My own 13 year old daughter has shown me how to make my own slideshow video with music today. :) Thanks Shelby.
Here are todays pictures of my chicks still in the house. I hope y'all enjoy this. If the song hitches a little, I don't know why. Hopefully it won't for you. If so, I apologize.
Wow, look at all the new Moods they added! Quite the choice now, very cool.
So its Friday, and we are on our last day of school. Shelby will have successfully completed the Seventh grade, with flying colors. :)
This is our third year of homeschool. Every year just seems to get better and better. I always give her the option of going back to public school the next year, but she continues to want to be homeschooled and I am very happy about that. She is able to continue to learn more than any public school could teach her this way. She is able to pursue her own interests and truly be herself without peer pressure. She is writing stories and making short intervals of movies to go with her story. She is still drawing up a storm. She loves music, has learned to sew this year and we even started on learning Spanish. I can't tell you how proud I am of her. She is just doing so well in school and in life. She has a great head on her shoulders. :)
I already have some fantastic books picked out for school next year. I am anxious to get them soon and look over them. I think homeschooling is good for me too as it keeps my brain working full time. Things that seemed boring back when I was in school are no longer boring. I do remember what made them boring though, the teachers were a big part of that problem. I try to make sure it stays interesting and peek her interest in things. That is why I am so excited about this particular type of book I am getting. It asks the questions to peek your interest and then tells you an in depth answer. We have the geography book in this series, and she has really done well with it. She has retained a lot from this type of teaching.
For all the good time we have doing school, and many accomplishments we have made...there is nothing like the release from school for three months! Ahhh yes, summertime freedom. As much as I love to teach her, it will be a nice break for me too. I have a lot of projects I need to get on over the summer. I want to paint her upstairs playroom, and my bathroom. I have the pigs new enclosure I want to get done and the fenced walkway from out the side porch door. The horse is eating away at the stairs slowly. They areactually rounded at the ends now. That is one habit I have not been able to break him of. He is a wood chewer. He chews on the sides of his house, on the fence gates. I have had to staple chicken wire over the gates so he wont chew on them. I will have to do the same with the barrier I am about to make to keep both him and chickens away from the stairs. (The chickens (cochins)like to hang out on the stairs and poop them up, and I just hate that). I am always modifying things so I can have the animals without them tearing everything up.
One example of this is we are going to have to get sand and some big rock gravel this weekend. It seems slowly but surely the chickens have dug out from around the edge of the bottom of the pool under the deck. You can get in and feel with your feet around the edges where it has sunk in. Not good, not good at all. So we have to fill that back in best we can with sand and put down gravel so they cant pick it back out with their little beaks.
These are all things I have chosen to live with I guess. I just have to modify the offending area, like the pool, and the stairs, to prevent damage.
The goats decided to start eating the siding on the back of the garage. I couldnt figure out what the heck was happening to it til I caught them doing it. So I had to staple some chicken wire over the offended area to make them stop. I will have to see about blocking that whole strip of siding from them this weekend. Hopefully they won't eat the whole garage before the weekend.
I want to stop a minute and thank everyone for the encouraging and kind words from my recent losses of chicks. I know people have a lot bigger problems than I do. Losing chicks is nothing compared to some of the hardships many are facing now. With gas prices and food prices soaring I am worried for the average person how they will survive. I know a lot of people that were already stretched thin, and now, how do you stretch thin thinner? Especially worried about a few in particular.
Well now I am just rambling aren't I? ;) I should go take some nice chick pictures to post before the day is out. I never end up getting online over the weekend since Ian is home. I give it over to him so he can have some weekend fun and relaxation. That isnt all he does of course. He will be working in the garden and cleaning the pool this weekend also.
Time for me to go for a while. I will post some pretty chick pictures shortly.
OH be sure and go by and see Carrie. Her eggs I sent to her in the mail are hatching. :) Congratulations Carrie, you are officially a mother hen. ;) She will have a video of one of the cochin eggs hatching out later today hopefully. That ought to be great to watch. Here is the link to her journal if you don't already have it and visit her. Carrie
Half of my hatch out in the grow pen. That is what is gone now. Yesterday afternoon I saw a white tuft in the front yard. Slowly regretting every step to what I would find, I walked to it. Sure enough..there lay the wings and various other parts dismembered from the second silkie baby. The only two I hatched from my newer silkies are now gone, dead.
