We did not have the yard sale this weekend, it was pushed to next weekend. I was not ready.,
I spent Thursday at the hospital, where my sister was having surgery. She is now home and resting. All went well.
Baby chickies are getting too big for the dog kennel, so the Man and I will be building a coop this afternoon.
BIG Curriculum sale with my homeschooling group on Monday night....how did I manage to accummilate all this stuff?? Here's hoping it ALL sells...and I don't find much that we WANT and only what we NEED for next year!
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Looking for a homestead...
To say that I am tired of looking for somewhere to move would be an understatement. With the way things have gone, well, discouragement is the best word. I have a theory of what God is doing....When we started this journey...things needed to be just so, x miles from this or that..each time our expectations are lowered. So much so that a house that 6 months ago would have had me screaming and running (and me running????) the other way. Fast forward to now...that same house that has a bad foundation, you can see the sky through the roof, needs all new drywall and a kitchen...we're upset that someone else came in and bought it out from under us! How crazy is that??
We're off to see another home today...and oddly enough...the foundation is collapsing and will need repaired...and we are hoping that our basically intact house will sell so we can buy it. Yes, things have changed. We'll keep you updated on the search.
Oh, and I am having a yard sale on Friday and Saturday...if you are local come on out and shop!
We're off to see another home today...and oddly enough...the foundation is collapsing and will need repaired...and we are hoping that our basically intact house will sell so we can buy it. Yes, things have changed. We'll keep you updated on the search.
Oh, and I am having a yard sale on Friday and Saturday...if you are local come on out and shop!
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Chicken Update!
Here's what we've missed in the past two months in "Cackleberry Hollow".
Ms Judy and Scarlett have finally been accepted into the fold, although at times the Buffy's with their "Ohio Orpington" attitude still likes to put them in their place. We've discovered that Scarlett lays a pretty pink egg and that Ms. Judy lays an Army green egg. Now that is is Spring/Summer their egg production is up. Usually we get about 3 a day, but some days we're surprised with 1 from each of them for a total of 5.
A week before Easter, we went and picked up our 7 new day olds from Myer Hatchery up in Polk, Ohio. It was quite possibly the coldest day in April. We had 7 of the cutest chick. Summer, the Americauana, that looked like a tiger, and was the Boy's favorite. He held it in the car the whole 2 hour trip home and then constantly the first night. I even saw Summer riding in the back of a Hess truck (a favorite gift from Pawpa). Of course, once I saw it we had to stop it as Summer was only 24 hours old.
Then we had Becky, the Buckeye chicken, Maran, the Cuckoo Maran, and 4 silkies. The silkies were straight run, which means we didn't know if they were boys or girls, so they hadn't been named...except the littlest one, Runt. All started out well. I will post pictures when I get to the library (my computer here is too slow for that...it times out) We started a project with Summer of measuring every day. She was growing about 5/8 of an inch daily. I have some funny pictures because they started out living in a Ramen box...chicken flavored :) Summer was a character and seemed to like being handled as much a the Boy would handle her. On their third night, she even got out of the box and seemed to go looking for him. I heard her crying, loudly, at 3 am and struggled downstairs to find her out of the box in the utility room, all the way on the other side of the playroom. A huge trek for something the size of a tennis ball!!
Sadly, by Easter, my back was getting much worse and it was very difficult to get downstairs. (Or stand, or sit, or...) and the babies ran out of water, became overheated, or something (I'm thinking the first...) and on Easter Monday, the Man had the sad job of letting Boy and I know that all but Maran had perished in the night. Even Summer. It was an awful day. But we tried to learn from the experience and lear that we were responsible for these critters on loan from God. A hard lesson for an 8 year old.
Maran started receiving lots of love and care. I called the hatchery to see if we could get the same breeds. It was going to be months before they had Buckeyes and Americauna babies available again. Sigh. Then....
One week after the tragedy, the Man was gone for the day off doing a delivery to Dayton Ohio. He stopped on the way back from Dayton to the Tractor supply to get the big chickens some feed. When he arrived home at 5ish, he called up the stair to me (where I was now basically confined to bed and had not ventured downstairs in about 5 days.) He called up "Who's hungry?" We said, "we are!" He replied, "Well, I have a bucket of chicken here for you." He came into the room and handed the Boy and I a box that was peeping!!! A box full of new day olds!!! And then we ordered PIZZA!
These ones are surprises!! We don't know exactly what breed they are, what color they will lay, what they will look like as adults..although now that they are a month old we have a better idea. Only 1 of the new birds has a name. Maran is a week older so she has always been bigger, but now the others are catching up. We have 2 white ones, and 4 redish/brown mottled looking ones. The smaller white one is Dini (pronouced "dean-y") for Houdini. She managed to keep getting out of the box, to sit on the top and watch the world go by...or hide behind the cabin, or walk across the floor...) By my best estimate, I think we have two White Rock Chickens and I think they will lay white eggs, and I think the 4 are Rhode Island Reds, and will lay brown eggs. Maran is black with white spots and will lay chocolate brown eggs.
