2009 Winding down. Merry Christmas y'all!

So i realized I havent said much lately. LIfe has been keeping me busy busy busy.
We had our first litter of baby bunnies. They are now 7 weeks old. In a cage in my living room.... spoiled rotten of course. My intention is to make them nice and friendly so they are easy to handle and show. I also have another cage in my living room with a hand me down chick... Tame, cuddly and too little to go outside soo... you guessed it... inside for now. Life has been busy. We are getting eggs from 3 hens including one blue one! Im delighted, thought he leghorn is the only reliable layer. I was tickled to crack their eggs to cook something and see them deep dark redorange yolks. We also have gotten 3 duck eggs! I plan to pull out the incubator tonight and get it up to temp and try hatching me some ducklings. Since we only have one hen I shouldnt be overrun with ducks too quick! Christmas is just a few days away. We didnt do much in the way of gifts this year. Funds are low and our hearts just werent into aimless gifting just to give. I asked for useful gifts.... except a dress I fell in love with... haha. Not to often I ask for a dress for Christmas! But I had a certain style I wanted and I wanted to wear it with boots... If I get it I will have to get the boots next haha. Christmas always seems to stress me out... seems everyone buys gifts just to have something to give... and it seems like such a waste... To me a gift should be something that will make the recipients eyes light up in delight and joy. It should be something the recipient would love to have but could never make themselves buy... because life gets in the way. Even Wyatts gifts this year. His main gifts are usefull or will make his eyes light up. Theres not a glut of toys to overwhelm him so many get forgotten. I want to stay away from that. Soon Christmas will be over and we will have to figure out where the new stuff will go in our little house. I want to start the new year off right... 2010 is coming... I hope things will change for the better. I am hoping for a good garden year, fruit on the trees. I hope to can more food this year, raise some turkeys, and a few chickens and ducks and bunnies.

Sunday Catch up

There is lots new around here.   lots... SO much I forget.  Take pictures but never get them posted.

Aquired our new Tom Turkey.  MONSTER sized and still a youngster. So the critter count is up to

2 Narraganset turkeys

3 ducks (2 male 1 female)

3 Buff Orphinton Chickens (1 roo 2 hens)

1 Bantam cochin hen 

2 Frizzled Cochins (1 roo 1 hen)

2 Silkies (1 roo 1 hen)

2 Americauna Hens

1 White leghorn hen

2 bantam muts 

1 Heeler dog

2 Aussie dogs (still no puppies darn it)

1 Dachshund with a bad back that can barely walk.

1 Sulcata Tortoise

2 Chinchillas (oh yeah we were given the second one this weekend.

2 worthless house cats....

I think thats it for critters.   What else is new... hmmm new kitchen table/breakfast corner nook for our tiny breakfast area.  Looks great.  Much drama bringing it home, it fell out of the back of the truck and the table top got scraped up ...  now we have to refinish it.   Um.. got the transmision fixed in our car so we arent all squeezed in a single cab pickup...      

But I cant dawdle on here any longer... the house is a wreck and I need to get scrubbing!

Soo Sexy! Man Makes Cookies.....

Usually I am the one cooking.....   

unless it comes to cookies, thats the MANS JOB in this house.  

I just love those tough muslced arms... doing something so sweet...hehe.

See that pretty Kitchenaid stand mixer... He bought that for me... I think....

Maybe it was just a conspiracy...

Here I am! Things are always changing!

SO here I am... again

I neglected this blog for quite a while.  Life was busy and things are changing .  

I had high hopes for raising baby Nagansette turkeys (yes I cant spell it today )  but sadly our Sweet old tom lost his life after stupidly flying over the fence into the dog run.  I am hoping his breeder has an extra tom for our girl so I can still work on babies this next spring.  It wont be the same as OUR TOM though.  He was sweet and came running when you whistled.   Now much more has been happening and our paths are changing once again.  After a 2 year hiatus I decided to purchase some show rabbits again.  This is my project with Wyatt.   Though I was strongly eyeing mini rex and still might get a pair I  settled on some Holland lops for sweet huggable personality.  Mainy for Wyatt to work with.  (I really want Velveteen Lops and hope they are accepted for show this November...)   So for the first time in 2 years my barn is powerwashed clean and holding bunnies AND in about a month I am hoping for my first litter from the broken chestnut brood doe I bought.   I will be posting pictures as soon as I get them taken.  Now I need to decide if I want to use our previous C&C prefix or not.  I had and idea for name and logo... Twisted C Rabbits...  With a barbed wire logo.   Not sure yet.   Now the first show I can go to conflicts with my Downtown Art Market booth in November but I think the show is going to win out on this one...   So life is full in my crazy world.   This blog will probably change to reflect a lot more bunny stuff now.  Cause thats what I'm into right now! 