Before finding this massacre I spotted a light colored tuft in the grass out back. This was another young serama I had raised. Dead. Fully intact, but with a neck wound.
I always try to look at the bright side of things. Thank goodness the two young sultans had not been taken.
I spent the better part of the evening before dark wiring a fifty foot roll of chicken wire around the bottom half of the grow out pen.
I am not so sure that the neighbors dog is the culprit.
There is something else that puzzles me to no end. When I find the bodies, not parts, but full bodies...they are on a fire ant hill. Why do you suppose this is? It wouldnt be strange for it to happen once, but this has happened three times now.
I think it is a cat, or a fox, well actually it could be anything. What is happening is this.
Whatever is coming, and it is during the day, because the babies are all in a covered corner at night and wouldnt be scared of whatever is trying to get them...is spooking the smaller ones to the point of them squeezing out of the wire. They are in such a panic, they are trying to get away, when actually they are going right into the jaws of whatever is after them.
That is why none of the bigger ones have been killed. They can't fit through the wire.
I want to continue to use the grow out pen. I have many more chicks in the house that will eventually need to go out there. I can't put them out there with this happening. So I hope putting the chicken wire around the bottom half of the pen will keep the chicks in and the predator from grabbing at them or scaring them out of the pen.
So, now I am down to three serama, two sultans and seven of my chicks I invented. Along with the ten polish and five americauna and the one buff.
It looks so empty in there. So empty.
My older sisters girls are just so grown up. Mine is not far behind I know. It will be no time and she will be grown. The graduation was at 9 am so we werent able to make it to that, but Patties mama had a nice party for her at her house afterwards, so we were able to go to that. I am very proud of this young lady.
On a side note, get this. Do you know how we used to throw our hats after everyone had graduated?
Well they cant do that anymore. Nope. Its not allowed. Want to know why? You ready for this?
Because it might come down and one of the corners on the hat could poke someones eye out.
Go ahead, laugh, laugh til it hurts. Isnt that absurd? I wonder, really, how many eyes have actually been POKED OUT by this age old tradition. I mean REALLY. So there is a short video at the end of this entry of her and her friends throwing their hats up...and get this...
NO ONES EYE GOT POKED OUT!!! LOLLLLL ;)
My oldest niece is 21. She has decided to make her first great step into the wide world of independence and get her own apartment.
Its scary, I know. I am not so old I dont remember. That risk you take can be overwhelming. You don't want to fail and have to go back home, no matter what, you HAVE to make it, to prove to you, and to everyone else that you are in fact an adult now and can survive on your own.
She has taken this one step further than most can financially these days. She has her own apartment, not with a room mate. She is totally enjoying this too.
I was worried for her. She is trying to finish up the last year of college. With things costing more than ever I know it has to be tough. She is making it though. She is a tough young woman and she is determined.
Seeing her in her own place...well it really makes you realize, she is grown up. I think it is harder for us as we get older and see the younger generation growing up before our eyes. I mean, gosh, it wasnt that long ago that we were in their shoes...right? I think back now and shoot, by the time I turned 21 I had been out on my own for over a year, and got married on my 21st birthday. So she is doing just fine.
When Daddy told her how proud he was of her for all she had accomplished, as well as Erin, my other sister...and Mama...and me, all of us, really impressed and telling her how proud we are of her she broke down in tears. She told us we just didnt know how much that meant to her.
But I do. We all need support and approval, especially when we are hanging out there by a thread. We all need that encouragement and support. She is going to by just fine.
Here are some pictures of her place, her and her fiancee', and my sweet pretty niece in her new apartment.
There is nothing like that first taste of independence is there? We all remember...it has such a sweet taste to it doesnt it? ;)
Somehow I managed to not take a picture of her cute kitchen! I will have to make sure I get a picture of that next time. They are such a cute couple, reminds me of Ian and I when we were first starting out. So sweet.
After the visit to see her new apartment we went to her sisters graduation party...that and pictures to follow in the next entry.
Before I get into the weekend goings on I thought I would just get this off my chest.
Massacre
Devastation
Trauma
Death
Dismemberment
Grizzly Carnage
Panic Stricken
Yes, these are all things I found early Saturday morning.
But let me start from the beginning. I was up early getting ready to head out to pick up Mama and Daddy. We were going to be going down to Columbus, Ga. to my youngest neices graduation party. Ian took the dog out when he got up. He came back in and told me I had two of my smaller young ones from the grow out pen loose over in the horses and cochins area.
