Friday, April 29, 2011

Weekend Plans

I always seem to plan more than I have time to accomplish. This weekend will be the same. My ducks are just about ready to go outside so we need to get the holes dug and pour the concrete for the posts, get the fence up, make a area for the "pool" to be and hopefully get both the chicken coop and duck coop built. The chicken coop can wait though, but the ducks really need to get outside soon. They went outside yesterday for a visit.

My goose is starting to have a niacin deficiency, so *she* is walking funny but I got some new food for them and I am getting some yeast today so hopefully I can fix it before it gets bad.
The chickens are growing and feathers are coming in. They dont seem to be growing very fast though, I can't see a size difference between then and now. I will post some before and after pictures of them next week. Have a great weekend everyone!

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Can't buy lumber on the weekends?!?

I had big plans for this weekend, I was going to wake up real early on Saturday morning and go get some pallets and boards from a local lumberyard so we could start building our Chicken and Duck pen, but they are now not open on Saturday so thats no longer an option. How in the hell does anyone with a job get anything done?!? I work 9-4 most day - some days its 8-5. So if I need to make a doctor appointment the hours I have to chose from are 9-5, Dentist 9-3, Vetranarian 8-5, lumberyard - only open on the weekdays. So if I want to build something I can't go buy lumber on fucking Saturday?!? I HATE this shit.

So I had lots of plans for this weekend and now I don't even want to try to get anything done.

Monday, April 25, 2011

Happy Birthday John and Joann!

This is a little late because John's Birthday was last Wednesday and Joann's was yesterday but they live quite far away so we went and spent yesterday with them and they both got their presents then. I made quits for each of them, Johns is the same tractor fabric that I made my Dad's quilt out of (how lucky am I that both my Dad and my Father in Law like tractors?!?) and Jo's was made with animal prints and mostly cat prints. I made both of these quilts in less than 2 weeks, and yes Chris did help, he helped pick the fabric, he chose the pattern, and he helped me tie all the ties and while I was slaving away sewing them he was taking care of Aleric and the animals. So now for the pictures!

John's Quilt:

Up Close:

Joann's Quilt:

Up Close:

Thursday, April 21, 2011

Ducks! And a Goose!


The other day after we got home with our chickens, my husband says to me "If they would have had ducks we could have got 2 of them also" this was probably a mistake. See I have been looking at the website Backyard Chickens - and on the forum section of the site there is also a sub-forum for Ducks. You would not believe how many cute pictures are posted of ducks. And there is the chance that Aleric will be able to eat them (he gets hives from chicken eggs). So I called Big R back at least 5 times a day waiting for their shipment of ducklings to come in. After 4 days of waiting I found an ad on Craigslist selling various poultry. I called the guy and he only had 5 ducks left. I asked him to save them for me and went and picked them up after work. When I got there there was also a goose in the box with them, he had 2 of them hatch but one died so he put the other one in with the ducks and they became a family. He said I could have him for only $6.00, that might seem like a lot but they are selling at Big R for $9.00 each and that's a day old chick, the ducks and the one goose I got are over 3 weeks old. SOOOOO we now have 1 human baby, 3 large dogs, 4 cats, 2 fish tanks (3 fish total), 15 chickens, 5 ducks, 1 goose and a bucket of worms. I think I need to stop here, just a few minutes ago the Husband was talking about getting goats and while I would LOVE some goats I think we are at capacity right now! Im not very sure what breeds of ducks I got, the guy who sold them told me that there is a Black and White Magpie, a Swedish Black, a Swedish Blue or Silver, a Rouen and a Khaki Campbell, and the goose I guess is just a goose because there was no type given for him. Who knows if these really are what I got though, I need to wait until they are grown to figure that out. Hopefully we will get 2 or even 3 laying ducks out of this and we can just keep the drakes as the protectors of the flock but if I end up with all drakes, something tells me they will be hitting the dinner table come fall. Now for pictures!

Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Injury :(

So I haven't ran in over a week now, I want to but I cant. A few weeks ago my toes on my right foot hurt after one of my runs, I figured I had stepped on a rock wrong and it would be fine, then the next day it hurt more, but I still ran on it and it just got worse every time I ran but in the daytime before my run it was fine. Well last week it all of a sudden wasn't fine and I could no longer run on it without it hurting so I took the next day off and my foot started swelling, and has been swollen since that day :( In fact im wearing "normal" shoes today because my foot was so swollen I couldn't even get my 5 fingers on today. I am so upset about this. So hopefully by this weekend the swelling will have gone down, the pain will have gone away and I can resume my regularly scheduled activities. If its not better by Monday I will be making a trip to my local emergency room. I don't know if you can see the swelling in this picture or not but it was pretty bad when I took it.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Chickens!


