It would be nice to sleep late on my birthday, but it didn't happen. I figured since I got up so early I may as well write a little. My mind clicked on this morning and I was laying there thinking of all of the things I need to do...or want to accomplish in the next week or so. We are due to have some pretty bad storms in a few hours, but since it is pitch black outside, I don't want to attempt chores outside yet.
Our owl is back, and they like to hunt early...usually, and I have already lost one rooster to the owl, or a feral cat that has been hanging around in the yard. I could go outside and put feed out, but since it is going to rain, I prefer to put the feeders in the coops so the food doesn't get watered down...they won't eat it then and if I open the doors they will come pouring outside. I will have to wait until the sun rises...be patient and just have some coffee I guess. I have already had one mug of coffee, about to go get a second one...I will probably need it today. Today I will more than likely get wet, about the time I go outside we are supposed to have an 80% chance of rain and it increases to 100% by 9:00am. It will be a rain coat and rubber boots kind of day. I am glad I got straw spread yesterday and a few of the smaller coops mucked out. I did not have my garden cart to haul the muck away though...so I made a couple of piles and need to get it into a muck bucket and hauled off. Not exactly a glamorous or fun thing to do on your birthday...but neither is falling into the muck which gets rather slick when it rains.
This past year was kind of tough, my husbands business has dropped off some which is not a good sign. I sold some turkeys, ducks, chickens and geese this year...but not near enough to make up the difference. I need to get my breeding pens finished and get rid of a ton of excess roosters...OK, maybe 50 roosters or so, they are eating machines and they gang up on my hens and the egg production is way down to his time of year anyway. They need to go. I have one coop with 13, one coop with 21 and three pens with about 22, but need to select a few to keep. Then I need to pen up some others that I want to keep to thin the numbers down...who am I kidding, I probably need to get rid of 100 roosters or more! At least it was just a mixed breed rooster that got eaten last week, my Double Laced Blue Barnvelder just disappeared...but he may have jumped the fence and got picked off by something, I just didn't find any of his feathers.
Since it is raining today, we may take down the Christmas tree...I usually leave it up until the day after my birthday, but since my husband is home today...maybe we can get it done quicker together and haul the decorations out to the shed between storms or later today. My husband doesn't normally take anything but Christmas Day off, or New Year's Day, but after several days with no customers he decided since everyone else was closed downtown, he would close too. When it rains, he rarely has any customers either. Here lately we have actually been talking about moving to a different area, a town with a bigger population. I imagine if we do, I will be selling off my flocks...or leave them for who ever we sell the house to. We are going to give it another year, but if business keeps dropping...it will be tough going with so many mouths to feed. But, spring will be easier to reduce my flocks numbers too...people just don't normally want non-laying hens over the winter. I started looking at housing prices and what is available more in central Texas around Tyler and Temple, but if he is going to continue with his computer shop we need someplace that has a bigger customer base and high speed internet...not satellite. Since the town he has his shop only has a population of about 5,500 we probably need at least a city of 20,000 or so. I still want to live in an area that has land though, I would love at least five acres so I can have some chickens. I guess we shall see what happens, maybe with a different president things will get better. If not, I will continue to search small towns and see what might work for both of us. I don't have to have chickens, but if I don't...I want a nice workshop/studio space.
Anyway...I hope you are as happy about living another year as I am! I am thankful for every day I have on this earth. I use to take life for granted...things change when you get cancer and live through it. Flowers smell sweeter, the grass looks greener, rainbows look brighter...you enjoy the sound of the rain on the roof more. So, today on my 58th year of life...I want to wish each and every one of you reading this a Happy Birthday! It may not actually be the day of your birth, but I hope you discover the joy of being alive one more year too, because each day we live is full of promise, yet each day is not promised...so make the most of every day you wake up to see!
Monday, January 2, 2017
Sunday, January 1, 2017
Happy New Year!?
Ok, I should have written more last month...but, I was sick and when I felt pretty good I had to play catch up with my chores. It is not much fun mucking out pens and digging drainage ditches and winterizing coops when you have no energy. As long as I took severe cold medication regularly I didn't feel awful, but got a lot of headaches doing my chores...but I just heard about something called Cedar Fever and am wondering if maybe that is why I have been having issues for over a month now. We have a ton of Cedar trees in this area, it seems like every time I go outside I get a headache. But, when you have a farm...you do what you gotta do.
We had company for Christmas and my husband and I managed to get a tree up and decorated, a little shopping done and gifts wrapped before they came. Mainly just stuff for the young grandchildren this year, although I did get my husband a few items of necessary clothing...lol, yep socks and underwear...and some jeans, he has worn holes in favorites. My son got me a new coffee maker, which I really appreciate, my old one had taken to leaking all over the counter when you put water in the tank...I had it sitting in a tray to catch the leaks. I also got a couple of gift cards and will be going shopping soon with those...I am just trying to figure out what I need the most. I may end up buying new tires for my garden cart...I use it a lot and just had a major blowout or rubber rot, I need never flats! My husband got me a Tens unit, I have been trying not to take as many pain killers and the Tens is what they used on me when I went to pain management for my back, he also got me a Truffle kit and a cheese kit...maybe I will make some soon, I needa few gallons of milk which I forgot to get at the store the last time I went. Lol, he also got me some Chicken Poop lip balm...I am an admitted Chapstick-abolic, it will come in handy...and no, it doesn't contain chicken poop!
