Out of the deep freeze

The weather has been crazy here!  We have had trouble with animal water systems freezing up and I have been sick so I have just cuddled up and rested.  Now I am feeling better and I have about a weeks worth of work to catch up on.

Made frog legs for the family tonight.  Shane didn't want to try.  Finally he did and said it wasn't too bad and even ate 2 sets of legs.  Sky liked them, but come on way shorter list to name the foods he won't eat!  Brady ate his, said they tasted more like fish. 

I have to share what happened this morning.  I woke up, saw that my alarm was about to go off so started to get up.  just as my feet hit the floor I heard something...I hurried downstairs to the kitchen and listened...there it is again!  I peek out the window and although pretty much black outside I see a small shadow at the corner of the chicken coop...there it is again!! I can't help but smile and feel happy.  Little Roo has found his voice.  He has a wonderful welcoming of the morning crow that just screams farm life!  Ok, he then crowed about 100 times during the time I was getting the boys breakfast ready but I am still happy.

Luckily our neighbor likes to hear the sound of the crowing in the morning too!

Massacre at Triple Z

I picked up my beautiful Quail yesterday.  7 hour round trip in gas and the cost of the birds.  I was so excited.  I had them in my office until I could get them outside once this cold snap was over.  Everything was going fine until I left to take the boys to school.  After dropping them off I went to get some stuff to make me feel better, I feel like crap!  And after getting a bunch of fresh fruits and veggis I get a call from Shane.  Romeo went into my office and killed all 8 of my new Quail. 

Shane is pissed to say the least.  I can not believe this!  I kept finding Romeo in my office sleeping all night and I would pull him out and close the door but some how he was able to open the door.  Shane found the carnage all over the place when he woke up this morning.  I guess it was a dumb idea.  I won't get anymore and Romeo's future is questionable at this point. 

Now I have to start cleaning up all the feathers all over my office.  I just feel HORRIBLE!

By the way while trying to catch the turkeys one of the hens got away.  so I only came home with 1 tom and 1 hen.  They are doing fine this morning though.

Typical Tuesday on the farm...

So my day started off normal, up just before 6, get the boys up, dressed, fed and to school.  We had to be at school early because Sky is working patrol this week.  I ran to Staples to ship back Brady's DS that is still not working then to the Toyota dealer for an oil change...normal everyday things.

Then...

Stopped at the feed store and got a bale of straw to put down in the chicken run to try and keep the girls from getting too muddy.  Once I got home with the help of all 20 girls we spread the straw around...Little Roo supervised the work but didn't help out much.  Noticed something had broken the plastic roof  panel of the chicken coop so Shane ran to town for a new piece of metal roofing while I started cleaning rabbit hutches.  Tomorrow I am adding Quail to the farm so I had to clean the end rabbit hutch out for them to make their home in.  When Shane got back we fixed the roof and installed a light in the chicken coop. Since there is no longer a clear plastic panel the girls are not getting any light in the coop so this will make it better for them.  We are setting it up on a timer so they will still have nice dark nights for sleeping. 

Next I pulled a tarp over part of the chicken coop in hopes that when it rains again there will be a dry area.  With the broken roof panel the inside of the coop got wet so I shoveled out all the wet bedding and replaced it with nice fresh clean and dry wood shavings.  Freshened up the nesting boxes and the turkey coop, since we are due to get 3 new turkeys tomorrow, filled all food and water dishes...found a broken nozzle on the rabbits water system, didn't have a new nozzle handy but luckily Vic happened by and found me a twig just the right size to plug the opening.  This is the reason for the muddy mess around the rabbit hutches so with the leak temporarily fixed I shoveled the muddy poo away from the front of the hutches so the boys can't complain when they go out to do their chores.

Now I have to figure out dinner, shower, get dressed, get the boys to swim classes then I have my PTO meeting.  Once home take care of homework, dishes, make sure everyone has clean cloths for tomorrow and off to bed.

That is my Tuesday.

Live and learn...

So we just got back from Spokane last night.  Had a nice time with the family but I was so happy when I turned off the highway onto our driveway.  I saw the porch light flicker through the trees and I swear my heart skipped a beat.  All the girls were already in bed so I waited tell this morning to go see them.  All are happy and healthy although it rained all day today and they were all inside to stay dry.

