Chicken pictures as promised....

As promised, here are a couple of pictures of our chickens.  I thought I had more, but these are the best ones.  I tried to attach a video, but haven't figured that out yet.

This handsome looking fellow is Rudy, our rooster.  Perhaps it will change, but he's a gentle guy, even letting me pet him.  I so enjoy hearing him "cock-a-doodle-do" in the mornings and occasionally throughout the day when he feels the mood.  I was worried about our neighbors, but they listen out for him.  That's comforting.

These are a few of our hens.  The lighter ones are Buff Orpingtons while the rest are Rhode Island Reds.  I love to hear how they coo when they're calm.

Busy, busy, bee....sort of.

Sorry for not posting in quite some time, life has been busy, and I've become much more of Facebook fanatic than I had planned.  My bad.  Other than my addition to social networking, and the farming games that I just can't seem to leave alone, we've added to our family.  Chickens!  We started with 7 chickens and a rooster that our friends gave us, and eventually added 10 more.  Many of them are layers, so we've been collecting eggs gallor!  After having "ridding" of 3 and losing one to old age, we're now down to 13 chickens.  Our egg sizes have ranged from super jumbo (that poor chicken, she's the one who died) to slightly larger than my thumb.  My biggest fears are the neighborhood skunk that seems to be roaming around lately, and the weasels and raccoons that frequent our place.  We're hopping Bandit, our Husky, who is perched near the chicken/rabbit house, will keep those varmints at bay.

We've collected a variety of eggs, from 5 or 6 one day to at many as 14!  I can assure you, seeing how I was the one who cleaned the 3 chickens we killed, that those 3 were layers.  It was so facinating to see the undeveloped eggs in different stages in the chickens.  Gross, I know, sorry.  My friend, who taught me how to clean chickens, found two completely formed eggs that the chickens didn't get a chance to lay yet that day.  The shells were hard and everything!  Really cool! The downside to cleaning chickens, however, is the smell.  I'm fine until I start taking out the innards to separate the heart, gizzard, and liver for those who wanted to eat it.  One of my friends from work suggested putting Vicks under my nose to "replace" the stink of the chickens once I get to the innards.  Perhaps next time I'll give it a try.  I'll try to post pictures soon, and if I can figure it out, I've got a couple of videos too that I can add.  Until next time...

New Blog

Hey everyone!  Just a little note to let everybody know that I've begun a new blog called "Reflections in Middle School".  I've decided to start it because it's a great idea for me as an educator to reflect on my teaching, what works and what doesn't.  However, that's not the only reason. I've read some of those books written by teachers who share their experiences in the classroom and have always wondered if I could do that.  Well, I've decided to do that in my new blog and hopefully expand on it if and when the time comes.  I invite everyone to check it out and hope you enjoy!

Hunter in Distress

I may or may not have mentioned in the past that we not only have 3 dogs, or 2 horses, but we also have 2 rabbits. They are of a mix dwarf variety, very cute and cuddly. We had gotten the rabbits the same time we got the goats. Here's the back story. Flash back to 2 years ago....

Hubby and I bought a weekly guide book that has a collection of items for sale or for trade listed, and one of the listings was for rabbits. We decided one day to surprise the boys with rabbits, and brought them to the farm that was selling them. Kenny didn't take long and chose his right away naming it Fluffy. I know, not very original. Kerry, on the other hand, decided that he wanted something a little more exotic, having fallen in love with a couple of young goats. So, after careful deliberation, Hubby and I decided to let Kenny have his rabbit and Kerry could have his goat. The problem was that we couldn't take just one goat, we had to take two because they get lonely. We put the goats in the cage we had in the back of the truck and Kenny held on to the box with his rabbit in it and headed home.

On the way home, Kerry was telling us the names he wanted to call the goats. The girl he decided would be named Kate, which I wasn't surprised about, and the boy Horny. I know! Hubby and I looked at each other and I asked him if he had other possible names for the boy goat. Without a blink of an eye he decided Cutie was an option. Having avoided a struggle with having Kerry accepting a different name for the boy goat, we quickly agreed that Cutie was a great choice. Whew!!!