HOT HOT HOT!

I've heard it hit 102.....  holy smoley its hot.
I am not ready for hot, I'm so sluggish and sleepy.
Today is kinda not going well, Last night was night #1 and today day#1 of the baby chickens being outside in the pen with the older two chickens and the young ducks.   All were still alive but one White leghorn roo is all pecked up and bloody.. bad bloody. Possibly going to have to be put down...Ok... one chicken and a roo at that I can handle that... bloodthirsty little buggers...  All the ducks were fine and accounted for.. they have been outside for a while and been fine..  An hour later Mike comes home and goes out there and hollers theres a duck down... one little brown hen cant get up... he sets her up and puts her by the water and she drinks...  seems to be reviving some... but what the heck she was FINE a little while ago.. has the swimming hole to swim in and drink out of... Now one of the black ducks is limping and resting a lot...  Geeze...  
all are eating and drinking and walking around so we shall see what tommorow brings..
I need a dang nap~!

Not too talkative....

Here I am...
Not so chatty this last week or so...  Realized the last time I blogged was April 20th so figured I would post something.   We had 9 chicks hatch on the 21st.  Mike has been getting crazier with the sawzall.  That suburban is looking crazier....  I cringe when I look at it.   He hauled it home today from the shop and people stared....  glad I wasnt with him.   Wild thing came up sick last night while spending the night visiting his mimi.   Pretty much a nasty cold, but with him coughing and congestion aggravate some reflux issues he has had occasionally and he ends up wheezing and puking and miserable.   If we can keep medicine down him without him going projectile with it he clears up fast.  Poor baby.  He slept for a couple hours on the couch in Mike's office because he refused to be 10 feet from his Daddy wihthout having a hissy fit like only a sick kidlet can and working himself up and getting sicker.    I picked up a few things yesterday and today for my jewelry makeing.   Bought myself an early mothers day present...  3 small nautilus pendants.  2 cut in half and one whole.  Suspended them on a chain along with a silver coral branch that I have.  Its pretty awesome.  Now this is a farm girl blog so I better get some farmy stuff on here I guess.   We got ALL the tomatoes and peppers planted and Mike's cauliflower.  I noticed the onion seeds I had given up on just started coming up.  I planted radishes and the cauliflower where they are since it was weeks ago that they were planted.  We shall see what comes out of it.    The ducks are getting big.  I am overrun with little bitty chickens.   Need to weed through and get rid of roosters and the breeds i dont want.  I have some adorable mixed breed bantams and layer chicks I figure I'll sell.  I have someone bringing me Blue and Green Americauna eggs to hatch.  we are going to split whatever hatches 50/50.   Full sized breeds I plant to stick with Buff Orphingtons and the Americaunas.   THe Bantams, I think I will keep the silkies, the polish and the cochins,  though I'm undecided.  There are 2 sultans, a hanfful of Brahmas and a few mystery breeds.  The mystery chickens will go for sure.     The ducks are driving me crazy.  They are disgusting!      I plant to get some more rows tilled out for squash and zucchini and a few other things,  I need to figure out where to plant birdhouse gourds and the snake gourds.    I also want to look for some louffa seeds.  Cant remember what else I wanted..... We are hearing thunder,  and its getting late. Tommorow we are doing major house cleaning.  Battery is dead on the camera again so pictures will come later.
Night y'all!

Weekend Pics...

Heres a snip of the supercrazybusy weekend...

RRC works on his creation..

one step closer.... GAWD ITS GOING TO BE UGLY...

His assistant is overcome...

His backup arrives to lend a hand.

Boredom with the CREATION overcomes me so...