So what did I learn?  I learned that life is always changing.  I know that Nick is now grown and has his own family and I will never be as close to him now as I once was.  I miss him so much and yet I love it here and don't want to go back to Spokane.  I wish my family would just move here.  Then I could have it all.  Reality is though the last few years I lived in Spokane I hardly saw Nick or Pam.  Mostly just communicated by email with both. 

I guess me living far away won't make me feel sad that they don't have time in their lives for me anymore.  After all I am the one who left so I can't feel that I was the one being rejected anymore. 

My mom told me on Friday that she just wants to live 2 more years.  That way she will have her 50th wedding anniversary.  Then she is ready to go.  I get so sad even thinking about that.  She may be ready to go but I am not ready for her to go.  I have a fear that when she is gone then Pam and I will not see each other again.  When I lose my mom I will lose everything. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  Sky kept asking people what they were most thankful for...I guess I am most thankful for all the memories from when I was younger and had my whole family around me.  At the time I hated all those family Thanksgiving dinners with all the aunts, uncles and cousins but now, I do miss them.

Please just leave us alone...

This is a message for Brian.  I am assuming since you are keeping tabs on our other web activity that you are also reading this blog.  Please just leave us alone.  You were like family to Shane and we did everything we could to try and help you over the years.  Please just leave us alone now.

You need help.  We are not your enemy.  We just want to have our quiet life and for it to not include you or your family.  Ron was a wonderful man and I am only glad that he isn't here to see how low you have sunk.  I am so sorry that it had to come to this.  I don't want to have to keep calling the authorities because of your violations of the no contact order. 

I have no ill will towards you Brian, but, you do need to leave us alone.  I hope you can pull your life together.  Maybe go back to school?  You need to take responsibility for your actions and stop blaming everyone else.  Time to be a man Brian.  Time to re-build your life, if not for you then for your daughter.  Give her the opportunity to be proud of you when she grows up.

I wish you the best.

Lisa

Ahh so cute...

Look look look!  I got a rutabaga out of my garden!  Ok, it is small but I planted them kinda late, hoping to get a fall harvest, obviously that isn't going to work around here.  I will just plant them in the spring and should get lots of big beauties!!!!

We dipped below freezing last night so first thing in the AM I am going out to check and see if I can salvage any more beets for pickling.  I have been leaving them in the ground until I needed them, the carrots and potatoes but now I guess I need to clean them out.

I let the girls out of the chicken run yesterday and let them wander around the yard for a while.  They kept close to home except the turkey girls, they ran around and I had to keep herding them back together.  Today when I got back from town the turkeys went crazy chasing each other and making all kinds of noise, when I stopped and looked at them all 3 ran to the door, I think they wanted to get out again.  Unfortunately I was too busy today to play with them, maybe tomorrow.

I have been trying to take some good pics of my turkeys but they are camera shy and never stand still long enough, this is a bit blurry but this is Christmas and you can see New Years in the background.  I am really hoping to add at least a Tom soon and would like to maybe get a couple other Jennys once we get the turkeys their own home.  Thanksgiving is not nice to Fuzzy (one of my white chickens with feathers on her feet) so I want to give them some space. 

I know what you are thinking...Christmas IS the most beautiful turkey EVER!  When the other turkeys are not around she still lets me pick her up and give her lots of hugs and kisses, but if another turkey comes by then her head turns all red and she will start to protest...Same thing happed if I kiss or hug Sky at school!

Well, that's about all for now, I have a huge todo list so I better get working...

Catch up

Ok, I am only almost a month late...

Sky didn't like the wig and beard but still wanted to be a wizard

Our little Willy Robertson.  Don't worry the BB gun stayed home.  By the way, B added a 2nd BB gun and his own 22 rifle to his collection for his birthday.  He has also added this fancy scope to this BB gun and is becoming quite a good shot and loves getting to practice with various weapons at our neighbors range.  He even joined Shane and Vic on a hunting trip.

Another Halloween in the books!  I can't wait tell they outgrow trick or treating!
 

what is wrong with me?