Many of the chicks CAN fit through the wire fencing, but unless they are in a panic they dont do it. My first thought was WHY were they in a panic to be out. There is never a good answer for this question.
I went out and caught one Serama right away. The silkie chick was proving more difficult so I got Ian to help me out with that one.
When I went around and over to the grow out pen I saw what had happened. The wire had been pulled away and everyone was still inside, but there were many many less chickens in there. Remember that adorable picture I just took of my babies asking to be fed? That was everyone in the grow out pen.
It is hard to explain, I will have to take a pic of it to show how the pen closes up. I had one latch in the middle to keep it from pulling back. That was obviously not enough. The bottom was pulled back.
Now, I put the Serama back, Ian gets the silkie back in and I start to look around.
One Serama, dead in the pen. Looking out I see flecks of color in the grass. Mostly white. I go out to investigate. I have to go back and get a BUCKET to pick up all the pieces. This was for sport. This was a killing spree for fun. This was no predator. Nothing had been eaten. Only heads, legs, wings torn from their bodies. I shudder to think of their pain before they died. I was so upset as I picked up the pieces and placed them in the bucket.
Two of my wonderful sultan babies are dead. One of the silkie babies. Many of the serama, at least five. What can you do, its done now.
So it had to be a dog. Had to be a SMALL dog. Know why? NONE of the older chickens were dead. None of the Polish, none of the Americauna that were in that pen. NONE.
I cant prove it. But I KNOW it had to be that damn dog, that dog from behind us. The shoe stealing, kid biting dog. Remember? It has found a way to climb my fence. Had to. A wild predator does not kill for sport like that. When a wild predator kills, they EAT because it is a meal for them.
I am going to kill that dog if I find it in my yard. With my gun. Oh yes I am. And I am going to enjoy it. I am also going to enjoy throwing the body over the fence to rot until the neighbors decide to mow again and find the body in their yard. I am mad as hell, and I am not going to take it. Those sultan babies were my show prospects for February. Now I only have two instead of four. The serama were of the Class Bs, show quality. Now they are gone too. They don't care, they dont see. They are dumb hickerbillies that dont have any consideration for anyone else. Period.
I have one body missing. The silkie chick. I wonder if that stupid dog took it home to add to its collection of shoes. I wonder if the neighbors found the body and know where it came from.
Its secret recipe time too. Oh yes it is. One way or the other I am going to rid myself of this nuisance. I spent too much money on that fence to protect my animals to have some little crappy dog come over the fence and reak havoc in my yard at night.
Once the Emus are full grown, they will KILL anything that isnt supposed to be in the yard. I have already seen it happen. They ran that cat off. Trying to stomp it.
Why cant I just have some peace here? I can deal with the fact that I am going to have predators like fox and coyote. They are just trying to find a meal. But this, this was just a massacre for fun, that is all it was.
I am so mad and sad at the same time about this.
So I have gotten this off my chest...now on with the weekend.
Just a side note, it is legal here in my county to kill dogs on your property if they are caught harrassing or killing livestock. The owners of the dog cannot touch you. That is why I have to make sure it is on my land, and I will definitely document with pictures of the dog on the property.
Happy Memorial Day to everyone.
I hope it will be a day filled with family and friends and a good time.
This is the time to celebrate all who have given their time and their lives to our country to try and make it a better place to live.
A Happy Memorial Day to all.
May there be much BBQing and pool swimming in your day. :)
Remember this little baby? My FIRST baby cochin. This is Beasts baby. Today he/she is one month old. :) Here's that baby NOW.
See what you have to look forward to Carrie? ;)
Here you can see just about every animal I have...that ahem...is supposed to be free ranging this time of year. So what are they all doing up here with me? Someone please tell them they need to get out and eat the green grass and bugs! ;)
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Here are all my lovelies out in the grow pen..they are all getting so big. Can you tell its time to fill the feeder??? LOL
"Hey mom, mom, mom, Hey mom, how about that feed? Hey mom, mom, mom!"
I am so proud of my Sultan babies. When I got the original Sultans last Spring they went through this terrible ratty looking stage before filling out like these look. These babies never went through a ratty stage...they are like little versions of the adults. Excuse the Serama butting into the picture...lol.
Here sits my tomato plants...til I can get them planted, I hope this Sunday. Two of them already have blooms on them.