Our weather has been warm and muggy, very cloudy for the past few weeks and fog on a lot of mornings. It has actually been near 80 a few times and that is unusual for around Christmas. We have had pretty major temperature swings too. It will be cold at night...like in the upper twenties and the next day get up to 78. I did finally get all the tarps and plastic up on my coops and got one door built for the breeding pens, I still have a long way to go getting the four finished. I just haven't had the energy, and have been staying in the house more because of the humidity and damp conditions...I still have a cough too. I need to get them finished, it would probably take me a week if I worked on them every day. I just need a break in the weather. I can build the doors in the shed, but the framing and stuff for the runs is all outside work and I need my garden cart to haul all of the tools out there. It makes it easier because the compressor and the table saw are kind of awkward and heavy to carry and I need a couple of very long extension cords strung out there to operate them too. By the time I hand carried everything, I would probably be kind of tuckered out and not have much time to work before I had to haul it all back. I gotta feed the poultry at least an hour before dark so I can get the turkeys put up. I have also been feeding the ducks and geese after the chickens are mostly roosting, most of the time they will not eat from the same troughs as the chickens and the chickens follow me to each trough as I fill them. I just want to make sure they are getting enough to eat...the male geese I have picked up feel light to me, so do some of the ducks I have managed to pick up. They free range but we have had several freezes and the grass is not really growing any more.
Last night was New Year's Eve, we just watched a movie and didn't even fix dinner...I fixed us a batch of steak nachos for lunch at almost 2:00pm and neither of us was hungry enough to bother. We had a couple of cookies and a piece of banana nut bread later in the evening. We only stayed up until about 10:15...so no midnight happenings here. Our neighbors set off fireworks at around 9:00, it was driving the dogs nuts...some of them sounded like explosions and I could feel the blast waves. I didn't even bother looking out the window. I am sure if I acted alarmed, it would not have helped the dogs anxiety. Bailee tends to jump up on the couch if she hears things and looks out the window, we just had to keep reassuring them it was OK, kinda like when birds set off the driveway alarm. I get up and look to make sure it is not an egg customer...but some days it happens every few minutes and I stop looking after awhile. If someone is out there Bailee will let me know...she barks when necessary. Sophie seems to bark at every sound some days, all three of them together...I know someone or something is outside. It is funny that I can tell now, when they are in the backyard and I am in the chicken yard the difference between their barks and what they are barking at.
I hope and pray that this year is a good year for everyone, family friends acquaintances and customers...even anyone that I don't know personally. May the New Year bring you peace, prosperity and happiness in your lives!
We had company for Christmas and my husband and I managed to get a tree up and decorated, a little shopping done and gifts wrapped before they came. Mainly just stuff for the young grandchildren this year, although I did get my husband a few items of necessary clothing...lol, yep socks and underwear...and some jeans, he has worn holes in favorites. My son got me a new coffee maker, which I really appreciate, my old one had taken to leaking all over the counter when you put water in the tank...I had it sitting in a tray to catch the leaks. I also got a couple of gift cards and will be going shopping soon with those...I am just trying to figure out what I need the most. I may end up buying new tires for my garden cart...I use it a lot and just had a major blowout or rubber rot, I need never flats! My husband got me a Tens unit, I have been trying not to take as many pain killers and the Tens is what they used on me when I went to pain management for my back, he also got me a Truffle kit and a cheese kit...maybe I will make some soon, I needa few gallons of milk which I forgot to get at the store the last time I went. Lol, he also got me some Chicken Poop lip balm...I am an admitted Chapstick-abolic, it will come in handy...and no, it doesn't contain chicken poop!
Our weather has been warm and muggy, very cloudy for the past few weeks and fog on a lot of mornings. It has actually been near 80 a few times and that is unusual for around Christmas. We have had pretty major temperature swings too. It will be cold at night...like in the upper twenties and the next day get up to 78. I did finally get all the tarps and plastic up on my coops and got one door built for the breeding pens, I still have a long way to go getting the four finished. I just haven't had the energy, and have been staying in the house more because of the humidity and damp conditions...I still have a cough too. I need to get them finished, it would probably take me a week if I worked on them every day. I just need a break in the weather. I can build the doors in the shed, but the framing and stuff for the runs is all outside work and I need my garden cart to haul all of the tools out there. It makes it easier because the compressor and the table saw are kind of awkward and heavy to carry and I need a couple of very long extension cords strung out there to operate them too. By the time I hand carried everything, I would probably be kind of tuckered out and not have much time to work before I had to haul it all back. I gotta feed the poultry at least an hour before dark so I can get the turkeys put up. I have also been feeding the ducks and geese after the chickens are mostly roosting, most of the time they will not eat from the same troughs as the chickens and the chickens follow me to each trough as I fill them. I just want to make sure they are getting enough to eat...the male geese I have picked up feel light to me, so do some of the ducks I have managed to pick up. They free range but we have had several freezes and the grass is not really growing any more.
Last night was New Year's Eve, we just watched a movie and didn't even fix dinner...I fixed us a batch of steak nachos for lunch at almost 2:00pm and neither of us was hungry enough to bother. We had a couple of cookies and a piece of banana nut bread later in the evening. We only stayed up until about 10:15...so no midnight happenings here. Our neighbors set off fireworks at around 9:00, it was driving the dogs nuts...some of them sounded like explosions and I could feel the blast waves. I didn't even bother looking out the window. I am sure if I acted alarmed, it would not have helped the dogs anxiety. Bailee tends to jump up on the couch if she hears things and looks out the window, we just had to keep reassuring them it was OK, kinda like when birds set off the driveway alarm. I get up and look to make sure it is not an egg customer...but some days it happens every few minutes and I stop looking after awhile. If someone is out there Bailee will let me know...she barks when necessary. Sophie seems to bark at every sound some days, all three of them together...I know someone or something is outside. It is funny that I can tell now, when they are in the backyard and I am in the chicken yard the difference between their barks and what they are barking at.
I hope and pray that this year is a good year for everyone, family friends acquaintances and customers...even anyone that I don't know personally. May the New Year bring you peace, prosperity and happiness in your lives!
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