So I am sitting in my office.  Boxes stacked around, I have not put anything away yet.  One problem I have is most of my free time is at night and I have no lights in this room.  I have one desk lamp but not really enough to do much.  I spend all my days in the kitchen or doing laundry or re-cleaning the living room and bathroom.  Just one day I would like to not have to do the entire list from the day before again.  Ya know the saying, 2 steps forward and 1 step back?  Well my life is 1 step forward and 2 steps back!  I can't get excited to do anything.  Right now I just want to crawl into bed and pull the covers over my head.

This office still smells like...I don't know what.  But it smells funky.  I need to make this my space still.  The boys have half days all week because of parent teacher conferences.  I should start each day with AT LEAST 1 hour a day this week organizing my office.  Once this room is done then I will re-organize the pantry and clean the freezers out.  If I focus on the little things I can do maybe I won't feel so overwhelmed.  easy to say, hard to do.

My girls are molting.  They look so sad!  big balding areas and just an overall shabby look.  And we are not getting many eggs.  Some days we get 4 but normally we get 1 or 2 a day.  The idea of adding more chickens next year has to happen.  Still waiting to find out if the turkeys are girls or boys.  None of them have given us any eggs and none of them have gobbled yet.  We are pretty sure they are all the same sex just not sure what sex that is yet.

Oh gross, apparently the funky smell is Romeo, he has gas!  What in the heck did that dog eat?!?

Chickens and pumpkins

So I was roasting my pumpkin seeds and started thinking about those big jack o lanterns on the front porch.  I hate to waste them every year and I have read that it is a real no no to make pie out of them so I thought...CHICKENS!  my girls so loved their water melon this summer so I did a little digging and not only do chickens love pumpkins but it acts as a natural dewormer for them!  Hot damn!  So now I am going to try and convince the boys to let me toss their works of art into the chicken run for the girls to enjoy. 

Here is my before:  Brady's on the left and Sky's on the right.  We actually have a 3rd one that was part of Brady's science class this week.  Oh and I got 1 tiny sugar pumpkin from my garden, I have steamed it and I am hoping to have enough to make a pie.  If it turns out good then next year I am going to attempt sugar pumpkins again in hopes of a good crop of pie for my boys.

I have to find the time to can pickled beets!  I have left them in the ground but time is running out and I need to get started.  Sky LOVES them! 

My life is so strange these days, wouldn't trade it for the world!

Vacation please...

I think back to those quiet wonderful days before the boys started school.  When the universe was what I told the boys it was and there was no one eles' opinion to contradict what I wanted to happen...at the time I thought life was crazy having 2 little boys but, boy how wrong I was, how very very wrong!

For the last 3 weeks my life has been on hold so I could deal with the candy sale at both boys schools.  It has been long days driving from school to school and long nights adding money and keeping track of candy bars.  I am just about done though.  Prizes have been given out for each case sold and I am only waiting on the top prizes for the top sellers to come in from the company.  Oh sure there is a little money and unsold candy trickling in from parents who couldn't get their crap together enough to follow directions but for the most part I am retired from the candy bar business!

Now the boys have decided they want to give Cub scouts a try...I even offered to pay each of them to NOT join.  We haggled and made offers, then counter offers were made and in the end when Shane didn't have the cold hard cash to put in their hands they joined.  I could not be more upset at this point.  So now I will spend my Monday evenings at meetings for a group that I in NO WAY feel I can stand behind. 

Did I mention we still have Tuesdays and Thursdays taken up with swim lessons? 

I have started to take my life back though!  I am typing this from my new office.  Ok, most everything is still in boxes from being moved from the corner of the kitchen but soon this room will be my own oasis...I have moved my beautiful red couch in here so every time I open the door I see my beautiful couch exactly as it should be with the cushions all in place.  I will have a large book case against the wall with all my anatomical models and lots of candles so I can have a corner of the world that smells wonderful...not like a cross between boy and dog and god knows what.  The day I get the room totally settled I plan to stretch out on my couch and take a nap!  which is another thing I have been wanting to do for a long time!!!

Shane's new office my be a lot bigger and fancier but my new office is a dream come true for me.

My son's first kill...

So I am watching a beautiful buck walk around my back yard down by the barn when Brady comes out and sees him and takes off running to Vic's.  2 minutes later my world was rocked by the sound of a gun, the majestic deer ran into our barn followed by Vic and Brady and a 2nd shot.  All was quiet except my sobs.  I love watching the deer, it is one of my favorite activities over the last few years and I was heart broken to witness his death. 

