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!