You can see we got two of those little kits too. The cactus is for Ian and the herbs are for me.
Below, a head shot of Boo...he is always close by.
They are growing increasingly friendly and curious. I had all three around me. One of the girls trying to pull out my hair clip, another pulling at my shirt sleeve...I turn to touch them back...and they hesitate and back up just a little, but if they want to touch me, I get to touch them too. ;)
An ad for Indiana Jones...the new movie...lol...nowhere to click though..maybe they are working on something...who knows.
Its just a full page display for the new movie right now with the opening date May 22
Anyone out there know what is going on this morning with Photobucket?
Everytime I try to open the site I get a black screen..and you see something to the left zipping past, then some cowboy figure with a bow and arrow appear on the right, then the figure fades and then it just sits there, with a black screen again.
I have some very disheartening news regarding the baby pigeon chick.
Yesterday I went out in the afternoon like I always do to feed and water. One of the first stops were the pigeons. I said "Hey Mama and Daddy...how is your baby?"
After sitting and watching for a few minutes she got up to eat, and there was no baby. :(
The other egg was still there, but no baby.
I looked and looked all around their pen. The bars are too close together for any of the chickens to poke their head in and take the baby.
The whole time I am like no no no...because I knew what had happened. I didnt have to see it happen to know.
There was a small space dug out on the side under the bars in the dirt.
The baby somehow must have gotten out of the nest and over towards this space that was dug out on an earlier occasion. My guess being the pigeons dropping seed and the chickens pulling it out from underneath the bars.
That is the bad thing about chickens. They can be very cannaballistic. Just as they eat those mice...I believe they ate the pigeon chick. They had to, it was just....gone.
I have blocked it up all the way around their pen now. No more chicken beaks digging around the outside of their pen. I know it is too late now, but I hope they will try again with success.
Mama was still sitting on the remaining egg. I candled it and it was not fertile, no baby in that one.
I am so sad that this happened. It was preventable and I totally blame myself. I should have thought about this.
It won't ever happen again, that I can promise. I will make sure of it. I am thinking of making them a whole new enclosure, yes, I think that would be wise.
We have video! It took half the day of retries...as I would be told time and time again that the upload failed, but here are two videos of the pigeons and the baby.
The first one is the mama feeding the baby. The second one is of Daddy taking over the sitting duties.
Something amazing has happened. Remember that pair of white fantail pigeons that I have? It was never resolved if they were male and female. Well...now we know. :)
The hen had been sitting on two eggs, which is the norm as far as how many they incubate at a time.
I went out yesterday to feed and water, and when I fed and watered them...the hen got up and low and behold there was a baby pigeon chick! The other egg has not hatched yet, but she is still sitting on it so we will see what happens with it.
Of course I had to panic and run in and get on the internet to see what I could do to assist the parents. Turns out I dont need to do a thing. In fact, it is difficult for humans to raise these chicks because during the first week of its life it has what is called 'crop milk" fed to it by both parents. After the first week they regurgitate softened food (I put chick starter in for them to soften, better than seed, and read seed does not digest well in the chick anyway) They both immediately started eating the chick starter so I am guessing thats what was needed for the baby.
So I dont need to do a thing. I just need to let the parents be parents. By the way, both parents assist in the sitting and caring for the baby. I think thats really cool. Also once a pigeon pair have paired, they are paired for life, so they are lifetime mates.
I am trying to upload a video of the hen feeding and then the male comes and pushes her from behind to take his turns sitting on the youngster so she can take her break. Uncut video is not cooperating with me today, so I am trying Youtube. We will see if I can get that footage on here today. Meanwhile, I do have a few pictures to share.
I dont know about you, but I have never seen a pigeon chick, so this was a first for me. :)
Mama feeding the baby below.
Okay, so I asked Ian if he would go to the shooting range with us. He didnt really seem too happy about me springing this on him spur of the moment. I said fine, I would go alone then, and Karen and Tiffany went along too. Shelby was not up for it. I think she is a little afraid of going to a place like that, she said she didnt want to get shot. I told her there were strick rules and it was a controlled place. She didnt budge on it. I relented and said fine, but she would regret this later, as we had a side adventure after the shooting range.
Of course I forgot my camera like a dufus. So I didnt get any pictures at the shooting range or our side adventure.
