Pieces of Pietz

Our first snow of the season! We finally had our first taste of winter here in middle Tennessee to start the New Year. The mild temps had us somewhat spoiled so far this winter but alas, we all knew the cold would arrive eventually! When it comes to chickens, they really don't require as much as one might think to survive the cold chill of winter. You see, chickens are built to withstand some pretty harsh conditions and for all those worried about the cold, there's honestly more to worry about in the hotter months!  Hot weather versus cold weather: In the dog days of summer, when temps soar above ninety-degrees, especially for several days, chickens can easily get overheated. This is because their feathers are like insulation, they just absorb all of that heat. To combat the hotter weather, there are several things you can do to keep your flock cool and happy. First, offer lots of fresh drinking water. This is a must for any animal, at any time of year. Sometimes though, fresh

 There are so many things I love about Halloween but of all of those things there is one thing I have always dreaded: decorating for the holiday. I’ve tried sticking to themes or color schemes, but my Halloween décor always looked like a mash up of random items strewn about the house haha! Here were my top five reasons for not decorating for Halloween: 1. Our pets. I love our pets, all of them, but have you ever seen a cat carrying off a fake spider at three in the morning and almost died? Or had a gang of chickens roll your pumpkins off your porch (I assume to smash it) only to watch it roll through the yard, into the street and disappear into the woods? It’s hard decorating with pets for any holiday… 2. Lack of coordination. Do I mix fall décor with Halloween décor? Ghosts or zombies? Cute witches or evil witches? Spiders or bats? In past attempts, my house looked like Spirit Halloween had a penny sale and I just bought all the random unwanted décor and scattered it around like m

It's officially one week until Halloween and that means the glow of horror movies adorn our television nightly. It's true, I was raised on horror movies (thanks ma) many of which I to this day, won't allow my own kiddos to watch, but I have to give my enthusiasm for the genre respect - I get it from my momma. Whether it be cult classics or modern remakes, gore and lore or hauntings and witchcraft - they all have a special place in my spooky loving heart. Well, most of them... There are tons of horror movie lists out there but this one hopefully offers you some new suggestions of lesser known cult classics.  1. Dead End  (2003)- this is one of the newer ones on my list but rarely one I see on any horror movie list and that's a shame! Directed by Jean-Baptiste Andrea and starring Lin Shaye and Ray Wise, the movie follows a family as they head to a Christmas Eve gathering and like most family car rides, tensions between family members and a series of mishaps make this one

  Creating good habits when you’ve been practicing bad habits for such a long time is a real nail-biting predicament. Often, we end up replacing bad habits with other bad habits, turning our good intentions into a cycle of failed attempts to better ourselves. How can we break that vicious cycle and make some real progress to become the best version of ourselves? There is hope y’all! We’re not doomed to repeat the same mistakes for eternity, but we need to be willing to put in the work, plain and simple. Here are three easy steps to help you get started on your journey to breaking those habits that we know aren’t doing us any good… That old saying, “Put pen to paper, get the ball rolling,” is adherently true when you are planning an overhaul of your mindset. If you want to get something done, you must start at point A before point B. There’s a system in place and you only cheat yourself if you attempt to take the shortcut. DON’T CHEAT YOURSELF! Step 1. Write a list of your ba

  Saturday, August 21, 2021 I awoke to a text message from my mother-in-law, alerting that there was flash flooding in Houston County, roughly fifteen minutes down the road from us. She wanted to see how we were doing, because living in middle Tennessee, in the valleys and hollers, it could be raining on one side of the road and not the other. They had already endured a flash flooding event that changed their lives in 2013, making her extra vigilant during storms, understandably so. I told her we had honestly just woken up, it was Saturday morning and the one day I turn off all my alarms. The National Weather Service of Tennessee had issued a flash flood advisory for all Middle Tennessee the night before into Saturday evening. I proceeded to head out on our deck and check on our pond that has overflowed and flooded our yard several times during similar rain events. Sure enough, it was up, the chicken yard was a wading pool, and the sound of our sump pump kicking on and off repeated