I wander off and build a small raised bed. Yep its not so pretty but the only thing that cost money wast the plants so I aint gonna complain.

Then plant all the peppers from the first shopping trip.
And the camera dies so I cant get more pictures for the day.

Oh well I have lots to plant today and lots of pictures to take.

More to come!

Busy Busy Weekend LOOONG!

Saturday:

-Bought dogfood at TSC

-Hubby took me to Ivey Gardens - one of the few places withthe multipacks of veggies.  Got Peppermint, Spearmint, Mint, Roma Toms, Sweet 100 toms, Yellow pear toms, Tam Jalapenos, Black Beauty Bells, and Cayenne peppers I think.   $32.00

-Tilled garden

-Built raised bed from Cinder blocks(free!)  to plant Peppers in... pics to come.

-Shoveled a zillion pounds of Bunny poo from the barn into the raised bed.

-Planted peppers

-Moved ducks outside

-Released oldest chicks into barn

-RRC got the back of the cab partially installed on the Suburban... pics to come. Jeff Helped... Wyatt occupied Jeffs girls playing in the yard.

-Delivered Wild thing to The Grandparents for his Saturday sleepover and then went to Walgreens for Aloe...

-Drug inside and lazed around and finally took a shower... came out to find RRC crashed out on the couch asleep.  Coulndt wake him up even yelling at him... so aloed up and went to bed.... He NEVER woke up.. Slept ont he couch all night.  The only time in 11 years!!!!   

SUNDAY:

-Super cleanedliving room and part of kitchen...

-Rearranged house... Much less cluttered looking now.   

-Cleaned some more and started sorting clutter and getting rid of it. 

-Ran to home Depot and got 2 Tomatillos, 1 Yellow bell, 1 Orange Bell, 1 Gypsey Sweet Pepper, 1 Red Bell, 2 Early Girl toms, Cauliflower(RC picked those)  Veggies were BUY ONE GET ONE!   YAY!  $16!!!

-Stopped by RC parents house and FIL gave us 2 Sweet 100, 2 Celebrity, 1 Super Fantastic toms.  FREE!

-Came home and created beds and planted all the Home Depot plants expect the Gypsey and Yellow Bell.   Found Saturdays tomatoes dried up and wilted.. looked dead... soaked with water and revived half of them.  Planted FIL Toms, half the Romas from Sat.   

-Just came in a little while ago and discovered the incubator CHIRPING!   New little yellow featherleg chick.    

-Now we are heating up leftovers from lunch and being lazy!   

Tommorow I get to plant all the rest of the surviving toms (2 packs of romas and 2 Sweet 100's, Haul out more cinder blocks and block around one of the beds and start another.   YIKES I need a vacation!   

** I will be editing this to add pictures.... The camera battery died so it will have to be tommorow.

OUCH!

Lots to talk about... but it will have to wait until tommorow... hopefully.. Its late and I am so sunburnt and windburnt its scary... We just got home from a run to drop kiddo with his grands and stop at Walgreen for aloe with lidocaine.  I am going to take a ton of tylenol or whatever painkiller I can find first,   take a shower and get all the garden grime off me and take my cooked ass to bed.   Its been a productive Saturday..... hopefully I survive sunday.

Stormy Thursday... Bright and sunny weekend ahead.

Nasty nasty storms rolled through last night. Tornado warnings and actual tornadoes ina few areas. Hail in massive amounts... 4-7inches up near Tulia.... yes 4-7 INCHES! They had to use snowplows. It was pretty scary at our house for alittle while, rotation over us, hail in the bucket loads.... Wind howling. One of the windows leaked.. I hate that. Cant figure out WHERE its leaking either.. but when the wind is blowing sideways things that dont leak seem to leak. I started blogging about all of it last night but we ended up bailing out and heading to the in laws to deposit Wild Thing at their house for the night. They have a basement and we dont. He loves it.



