I am a 42 year old woman that is about as happy and content as one person can be. My husband of 21 years and our 15 year old daughter live on five and a half acres out in the country. We moved from the city four years ago and never looked back. I homeschool our daughter. We also love our animals. Our daughter has a miniature horse and two rabbits. We also have a border collie, two cats (again), two pot belly pigs, four peafowl, three emus, 2 llamas and an undetermined number of chickens, lets just say ohhh about 200. I have many breeds, from layers to fancy chickens. I love poultry shows, I love fowl in general as I have come to find out through having more than just chickens. Chickens will always be my first love though. I do show some of my birds occasionally.
Ian and I have decided we are going on vacation early. I won't be able to do the hatch because I won't be here to keep up with the water in the incubator, good eggs, bad eggs, babies hatching.
Hell they can't hatch worth a toot anyway, so I can just give them the eggs I have sitting here and tell them they will just have to try it again on their own.
If they don't like it, well, thats just too bad. I already called Ricardo...and when he calls me back I am going to tell him to just come get the incubator and the eggs and try on their own. That I just won't be able to do it.
I been thinkin'. Sometimes that can lead to trouble. Sometimes it is enlightening.
After I saw how Ricardo and his dad treated my own animals...I had to wonder just how well their chickens were treated.
They have already hatched thirteen (unlucky number?) from the eggs I gave them and they hatched out of their incubator.
I all of the sudden dont feel so comfortable hatching eggs for them. Those eggs turn in to beautiful little babies. That turn into living sentient beings that have feelings and feel pain and fear. But are also capable of feeling kindness and love.
I want to hear from y'all. What would you do if you were having second thoughts?
Another option to get out of it would be to say the power went out and stayed off too long and the eggs had to be tossed...but then what if they ask me to try again. I wish I had never agreed to do this. I have got to start thinking before I say yes to stuff.
Ever have one of those days...where you just lose your momentum because AOL is just treating you like a red headed step child? That would be me today.
I will just try again later.Was trying to jazz up my sidebar...but can't seem to finish without some sort of interruption..nothing wants to work right for me today..so I am off to clean house and do other things.
No big deal, best to just walk away from it for the day before I throw the whole computer out the window! ;)
We have to watch Tips playtime...she obsesses and will run around that pool until she tears the pads right off her feet..she has done it twice before. She managed to tear two out of four this time. She was gimpy for a couple of days but is recovering. The first time it happened, we didnt know it would happen. Afterwards I had to keep antibiotic ointment on her feet, wrap her feet in gauze and I would strap baby socks on her feet for cushioning! She hated it and would always try to pull the socks off, but it worked til she could stand without it hurting so much. That is a border collie for you, they never never ever stop, they just keep on no matter what.
If Mama could have a rooster, I think that rooster would be Hank. She has loved him from the very start when I brought him to their house straight from the feed store in Jonesboro. I have told Hanks story before. His owner was going off to college and couldnt care for him anymore. I just happened to be in town and went by my old feed store to visit and they gave him to me knowing he was going to a good home. Hank is a special rooster. A lot of people think he is mean, he does look like he could hurt you, but he is really very sweet.
I picked him up out of the yard and brought him up so Mama could see him. He immediately was cooing and talking softly back to Mama as she was talking to him. He really is a sweet boy.
Daddy took these pictures while they were here over the weekend and I did a little of this and that to them, just fooling around on photobucket.
I guess my posts are just going to be erratic...here and there for the summer. My older self does not move as fast as I used to. As much as I enjoy my chickens and other animals, and being a stay at home mom and wife, work does come with it, and I seem to be moving at a snails pace now that the heat and humidity have settled in here in NW Georgia. So please excuse me if I am not here for several days on end...if you look through the monitor and out the window I bet you will see me doing something outside in the morning time before it becomes a blistering inferno out there, or if it is afternoon I may be folding clothes or maybe you may even catch me taking a nap.
