Let's talk about sex

I know, I know. It is another SAD.com WiseFarmYard story. But it is about SEX or at least the sexual habits of my fowl. See, Bart, our rowdy Rooster (above) is going through a bad spell right now. Just over six weeks ago we introduced Broody Betty the Bantam Hen to the flock. She sat for 38 days in a row on the eggs and produced a full and healthy flock. Now that she is done being broody she has decided that she wants nothing to do with our feathered frolicker. 

You may not think this is a big deal, but for Bart, this is a very BIG deal. Although a very dedicated Mother and 'hatcher' Betty lured him into a false sense of reality and now that the kids are here, she has made a few changes to her daily routine and let's just say it is not really going down all that well.

Betty, a full time broody hen sat on her eggs all day. Each evening around supper time, she would get off the eggs for a few minutes. Staying very close to her nest she would literally eat, shit and have a quick shag. End of story. For 38 days in a row Bart was getting some serious action, and that made him a happy guy.

Then all things headed south with the arrival of the first wee downy duckling. Broody Betty was reluctant to get out of the nest at all, due to the fact that there were still two more eggs ready to pop. Bart strutted around ALOT and even beat up Henry the Drake over a paternity squabble (which has thankfully worked itself out) and although I did not watch his every move, I kept the new arrival and Betty under lock and key because I felt uneasy about his mood swings.

Bart went back to dealing with his other feathered females and seemed happy enough. We figured he would just leave Betty alone and let her get on with her very important job of mothering.

The twins hatched almost three weeks ago, without incident. Broody Betty finally could leave the nest and start teaching her little ones how to forage and fly. (Trust me - this is a whole other story by itself).

Bart resumed his position of Rooster-at-large and has done everything in his power to get a leg up on Betty since all the babies are hatched now (I mean what else has she for doing??).

Saying he is quite disgruntled is an understatement. I'll admit that Betty lured him into a false sense of reality and I think that 'start as we mean to go on' is a statement she should have considered before she settled him into a daily routine.  

However, I am a Mum too. I can feel her pain right now. She has just had triplets for God's sake and the last thing she (probably) wants or needs is a sweaty male trying to rape hump her daily. 

Her job (as a very young first-time Mum) is to put the needs of her children first. We all know that the needs of a horny husband has to take a back seat. Bart has to just DEAL WITH IT.

But what does she do if she begins to notice that he has a roving eye. What if those other (childless) hens are start to look a heck of a lot more attractive to him. They have less baggage AND they have time for him. They hang around all day, waiting for him to seek them out for a quick 'Wham-Bam, Thank-You-M'aam. He gets what he wants, When he wants it, and goes back to being the 'Cock of the Walk. 

Broody Betty is surviving. She has settled into the role of motherhood like a pro and has not given Bart a second glance. She does not need him, and she no longer feels that she has to honour his wishes or give in to his bullying demands for sex. Over all she is doing just fine. 

She has made it evident that the welfare of the babies is all that matters right now. She knows that it is impossible to do it all and has decided to place their needs before that of her partner and herself.

When you make your bed, you have to lie in it.

Those are all the WiseWords I have for this evening as I sit fireside (in JULY!) with my hubby,

(Names have been changed to protect the innocent)

WiseMóna

6 Month Review

What can I say! Tomorrow we will be in Ireland 6 months! I cannot believe it! The time has flown by since we returned home to Galway. The photo above (taken today) is of one of the Connemara sheep that rule the road way out West (here). It is a good depiction of how things are going for us here - rocky, but still climbing!

We have settled in very nicely to our surrounding neighborhood and have made some lovely friends (new) and I have had a great time catching up with all my old school buddies. A few days ago, we managed to clear out (an entire bedroom) all our moving boxes and trash and with the help of our neighbor (Eddie) we burnt every last piece. I know this may seem strange but a huge weight has been lifted of my shoulders since that day. I think (mentally) I was holding on to the boxes in case we decided to move again, but I know in my heart and soul it will be a very long time before we do.