Kate


Cutie

We arrive home and put the Kate and Cutie in their new home that we prepared for them, and Fluffy in the rabbit hutch we had found for free on the side of the road. Kerry kept wanting to get close to the goats, but they were too skiddish for us, so they kept running away from him. Eventually, Kerry grew tired and frustrated by this and didn't like the goats as much as he had before. Kenny, on the other hand, was holding and cuddling with Fluffy. Kerry decided that he didn't want the goats anymore, but Hubby and I couldn't see not keeping them now, because we had gotten attached to them. So, the next day, we trekked back to the farm we had gone to before and picked up a rabbit for Kerry too.

Kerry's rabbit on the right is named Oreo
and Kenney's on the left, Fluffy.

Now we had a male and female rabbit and a male and female goat. Babies were bound to soon follow.

Back to the present...

Just before lunch today, the family and I went to town to visit family and stopped at a salvage store to browse around in. Hubby and the boys found two tiny harnesses for the rabbits. When we got home, they put the harnesses on and tied the leashes and brought the rabbits outside for a walk in the back yard. Needless to say, Hunter, who has free range of our property and who loves to hunt, went wild. They tied him up, but the energy coming from his excitement was just too much for him to bear, and I didn't want the rabbits to be traumatized by him either. I brought Hunter into the house where he begged me to let him back out.

Poor Hunter.

I seriously think he was trying to speak to me, asking to be let out. I haven't seen him this excited since I brought Shelby home or when she was in heat.

Look at that tongue hanging out! Please???

Hunter continued to pace back and forth, from the bedroom where I was folding clothing to the kitchen door hoping to be let out. Finally, about a half hour later, the boys put the rabbits back in their cages and Hunter was freed from the intrapment of the house.

Mood Swings

I can't believe how my day started. I woke up this morning and for no specific reason I can pinpoint, I was in a foul mood. I told the boys that I wasn't mad that them, but I couldn't help but feel bad later on in the day for my rotten mood. Nothing made me happy and nothing seemed to go right. Perhaps I'm just stressing because of the week we've had, sports every night and the new school year, or just the bills, bill, bills, but everything seemed to piss me off!

I brought the boys to their mom's before I headed to school, and when I got there she said how I looked spiffy. My legs were still raw from the hay bales the night before and couldn't consider wearing anything other than a light dress. That's the only reason why I looked "spiffy", but her compliment only brought a smile to my face and I told her how I had been in such a rotten mood. Later this evening at Kenny's soccer game, I told her that my day and mood turned around after her compliment this morning. She just cracked her sly smile and said, "I just have that affect on people." She's so funny.

Then, I got home and what did I find in the mail? Four bars of goat's milk soap. I was excited when I saw the box. It nearly felt like Christmas or my birthday. ;o) I could smell the scents through the box and couldn't wait to open it up and check out the bars. Now the dilemma. Which bar of soap should I try first? Until next time....

Razors and little needles!!!

In my last post I talked about the hay that Hubby and his buddies decided to do on their own and the wonderful, wet experience we went through to put the tarp back on the mountain of hay. Yesterday, Hubby was actually home early enough for supper, which hasn't happened for nearly 2 weeks now. Being home for the first time in a long time, he decides he has work he'd like to do, one thing being removing the hay from the trailer that it's been sitting on and piling it on pallets and covering it again. Never mind the mountain of laundry that was waiting for me to do, I had to go help move the hay.

I finish cleaning up the supper dishes (still love my dishwasher) and went to change into grubby clothes. However, no one (Hubby) thought to suggest that I wear something other than shorts. It didn't take me long to discover my mistake. It took us an hour and a half to move nearly 300 square bales of hay then cover it back. By the time I got home, my forearms and legs were raw as if I'd been carrying bales of needles or razorblades instead.

This is a picture of one of my forearms this morning. This is just a small snapshot of what my legs look like. Sorry, I'm not including a picture here. As someone commented on my last post about learning a lesson with the experience, I certainly did in this one. Wear pants and long-sleeved shirts!!