I remember when I was a kid. Naps?? Oh no, I didnt need NAPS! I think Mama needed them more than I did, as in, a break from me. I would lay there for a full hour, eyes wide open, determined not to fall asleep. You could almost guarantee a nap out of me if you drew the blinds and turned on the cool humming a/c window unit. I sure did fight it though. Now, at any given time of the day, if you told me I had time for a nap, I would gladly take you up on it. Sometimes I may even nap even if I don't really have time. I love naps now.
So, the Fourth of July was a smashing success here at my household. First to arrive were Mama and Daddy..well I take that back. Technically Karen and Tiffany were, but they came a day early to try and help out where they could. I really had most everything done, but Karen is a blessing I tell ya what. She always has those dishes in and out of the dishwasher...she keeps things in the kitchen picked up and wiped down. She can be seen gathering plastic cups and napkins and forks for trash. By Saturday I was SO glad to have her here and let her know it.
Mama and Daddy got here, Mama brought a really pretty yummy fruit tray. This was great for everyone to snack on til the meat was ready. I wanted to get the grilling done that morning, but as it turns out I was late with that. It all turned out though as most everyone else didnt get there til the afternoon. Our friends, Adrian, Teddy, their sons, Ben, and Matthew, and Teddys daughter Jeanna came. Breanna, Adrians neice came also. My younger sister and her boyfriend were supposed to come,but couldnt make it because her boyfriends oldest daughter is a handful, and thats putting it mildly. A whole other story entirely. Jay, Ians friend came. John, another friend of Ians, and his girlfriend and her teenage son came for a little while. The pool was in constant use needless to say.
I cooked hot dogs, bratwurst, hamburgers, BBQ chicken, potato salad, baked beans. Teddy brought a cake, some spinach dip and pumpernickel bread. Oh she also brought some of those little smokies in a bbq sauce. We had chips, cokes, ('coke' is southern for any softdrink by the way! ) sweet tea and pink lemonade. Icecream. No one went without.
As the evening was winding down and it was getting dark we shot off the parachute fireworks and let the kids run after them through the dry brown crunchy ouchy grass...lol. I bought two of something called sky spiders...they were pretty cool. Crepe paper ribboned out to blow out and look like a floating spider leggy thing...two in each tube.
As it got dark I rolled my trolly buggy thing around and we loaded it up. There was a chance of rain and I wanted to have the fireworks on something to quickly roll it into the garage if need be. It did sprinkle once, but other than that we had a fantastic fireworks display. One we bought last year...caught fire and burned for a good ten minutes. Guess we wont buy that one again. A shame, the first one two years ago was great. All the others were just fantastic. No, I am a slacker and I didnt take any video or pictures. I know, shame on me. I was just too pooped to care by Friday night and just sat there with a Smirnoff cooler in hand and let Ian do the work while I enjoyed the show. It was time for me to reep my rewards of the day and relax for a change.
After the fireworks were over everyone started packing up and hitting the road. Mama and Daddy spent the night and so did Karen and Tiffany, I am just so glad that we have the space to have overnight company and have get togethers like this now.
Saturday morning I got up and we had a nice breakfast of bacon, cinnamon and brown sugar toast with honey, eggs (yes MY girls eggs) and grits with real butter.
Karen was kind enough to clean up after breakfast. I used to fight her on it and tell her she didnt have to do that, but now I just let her do it because I really was still tired from the day before.
By the afternoon everyone had gone home and I was left with a quiet afternoon to sit back and relax. I did just that. I watched some tv and fell out asleep on the couch for about and hour. I woke up long enough to find the current book I am reading and retired to the couch in the bedroom to read for a while. We had some leftovers for supper, and we are still having leftovers tonight! Thats okay, saves me from having to cook.
Sunday was very quiet and peaceful. We didnt do much of anything at all. Just more relaxing and resting. I find as you get older it takes longer to get back on track after a big event.
Monday was back to the work week. Ian working, me catching up on laundry and housework.
I got a call from Ricardo. He is the mexican teenager that comes over with his Dad and his Mom cooked those wonderful tamales for us. They only got 13 chicks out of a full incubator of eggs I gave them. I am not sure they did things correctly as they had three strong enough to hatch out of the shell, but died soon after. I have never had that happen. They had many that died in the shell before term. Some I think were not fertile, but that is a chance you take. Apparently Hank was a busy guy because he asked why a lot of their chicks have fluffy faces...lol. I told them Hank was the main man out there and he probably has passed on his Americauna cheeks to some of the chicks, even though they are mixed, they are half Hank.