So we went to the firing range and I explained to the man behind the counter that I bought a gun but had never shot it before and was a bit apprehensive because I didnt know what it would sound like, how loud, and I wanted to see someone else shoot it so I could see how it kicked before I did it. I explained to him that my husband was supposed to come along to show me these things, but wasnt up for it today and I wanted to come out and check them out at least. I asked him if he would shoot my gun for me. He smiled and said of course he would. So I went and got my shells and gun out of the truck. We went outside the little building we were in and he shot up into the air twice really quick one behind the other.
There was more pop to it that blast. But it was still loud. I also saw it kick, and I dont care what anyone says, you can call me a sissy if you want, but I will be getting a shoulder pad before I shoot that gun, period. Eye and ear protection is required at the range too, so I will get that also. When I have my stuff I will go back and do it. Its going to scare the you know what out of me the first time, but I will do it.
After we went back inside he went over the basics of loading and unloading, which Ian had gone over with me when we got it, but it was good to go over it again. He said I just need to practice loading and unloading that shotgun. So that is what I will do.
Now onto our side adventure. The firing range is not too far from Mr. Tilleys place. You remember him, he is the goat man, and the one I bought the three emu babies from.
I called him up on his cell phone and asked him what he was up to and if he was home. He wasnt at home, he was in Alabama having lunch with some relatives. Turns out he has three baby goats in the barn he is bottle feeding and he hadnt fed them since 7 a.m. and they needed to be fed again about this time. He was going on about how they were probably pretty hungry and asked me if I wanted to go up and feed them. Well OF COURSE I DID! He told me where everything was, the bottles, milk and such and we headed over there.
Right after we finished up and I rinsed out the bottles and nipples and covered them up with cups on the top Joes wife pulls up at the barn. I knew she was probably wondering who in the world was up at their barn and what we were doing. I explained right away that I had talked to Joe and said I would come and feed the babies. She said she had tried to get in touch with him but he didnt answer his cell phone. She was going to ask him if she needed to feed them or not, and since she didnt talk to him she just figured she would head on up and feed. What if we had left there and she didnt know they had been fed? LOL...she would have fed them again. Not that they would have cared. All three of them acted like they could have drank ten bottles each.
So we got to talking and I asked her why these were having to be bottle fed. Turns out sometimes mothers will reject their babies for no good reason and not nurse them and you just have to do it yourself.
He told me he wasnt going to get into Pygmies anymore, but there stood a little one we fed, called Oreo. Cutest little thing you ever saw and sweet as sugar. His wife told us that he had a guy call him up and say he didnt know what to do with the little fella since his mom rejected him, so soft hearted for goats he took the little one. I tell you the truth, I wanted to take him home too! He was a sweetie. Bottle feeding is easy once they will take the bottle. They suck it down like its the best stuff ever. I told her to be sure and tell Joe anytime he needs me to do something like this to just give me a call, I love to do it, and I am not far from his house at all. She said he just may take me up on that. Fine by me...I would love to do it.
I just hate that I forgot my camera...would have made for some great photos, getting those babies fed. Maybe he will call on us again and Shelby and I can go out there and this time I wont forget my camera.
We got back from that and I threw three pork loin roasts on the grill to cook for a few hours. Used my new slicer and thin sliced it up when it was done and we had some fine BBQ sandwiches for supper.
Having had a full day we were all fast asleep on Saturday night at 10 o'clock! Getting up early the next morning I was well rested. I let the chickens out.
Oh yeah, side note here...we had a predator on Saturday morning sometime between 8 and 10 a.m. It got one of my columbian wyandotte hens and one red star hen. I am now down to just 8 out of 20 of my newest layers from last Spring. I dont know what it was, but I do know it was not a hawk. It ate A LOT from each hen. The red star was left in the back yard, but the wyandoote was drug to the front out in the middle of the front yard to be eaten on. Half the body and the neck and head were gone. It is unusual for possum, skunk, or raccoon to come out in the daylight hours and strike, so I am thinking a very hungry dog (usually dogs will kill for sport and maybe drag one off to eat, so I am not so sure about the dog theory) or a coyote or fox. The body was not dragged through the fence wire like it was so many times when I lost the eleven chickens during my last predator problem. It has been two days, and everything is all good here, I hope it wont come back, but I am not betting on it.