Once I composed myself I went over and watched Vic and Brady gut, skin and quarter the carcass for aging.  Shane helped also but Brady was more than happy to be hands on.

A very proud hunter.

I was amazed how quickly the carcass was dealt with, but Vic can probably handle a deer in his sleep so thank heavens for all the help we get from him.

We were hoping to be able to put a deer in the freezer this year and Brady is proud to take the assist in bagging the deer this year.  He has high hopes of passing the gun safety class next year.  We will probably not be able to stop him from wanting to hunt every year from now on.

As it is Brady loves spending his free time shooting guns and has started to mess around with my bow and arrow (he is an awesome shot and will be better than I am before long!) 

On a mission

Vic brought us a pie today that his wife made.  The boys announced with great joy that it was the best pie EVER and way better than my pies...REALLY!  So I am on a mission to find a new and even better apple pie recipe!  I have to get out and get the apples picked off the trees...Brady said it is because the apples on their tree are better than the apples on our tree...can you believe them?

The truth...

Shane's aunt June passed away.  I am not sure how I should feel about this though for a few reasons. 

1. Jane (Shane's mom) and June (her twin sister) were polar opposites of each other and did not get along at all. 

2. I never met the woman in person only talked to her on the phone...she tried to help me "find the truth", she is a Jehovah's Witness. 

3. If someone is extremely religious as June appeared to be (at least from my experience with her), isn't returning to heaven the whole goal of things?  She lived a fairly long life, not sure the exact age she was but Shane's mom was like 50 when she passed away when Shane was 18.

I told Shane I would send flowers but I think that is a no-no in the Jehovah's Witness circle.  I do not claim to understand that religion at all but I remember when my friend John was killed in a car accident I looked into it because I had known his mom and wanted to do something.  I ended up getting a plant and taking it to her.  I explained that I understood that flowers were not appropriate for their beliefs but she was gracious and accepted the plant and gave me a big hug.  John was only a kid though.  It was a sad tragedy of drunk driving.  For this situation I think it is best to follow the religious beliefs...right?

Not to say that her passing isn't a loss, don't get me wrong there, I am sure her family is sad to lose her but for June herself...crap, I don't know.  I spend half my life trying not to offend others and be as politically correct as I can be.  I wonder if there is a book out there "appropriate responses to death".  Each chapter could cover the main religions with subsections for any different subcultures included. 

When I die, it may sound horrible but, I hope at least one person cries and feels sad that I will no longer be in their life.  I am sure Shane will have a party and most people will be singing along with him and my boys "ding dong the witch is dead"...

Making changes

Ok, some changes are happening around here!  Now that the kits are ready to butcher the boys are making demands and trying to bargain for that call from the Governor.  So in an attempt to continue our farm plan I have put an ad on Craigslist to find homes for Rosey, Buck and Sozo and all their babies.  We are going to only keep the all white new Zealand.  The boys get attached to the unique colored ones.  Nothing I do seams to help the situation.  I talked to them before starting this and they were on board!  I have enough to do to not have to fight them at butcher time.

Sky wants us to keep raising multi colored and sell them then go buy meat at the butchers...unfortunately that will cost us money.  Keeping my fingers crossed that I can find someone who wants to give these a nice home and maybe when all we have are white rabbits the boys will not get attached.  They have not gotten attached to the white ones at all.  We call them the triplets and they really don't have individual names.  What ever has not found a new home in the next week or so is going to be butchered.  It costs a fortune to keep all these rabbits (22 currently) and all the kits are getting so big we would need to quadruple the number of cages to keep them from being over crowded.

I don't have any plans to attempt breeding this winter.  It was too much last year I want a death free winter!  The plan is next spring we will expand the poultry part of the farm.  Build a separate Turkey coop and run and add a Tom so we can start having baby turkeys.  And we are thinking about adding to the chicken family too.  Build a separate coop and run for the new chickens so they are separate.  And of course I HAVE to get a roo!  Might even consider selling a few eggs at the farmers market if we are successful. 

Wish I could find someone interested in trading rabbits for a goat.  We could really use the help with the brush clean up around here!

been a long couple days...