Back to the incubator. Ricardos dad wants me to use their incubator and hatch a full incubator of eggs for them. He said he would pay me. I agreed to do this. He thinks there may be something wrong with the incubator. I am thinking more along the lines of it had something to do with the operator. But, that is neither here nor there. I will hatch for them and keep the babies a week to make sure they get on their feet again.
On another note. Once again I find myself wanting to vent about people and the way they regard animal life. The first time it happened, I let it slide, sort of. The second time...I tried to make my feelings known by being a bit firmer. THIS time, I just came out and had to go all out on them. What am I talking about you ask. Ricardo, and his dad. They had never seen or heard of Emus before. My animals are all brought up from babies for a reason. I want them to trust humans and be gentle. A full grown emu can rip your leg wide open with those nails on their toes. They can break a leg with their kick. Ganged up on, full grown emus could very well kill a person. Remember, the kitten? All three emus were ganged up. If I hadnt been there, that kitten would have been dead. Right now, the emus are still small compared to what they will be later. Anyway, Ricardos dad started raising up his arms and legs stork like, advancing on one of the emus. They dont like this posture. Boo flared up at him and stood tall. Ricardos dad was surprised and tried to grab him by the neck in defense. I think after seeing what I saw today, he thinks he needs to discipline animals...well, NOT MY ANIMALS. If he had not been screwing around like that they wouldnt have gone on the defensive. You cant blame an animal for thinking it needs to defend itself from offensive posture! Normally my emus are very gently and docile, but he provoked Boo.
So that is the first time. Ricardo SEEMED a bit embarrassed and said "Oh my dad, he likes to mess with animals". I told him that he should tell his dad that when these emus get big and he tries that he may get hurt pretty bad and he should not provoke them.
The second time his dad had stopped by to see if I had any eggs for him to take home to add to their incubator from his hen that is in with my Black Sumatra Rooster, Johnny. There was one in the pen so we went around to get it out to add to what I had been saving for him.
I have a little net for grabbing eggs. I also have a catch net, a bigger net for catching chickens if need be. The larger one was laying on top of one of the pens. As I was getting the egg out with the little net I stood up and turned to see him with the bigger net OVER one of my emus head and all the way down the neck. Of course the emu just stood there because they are tame and it didnt seem to disturb him. Remember Ricardos dad doesnt speak any English. I know he has to know what NO mean. So I said No, and shook my head and said DONT DO THAT PLEASE.
This morning Ricardo and his dad came by. They had a friend of his dads with them and asked if they could show him all of my animals. I said sure and we went on back after I put the incubator in the porch. We made the rounds. As we came by the pigs pen Ricardo decided to lunge at the pigs with his arms and hands over the pigs pen. This scared the pigs. They arent used to this behavior. We are quiet people and respect the animals. I told him PLEASE DONT DO THAT. I said these are not your animals to do with as you please. PLEASE respect my animals. RESPECT ME, by respecting my animals and dont tease and taunt them.
Okay okay, sorry sorry, he says.
We get around to the other side and of course the goats are following us around everywhere, because goats are really not that different from dogs. They want to know if you have something to eat, and they want attention. As they have gotten older they dont like you to touch their horns, much less pull on them. I respect that and I dont touch them. With that said, we are all standing there and Eddie decides he needs to pee. Sometimes they will stick their dingy out of the hole, extend it and pee and sniff their pee at the same time. Yes, I know that is gross, but its a goat thing. As he was doing this, the pee accidently shot out over Ricardos sandled foot. OOPS. I apologized and asked if he wanted to go rinse his foot, he said no, he would just wipe it off. Then his dad inquired as to what just happened. Thats when things got ugly.
