We came up on the losing end of the chicken lottery this time. Out of eight mystery chick picks, five were cockerels (males), and only three were pullets (females).
What kind of homesteading woman am I, if I couldn't watch what had to happen?
The squeamish kind, I guess.
Hubby is just as content to do it all himself, I think, to avoid having me standing over his shoulder. "Offering suggestions," as I see it... "Bossing me around," according to him. "And stressing me out."
We made the rookie mistake (according the the Backyard Chicken Forum) of cooking them without letting them rest in the fridge for at least 24 hours, so they were a little tough.
I've been asked to describe how the shifters are set up on my mixte, but I hesitate to write about it, because I don't necessarily recommend this method. My handlebar setup consists of inverse brake levers, elk hide grips covering the entire handlebar, and bar-end friction shifters mounted upon "thumbies" up toward the front. The rationale here was to leave as much of the handlebar area uninterrupted as possible, allowing for a variety of hand positions. It works nicely in that context, but it is not for everyone - which brings me to the issue so many have written to me about: There seem to be few options for mounting gear shifters on a mixte with upright handlebars that are both elegant and convenient. Personally, I find my own setup not entirely elegant: Too many cables up front. And it's not entirely convenient either: The levers can only be reached when the hands are in the aggressive forward position on the bars. But what other possibilities are there?
One alternative is to move the shifters closer to the edges of the handlebars, so that they are near the brake levers. This placement is more convenient if that is the position where you tend to hold your hands the most, and since I've been using my own mixte more and more as a city bike I am considering switching to something like this. The problem, however, is that placing the shifters here interrupts the handlebars and limits potential hand positions: It will not be possible to slide my hands back and forth along the bars the way it's possible on my current mixte set-up. Also, it's essential to get the angle of the shifters just right, and doing so does not always result in attractive placement. Finally, both with my current set-up and with the set-up pictured above, there is something messy-looking to my eye in having so many cables sprouting from the handlebars. I have not been able to find a way to make handlebar-mounted shifters look attractive.
A potential way to clean up the handlebar setup from the "messy cables" look while keeping the shifters within reach is to opt for bar-ends. I tried this prior to my current setup, but quickly discovered that this works well only with the wide Nitto Albatross bars used by Rivendell, and ideally on a bike with a long virtual top tube and/or with the handlebars raised high. Otherwise, you may discover that the bar-end shifters will poke you in the knees to the point where it could interfere with pedaling on turns. That is exactly what happened when I tried them on my small sized mixte with narrow Porteur bars.
If none of these methods appeal to you, you can go the vintage route - one possibility being to mount the shifters on the stem. However, generally this is not recommended for a number of reasons. Some claim that mounting the shifters in this spot is dangerous, because they could potentially "impale" you if you fall forward on your bike. To me this seems rather far-fetched: After all, it's common to have bruises on your thighs from bumping into bar-end shifters, yet no one claims they are dangerous. I think the real reason stem shifters are disliked is that they are considered to be a symbol of lower-end bikes: In the '70s, stem shifters meant that a bike was marketed for amateurs who held their hands mostly on top of the handlebars and were unable to reach downtube shifters.
But while downtube shifters offer elegance and simplicity, removing the second set of cables from the handlebars entirely, most cyclists who are looking for an upright mixte find them difficult to use. In order to shift gears, you have to remove you hand from the handlebars are reach quite a ways down. Particularly if you are sitting upright, this is inconvenient - not to mention beyond the skill level of some cyclists.
As far as aesthetics go, a mixte frame is a challenge to set up, because the twin lateral stays already add a degree of visual complexity to the looks. If you add a cluttered handlebar set-up to that, it can get pretty messy. In vintage photos and in handmade bicycle shows, the cleanest looking mixtes tend to be set up either as single speeds, with hub gearing, or with single chinrings - ensuring that there is, at most, only one shifter to deal with. But in practice, most mixtes today are set up with derailleur gearing and either double or triple chainrings - presenting an aesthetic and functional challenge.
As cool as the zoo was, the girls made it a hundred times better. I forgot how fun non-teen kids are to take to the zoo! Some of my favorite moments were:
When she showed us how the "mingoes" stand:
When Sherae tried to get the kangaroo to box with her:
And when this beautiful guy let me pet him:
and then told me a story complete with teeth baring and head bobbing:
And last but not least...years ago Nathan and I took our girls to this very same zoo. Ashleigh was three and Ambir was two. Ambir was addicted to her "binky" at the time. (We sent her to Binkies Anonymous at some point, so she's fine now) We got to the zoo and she lost her binky. We didn't have a back-up binky. Soooo...she screamed "I want my binky" the entire time we were at the zoo. It was awful. She had some fierce lungs on her and when she screamed, the whole world knew it. I think this was the main reason we have not visited this zoo since in fact.
Living the life in Pinkville, even if temporary, in beautiful family-filled Michigan!
We finally made it Yorktown Victory Center. For those that don't know, Yorktown is the site where the British surrendered to the American and French troops, effectively ending the six year Revolutionary War. The Victory Center is a living museum, and we love living museums so it was a treat to visit here. We saw the encampment first:
While here, we saw two military weapons being fired. The first was a cannon and the second was a mortar. Cannons shoot solid balls and mortars shoot bombs. The man talking during each told us lots of interesting things like that.
We talked to a man who shared about the medical field during the War. We learned fun things like how bullets were removed using the finger, what they used to disinfect and anesthetize during surgeries and what things caused mass sickness. The man who shared there used to be a teacher in schools. He decided this was a way more fun way to teach/learn. We get that!
We also hit the inside museum galleries. We watched a movie and learned more about what exactly happened here and why it was such a critical part of that war. We laughed at some parts like when they talked about a drunk soldier mooning the British army.
And then we walked past the farm part to see if it was something we'd want to visit next time we come here. It was!
We had a great time here and hope to visit again when we come back.
I would not have wanted to be playing against them.
They played tough, fierce games against the competition.
They ended up in the championship game. They won their bracket. Woohoo! WTG, guys!
In my post Sticker Shock, I mentioned that I had an old laptop that no longer works and I didn't know what to do with it. Well, in a comment on that post, Janice Brown, at Cow Hampshire, linked to an article about Staples and their computer recycle program.
