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What Did Crazy Husband do???? or.... PRESENTING LEVI !!!!

So my birthday is coming up.... The big 30!  
I told Crazy Husband that I was tired of never getting any nice (meaning any) presents or doing anything fun!   I ASKED for a night out on the town with friends and for him to take me dancing and to buy me something nice that I would cherish....  

Instead he informed me he needed a chunk of cash!
Why...  because he was going to buy me something for my birthday he said he never would ever buy me!
    I thought it was going to be a PUPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

He heads off the next night telling me he will be late...  and comes home and informs me he is
going to show me a picture and take me to see my present because it wont be ready until July! 

It wasnt a puppy!

HE BOUGHT ME A MINIATURE HORSE!  

Presenting: 

LEVI

He is a 2 month old Paint Miniature Horse.

His left eye is marbled blue.

At first I was in shock and terrified... I've never had horses of my own..  All my experience is with other peoples horses at their places....  ALL of my experience is with BIG HORSES...  these little guys are TINY!     Its been 4 days of visiting him and I am totally in LOVE.   He adores being brushed and is having to learn that when the human stops brushing you cannot nip or paw her to get her to brush more!   Hes like a big PUPPY!   He is learning "NO"  and to ask nicely for attention.  I melt when he  oh so gently snuffles my hadn to get me to brush him some more!      I am trying to convince Crazy Husband that he will be lonely here all by himself(he wont come home for  a few months! )   and we need to get his half brother....  I think if it happens I will name him Wrangler or Ariat....   NO ONE has mini foal halters around here... I got lucky and put an ad on craigslist and someone had one to sell me... and I was offered another little mini mare!   I just cant see affording her right now though.   Shes pretty but NOT handled much,  worries me because they have to be safe for the Crazy Boy to be around!        Now we are rushing to get everything figured out and ready for him!

Happenings....

Time slips away to fast!   

Suffering from drought and a broken tiller the garden isnt even done... 

Father-in-law came out and planted tomatoes in the raised bed at least.

Got a "flower bed" built in the yard for peppers, parsley, basil and an atrichoke and rosemary.

Have chicks coming out my ears...  even though my hatch rates are horrible!  

2 hens hatched chicks and one more is setting. 

Trying to get baby bunnies AGAIN.

Bought a new Holland baby at a show recently... housepet :-)

succumbed to guinea pig itis...

A pair of Silkie Guinea pigs- the girl is fat pregnant.

They already scream for treats regularly.

Neighbor busted out a window on the house with the mower...

Replaced it with smaller better suited window. 

We have another batch of kittens uggh...

Put my doves outside in their big cage hoping they would nest and raise babies

That stupid wild cat killed all of them!

Wild cat is only tolerated because he/she never bothers our animals.

Tolerated no more!

We have peaches on our tree this year!   Not many but exciting!

Father in law has plums and apricots too! 

Aunt has pears

Friend has apples.

Hoping for a nice haul to can this summer.  

Hoping my ummph holds out.

Hmmm have I forgotten anything?

The Year Texas Burned....

2011....   Record breaking drought...  and wildfires.  
We are luckily pretty safe where we are at.  Enough cottonfield and tended cropland surround us to keep fire at bay if needed....    Its pretty scary right now.   So dry breathing is uncomfortable.    The sirens of the firetrucks are a common occurance even here.   Some areas are getting hammered with horrible fires.   Today we had a fire around the corner from us.   Arson to make it even worse... kids...   burned a yard and a line of pine trees.   Standing outside chatting with a neighbor we saw the smoke puff and then the plume of fire above the trees and rooftop.   Scary.   Tuesday on the way home I passed the burned patch of a small grassfire along the highway....  smoking and starting to burn again.  I called it in and they said it was put out a few hours before.... missed a spot I guess.    We pray for rain.... and the safety of all the firefighters.   I have never experienced fires in Texas that I remember them bringing in airplanes to fight with...   Its always been forrest and mountains that needed that!      