We loaded up the trucks on Sunday. It was just so windy Ian was not in a very good mood. The pool was full of trash again from the high winds. He says there is dirt, feathers and hay all in the pool. I guess that would be my fault. :( The winds were so high there was no way he was going to be able to plant..so once again he has had to put that off. I bet the winds were 40 mph or better Sunday. He wasnt happy at all about this development. I decided he should stay home and relax rather than spend his Sunday riding up and down the roadwith us and the furniture, so Shelby rode with me and we followed Karen and Tiffany back down to their new house. I had the camera...but didnt take any pictures because we were in such a hurry to get in and out of there. Shelby and I still had animals to tend before dark. Their house is perfect for the two of them, has some neat qualities about it and she got a good price for it too. Its the area that I am not fond of...it is not far at all from where I used to live in Forest Park. To each his own though. Anyway, she called her sister and her husband over to help unload the heavy sectional. They had it out in no time and Shelby and I took off for home right away.
Monday was one of those days where you just arent going to get anything done no matter how hard you try. School took longer than usual, laundry went unfinished, the house was not in order at all...but the animals did get tended as usual. I managed to cook a real supper last night so by the time Ian got home from work we were all ready to sit down to supper.
Today we have finished on time and the laundry is going and I feel pretty good. Going to be going soon now and getting my chores done and starting some supper.
Anyone going to watch American Idol tonight? Its the final week you know. Hey Lisa...its hard to say because you do and you dont want David Cook to win. If he wins he will be bound my a contract to do just what they want him to do, if he loses, he wins really, cause he will get a record deal, you know he will, and he will be able to do his own style music. Which I will buy when it comes out, oh yes I will. David A. is going to get the young peoples vote, David C. will get the older group of people I think, so it is anyones guess who will win tomorrow night.
YES...I am going out to take pictures today. ;) I need to take some updated pictures of my babies.
Thursday is usually our grocery day but the weather was making me a sleepy gal and I just wasnt up for it so I called Ian and told him just to stay that day and come home on time Friday. It was so warm and then the rain came there was a steam coming off the mountain in the distance. Here are a couple of pictures of what it looked like.
Thursday night Ian got the old couch out of the house and onto the front porch. He was joking that we are real redneck trash now that we have couches on the front porch.....lol!
I called Karen and we firmed up her coming to get the sectional over the weekend. We would put half in my older truck and half in her nieces truck she was borrowing to get the job done.
Friday morning I got up and went on to the store all by myself. I like to have Shelby and Ian with me, but I didnt want to wait til Friday afternoon when everyone was going to be there. I had to make it back by two o'clock as thats when the new sectional was being delivered.
I made it back with ten minutes to spare...but they didnt pull up til three. They explained to me later that another couple was looking at it in the showroom and they were waiting on them to finish looking at it so they could load it up. They would just have to order their OWN cause that one was MINE! ;) So here are a few pictures of them delivering it. I told them they need to get some of those arm strap things to save their backs. Do you know what I am talking about? Its one of those commercials, you know the kind. They look pretty useful though.
I did ask if they minded if I took pictures of them working, they didnt mind at all. I told them I kept an online journal and wanted to put them and the new furniture arrival on here.
Five minutes after they left I noticed something. I was freaking out because this is what I saw...
A scrape across the front of the cupholder section!!! It looked torn or something. I called the furniture store right away and they called the delivery men so they could turn around and come right back to see what was the matter.
As I waited for them to come back, I began to scrape at it. It began to come off...it was just paint. There was a scuff on one of the cupholders too...but I managed to scrape that off with my fingernail. I didnt scrape it all off because I wanted them to see what it was when they got there. When they got back they finished getting the paint off ( it must have scrubbed the doorsill when they were getting it in the door) and took a damp towel to get it off the cup holder. It looked just fine and new when the guy was done fooling with it. I sure was in a panic before though. We paid a lot of money for this and want it to be perfect.
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Saturday morning I called Karen early. We were going to try to make the Shanes Rib Shack party they were having that morning. The first hundred people through the door got free ribs and a T shirt that has your number on the back and on the front it said I am a Shaniac. Karen and Tiffany didnt make it until 10:30 and Shanes opened at 11..so we were late...it was packed, but we ordered some lunch and ate anyway. It was still yummmmy BBQ!
After we left we came back home and sat around for just a little while, let the kids go out and feed and play with the animals. Here are a few pictures of Shelby and Tiffany feeding the emus and Shelby got knocked off of that little bale of hay...as Eddie thought he should be king of the mountain...lol. He didnt butt her, he just kept getting closer and closer and she kept backing up til she fell off.
