Everyone, introduce yourselves! (#3)

[athena]

Hi all...

I just thought it was time to intro myself...

As my "location" says,... I am currently at Balad Air Base, Iraq.... but, I have a home in Valdosta, Ga..and a home in Jacksonville, Fl. The home in Ga.. will be sold as soon as the housing market opens up.. and I will "retire" in the Jacksonville area.

I was born to a Greek Marine and a Japanese mother, in Okinawa, Japan.... An absolutely gorgeous island in the South China Sea. I am as you guessed, a military brat. I did spend my school years, tho...in Boston, Mass.... After college, I entered the Air Force and was "in" for 10 years, married an Air Force member, (22 yrs) and am now divorced.

I have 4 children, .... 3 girls, and one boy.
My two oldest daughters (Alexandria, 26 and Mariko, 24) are married, and I have 3 granddaughters.. (Sydney, Kaili and Malia)
My son (John, 21) is a junior at Georgia Southern...
My youngest daughter (Stephanie, 17) is a sophomore at Florida State... a brainiac, graduated 2 yrs early...plus had her freshman year of college completed by the time she graduated. Her first semester ...she was just 16...and I was THE absolute nervous mom!!...etc...

and....
I have a dog, (Sachiko) who lives with one of my daughters while I am on deployment, Sachi, who is half Shar Pei and Half Rhodesian Ridgeback.. is almost 18 years of age.. Picked her up as a pup at the pound in Hawaii, and she is ..well, another daughter of mine. What a blessing she has been through the years. She is soooo beautiful, and such a great, great dog!!!
and...
I have 2 manx cats... Max and Nhia... who is being cared for by friends..

My children, grands and pets...all spoiled...as can be....lol...

My hope... when I get back to the states... to sell my house in Ga, and probably my house in Jax...and buy a place in the country...not toooo country as I am still a city girl... but enough away to get some chickens, ducks, bunnies....and of course do a huge garden. I am big into gardening.. flowers and vegetables...

I am an engineer by trade, and ....keep your fingers crossed that I find a good job when I get back home to Jax... to realize and fulfill my hopes...and dreams!


I have always wanted to raise chickens, ...(and did for awhile in Hawaii)...
and just loved it...and hopefully, in the next year or two, my "hope" will come true...

I love to cook, entertain, read, do arts and crafts,..( tole painting, and making wreaths!!.. I have one for every holiday and then some....lol..).....and I love to go out dancing...

I have learned so much from this site, not just in terms of "poultry", but... from discussing the economy to sharing recipes.. and just being friendly.. with people all over the world...

Thank You for this forum, and thanks for the friendships formed...

I look forward to many years on this site...and perhaps, an actual meeting with a few of you. (Mary...who is right up the road...as the internet goes..lol)

Athena...

[Josh]

Hi Athena,

Thanks for the introduction! I'm so glad you're a part of the poultryOne community. You're right, it's great to see all the friendships and connections forged on these forums.

I'm from Hawaii. Were you stationed at Hickam Air Force Base?

[athena]

Hi Josh....

I lived in Hawaii for a total of 12 years... 2 tours... One I was active duty, and the latter ..I was a spouse...lol...

I lived on Hickam both tours...but worked way up at Kunia... under the pineapple fields???

Im former Intel...

My son's godfather lives in Kahala... beautiful area... well, the whole darn island is beautiful..lol..

Do you know what I miss the most???.. and esp as a yankee and all those snowy Christmas's???? Is Christmas in Hawaii.... esp all the palm trees that are lit around City Hall... the trees inside that are all decorated and the wreaths... Oh, the wreaths!!! I hang out in the lobbies where they have the wreaths....lol
I have such fond memories of Hawaii... such a magical, spectacular place to live in, and be.... lucky, lucky you....

But, my children are in the Florida, Georgia area....and thats where I will retire.. to be close to them...

Pau Hana....
and Mahalo...
Athena..

[RonL]

Athena. Just wanted to mention how much you and all your fellow patriots mean to us. Your sacrifice of being away from family and friends in a dangerous place for our country's sake is greatly appreciated. Keep up the good work .......
(if I mentioned this before .... don't mind me. I'm getting old!)

[athena]

Awwww Ron, Thank You....

As I was walking into work today, (we work 12 hr days, 7 days a week.... I have not had a day off since I have been here, and don't expect to this entire deployment... I know that sounds harsh...and when I first got here, I thought, you have got to be kidding...lol...but, when I see the troops come in, from outside the wire, humvees caked with muck, the uniforms caked with grim, dirty... I know they haven't showered in days, maybe weeks, and I know they haven't slept in a bed for as many days... I chin up, and realize how lucky I am to work in an air conditioned tent, sleep in my twin size bed, and.....have an 8x12 pod to call home. I simply go up to them, hug them...and say thank you!!)..... They are the ones I do this for.

Ron, if you were to see these young kids (men and women)... how proud you would be! Mature beyond their years...and...have witnessed events no one should have to!...the mom in me, does what I know to do by instinct... HUG!

and as you can see, I am extremely passionate about the military and my brethern who serve.
anyway, I got off track...

...walking in....this morn,..I walked past the group headquarters, and they were getting ready for the Memorial Day Commemoration. Honor Guards, dignitaries, chaplains... etc.. There is something to be said....about the military, on days like today.. We don't forget those who have sacrificed so much..

Again tho, thanks from all of us here... We do appreciate your sentiments and support!!

Athena

[gold'nchocolate]

Hi there everyone! I hope this is the right place to introduce myself.