So Shane's surgery went fine but when it was over he decided he was tired of breathing and they could not get him to wake up enough to keep breathing on his own.  So we spent the night in the hospital.  I was up and down all night checking his monitors, every beep and my eyes shot open to see if he was breathing.  Luckily Shane's roommate went home yesterday evening so they let me stay in his room all night.  Which was nice since I hadn't set up any place else to go.

When Shane first came to the room the right side of his face was very droopy.  I was very concerned but by about 8 last night Shane was awake and talking and by this morning his face is fine again.

We are home and I just want to sleep but, Mom and Dad have dealt with the boys for 2 days now and they need a break.  Shane is sleeping comfortably and I am here typing. 

Took some talking to get him to let me take a pic.  Not a happy camper!  So far though he has not been in too much pain.  Most problem is when he tried to eat.  The chewing motion is uncomfortable.  But they have a very stylish cup covering the left side of his head to protect the area and the strap holding it on gives him a nice '80's head band look...lets get physical, physical... I can hear Olivia Newton John!  Look even the pressure cuffs on his legs gives the appearance of leg warmer!...he's a maniac maniac on the floor...

Happy thoughts

Shane has his surgery tomorrow.  I am not handling things as well as I wish I was.  I am trying to get the house cleaned up and food pre-prepared to make tomorrow manageable.  Thank heavens my mommy and daddy are coming over to be here for the boys.  I don't think I could make it if I had to deal with the boys at the hospital all day too.

Pam:  please send me a pair of your rose colored glasses!  Christmas is coming it will be the perfect gift for me! 

Things have been crazy around here.  We have the outside of Shane's new office done.  Now as soon as he is back on his feet we can start finishing the inside.  He has a big window over looking the property and the view is spectacular!  I wonder if he will ever get any work done.  I go out there and just marvel at how lucky I am to have that as my back yard. 

Promise I WILL catch up on pix of the house!

What to do with mushrooms...

So I have gallons literally, gallons of mushrooms and if you Google Chanterelle mushrooms you will find not only many different ideas on the ONLY way to preserve them but they say the other options don't work.  So what am I to do?

I'll tell ya!  I am using my new dehydrator.  It is taking for-ever to get them all done but slowly but surely I am getting them cleaned and dry and packages.

new problem arose, we have 68% humidity as a minimum around here lately so after dehydrating I packed them in paper bags, which was the most common advise for storage and the mushrooms started to re-hydrate from the ambient moisture.  So now I am trying to vacuum seal them in those canisters I got with my vacuum sealer and have never used.  This way I can open it, take out what I need and re-seal.

about half of Brady's Saturday find

some are pretty good sized too

It is amazing how much of them are water.  After starting with more than5 gallons of mushrooms I ended up with about a gallon of dried mushrooms. 

Not sure how many of these I will uses over the winter but Brady is having lots of fun hunting with Vic so as long as it keeps him out of trouble right!  Next batch I am making homemade cream of mushroom soup!  Found a recipe that yields equivalent to 3 cans of soup.  I stopped using canned soup for cooking a couple years ago and have been hoping to find a good recipe.  Fingers crossed!

Here is the hill across the street, the morning fog makes it all look even more beautiful!

The crew

Re-thinking the farm's plan

So I need to talk to Shane about reducing the number of rabbits on the farm.  We have so many and now that we have some that have had babies I think we should think about which rabbits we don't need or want to have.  If we just keep 4 rabbits...3 Does and 1 Buck...then we can still have some rabbit meat from time to time but the work involved with the large rabbit set up is more than I want to deal with on a daily basis.  We could easily add more chickens and turkeys and it won't be much more work because they are housed together and we don't have the individual cages to deal with.

I have so much other stuff I could be doing, pickling beets and drying mushrooms and making black berry jelly, not to mention the apples will be ready soon and I will have a bunch of apple pie filling to get done up.  But instead I am spending time each day dealing with the rabbits partly because I can not count on the boys doing their chores. 

I wish I could find someone who would like to trade some breeding rabbits for a goat.  We could really use a goat to help clear the land around here.  I don't know how much work a goat will be though?  I have been reading up about them though so if we decide to give it a try I have some knowledge to start with.