On a more positive note..... we have chicks in the brooder home hatched... hatch rate wasnt so hot. 9 of 25 eggs.   Another big batch in the incubator.   Moved the incubator out of thehouse into the barn....  we shall see how they hatch out there...  downsized the rabbit cages to make room for chick raising....   Still no bunny babies.  Hoping to make it to a show about an hour away and consider adding some stock.    Got our first turkey egg today.   Cant WAIT to raise turkey babies!   Considering getting out of raising ducks...  of course if I get any to hatch that may change....  they are tooo cute.. until they grow up.    Having to redo a bird run this weekend...   Oh and we have doves now!  Diamond doves.   Hoping they settle in and raise babies soon.  

Probably lotsmore to talk a bout... but too much to get done for now.  

Incubator goodness.....

I survived the back injury ordeal...  2 weeks of misery and I am still ouchy from time to time and weak when it comes to bending and picking anything up.  I hate it! 

But I have good news!   The stryfoam incubator I had that got mauled by chickens while sitting outside drying after a hatch?!  Its rebuilt nice and fancy!   I enlisted the help of a cabinet maker named Davy that I went to high school with.   He was talking on facebook about making jewelry boxes and I sent him my request and he was willing to take it on!   For a mere $30 my incubator is running again!   (He did say if I did another one it would be more... haha.  seems it was more complicated than he thought.)   So introducing:

  I had to install the fan today.   I tried a smaller one and no go.... took forever to come up to temp.  So I went with the original computer fan setup I had before but made a deflevtor and now it is coming up to temp a LOT faster.  I still have to find something for the bottom to hold water but its awesome!  

There is no finish on it... I am going to pick up a little woodburner kit tommorow and "draw" a little.  thinking some chickens and feathers burned into it and then stain and seal it.    It is too dang cool!   Eventually I may just take the other styro one to him too  and have him make another!   If anyone needs an awesome incubator bo built I know the man for the job!  

I am hoping to be better about updating soon....  trying to be more organised....   not an easy thing for me.. the queen of frazzled!   Trying to get the garden actually started and going....  Did figure out the mint AND the oregano came back!  YAY!    Going to be busy though.. my little cowboy starts horseback riding lessons tommorow!   He is soo  excited!   Next school year he is elligable for boy scouts and then in a couple years 4H....  I cant wait!   Hoping he stays interested in the things I am looking forward to!   

Goodnight Y'all!

Ouch.... and incubator thoughts.

So yesterday I didnt even mention that I hurt myself.

Bending down to pick up a little box I felt a rubberband twange type sensation in my lower back.
Woooweee! About put me on the ground! This morning I was in even more pain. My sweeheart helped me get dressed. A visit to the doc was in order. Muscle Relaxers, Painkillers and a steroid shot and I am home laid up. Moving hurts, walking is miserable, sitting... miserable. Laying down is uncomfortable, but I can find ways to lay that dont hurt. I am NOT liking this!
AND
I am BORED....
So I am thinking of designs for an incubator... I have a almost new little giant incubator that the stryfoam was damaged where it cant be used. Um.. seems chickens think stryfoam is tasty...
I am trying to think of ways to use the guts of this incubator and make another nice one... wish I could move enough to get it done..haha.









But until then I shall think, and nap. Think its about naptime now.... meds are making me sleepy!

Wildfire....

Today has been a heck of a day... and its not over yet!

We got moving early to get some work done outside before the wind picked up.   I got another pen set up for the little dog so I could get my chicken pen back.  (Now that they are back in their pen they keep escaping dang it!)
Hubby got the mower going and scalped part of the garden.  
We had to get ready for a benefit lunch we were asked to attend and the wind was picking up.
A strong howl by the time we got to lunch it was raging when we got home.
It has howled all day long.  
And the wildfires started all over the region.   5,000 acres burned west of us before contained,  as I type there are numerous out of control wildefires, Borger was evacuated we heard,  Matador evacuated and last report was Roaring Springs was under watch.   Fires by Earth, Colorado City, Midland, Post.
A few small fires in our immediate area.   The wind is dieing down finally,  but its hard to relax and I worry we wont get much sleep tonight.   So much dust in the air its coating my laptop as I type.  Its horrible!    