My name is Cathy and I live in south central Massachusetts. I have had my chickens for 8 yrs. I have 12 hens left from the original flock of 42....they are buff orps, barred rocks, silverlaced wyandottes and black stars. Recently I bought four one year old hens...2 cinnamon queens, 1 black star and a golden campine. Last week I bought 12 one week old chicks from the same guy who sold me the other 4...they are 8 easter eggers and 4 rhode island reds. They sure are cute little peeps. I really love my chickens!!!

I have 4 grown children and 4 grandchildren. I am also a foster mom for the state of MA and 3 yrs ago I adopted the first 2 foster children that I had in my care. They are now 6 and 7 yrs old but I've had them since they were 1 and 2 yrs old. I also have 3 foster children with me at the present time.

Besides the chickens I also have 3 miniature horses, a quarterhorse, 4 golden retrievers and 2 labs (chocolate and black).

I'm very happy to have found this site, it seems to be a very friendly place and I'm looking forward to getting to know everyone. I'm adding some pictures of my newest chicks just because they are so cute!! Thanks for looking!

[RonL]

Cathy. Another welcome to our forum. Great pics. I like that last one of the Easter egger looking at the camera ............ Hope to see you around often.

[athena]

Welcome Cathy...

I grew up in Salem... North Shore area...
Im supposed to go to my 30th class reunion (Salem High, class of 78)...
but, I could not get leave for that timeframe.... so, another reunion comes and goes, and I can't attend... Grrr....
((I have missed them all...))


Can ya send me some fried clams with the bellies.. geesh, I miss those..lol..
so yummy, or a lobster roll??...

ALL I can think of, here...is food...lol...

Anyway,...I just wanted to say welcome to PoultryOne...

I love your handle, and such cute photos of your chicks...

Athena

[gold'nchocolate]

Originally Posted by athena

Welcome Cathy...

I grew up in Salem... North Shore area...

Can ya send me some fried clams with the bellies..

Athena

Thanks for the welcome

My mother has a black cat and her name is Salem. Huge storms went through that area the other day.

I also love fried clams but I can not eat the bellies so I just get the necks...I know, what a waste of good food, huh?

[chickiebratt71]

Hi all,

I guess i'm one of the new chicks in the flock. I'm from Russellville Arkansas. I had the misfortune of growing up in town. I used to tell everybody that I was a displaced country girl at heart. My dad had a sister that had her own dairy farm and we used to go visit all the time. My cousins all thought I was crazy because I used to love to go around the farm and help them do their chores. I had always wanted to live in the country.
So when the oppoturnity arose and me and my fieance got the chance to buy an older model farm house up on the mountain in the country for practely a steal we snached it up. He grew up in the country and couldn't handle living in town. Me on the other hand grew up in town and wanted to live in the country. So it was great for both of us. We only have 3 acres though so that canceled out any of the bigger farm animals most ppl would have gotten. So I decided that I wanted chickens.
I started doing research on them on line checking out several web sites and checking out books in the library and researching hatcherys.
When I finally got the chance to get my things together to set my coop up and go get my birds the local farm supply shops in town had already sold out. I just happend to be on the phone with my boss ( i drive a taxi in town) and was complaining that the farm store had all the supplies set up for starting new birds except for the birds. She said she could get me all the birds that I wanted. Her son had a lady in one of the towns next to us that raised all kinds of poultry and always had stuff availiable.
So I gave her the money and she went to the lady's house and got me 10 mixed chickens. And 2 white crested ducks.
I raised them in the house until they were about 6 weeks old and almost fully feathered and decided to put them outside. (after completly redoing my coop)
I didnt have to work the next morning so I stayed up all night and checked on them all night. I placed plenty of food and water out there in their feeders. I even had a single ring blow up swimming pool for the ducks to play in. I had the heat lamp placed where they could stay warm. The nights were in the high 70's low 80's here so i figured it was safe to put them out. But placed the lamp out there just in case they got chilled.
They actually surrived the night. But sometime between 8 am in the morning and 11 am in the morning the neighbors stay dogs decided they liked my birds more than I did and killed every one of them.

Needless to say I was really upset. I cried all morning. They were my first flock and I had tried so hard to make sure they were all right.
After I burried them and calmed down a little bit I called my boss and got the lady's name that she got my birds from and I called her up. She said she had plenty of birds availiable and to come on over and she gave me the dirrections to her house.
Me and Dusty (my fieance) drove the 30 min to her house. Everywhere you could see were birds of all kinds. I joked with him and said that was going to be our house in a few years. She took me in the shed where she had her hatchery set up and let me choose my own chicks this time and my own ducks. She taught me how to sex the ducks. And we made sure that I had a male and female so I had a breeding pair. The chicks she said we would have to wait for time to tell when they got older. I bought 2 silver lakenvelders, 3 black australorps, 2 blue andalusions, 3 rhode island reds and the 2 black crested ducks.
They were all different sizes this time. The first flock I got were all day old that she had, had hatch that morning. These were from new hatchelings ( the reds) to about 3-4 weeks ( the velders) The ducks were hatchelings.
I brought them home and set them up back in my ten gallon tank. The ducks had their own ten gallon tank.
They are all growing niecly and doing just fine. I have sepperated them into 2 tanks and have 5 chicks in each tank. The bigger ones (velders, and lorps) I put in one tank and the younger ones (andalusions, and reds) I put in the other. The ducks have since been graduated into an old rubbermaid storage container.
I also have made 2 web sites that I update regularly and add pics when I can get film and access to my step daughters digital camera. Check out my sites and see my birds.
http://chickiebratt71.googlepages.com/home
http://groups.google.com/group/poultry-pets
I love this site. It's full of great information and i'm loving the interactive posts and being able to get answers almost right away instead of having to surf all day in and out of web sites to find one answer. My hats off to the wonderful ppl who set up this site. They have done an awsome job.
I'm looking foward to spending lots of hours reading the posts and interacting with all of you. I look foward to updateing you on the progress of my birds.