I do know I like my chicken girls and I have NO plans of EVER getting rid of them!  We are planning to make a separate turkey run though because those 3 girls are so darn bossy!  We are thinking if we get a separate run and then get a Tom and maybe more girls down the road if all goes well.

Sad morning

During the night Nugget started to have seizures of some kind and he past away this morning.  He had become my baby.  I loved that little guy so much.  He would give me kisses when I held him. 

Ear Mites

So starting to get settled back into farm life and I found that Lovie has ear mites.  Warning these photos are "gross" according to Sky.

This is after her 1st treatment of Canola oil (I didn't have any baby oil on hand and found a number of people who used veg oil with success) with some honey because a number of people said they had great results just using honey watered down so I thought worth adding some too.

I am trying very hard to not use any hard meds.  I am following a schedule I found online and I am hoping that it works.  As you can see there is a bunch of oil around her hear because the first dropper full went every place when she moved at the last minute. 

Keeping my fingers crossed that everything heals up quick!

New experience

I am pretty open to trying new things.  Especially food, I will give anything a chance once.  Our neighbor is gearing up for hunting season and making sure he has lots of room in his freezer for a wide variety of meat.  Today he brought over some Cougar meat his wife cooked up yesterday for us to try...I took a bite and thought it tasted pretty good, a little tough but nice flavor.  I was doing just fine until Shane meowed and I had a hard time swallowing after that!  The boys LOVED it!!!  They want Shane to get a Cougar.  If he ever did get one I would HAVE to have the hide stuffed for the living room...

A few years ago I saw a bumper sticker:

 FYI:  Not sure about house cats but Cougar taste more like beef.

Back but no time to rest...

We are back from our Oregon vacation.  One question...I shopped for groceries, planned meals, cooked, cleaned, did dishes and laundry...Is that still a vacation?

No time to deal with vaca pix I have a bunch of Chanterelle mushrooms from the woods across the road.  I need to find some recipes! 

Last time I made hamburger and mushroom gravy over mashed potatoes, which was very good but I need something new.  The mushrooms are growing fast and Vic has been getting GALLONS of them every day!  Brady loves to go mushroom hunting with Vic...anything that makes it possible for him to use his new prized pocket knife!

Tonight we are eating up the last chunk of Salmon that Brady caught on our trip.  Fishing wasn't so good AGAIN this year.  I am hoping the local season is more productive. 

Hope everyone has a wonderful Labor Day Weekend!

property

So I was looking at some photos of our property today and I have a couple favs that I wanted to share.

Here is a little family crossing our creek.
 

This is the road down to the river along the creek.

I just love this old gate!  One of my favorite things on the property!

And the big tree by the river is amazing!  Standing next to it is our friend Dom to show just how big some of the trees are around here.  Some days I wish I could just sneak off and hide down here.  Vic and the boys think this should be the location of the boys tree house but I think it should be the location of Mommy's tree house...NO BOYS ALLOWED!
 

more eggs and a new door!

The girls gave us 11 eggs yesterday and 10 eggs today.  As you can see another Americana started laying green eggs today!

Now isn't that a beautiful egg basket?

 

 Today I also finally got a new front door!  Shane repainted the screen door, although the screen itself has not been fixed and the new door has not been painted I think it looks great!

Now I just need to decide what color to paint the door...I was thinking just painting it the same beige the house is painted but I can think about it for a few days.  I know something like red is popular but I am just not sure about that and if it is painted the dark brown of the trim you won't see the pretty screen door details as well.  What do you think?

Little addition

So in an effort to keep the boys from getting too attached to the baby bunnies we got Nugget.  He is a dwarf bunny and should only be about 4 pounds full grown so he will always be small, cute and cuddly.

 

Nugget is about 8 weeks old.

He is use to being held so he is already easy for them to handle.

 

When the boys are playing with the bunnies Shane tells the boys to "stop playing with your food".  So little Nugget can take most of the cuddles and hopefully it will help them not beg to keep all the other bunnies!  Course the boys have already asked if we can get a female too.  They have plans to breed them and sell the babies to make money...they are always trying to find ways to get money, they are just not willing to work for any of it!!!!

We have been getting 8 eggs a day the last 4 days!  Course I forgot to send some home with my mom when they left this morning...(sorry Pam, I'll try to remember next time they come over)

Here are the turkey girls among the chickens, they just had their evening snack and will start getting ready for bed.