Do not get me wrong - it is not all rosy in the garden. It is hard to come back home after being gone for so long. No matter what career choice I decide to choose (event planning or restauteuring) I am either inexperienced in Irish business or I have too much experience and am over qualified. (imagine that). It is not a great time to be looking for a job (anywhere on this planet) here in Galway our the surrounding towns - but I imagine sooner or later the right opportunity will present itself. For now, I am continuing with a creative writers course (2 x per week) for the next 10 weeks. I love it, it keeps me busy plus I get to make loads of new friends! I do have something else lined up that I hope will start in October - but cannot release the details until July! Stay tuned on this one! The chef is having a harder time settling into Irish life than I had hoped for. He misses our friends terribly (as do I). He misses American TV (boo hoo) but I think he is turning the corner. Just recently he started to work (3 days a week) at a local bakery called "The Foods of Athenry" http://www.foodsofathenry.ie/ and he kind of sort of likes it. OK, actually that is not true at all.

He calls it 'living hell' but he is getting out of the house (thank GOD) for a few days and they are paying him! It is a small enough bakery but they are large producers - so he is spending a lot of time making pie dough for 1,500 apple pies a day, and 600 loaves of brown bread per day. A lot of repetitious work - drives him nuts. He very much likes the people that own the operation though. They liked his Chef history and are looking to expand and grow their company and hopefully will use him for his creativity to help launch a few new products and less of the monotonous stuff. (he has only been there one week!)

He is reluctant to get back into the night time cooking jobs because it means he would not see the kids and would also have to sacrifice precious weekend time too.

The children have really never been so happy. They are blossoming actually. Rory is probably the best student in her class - in every subject. She is quite the little primadonna (I guess she gets this assertiveness from me??) but I love her for it. She is in charge of most situations, is making loads of friends, speaking Irish to beat the band and actually doing a little Irish dancing too! Jack is just a few weeks away from having his 4th birthday and I am madly in love with who he is becoming. He is tall - starting to loose that puppy fat and almost perfectly spoken (I mean that). He is still the most adorable cuddly little pudge that he has always been and overly affectionate too. He prefaces most questions with "excuse me, Mama" because he blathers on so much that I have instructed him to say 'excuse me' when he wants my attention or the answer to a question. He is strong, and funny, and all boy. He wants to be working and doing and building all day and all night and he already does a lot of household chores on a daily basis.

More than anything Rory and Jack LOVE LOVE being so close to Granny. They just love when I pick them up from school and we just pop over to her house for a cup of tea.

So there you have it, an update on our sort of boring existence across the pond on the Emerald Isle.

That is all the WiseWords I have for today,

WiseMóna

Isn't it great to be a kid!

Before I get to explaining why Ms. Keira was here for a visit, I thought 'What a great photo' for any company to use as advertising!

It is sad that for the most part our families rarely are all together unless it is for a wedding or a funeral, but we try to make the most of it whenever the occassion occurs. One of my Uncles passed away last week. He was my fathers brother (Aidan) and had been long suffering with lung cancer. The wake and funeraling took place over 3 days (Thurs.Fri.Sat).

Shane flew in Thursday morning and brought a little surprise with him - my gorgeous niece Keira. She stayed with Granny on Thursday night and on Friday went to each of the kids schools to pick up my two! Needless to say, they were more than overjoyed to see their cousin.

On Friday afternoon we took them to the home of my late Uncle to pay our respects and I would venture to say it was the first time all 3 of them had ever seen a corpse. They had no real feelings on the matter. I thought it would get a little more chatter out of them, but they seemed indifferent to the fact that someone was dead in the living room and more concerned about the Apple Pie in the kitchen.

When Jack walked into the living room where my Uncle was laid out, he proclaimed loudly (in a room full of the mourning families) - "theres my Grandfather!" I had to do a quick look around myself as I was focused on my uncle in his coffin who did not resemble my Dad in the slightest and then noticed that Jack had spied a photo of my Dad nearby.