I plan to try to get part of the garden done this weekend. Tomatoes in. A few other things maybe too. Haul cinderblocks out to the garden for a new bed I am making. Hunt down some giant sunflower seeds. I think I will plant a big row of them on the south side to shield the garden some. Need some potting soil for my big metal tubs that are going to be planted with herbs. I bought an oregano, parsley, globe basil(new to me) , and something else I cant remember. I want mint and a few other herbs. Need to convince RRC to finish another section of his picket fence around the front so I can take the cattle panel fencing thats there and use it in the garden.
We also get to clean house. Yikes the rain makes a mess. Muddy paw prints etc. There is so much to get done. I think if theres no chance of storms the baby chickens will go out for the first time and the ducks will spend the weekend outside. Maybe move the house chicklets out into the brooder. I swear some of the eggs in the incubator were chirping this morning. It think hatch day is the 20th or 21st. Since one egg hatched 4 days into incubation I am expecting anything...haha.

I am trying to come up with a low budget way to pen up RRC's heeler outside. He wigged out during the storms again and this time destroyed the tray to his crate. Chomped it to peices. Destructive nuerotic beast. Cant leave him loose in the house, cant leave him outside.

So much to do an the weekends are so short...
Yikes.

Mike & Wyatt...

Mike hates having his picture taken.

Oh well I say to bad so sad....

He is my favorite subject besides Wild Thing Wyatt.

Easier too... He sits still a LOT more than Wyatt.

Mike is no pretty boy.

I managed to snap some rare pictures of him at the last 4x4

run in Post.

Waiting and Watching

That hat sure was scary. Its gone now.

Woman will you stop with the damn camera.

So you met Mike... the love of my life...

Then there is the center of our world. The boy...

Wild Thing Wyatt... 

The dismantler of things

No screwdriver is safe he WILL find it

He will take something apart.

He is fascinated by trucks and tires..

and horses

and anything cowboy

he will tell you HE is a cowboy.

He has cowboy boots

and cowboy pants (aka wranglers)

and his cowboy jacket( a wellworn used carhart thats 2 sizes to big...)

He will tell you he rides horses... and rescues them(um we dont have horses....)

He has his own lasso

and his cowboy wallet.

And momma loves every second of it.

See I'm one of those women that always dated cowboys...

but somehow married a NOT cowboy...

But still got my own little cowboy out of the deal...

Presenting:

Wild Thing Wyatt

Yeah yeah... you'll see more of him later...

this is about all anyone gets though..

He never stops moving...

Unless hes taking something apart

or putting something where it shouldnt be

or creating some kind of horrible mess.

He loves dirt and rocks and mud puddles and water

and flooding the bathroom.

I need a nap just thinking about the chaos he can create...

The man and his crazy ideas....

So I mentioned yesterday that Mike was working on a new crazy ass project. Heres a little background: December2008... a friend tells me he needs to rid himself of a 4x4 suburban, how much I ask thinking of my dear RRC... $200... Mikecant get the thing home fast enough... With a little tinkering and some huge ass tires added we have a running monster on its way to Post, Texas to play with the 4wheel drive club. Its ugly, its HUGE... but it works and was cheap. 

Who needs a jeep anyways?

Here it is on its first Post run Valentines day of all days...

Happy Freaking Valentines day to me...

it was Cold...

It Thunderstormed

and

instead of rain it was ice pellets....

But there are some problems with running a beast like this rockcrawling.... The long wheelbase can get you into binds like this:

Where the jeeps can just toodle on around and get out... the Beast ended up jammed up good... So RRC decides modifications are needed to improve the BEAST.

Oh crap says I... as the sawsall comes out.

Yesterday he went to work....

At this point I got bored and the horendous noise of cutting metal annoyed me so I wandered off to attack the garden with the tiller after making Mike stop and show me how to start the tiller for the MILLIONTH time... 

Then RRC starts hollering at me and I look up and see this:

See why I wasnt so happy about the thought of the sawsall?

Yesterdays final product was THIS:

But Mike isnt done yet..... 

From what I caught before I slip into a psychotic coma listening to him

he intends to cut off the back behind the rear tires to shorten the length...

and he has aquired the cab of a pickup to weld behind the rear doors.

Esentually making it a crew cab pickup but shorter ala Chevy Avalanche

Why BUY one when you can MAKE one

I just shake my head and walk away...

I think I need to go buy some more chickens to calm myself....

Just wait hes not done yet

I told you you were in for a wild ride?