The turkeys like to spend time in the chicken coop more than their turkey coop now that they have free range of the area.

 

Here is Sozo with her babies piled up in the corner.  The red stick is from some beet greens that the Sozo was enjoying as her night time snack.

Here is Lovie giving herself a little bath before tucking the little ones into bed.  Also you can see her one all white bunny.  The other 2 white ones have dark ears, noses and tails just like their daddy.

 

Here you can see one eyed Willey.  The infection is gone but as I suspected he will not have a functioning eye on the right side.  Doesn't slow him down though.

 

Rosey stretched out as her babies run around.

The house is painted just have to finish getting all the plastic off the windows and I will try to get a good photo of it posted soon.  I am having a hard time getting things done today because my right thumb got slammed in the car door this morning.  From the cuticle to the end it is all shades of purple.  I have been tempted to do as they did on Deadliest Catch and put a hole in the nail to relieve the pressure.  I hope it will feel better by morning...fingers crossed!

Taking control

So things have been feeling out of control lately and I decided I needed to take a little control of my life.  I took my mom to get her hair done today and asked if anyone had any openings and one did so.........

I am donating 2 bunches of my hair.  Each bunch measured about a foot when curled up and about 15 inches when pulled straight.  I always just have my hair up in a bun and decided it was going to do more good going towards a wig for someone in need of hair.

Health issues

Hello all, we got some bad news today, about 15 years ago Shane had a tumor removed from the left side of his head which left him hard of hearing on that side and he has had more and more trouble hearing lately and went to an ear, nose and throat specialist in Seattle today and the tumor is back.  We are hoping to have the surgery scheduled early in September.  Really don't have any more information except when he went into the doc in Spokane 2 years ago he should have been able to tell the tumor was growing back and we could have taken care of things when we had medical insurance!  And didn't have a 2 1/2 hour drive to a specialist! 

Once we have an exact date for the surgery I will try to find someone who can stay here at the house with the boys so I can drive Shane back and forth.  Last surgery was on an out patient set up and unless they find something strange in the cat scan they took today this time should be the same.

I told Shane this might be a good time to try and quit smoking because last time he was drugged up and slept for the first week.  Maybe something good will come out of it...

1st blue/green egg!

the egg is more of a green color...Guess Rocco is not a rooster either!  That was the last Americana seen in the coop before the egg was found.  The lower pic shows the egg with one of Queenie's white and Gogo's brown eggs.  That makes 7 eggs today!!!

adjustments

Sozo lost 2 more babies. 

Reality is 12 is just too many babies for her to deal with.  I have read about one breeder who "adjusted" each litter so they were 6 kits.  Either by moving babies from one litter to another or by actually just, well you know.  6 is thought to be the optimal by many people.  When there are larger litters some say you need to separate them into groups of no more than 6 and the thought is that the mom will go to each nest to feed babies and there is a better chance of all babies getting something to eat.  Not everyone believes this though, some say the mom might only feed one group of babies.

Lovie has been successful with her 7 babies and now Sozo is at 8 so we'll see how they do.  She has some really cute little bugs!  One is grey on her back and white on her belly.  I will get more photos when their eyes open up. 

I got some fresh goat milk at Trader Joe's on my way home and I finally tried it and it was really good.  I tricked Shane into trying it, told him it was some new organic milk for him to try...ok not a total lie really, and he thought it was really rich and couldn't believe it was goat milk.  He thought goat milk would taste more goaty, I guess goats smell.  So that is one more plus for us getting goats, we will have our own milk.  Course we won't be able to leave home when they are in milk but maybe we can plan ahead and have it timed so during the summer they will have a break?  Our own goats would also be our own butter, yogurt, whipping cream and even cheese.  Better find a good goat magazine and book to start learning about them!

really strange

So I was cracking eggs for breakfast and inside an egg was a beautiful yoke and what looks like an almond. 

It is actually a tiny egg with a soft shell that got caught inside another egg.  I cut it open and although having a soft shell it was just a miniature egg.  I wish I had thought to take a pic with it next to the yoke but you can see a push pin in the upper right corner to show size.