It is funny how the things children say can have a strange effect on people. I was a little mortified that Jack was being his usual loud and 3 yearish self blurting out the first thing that comes into his little head but later found out from my Mum that my cousin Raymond (eldest son of my uncle that just passed away) was shocked and happy to see Jack behave as if he knew exactly who my Dad was even though he has been dead 9 years this Christmas.

I know, I feel proud. I love that the children who have never met Dad, do have a great sense of his presence. It is awful that he never lived to walk me down the aisle, or be around to watch the kids grow, to have seen our lovely restaurant, to have partied with our friends, to help us build a chicken coop (see upcoming blog) and so much more. But he is forever in our hearts and apparently his image & essence is engrained in the little minds & hearts of my babies.

Now - on to a lighter subject! Whilst Keira Leira Loo was here with us (and this is where I have to THANK my brother Shane for allowing us to keep her for the weekend!!) we felt the need to spoil them all rotten and cram as much junk food and crap into their little bellies as possible.
This is soooooo unlike my behaviour (I know - shocking) but it was such a joy!

Keira has this really cool way of wrapping her french fries around her chicken nuggets then dipping them in ketchup. Usually 3 french fries and always the same size ones!

As most places like Supermacs (Irish equivalent of McDonalds) give a little gift, the kids left with a toy, balloons, ice cream and very full tummies. This photo is a little blurry but I thought it was a true image of the way they actually were all hyped up on sugar!

That is all the WiseWords for today,

WiseMóna

Very Cool 'Coole Park'

I woke up early this morning and surprise surprise, it was raining outside. I crept downstairs hoping not to wake any of the little ones and got the rare opportunity to browse through the photos we snapped yesterday on our excursion to Coole Park. This, is one of the most beautiful parks/nature reserves I have ever been to. It is less than 30 minutes from home (less if Granny is driving) and I am sure you will see it referenced many times from now on as it is a place of refuge and inspiration for all. Check out the website when you have time.
Needless to say, Granny and the children really enjoyed exploring together.
This is called the Autograph tree. It is home to autographs from writers such as William Butler Yeats, George Bernard Shaw, John Millington Synge to name a few.
This park had just about one million spots that acted as a perfect backdrop for taking photos of ones children. I know you are probably getting tired of all the photos, but this is the phase I am in right now - so suffer it along with me...............................

I stole this photo from their website to show you just how gorgeous the sunsets really are. As we wrapped up the day here at Coole Park, we stopped for a spot of tea and dessert in their little cafe. Mum opted for the rhubarb tart and I choose the blackberry and rhubarb crumble. Seriously, I thought I had died and gone to heaven. If you all remember, I am not that big on desserts, and to be honest could not tell you the last time I ordered one in a restaurant. I even passed up a slice of the Chef's bread pudding. HOWEVER, when I walked into this little cafe, the smell of baked goods was enough to whet any ones appetite. I scoured the display case to see what was causing this sumptuous stench and spied a gorgeous piece of this blackberry rhubarb crumble. The crumble on top was a little darker (even slightly burnt but I like that) than one would normally expect a crumble to be, but I went for it.
I wish I had taken a photo of this to help explain just how delicious it was. It was sweetened just the right amount and I assume the fruit was the showstopper because the flavor was so intense. It just melted in my mouth helped along with the very generous dollop of whipped cream they gave me. The treadmill is still in storage somewhere - I feel that it will be dug out as soon as we settle into our new home - otherwise we will not be able to fit in the door!

That is all the tasty WiseWords for today,
WiseMóna

Hello Granny!

Well, we packed our bags and headed HOME to the Emerald Isle. We arrived on an overcast rainy day August 8th 2008. I wonder if that is good luck arriving to a superstitious country like Ireland on 8-8-08 ?

I have struggled with how to relaunch the blog and decided it was best to just 'start fresh'.

With that said and in order to get y'all caught up to date I have kind of broken it up into 2 or 3 seperate stories with photos. Some of the kids, some food and a little scenery to make you GREEN with envy! Welcome to our new blog, sit back, relax and enjoy our stories! http://wiseirishblog.blogspot.com/