My "chicken" lady that we got the Buffies from last year, heard of our sad news and has emailled that she just had a hatching and would like to trade chickens for wood shavings. So now that the "babies" have graduated out of the utility room (and thank goodness, they were getting smelly) and into a dog cage out by the coop. We may actually get a couple more. If we could find a property (yet another post) and get out of here, we would take lots more. She raises Buckeyes, so we may get another Becky in the next batch. She also has a "Splash Maran" that has the exact opposite coloring as our current Maran. So we may get a Splash. I'll keep you updated, and get pictures posted soon!
Sadly
Ms Judy and Scarlett have finally been accepted into the fold, although at times the Buffy's with their "Ohio Orpington" attitude still likes to put them in their place. We've discovered that Scarlett lays a pretty pink egg and that Ms. Judy lays an Army green egg. Now that is is Spring/Summer their egg production is up. Usually we get about 3 a day, but some days we're surprised with 1 from each of them for a total of 5.
A week before Easter, we went and picked up our 7 new day olds from Myer Hatchery up in Polk, Ohio. It was quite possibly the coldest day in April. We had 7 of the cutest chick. Summer, the Americauana, that looked like a tiger, and was the Boy's favorite. He held it in the car the whole 2 hour trip home and then constantly the first night. I even saw Summer riding in the back of a Hess truck (a favorite gift from Pawpa). Of course, once I saw it we had to stop it as Summer was only 24 hours old.
Then we had Becky, the Buckeye chicken, Maran, the Cuckoo Maran, and 4 silkies. The silkies were straight run, which means we didn't know if they were boys or girls, so they hadn't been named...except the littlest one, Runt. All started out well. I will post pictures when I get to the library (my computer here is too slow for that...it times out) We started a project with Summer of measuring every day. She was growing about 5/8 of an inch daily. I have some funny pictures because they started out living in a Ramen box...chicken flavored :) Summer was a character and seemed to like being handled as much a the Boy would handle her. On their third night, she even got out of the box and seemed to go looking for him. I heard her crying, loudly, at 3 am and struggled downstairs to find her out of the box in the utility room, all the way on the other side of the playroom. A huge trek for something the size of a tennis ball!!
Sadly, by Easter, my back was getting much worse and it was very difficult to get downstairs. (Or stand, or sit, or...) and the babies ran out of water, became overheated, or something (I'm thinking the first...) and on Easter Monday, the Man had the sad job of letting Boy and I know that all but Maran had perished in the night. Even Summer. It was an awful day. But we tried to learn from the experience and lear that we were responsible for these critters on loan from God. A hard lesson for an 8 year old.
Maran started receiving lots of love and care. I called the hatchery to see if we could get the same breeds. It was going to be months before they had Buckeyes and Americauna babies available again. Sigh. Then....
One week after the tragedy, the Man was gone for the day off doing a delivery to Dayton Ohio. He stopped on the way back from Dayton to the Tractor supply to get the big chickens some feed. When he arrived home at 5ish, he called up the stair to me (where I was now basically confined to bed and had not ventured downstairs in about 5 days.) He called up "Who's hungry?" We said, "we are!" He replied, "Well, I have a bucket of chicken here for you." He came into the room and handed the Boy and I a box that was peeping!!! A box full of new day olds!!! And then we ordered PIZZA!
These ones are surprises!! We don't know exactly what breed they are, what color they will lay, what they will look like as adults..although now that they are a month old we have a better idea. Only 1 of the new birds has a name. Maran is a week older so she has always been bigger, but now the others are catching up. We have 2 white ones, and 4 redish/brown mottled looking ones. The smaller white one is Dini (pronouced "dean-y") for Houdini. She managed to keep getting out of the box, to sit on the top and watch the world go by...or hide behind the cabin, or walk across the floor...) By my best estimate, I think we have two White Rock Chickens and I think they will lay white eggs, and I think the 4 are Rhode Island Reds, and will lay brown eggs. Maran is black with white spots and will lay chocolate brown eggs.
My "chicken" lady that we got the Buffies from last year, heard of our sad news and has emailled that she just had a hatching and would like to trade chickens for wood shavings. So now that the "babies" have graduated out of the utility room (and thank goodness, they were getting smelly) and into a dog cage out by the coop. We may actually get a couple more. If we could find a property (yet another post) and get out of here, we would take lots more. She raises Buckeyes, so we may get another Becky in the next batch. She also has a "Splash Maran" that has the exact opposite coloring as our current Maran. So we may get a Splash. I'll keep you updated, and get pictures posted soon!
