year and a half. Most likely, I decided that it'd just be more fun to keep up with people on Facebook instead of writing long-winded stuff on this blog. But, Darrel came across my blog a couple of weeks ago and suggested that I start posting again. I figure it can't hurt anything, so, here we go.
This year, Emma decided she wanted to be a character out of the Mighty Boosh - a Hitcher Henchman. Darrel and I warned her that no one would know who she was, but she didn't seem to mind. I thought I'd do it too, since the Hitcher has 2 cockney henchmen. So, we bought some black hats, green face paint and peppermint life savers. I sewed some strips of white onto our black shirts, we made "polos for the eye" and we were ready.
Darrel took a quick trip into Spirit Halloween, and came back with a raven and a hat. He put the former onto the latter, a black mask onto his face, and donned a trench coat, and he was ready. He wasn't really sure what he was, but he looked really good.
We wore our outfits to a party at Holly, Shane and Chloe's house. No one knew who any of us were, but we had a good time anyway. Their parties are always great.
Halloween also means the Lee Elementary Carnival. Hundreds of children, hopped up on sugar, running around the school. Emma decided to lose the green face paint for the carnival. Darrel and I don't typically dress up for it, but did this year. I went for an easier witchy-type thing this time, as I didn't want to spend the entire night trying to explain to people about this obscure British comedy. I think I made the right choice.
We saw very little of Emma at the carnival. When she was in kindergarten, she was attached to my knee. No longer. She got her tickets from us and then she was off, running around with her friends.
Halloween day was spent getting the house ready and carving our pumpkins. It was Darrel's turn to take Emma around the neighborhood, so I manned the candy bowl in my witch get-up. Emma took over when she came back, and we had a pretty good crowd this year. A few little ones were quite frightened by us. A successful Halloween all the way 'round.
No SXSW for me this year. What could keep me away from all those days of great music, you ask? Big Bend, that's what.
Our friends Matt and Sandra booked a few rooms in the Chisos Mountain Lodge back in early 2007 for spring break 2008. Being the only lodging in the park, the place fills up fast for spring break. We are very lucky to have such forward-thinking friends.
We arrived on Monday and left early Saturday morning. While there we did lots of hiking, saw lots of deer, and thoroughly enjoyed ourselves.
I began writing this shortly after the new year. It was getting too long and self-indulgent, so I stopped, thinking I'd return to it soon. Seeing as it is now March, and I want to post something about our Big Bend Spring Break trip, I thought I should finish the Christmas post. Lord, I do tend to procrastinate.
This past year for the Christmas holiday Darrel, Emma and I went to Wyoming to visit Darrel's brother and family. They live outside the town of Jackson, very near the Grand Teton National Park and the Jackson Hole Ski Resort. Randell, Trish and the kids (Jesse, Justin and Christopher) always pamper and spoil us, and this year was no exception. They live in a lovely house that Randell and his company built, and have a large workshop on their land. The second floor of this building houses a little office and a small apartment where we stay. It's got a comfy bed, a bathroom, a fridge (always stocked with beer and wine when we arrive) and a coffee maker. What more could one ask for?
We had talked about the possibility of skiing a bit during our visit, but I was hesitant. Darrel and Randell grew up going to France to ski (tough life, I know), but it had been 20 years or so since Darrel had been on the slopes. I had skied once when I was 10, which really doesn't count. Emma hadn't tried the sport yet, but I wasn't really worried about her. It was my out-of-shape self that I was concerned with. But, not wanting to be a negative-Nellie, I got all kitted up too and gave it a try.
Randell rented us the skis and boots for a week as a Christmas present, which pretty much committed us to an awful lot of skiing. Darrel picked it again up right away. He's shite at ice and roller skating, so I figured he'd not be any good at this. I was wrong. He was very graceful, and the only time he ever fell was when he was trying to help Emma and me up from the ground. Very impressive.
Emma took to it right away. She was adorable all bundled up with her helmet and goggles on. And fearless. Not worried at all about falling. It took her a bit of time to learn to control her speed and direction, but once she had that down, there was no stopping her.
It took me longer to get the hang of things. Going down the hill was no problem. Its the slowing down and stopping that gave me grief. I fell a lot, but with Darrel and Randell tutoring and encouraging me, I built my confidence up and began to enjoy myself. Skiing is a bit of an insane sport, if you ask me, but once I figured out how to control my decent, I felt much better. I'm certainly not good at it, but I did have fun. We'll hopefully do it again, and I'll be better prepared for the whole endeavor.
It was fantastic to see Emma out there, following Darrel and Randell between trees and over little hills. And it was beautiful. Just gorgeous. And we saw moose from the lift! Can't beat that now, can ya?
We also took a trip out to the National Elk Refuge, and dragged the Wyoming Mayers clan with us. It was beautiful out there, and we saw not only lots of elk, but two bald eagles and a couple of coyotes. Stunning.
With September fast approaching, Darrel and I realized we had not taken a summer holiday together. Early in the summer Darrel took a brief trip to the UK and Emma and I went to Orlando, but the three of us had not escaped Austin together. A family trip was called for, and we decided to go west. Emma and I had driven through that part of the state last summer with my Dad, after a trip to Cloudcroft, New Mexico. We had spent one night in Marfa, and had really enjoyed the area. Darrel hadn't been to that area of Texas, so we decided to go.