Photos

The prep work is all done and we are going to paint the main part of the house today!  The dormers are done and Shane is taking the scaffolding back now to save us an additional week rental.

We are waiting to do the trim upstairs because of time,  we are planning to replace the 2 front little windows in the dormers before winter and we will paint the trim from inside the bedrooms when the windows are out.  People keep asking how my house is set up so upstairs the right window is the boys room and the left is our room.  Main floor the right window is currently Shane's office but will be the guest/craft room once his new office is built and the left window is the living room.

1st photo of Sozo's babies!  I checked them well last night and found that she actually had 12 babies and 2 have passed away so we are left with 10 which is still a big litter.

Here is Rosey and one of her look alike babies.

The triplets.

And Lovie and her babies try to crawl out as soon as the door is open unlike:

Rosey and her babies who huddle in the far corners when the door opens.

And lastly isn't this a sad nest?  The upper right corner nest appears to be the favorite of several of my girls and they squabble to get in and lay their eggs so most of the bedding gets pushed out.  Today I really need to get the coop cleaned out and the chicken run racked up.  It is amazing how quick the poo builds up with 20 birds in there.  Can you keep a secret?  I am already thinking about getting a few more chickens next spring.  Shhhh don't tell Shane...

Here is a photo of my garden it runs from the chicken coup back to the barn.  Yesterday Sky harvested Zucchini (green and yellow), carrots, beets, potatoes, lettuce, blue berries, peas and Chinese pea pods.

Well, there are some photos.  Once the painting is done Shane is going to start on the dock down at the river.  That will be so wonderful!  The fishing area will not get much work this summer though.  Next year we should be done with the big house stuff and can focus on making it a wonderful camping/fishing Oasis!

home again

To start, Sozo had her kits, 11 in all.  I need to go out and check them all over still but all appear to be in good shape.

Lovie's babies are getting so big and are chowing down on everything in sight.  They are almost a month old and cute as can be!

Rosey's babies act just like her and want nothing to do with anyone.  But they are cute little balls of fur!

My chicken girls are as beautiful as ever!  They were stepping on each other to get close to me when I went out to see them this morning.  Red Velvet jumped on my back, even Christmas came over and let me give her a hug and quick scratch. 

So many emotions came up going back to Spokane.  I miss my life there so much.  Things have been rough on the boys because we have a total new life.  I am always telling them how much better our life is now but while in Spokane I really questioned if I am doing the right thing.  I started making my to do list this morning and there is no way I can get the list done!  I will never have a day to zone out, watch tv for an entire day ever again. 

Although I have to say, I was very happy turning into our driveway. 

Krista wants more pics so I am going to try and get more posted, well as soon as I get some of my to do list done.

Road trip

So I am taking my baby to spend a few days with his grandparents.  I am not sure if he or I are ready for this...Ok mostly me.  I have already lost Sky.  He is in a life of sleep overs and calling friends, bugging us daily for his own phone too!  Not to mention the attitude!!!!  When he rolls his eyes at me I just want to slap him.  I want my babies back!

On a happier note, we are working on getting the house panting done.  Keeping my fingers crossed that it will be done by the end of the week!

Monday Update...

You asked for it...Here it is...

All 7 of Lovie's babies.  They were not thrilled with being taken out of their nest.

Here you can see the size difference between the smallest and the other bunnies.  So far little runt is holding his own though.  He is even smaller than Rosey's babies! 

2 white bunnies are starting to have their ears, tails and noses turn black and have pink eyes (like their daddy) and the 3rd white one has brown eyes and staying pure white.  2 are silvery grey like the mom one is pure grey and little runt is pure black.

And now for my chicken girls:
Egg production is doing great, actually got 6 eggs yesterday and as I opened the side door I saw Turdis actually lay her egg...Brady thought it was gross but I thought it was cool.  How can you not think it is interesting how this chicken's body is able to create the hard shell around her egg? 

After another 2 double yoke eggs I did some research and young chickens tend to have more double yoke eggs until their reproductive system settles into the process...interesting.  There are a couple breeds in India (I think it was) that the norm is to lay double yoke...FYI. 

I can hear a chicken having a fit in the coup, Birdis squawks so much in the morning but she hasn't layed any eggs.  When ever someone is laying an egg she is cackling not far away.  I think I will sneak out there and check for eggs...