When Ricardo explained...I guess his dad took it as the poor animal did this on purpose and was going to teach Eddie a lesson right there. HEY HEY HEY! I said as he grabbed Eddie by the horns and tried to drag him by the body and horns to him. I dont know WHAT he planned on doing, but it wasnt going to happen in my yard. If you dont like my goat peeing on your son, then dont come back here!!!! I was going to have to step in, I told Ricardo to make his dad STOP that RIGHT NOW and to explain to him that the goat didnt MEAN to do that.
I was just glad to see them leave. I was hindered in my chores outside by all this anyway and it was getting hotter and hotter by the minute. I had to finish cleaning and filling the waterers. That was going to be important because today is supposed to be brutally hot.
So I guess that is about it. I know this was rather long and I hope it wasnt too boring. I will try to keep up better, but I won't make any promises as the summertime does keep me busy.
Do you know out of the pictures I did manage to take...I somehow didnt get one shot of Karen in any of them? I will have to make sure I spread out more when taking pictures.
How time is fun when your having flies...oh I mean how time flies when your having fun. ;)
The summer days outside have me daydreaming and sitting with my animals a lot. It hasnt been so hot lately, in the 80s.
I will be feeding and watering a pen and end up sitting there watching them for the longest time...then I will move on to the next pen. Everyone is so happy when its warm and sunny and I like to watch them being happy, it makes me happy.
Monday and Tuesday Ian was off from work so I wasnt on the computer. Monday evening we went to Alabama to FireworksCity where we have been going for over twenty years now to get our fireworks for July 4th. We got more than we have ever gotten. They dont just have those little carry baskets now..they have BUGGIES. So I got one...and filled it up. I didnt really mean to get as much as I did, but Ian said it was okay that it would be fun. Ian unloaded all of the fireworks out of the bags and onto the table, and here is what it looked like. Took that second picture so you could see there was stuff BEHIND the stuff in the first picture.
Now don't go worrying that we are going to blow our hands off...we are after all adults and we are careful. Ian is the one that does the lighting anyway. We do it on the driveway down some away from the house. Our driveway is so long it is a good place to do it and everyone just sits up towards the house and watches the show.
Look what I found at Walmart. I had to have it. I mean, it WAS on clearance. Originally 30 dollars it was on sale for 15. If you tried to buy something like this at Tractor Supply the thing would be at least 40 dollars. I set it by the front door.
Mocha is doing better. I don't think she was weaned long at all...if at all. It took her two days to finally eat canned food. I supplemented it with milk because she had to be hungry. She is eating more can food now.
She had a place on the side of her face that got infected even though I put antibiotic ointment on it. Anyone that has had cats knows cat wounds are always so nasty for some reason. It had pus in it and I am treating that now. She doesnt seem to even notice. She is using her foot and leg more, but still not completely. She really is a sweet cat. She loves all the attention anyone will give her. She has the longest meow...so long I was able to get a picture of her with her mouth wide open...
Friday is right around the corner and it is time to celebrate our Independence. The way things are going, I have to say, I don't feel as independent as I used to. The government is going to protect us from everything. There is NAIS, that is mandantory tagging of all livestock, or you will be fined out the wazoo. Doesnt matter if you have one chicken or a hundred. Then they can come in and take your land if they think it can be better used for something else. Thats scary. We pay and pay and pay in so many different ways..but I dont think we are getting our moneys worth.
ANYWAY....I wont keep on about that. Doesnt really matter anyway cause we are all going to be sucked into a black hole come August anyway. For those that havent heard there are some scientists that are about to turn on a machine they invented to find dark matter in space. There is a small chance that things could go wrong. We will never know it if it does happen. We will just be gone. Read about it here..http://www.straight.com/article-145556/end-world
I dont want to know something so badly that it may kill us all and end our existance, but hey, I am just a nobody and don't have a say in that decision.
We are going to be having plenty of company come Friday so I better get going and get the house looking nice. I have to have everything looking good when we have company. They might not even notice, but I feel better about it. ;)
Carrie, I don't know if I ever showed you this, but this is what I do with my feathers from all my chickens when they fall out and I find one that still looks good. I add them to this...
It has a styrofoam block in the basket and I just keep adding them in..
I intend on being pretty busy from the time I get up from this chair until after the weekend...so I want to wish you all a Happy Fourth of July and will be back Monday. See y'all then! :)