2011 Garden and Farm Plan

OK I havent talked much in quite a while... but here I am!

Getting Spring fever!

Making lists of what I want to plant in the garden
Plotting some raised type beds
Changing the layout of my garden.
Plotting the fight against the weeds that will come

Just started researching something new to plant... mostly for the boys enjoyment...
The boy LOVES peanuts...
So I am going to try to grow our own!

Hopefully I can get motivated this weekend to clear out the raised bed and add some new loose soil...
Planning to plant:  Onions, Garlic, maybe Shallots.
Then: Spinach and Salad greens, lettuce etc.

Of course the usual plantings later. Tomatoes & Peppers. 
I also want to make an Asparagus bed.
Maybe try strawberries again... 

Maybe we will get the Husbands "garden" done...
He wants to make a spot out back for corn and watermelon and pumpkins.

Its a lot to get done in our spare time.

I have had the incubator running for a few days to test.  I just started getting eggs again... and our first duck egg.  
Today I am seperating the cochins
 and silkies and maybe the lone Gold Laced Wyandotte with a glw roo....  I lost my Americauna roo sadly so no purebreds from them this year like I had planned.

But its time to get moving!

Finding winter hobbies ....

Besides cooking... with the colder weather I get the crafty bug....
This week I pulled out my sewing machine that I bought about 7-8 years ago... I sewed a little fleece snuggly pillow case for our Doxie Daisy and then put it up for some reason.   It has sat since then..   Fired it up yesterday... kept balling the thread up and couldnt figure out what I was doing wrong.   Begged for help on Homesteadingtoday.com's sewing forum and managed to get it going right again.  Now I need to find or download the manual and get me some fabric and start playing.   Maybe one day I can make myself some cute clothes!   In the mean time I hope to make a couple of ideas I have in my head for Christmas presents....      Dont laugh at my attempts please!

Cakes.....

What I've been up to lately:

Fondant Cake #1....   

My favorite so far!  
I did a grave digger monster truck cake for the boy, I also did a death by brownie cake for hubby: brownies layered with caramel and chocolate syrup and then topped with a chocolate cream cheese frosting.    Then I did a tiramisu  pink monkey cake for my sister in law and a big pumpkin cake for a friends little girl's 5th birthday party.   I am loving making these cakes.      

Party Plans on the brain

Well we are down to 5 days before the party... Invitations are out.

Yesterday I constructed tire shaped cake pops...

The pictures did NOT come out.. sorry

Another batch of pops is in the freezer waiting. 

I have all my cake mixes ready

Pans ready

Wednesday night I will begin baking.

Thursday and Friday I will start decorating.

Saturday is the birthday party.

I am soo nervous about these cakes.

one is going to be chocolate...

the other banana cream.  

Party colors are Black and Green.

As part of the party favors I bought white tshirts

died them brown using tea.  yep tea!

Then we are going to imprint mud tire tracks in black.

 To match the invitations. 

Too much fun! 

ok where to start..... hmmm

I cant recall all the things I planned to blog about.

So I'll skip ahead.

The boy has a birthday coming up.

5

Can you believe it?

So I am planning a nifty birthdays party for him

You only turn 5 once,  

and he starts school a couple weeks later.

He wanted monster trucks.

So I am planning a big cool cake.

But..

Ive never decorated a cake before

My mom did amazing cakes when I was a kid.

I did sculpting in high school and was pretty darn good.

Plus all the art classes.

and now my Jewelry.

So i've been playing.

Marshmallow fondant.

Hoping I can make a passable mud tire.

and a two tier monster truck cake.

Specifically

Grave digger colors.

Bright green and black

well more brown than black

I hate black icing.

Hoping to be able to figure out tire tracks all over the cake.

and a little monster truck for the top.

(a toy one)

 Wish me luck!-

What am i......

One of the cochins I picked up.. not as pretty.

But wondering if she is a lavender(Self blue).