This weekend we got our chickens, we have wanted them for a while but this year we decided to finally get them because they can be a source of eggs and meat. I really wanted to buy my birds from a local farmer but the one that I could find in my area lacked in the customer service department. In the add they placed it said they have 3 week old chicks, so me and Chris were thinking it would be better to get 3 week old chickens, because that's a 3 week head start. So I called and they answered the phone "hello", now it might just be me but when I call a place of business I expect something other than hello. So I asked "Is this _____ Chicken farm?" thinking I might have dialed wrong and he said "yes" I said "Oh good, in your add it says that you have 3 week old chickens is that correct?" His reply "I think so" hmmmm, you answered the phone at a place of business, now im asking you a question that could make your business money and you cant even answer my questions!?! Next question: "Ok good, now how long would I need to keep these chickens in the house with me?" It went silent, he then says "I don't know" I asked if there was anyone I could speak with, apparently there was someone who was more knowledgeable than he was but he/ she wasn't there and when I asked when I could expect a call back from this person to answer my questions I also got the famous answer of "I don't know". So needless to say this place isn't getting any of my money. The lady who owns the place did call back a few hours later and told me it was her son who answers the phone for her because she was sleeping. I told her that I was very disappointed with her customer service and thanked her for returning my call and if I needed anything in the future we would let them know. We went to Big R and got chickens from them. We bought 15 of them, 10 are pullets (or so they say - we will see in the end) I chose 5 tan ones and 5 black ones, and we got 5 out of the strait run barrel - I chose 5 little yellow ones. I am interested to see what they all grow up to look like and how many actually are going to be laying hens. If we end up with a rooster or two it will be ok, they can protect the flock, if we end up with more than that we will end up eating them. Here are some pictures of our new little chicks!

Aleric LOVES them!:
Not a great picture but this is them a little closer:
And of course I had to include one with Aleric touching them (we don't let him hold or play with them):


Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Happy Birthday DAD!

Today is Dad's Birthday - His party was on Sunday, so he got his quilt then but I waited until today to post it here. Its a farm theme quilt with lots of tractors. So here are pictures!

Front:

Back:

Closeup:


Monday, April 11, 2011

Running for dummies?

So for those of you who actually read my blog know I signed up and am now training for the Warrior Dash. I am not a runner, I never have been but hopefully I will be! For the first 2 weeks of my "training" shit just wasnt working out. I had this idea in my mind that each week it would become easier, in fact it just got harder. I started out being able to run for 2 minutes, then I switched to running telephone poles because when trying for time I felt like I was always looking at my watch waiting for the torture of a 2 min dash to end. I figured counting poles was better - at least I could look up at the sky and look around and see where I was going, well it turns out this was also the wrong way to be doing it. I started with being able to run for 4 poles, walk 2, then it went down to run 3 poles, walk 2, then I could barely even run 2 poles before I had to start walking again. So I went on the primal forum and asked for help. Its not that my legs were tired, it was that I couldn't breathe, I would get to the second pole and I would feel like I was about to DIE from exhaustion. Well ask and you shall receive, I got some great ideas on the forum about how to run and how to breathe, the first night I tried to just fix my breathing issues - I ran for 6 poles! When I got home I had lots more replies about how to do long slow distance (LSD) instead of sprinting intervals so that what I tried on Saturday and Sunday, on Saturday I took Tatonka with me and we jogged LSD style all the way to the corner - .75 miles or about 16 poles, and on Sunday I took Orion with me and we jogged LSD style all the way to the corner, took a minute break so I could get a drink, walked 2 poles back and then resumed jogging - all the way home! So now I am finally feeling like I could become a runner and that I will in fact not be laughed off the race course in August. Tonight will be a very welcome walking day with Cocoa Bird and then tomorrow I will again be jogging LSD style with Tatonka, my goal is to go all the way to the corner and all the way home without stopping for a walk break or for a drink.

Monday, April 4, 2011

Prey Model Raw

For a long time now I have been wanting to get my animals on a raw diet. I tried to do BARF with Cocoa about 4 years ago, she hated it. Maybe it was the pureed spinach she didn't like? I don't know but I was very worried about "forcing" her to eat raw meat again. Well as it turns out she had not one issue with the raw meat:
I really didn't think that Tatonka or Orion would have any problem eating raw meat, and I was right, they LOVED it. Usually Orion leaves half of his bowl of kibble just sitting out but with raw meat there is no way he is leaving it to sit there.
So there we go - 3 dogs all eating the raw diet that nature intended them to eat!
Now we just gotta get the cats on raw- but that's another post for another day!

*just want to add that I have been getting a lot of my info from the Prey Model Raw website*

Friday, April 1, 2011

The End of Booby

Most people who know me know that one of the things I hold highest is doing everything you can to do everything you can for your children. You have all seen the ads saying "Breast is Best" well when I got pregnant almost 3 years ago I knew I wanted to breastfeed - you know for at least 6 months. Well once I started learning about all the benefits of breastfeeding I wanted to nurse Aleric for a year. And then that one year became 2 years. Well the time is finally here and Aleric is now officially weaned. My body is once again mine and only mine. Its a time for celebration, my little man is growing up, becoming independent and exploring the world. But at the same time I am sad for us, the time is right - I honestly got to the point where I hated the thought of nursing him because he would bite and kick and try to play with my other nipple and its fucking annoying but you know what I have given him a 2 year kick start in life. We have been working on weaning him for 4 months now. For the first almost 2 years of his life he has been allowed to nurse whenever and wherever he has wanted. In December we went down to 4 times a day, in January we went to 3, In February we went down to 2 times, and then in March we were down to 1, and now in April we are done. He has only been sick two times in more than 2 years. Once he had a fever of 103 and we took him to the ER, they told us to give him Tylenol to break his fever, and the other time he had a runny nose. That it. He has never been sick like all the other kids I hear about, never thrown up or had a stomach bug and I honestly think that's because of the breastfeeding and because we don't vaccinate him and because we try to make sure he eats a very healthy primal diet. So I am now at the end of my breastfeeding journey, and the beginning of the next one.