Look on one of the pics at that silly Tip dog running around like a ninny...he he...;)
After a while I decided we were going to go check out that shooting range not to far from here.
This entry is getting kind of long, so I will continue it on a seperate entry.
Wow has it been a week since I have made an entry? I guess it has. The days are so busy now. I want to make an entry about this and that, but time just gets away from me. We have two weeks left of homeschool and then I should have some time for myself. I have just been so busy with all the babies and all the animals in general.
I hope everyone had a great Mothers Day. We had a quiet one here at home. Saturday Ian and I went out to Lowes and got some tomato plants for me and he got a purple bell pepper plant.
I have been looking for a new sectional for the living room for some time now. I have discovered that the new style is the old 70s looking furniture along with the drab colors. You cant find anything with floral patterns. It is all paisley type designs or just solid colors, and I use the term colors loosely. You will find any shade of brown you can think of, or any drab green, no hunter green, just drab dulled out dirty looking old green, like a dirty sage.
There is an independent furniture store across from the Lowes. We decided just to drop in to see what they had. I never expected to actually find anything. There was a floral couch and love seat in the corner. I went to look at it, but it was stiff as a board, no give at all. I didnt really want two pieces anyway, I want a sectional.
The sectional we have now...we have had for about six years. I found it at a yard sale out in the middle of nowhere one day browsing around looking for houses before we found this one. The guy was cleaning out his garage. He had a dining room set, a bedroom set, and a sectional. I couldnt fit them all in the back of the truck, but we needed a couch, so I took the three piece behemoth...for a whopping twenty bucks. I think we have gotten our moneys worth out of it, and the cats got their claws worth on the front corners also, unfortunately. I will have to take a picture of it for posterity today before we haul it out the door.
We dont buy big stuff often. It has a scary effect on Ian, he almost gets nauseous and sweaty at the thought of spending a lot at once. When we bought that truck that about sent him overthe edge...lol.
So anyway, back to the new sectional. There was a very plush one at this furniture store. Very very comfortable. Very nice. I didnt even mind the color. It wasnt what I thought I would have settled on, but we both really loved it. It has four recliners in it, and it sits like a dream. This is probably the best and most expensive piece of furniture we have ever bought, or ever will buy.
I think now that we have NO cats, and no small child to bounce on it and spill things on it, it should last a long time. The lady at the store showed us something really neat too. She took a swatch of the fabric off the sample rack that the sectional is made from and poured her Taco Bell cup of coke on the fabric. It just beaded up and sat there on top of the material! It didnt soak in, and it just rolls right off. Amazing. We need that at our house.
So anyway, I found a picture of the sectional online...here it is.
The chicks are all doing well...I am done putting eggs in the incubator for this year...there are still probably fifteen or so eggs in there developing.
There is a very large storm coming this way...right now it is covering all of Mississippi and half of Alabama, so I have to get on outside and get the animals fed early. Once it starts I think its going to be here for a while pouring down it looks like.
The mower is also sitting in the middle of the front yard where I ran out of gas yesterday..and I really need to finish that half before the rain gets here, so I am going to go get some gas in the can too.
I modified the pool deck so there will be no more pooping on the deck. Will have to take some pictures. I know I have been slack in that area. I still want to get pictures of all the new babies hatched and update on all the ones out in the grow pen.
I have afeeling the rain is going to really limit my outdoor picture taking today. We will see. Right now I am going to get up and get moving before we get that rain thats heading this way.
I hope everyone is having a good Thursday. I will be back as soon as I can. Things have just been so busy every day here.
I leave you with this picture I found...on someone elses site, and I cant remember for the life of me where...or I would give credit to them. This just struck me as SO funny! The caption read
WHAT MICE? under the picture...
Here is the radar image for this morning...
Good Thursday to everyone. :)
Tuesday evening I decided I knew exactly where I wanted to go out to eat.
It seems like the only time we ever go to Red Lobster is when we are going with relatives, so we indulged, per my request. I didnt hold anything back, I ordered the Ultimate Feast! It has Lobster Tail, Shrimp Scampi, big fried shrimp, and snow crab legs, with two sides. I got salad and baked potato. I even had me a frozen marguirita...it sure was good. I went over the edge when I ordered the strawberry cheesecake for dessert.