 

Rootser

Another what am I... American game?  I am bantam sized with big attitude.

  

And the Wyandottes...

I think there are two hens and a roo......

what am i?

New Babies...........

Mamma Turkey did it...

4 turkey poults alive and kicking...100% hatch for her!

I almost took them away,  when I got home one was on the lamb running around alone....

But she cried and cried when I took them so I penned them up and she is fussing over them.

I added the one that hatched in the incubator today also.

The corral will be moved into the barn tonight and a heat lamp put over one end and food and water put in there.   Toms gonna have to sleep somewhere else I think... not sure if I can leave him in there or not.

The new girls and a finally a picture of Paquito

Paquito

The ad said black and white Cochins

I thought they meant  Black Cochins and White Cochins..

They were Two of these little pretty girls.....   

Silver Laced Cochins!! 

I am soo excited!    

I also got 3 little chicks that I think are silver laced... We shall see.... 

The Boy wanted a red one.... so we picked this little girl.... There was one I liked

better but she had extra toes like a silkie 

There is a little pale blue girl too but shes roughed up fro the roo and the pic didnt come out. 

Here is the other little girl. 

Craigslist...

Ad on craigslist for cochins... Hens & chicks....
Red, Black, Blues & Whites....
Im gonna call here in a few...
gonna get me some more babies!!!!

Paquito and the Cochin Saga...

Re-Introducing:  

Paquito!

 (Pictures to come later!)

See last year I went into chicken overload....  the chickens were destroying my garden,   I only had one pen,  

The first Turkey tom was regularly stomping my chickens to death...and the ducks to death.... 

I decided to weed down what I had and called one of my dearest friends that is also infected with Chickenbuyitis...  "Want a whole bunch of chickens?" said I?   

"Hell yes"  says she.....  and she takes flight to my house....

In a frenzy the like of only spur of the moment decision can be...

I stuffed half the 30 ish...something young chickens I had in her boxes... 

Buff Orphingtons,  Mixes, sultans, Duccle mixes,  and a couple of cochin roos....

half the ducks.... 

 I kept a blue cochin roo and a frizzle roo....

uh yeah...

guess what...

about the time my young cochin hens stared laying 

Both croaked

So my cochin hens have been penned mostly with a silkie roo.

whew...talk about some freaky little babies.

Especially the frizzled ones.

 Now I have 3 pens(4 counting the duck pen) and the "barn"

 I have a young little roo but hes not breeding age yet and all I wanted this year was

cochin babies....

Wait wait wait wait... and was getting impatient...

and I got by my dear sweet friends house and what do I see.

This studly little shiney black hottie named Paquito!

WHERE did you get THAT GUY I ask..

YUP.... 

I gave her that little hottie...

after much begging and pleading 

he is at my house 

"visiting some hot mammas!"

and hopefully here in a few weeks!

Cochin babies!

Plan is once Squeaky the baby roo is old enough... or I have a good set of babies..

Paquito will go home.. 

:-(

Now I really have to decide my focus.

Cochins for sure

Silkies 2nd

Amerucaunas (gotta have blue eggs!)

Butt the Buff Orphintons?

Currently all my big hens are running with my Americauna roo

The buff roos are in the "roo pen" with a little mutt roo

I have a batch of white leghorns due next week... to go with my 2 hens

What to do!

5 breeds... 3 pens...

The man wont let me sell off the ducks....

the turkeys will eventually need a pen when the babies are bigger...

Plus a friend brought me a dozen Rio Grande Turkey eggs...and 3 dozen guinea eggs.

Im pulling my hair out!  

I keep telling myself..  3 breeds  3 breed only!

BUT I WANT THEM ALL!

oh yea... I have a Production Red and a Black sexlink hen out there too....

*sigh*

I have to decide for sure by the end of the summer....

I am NOT keeping all 

Oh yeah.. there are the gold laced Wyandottes too.....  crap...

Sunday....

I am just now getting up....10:00am  cold medicine induced much needed sleep.
The boy is at church with his grandparents.
The man is mowing.