Sadly
Monday, May 25, 2009
I'm back!!
Sorry for the long delay! Lots of updates to get through, so watch for multiple posts in the next few days as I have the opportunities.
The surgery went well. The surgeon took out "three pieces" of disc that were resting on the nerve. At this point, I don't think there could be much of that disc left. I didn't handle the anesthesia very well, and was ill again. Apparently, I also had a difficult time waking up from it this time. I spent the night in recovery as they had run out of beds in the hospital. It actually was fine because I basically had a nurse to myself (I shared her with only 1 other patient.) She looked like Sarah Palin, so I was in good hands :) After returning home, I slept for about 3 days, and then started walking and recovering. My wonderful homeschool group brought meals 3 times a week, and a few of my friends came to clean. Talk about humbling. I'm such a messie, and to see the ladies that I respect seeing the "real" me....sigh. But, it's been such a huge blessing! Just this past Thursday, I had my 4 week update with the surgeon. He has given me permission to start being more active, walking in the pool, biking, and lifting MORE than 5 pounds! Yippee. Do you know just how >>little<< 5 pound is???? I couldn't even lift more than 1/2 a gallon of milk for a month! OH, and after the 1st surgery 2 years ago, I had lost all the feeling in my 2 littlest toes on the right. After this surgery, they woke back up!! Of course, I know I can feel them again because the littlest on feels like it is dislocated, but HEY, I can feel it! WOOHOO! And even that is getting better. So that's the update on my crazy back!
Another side bit of news, back in February, the Boy and I went to go get pizza. While waiting we read a little one page newspaper called "The Coffee News". It had a paragraph about they were taking 100 word essays on who you would nominate to win a Urban Active Membership. The Boy said that I needed a membership. (Ah, the frank honesty of a child). So I told him he could write the essay for his English class. He did. Fast forward to the Monday after Easter. We were so sad as 6 of our 7 day-old chicks had met their demise during the night (more in the chicken update), when we got a call that, "Your essay has won the contest!" I was (and am) very proud of my Boy. And now I have a membership to a gym so I can "get skinny" as Boy wrote. In his essay, he mentioned how I've been trying to get fit after the last surgery, and I had to tell the editor from the paper, how I was going in for a second surgery the following week. Luckily, they made the gift certificate good through June. So I could start after being release by the surgeon.
So I have about 4 weeks to get strong, and get the house in order before heading back to work. I've got tons to get done! But I kinda am looking forward to working again.
The surgery went well. The surgeon took out "three pieces" of disc that were resting on the nerve. At this point, I don't think there could be much of that disc left. I didn't handle the anesthesia very well, and was ill again. Apparently, I also had a difficult time waking up from it this time. I spent the night in recovery as they had run out of beds in the hospital. It actually was fine because I basically had a nurse to myself (I shared her with only 1 other patient.) She looked like Sarah Palin, so I was in good hands :) After returning home, I slept for about 3 days, and then started walking and recovering. My wonderful homeschool group brought meals 3 times a week, and a few of my friends came to clean. Talk about humbling. I'm such a messie, and to see the ladies that I respect seeing the "real" me....sigh. But, it's been such a huge blessing! Just this past Thursday, I had my 4 week update with the surgeon. He has given me permission to start being more active, walking in the pool, biking, and lifting MORE than 5 pounds! Yippee. Do you know just how >>little<< 5 pound is???? I couldn't even lift more than 1/2 a gallon of milk for a month! OH, and after the 1st surgery 2 years ago, I had lost all the feeling in my 2 littlest toes on the right. After this surgery, they woke back up!! Of course, I know I can feel them again because the littlest on feels like it is dislocated, but HEY, I can feel it! WOOHOO! And even that is getting better. So that's the update on my crazy back!
Another side bit of news, back in February, the Boy and I went to go get pizza. While waiting we read a little one page newspaper called "The Coffee News". It had a paragraph about they were taking 100 word essays on who you would nominate to win a Urban Active Membership. The Boy said that I needed a membership. (Ah, the frank honesty of a child). So I told him he could write the essay for his English class. He did. Fast forward to the Monday after Easter. We were so sad as 6 of our 7 day-old chicks had met their demise during the night (more in the chicken update), when we got a call that, "Your essay has won the contest!" I was (and am) very proud of my Boy. And now I have a membership to a gym so I can "get skinny" as Boy wrote. In his essay, he mentioned how I've been trying to get fit after the last surgery, and I had to tell the editor from the paper, how I was going in for a second surgery the following week. Luckily, they made the gift certificate good through June. So I could start after being release by the surgeon.
So I have about 4 weeks to get strong, and get the house in order before heading back to work. I've got tons to get done! But I kinda am looking forward to working again.
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