I found a place to stay on-line that looked nice and remote - Chinati Hot Springs. We decided to spend 3 nights there and then 1 in Marfa at the Thunderbird Hotel. Emma, Dad and I had stayed there last summer and enjoyed it. I got a rental car through Priceline, and we were all set.
Day One
Because this damn state is so friggin' big, we decided to leave bright and early. Well, early anyway. It's not so bright at 4:30 in the a.m. We were up at 3:30, packed everything, had not nearly enough cups of coffee, threw Emma in the car in her nightgown and were off.
We hit I-10 around sunrise and Emma woke up shortly after that. She brought out the video camera and shot some road footage as Mummy drove and Daddy slept.
We had made the decision to drive through Big Bend National Park on our way to the hot springs, since we had never been there. This added several hours to our drive, but it was worth it. Before we got to the park, we stopped in Marathon for lunch. There's a nice old hotel there called the Gage, and they had great courtyard and refreshing-looking pool. Back in the car and on to Big Bend. Darrel took the wheel and I took the video and still cameras. Emma became grumpy and bored in the backseat.
Wishing we could spend more time there, we stopped briefly in the park to stretch our legs, and then were off again toward Terlingua. We stopped in the Terlingua Ghost Town, so that Darrel could take a few photos. And we got an uncomfortable pic of the three of us. The road from Big Bend to Presidio, which is the last "big" town before our hot springs destination follows the US-Mexico border. From parts of it, you can see the Rio Grande. It's a very scenic drive, but also slow going for the uninitiated. It seemed to go on forever.
A short stop in Presidio to gas up and we were on the home stretch - the last 30 minutes of which were spent on a gravel road winding through the hills. We finally reached our destination - 13 hours after leaving our casa on Corona Drive. So very worth it.
The place is very minimal. If you are looking for creature comforts, this is not the place for you. We did have our own little cabin with a/c and a shower and tub on the little fenced-in patio. The shower and tub used water from the hot spring, which was nice.
There is a communal kitchen that is equipped with everything needed for meal-making, except food and drinking water. Luckily we brought both, so we were all set. It had a nice deck where Emma enjoyed watching the ants. We unpacked and jumped into the pool. It sat on a hill, affording an amazing view. The owner of the place said the pump was not working, so it was a little green. OK, it was more than a little green, but it was 104 out there dammit. After dinner, we enjoyed the silence and darkness, and Emma crashed. Darrel and I followed after a brief dip in the hot springs-filled hot tub that was a few steps from our door. A long day of driving ended sitting in nice, warm water staring up at the stars. Not a bad first day.
Day Two
I woke before the other two and went for a short walk. The sun had just risen and it was lovely and cool.
We spent the day doing lots of nothing. We went for an early hike in the desert, and Darrel took some great photos. Emma found a frog on our shower/patio. We had a visit by one of the resident hound dog puppies, Lefty. We made the long trip back to Presidio for the essentials - more water, milk and beer. Other than that, we swam, ate, explored the creek bed, swam some more, ate again, and slept. I love holidays.
Day Three
We went for an early morning walk down the creek bed. Emma was fascinated with the tadpoles. And we stumbled across a stone head.
We swam some more and spent some time in the hot tub. A storm blew in during the late afternoon. It cooled things down quite a bit, and actually included some hail. We were in the kitchen, which has a tin roof, and it was like we were under attack. Wish we had gotten some audio of that, it was crazy.
We made it an early night, since we were leaving early the next morning to head to Marfa.
Day Four
We could have happily stayed at the hot springs for many more days - Emma wants to move there, she enjoyed it so much - but we had reservations at the Thunderbird. We said goodbye to our cabin, the tadpoles, dogs and green pool, and headed north.
We got to Marfa too early to check into our hotel, so we wandered around town a bit - had coffee, lunch and explored the top of the courthouse. We checked in after lunch, and Emma and I immediately jumped into the lovely, non-green, pool.
After our refreshing dip, we rented some bikes from the hotel and rode around town for a bit. After a bit more swimming and much-needed showers for all, we had dinner at the restaurant in the Paisano hotel and headed out to see the infamous Marfa lights. Emma, Dad and I had seen them last year, and were lucky enough to catch them again. No video or still photos of them, but we saw them, I promise. They still looked a bit like car headlights off in the distance, but were cool nevertheless. There was an annoying woman there who insisted on describing every movement of each light in a very loud voice. I came close to asking her to shut the hell up, since she was ruining it for the rest of us. Darrel thought she was a perfect candidate for alien abduction.
We retired early, preparing ourselves for our long journey home.
Day Five
The journey home was much shorter. We left Marfa at about 8:30, and were back in our driveway at 4:45-ish. We stopped in Alpine for breakfast, resolving to spend more time there on our next trip to the area. We then headed to I-10 and drove and drove and drove. Emma documented part of the trip back. All in all, a very enjoyable trip. We all had a great time, and came back rejuvenated. I do feel that we could have spent another 3 weeks out there and still not been able to see and do all that we wanted. Darrel wants to head east next time we go somewhere, but I need more desert-time.
Many more photos can be seen on my Flickr page, and more videos are on Vimeo.