I brought the turkey babies back inside last night.
The heat yesterday was unbearable and even without a heatlamp they were suffering.
The suicide 5 had faded and just werent thriving.
The brooder in the barn is a wire bottom and they just couldnt handle it.
So they are happily scratching in shavings again and peeping away.
I threw a piece of bread in there last night and caused a riot.
Not a sign of it this morning.

I hope the clouds stick around today.  It was too bright and too sunny yesterday.
I have so much to get done and no energy.
Im still congested and coughing some and it erodes my energy fast.
But I think the man is mending.
He napped and layed around favoring his knee yesterday and maybe it helped

But I need to get moving.  I am adventuring into the boys cave today in an attempt to irradiate the chaos.
I got a little done yesterday and he launched a counter assault and pulled all the "lost" toys out again....
 That room is scary!

Living for the Weekend...

Finally this week is over!   

My cold finally bested me on Thursday and I stayed home from work

and slept most of the day.

Worked Friday but man was I feeling yucky.

Today I can tell I am improving 

I think.

Still coughing and congested.

But there is a LOT to get done around here.

Spring cleaning here never ever ends....

After being down and out for a week with the boys in charge.

I scrubbed my kitchen clean... whew men are the messiest cooks.

Now it is sparkling, I almost dont want to cook and mess it up.

Husband is gimping... his knee is hurting him really bad and we dont know why.

He didnt DO anything to it...

I moved the baby turkeys to the brooder cages in the barn...  

Its nice not having the brooder tubs in the house.  I am thinking we may not do that again.  

I hope the youngest ones adjust ok. 

Mamasita (turkey)is still sitting on her 4 eggs I think they are due to hatch June 1st.

Our current due dates are:

Chicks  5/25

Ducks 6/1

Turkeys 6/1(Mama & Incubator)

Chicks 6/ 2

Bunnies 6/5

Bunnies 6/6 ( 2 litters) 

Ducks/Turkeys  6/9

I need to get off my hiney and plant more in the garden this weekend.

Ive been putting it off.

I think we are going to the library today.

and the park.

Tuesday..silence... a rare thing.

 The view from my front door this afternoon

We are having ac issues today in our little farm "shack"(what I call this place when something goes wrong)

I think its cooling off now.  Not sure what its malfunction was but it does this about 3 times a year... Either when I am sick(like today of course) or it is a bazillion degrees outside.   So the man and his trusty sidekick went to town to get something for said malfunctioning unit of comfort.   

The only sound I hear is turkey poults peeping.  All 5 of the suicide clan are still kicking... saw one eat this morning...  hope hope...

I drug my hacking sneezing self outside and divvied up chickens for the billionth time... Im trying to find the right combo of hens and roos and pens and chaos to keep the extra banty mutt roos from muddying my breeding plans.   Hubby wont let me GET RID OF THE MUTTS... so I am stuck juggling roos.   I decided my production red and black sexlink hens are going in with the Buff Orphingtons.  The white leghorn hens went in with the Americaunas.  

Now I have an empty pen... 

with plans to hopefully convince my friend to let me borrow her pretty Paquito... 

 a littly fluffy manly black cochin roo... since  I am cochin rooless and want cochin chicklets... 

and my little bitty baby cochin roo is just getting his crow...  and earned himself the name Squeaky(eee..Eeeee.EEEE says Squeaky!.)  

Got that done.. moved the chicklets that were in the house in a rubbermaid brooder out to the barn to the "brooder/rabbit cage"...  yay! no more stink for now...  the turkey brooder box is still inside... but for some reason they dont stink...    So I accomplished a little bit today.   I am patting my icky sick self on the back for that..... 

It is a gloriously beautiful evening so far and sucks to not feel good enough to be working outside.  

Parsley, Oregano and Mints.

Our little fish pond is full of lilypads and goldfish.

Walking (topsetting) Onions 

saved from an old homestead a few miles from us 

that was about to be plowed under.

The place was a field of these growing wild 

 The first tomato of the season.  

A "Black" heirloom variety. 

I need to remember to save the seeds!