After we all finished stuffing ourselves to the gills we decided to go over to Lowes and walk around a bit to try to knock off some of that fullness feeling. (We really must be getting old...lol...go out to eat, and then go to Lowes..whoo hoo...we party hard dont we??? LOL) I dont care, I like Lowes, I like being 40. I dont have to act 20, I can be 40 and enjoy it. Not that I ever acted 20. Not for a very long time anyway.
I got another can of barn paint for Derbys house. The one gallon was sucked up almost straight from the can by the wood siding. I got some more paint brushes too. I never buy the expensive brushes because I always seem to muck up the brushes so bad I cant use them for more than a couple of times, even if I rinse them. We also got some of those decorative post tops, but not just for decorative purposes. I have five stubborn chickens and four stubborn guineas that want to perch on the pool deck railing at night and poop up the deck (does that make it a poop deck?? LOL) Swab the poop deck mate! He he...anyway. I am tired of scraping and spraying off poop and these birds just wont conform to my wishes of going into one of the chicken houses. I have carried them for months, every night, and put them in the same house, over and over. The very next evening, they end up right back on that railing. So...we are going to install some anti chicken roosting parafanalia on the railings. They will have to move somewhere else if they arent going to cooperate. I dont want to step in poo or look at poo while I am going to and from my pool this summer.
So lets talk about what I have been doing lately. I got chicks of all different ages and sizes by now. I transferred the White Crested Polish and the Americaunas out to the growing pen a while back now. They are all doing very well. I do believe I need a much bigger waterer though. The water in that is gone in a days time now.
Yesterday I set up a pen within that grow out pen for the growing batch I hatched of my own. There are Sultans, Serama, Silkies, and my Polkies (this is what Shelby has named the half silver laced polish, half silkie) and the half Golden Phoenix, half silkie. I discovered as the chocolate looking mystery chickens got older that some carried the white laced look on their wings and breast, and some carried the golden phoenix look. ALL of them have twiggies on their heads though. They look like road runners or something! So now they are out there getting acquainted with the older bunch through the bars of their pen.
I cleaned out the big brooder box and put fresh shavings down in it, even though I wouldnt need it right this minute. I have two plastic bin brooders going right now. One has week old and older babies in it and the other has two and three day old babies in it. Lets see...I have two giant cochin babies, one silver laced polish, three serama, and teh black sultan in one, and in the other I have one mystery baby, one giant cochin, and my first golden phoenix baby of the season. Next out of the eggs I am expecting Sultans and a couple more cochins.
So now that I have everyone rearranged I have more room for the coming additions. I cant seem to stop putting eggs in the incubator. What is wrong with me? I have chick fever! LOL
No, really, I think I am going to call it quits here pretty soon. I have more than enough babies now. I bought those fifteen, and hatching out I dont know how many of my own...I will have to do a head count, I dont even know how many. I have had a really good hatching season this year. I had a couple of incidents of Sultans dying in the shell, but it was natures way I found out later. I had two that had crossed beaks. They couldnt peck their way out of the shell and even if they had been able to get out, they wouldnt have survived long not being able to eat and drink properly. I had about three that died in the shell from not absorbing the yolk sac properly as they came to full term. That is just something that happens, I have always had it happen to a few every year.
Carrie should be getting her eggs I sent to her very soon. I was able to send her one Golden Phoenix egg, two Serama, and six giant cochin eggs. The serama unfortunately decided to quit laying so I am going to send her a good batch to hatch later on when they go back to laying regularly.
I have been working on getting all my birds done up with the Frontline Spray. I hope to catch up and finish everyone and everything by this weekend.
I dont know if I mentioned it, but Ian has the garden tilled up now and so I am going to get myself some tomato plants for my Mothers Day present this weekend. I cant do without some of those homegrown delicious tomatoes. Last year I made some killer salsa and I want to make it again this year. I even made some pretty darn good spaghetti sauce too. Canning is pretty cool I must say. I hope we have as good a crop of pickling cucumbers as last year...we had SO SO many I could hardly keep up making all sorts of pickles. It was fun though and I am looking forward to doing it again this year.
Well I have rambled on long enough. Its time to get up and get going around here. I got plenty to do and it isnt doing itself, so I will see you folks later on. Hope your having a sunny and warm day. :)
Yes yes, I know, I should have pictures! I will get some and get them on here to match up with all my talk of moving the chicks here and there. I promise. :)
Here we go...here are the Polish and Americauna