Hay, hay, hay...

Hubby and a few friends decided to get together to harvest hay for themselves rather than buying hay from other farmers at a much higher price. They pooled their money together, Hubby bought a square baler and one friend bought a round baler. They got a rake (or already had one...not sure), and another implement that they need after they cut the hay and before they rake it. They ordered the tarps to cover the hay and the rope to tie the bundles and rolls. It took some doing and organization, but they got everything they needed and the plans were made. One problem, though...they needed to work around all of the rain we got this summer.

Finally this past week, the weather took a turn for the better and they could cut the hay, let it dry, then do something else to it (can't remember what it's called), then rake it and bale it. The down side was that Hubby couldn't help like he wanted to because of work. He had been working long hours, late into the evening, and there was no way he could be there. But the great friends that he has, they baled the square bales and loaded a trailer with about 250 to 300 square bales, then they covered the entire pile with the ginormous tarp that he had.

All was well, then sometime during this Sunday evening and yesterday morning, the tarp flew off and all of the hay was exposed to the little rain showers we got. When I found out about it, I couldn't do anything about for a couple of hours, at least not by myself. That pile was huge! When the tarp was covering it, the pile looked like Suffalupagus (I think that's how it's spelled) on Sesame Street. You know, Big Bird's friend from the 70's who looked like a brown, woolly elephant. Anyhow, by the time Hubby could get to the field were the hay was piled, it had started to rain. Not a light rain, noooo, it had to be large, heavy drops accompanied by some thunder and lightening. But, there were were, Hubby and I trying to get the tarp back over the hay and tie it down in the downpour. We managed to get it all covered, but not before the rain got to it. Now Hubby is worried that the hay that was exposed to the rain will mold and won't be good for our horses. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

After all of that activity, I was soaked. Litterly. My shorts and tanktop were sticking to my body, which is not a flattering sight; trust me. My hair was dripping and had lost any style that it previously held, and my sneakers and socks were so soaked that they squeeked and squished when I walked. The only bright side to the whole thing was that it had been hot and humid for a few days, and the rain was so refreshing that I really didn't mind being as soaked as I was.

Now, I sit here in a dry change of clothes while Hubby is hanging out with our friends discussing the hay and the rain. I can hear the rain through the open windows continue to fall, although now, it's more gentle rather than the huge drops that dived-bombed upon us throughout the entire ordeal. This wasn't excitement that I wanted to have tonight. Hopefully, tomorrow will be less exciting.

Ahhh....imagine!

Today I had a rare moment; I was completely alone! Hubby had already left around 5 a.m. to go to work. The boys are at their mom's for the weekend and come home at noon Sunday. So I had the entire house to myself; just me, the dogs, and bunnies.

Today marks the one of the last two days left of my summer vacation, so I took advantage of being alone. I had 2 close calls with being alone this summer, but Hubby came home early and I didn't quite get the R&R that I longed for. So today I relished the thought of not being a referee, and doing what I wanted to do without considering who'll have to do it with me or who will be left behind.

So, this morning I decided to clean the house, windows, floors, etc. to get it over with. I then laid out in the sun for about an hour while reading a book, then baked a fresh raspberry pie and made some shepherd's pie to freeze for a quick meal later this week. After having sweat through all of that, I then enjoyed a nice, cool shower. The weather finally changed this week and we've finally had temperatures in the 80's. It's been close to 90's yesterday and today, and trust me, I'm not used to this heat. So, as much as I'm enjoying the idea of finally getting a summer and having beautiful, bright sunny days, I'm trying to cope with the heat and humidity.

I wanted to go for a walk today, but with this heat, I decided to wait until later when it cooled down, otherwise, I'd been looking at another cool shower. Although the temperature dropped to the low 70's by the time I went for my walk, the humidity was still there and I couldn't help but make it a shorter walk than usual.

Tomorrow will be my last day of vacation. I'll have until noon to lounge around and do the quiet things I enjoy doing. Then the boys will be home and I won't have the house to myself. As much as I enjoyed the idea of solitude, and enjoyed today, I'm looking forward to having the boys home tomorrow.