I Am Getting There

I have been working on my duck hutch for 3 days now.  Well, really about 1 1/2 because they were only half days.  I have it close.  I have to put siding on three sides still and put the purlins and the roof on, and make the two doors.  It rained a little today while I was working, but not enough to send me packing up my tools.
It is so funny, but this is a duck hutch, and the chickens are all over it!  They love to roost on the frame, I can't blame them, it is a good vantage point for them to watch things.  My big rooster, Dumbledore (soon to be Dinner) watches from a safe distance.  He is such a booger.  He comes charging up behind me when I am carrying out feed to them, and ducks under the bucket, bumping my leg, then wants to challenge me.  He must have never heard that old saying, "Never attack the human who feeds you."  or something like that ; )  Especially while she feeds you.  Daughter has to carry a stick with her when she goes out or he comes after her.  I told her to not be afraid of hurting him, he is tough.  I may have to put him in chicken jail and let him chill out.
The weather is sweltering.  The kids were complaining that 'We HAVE  to get A/C."  Well, I lived my entire childhood without it, so I think they can last one more summer.  I would love to have air and humidity control in the house, but it is just wishful thinking at the moment.  One day we will have something better.
My doggies need baths and to be clipped once again.  Now that the weather is getting warm, so are they, and Zeke still had his winter coat on.  They must be bathed first, and that may happen when I get done here.
My other dogs (feet) are tired and need a good soaking.  Maybe tomorrow will be the day the duckies get to move outside for good.

CC

What the hell happened?

So, last week, we were getting snow flurries in the morning.  Today it was 86˚F and the humidity was up in the 70% range.  Give me a break.  We were starting to get Spring, and then we took a jump to this!  No fair!  I want Spring! 
Global Warming?  Maybe, or maybe just some crazy phase the Earth is going through.  Does it matter, I am tired of it at the moment.
Oh well, I will survive it.

My poor chicks and ducks and bunnies on the other hand....
I have two momma bunnies that should be having their babies tomorrow.  The poor things having to go through that in this steam.  Wait, I had to go through having babies twice when it was hot and steamy.  I just wasn't wearing a fur coat while I did it.  When I gave birth to Eldest, it was 99˚ and we were in Virginia in May.  When Second was born, it was 98˚ and it was August on the north side of Minneapolis.  Daughter came during an ice storm in March.  I guess hers made up for the heat of the other two.  :)


I better get to bed soon, I know half the night will be spent laying under the ceiling fan thinking about how much better our new house is going to be when we build it, and we have it climate controlled.

CC

Winding Down the Year

We are in the last month of school for the year here in Minnesota.  The kids didn't have too many snow days, so they won't add any on this time around.  The kids are getting a little anxious, and with tomorrow's summer like weather projections, I think they all will be just giddy and fidgety and some fit to be tied.  I can't say as it makes me too happy though.  I have been getting tired of the cold and all, but to jump from snow last week in the mornings to 85˚ tomorrow is just plain crazy.  Who ordered this weather?
Actually, I am going to be glad it is not cold tomorrow so that I don't have to carry jackets all day on the field trip with my daughter's third grade class.  I am so lucky to be able to chaperone. :\  It is not that I don't like going on these things, it is just that I have a million other things to get done.  I understand why they have their big trips at the end of the year, as it brings to a pinnacle the learning from the year.  But spring is a time for much outside work for us rural folks with furry and feathered critters.
I think I have easily passed the 200 mark for poultry, and I have had a couple of litters kindled in the rabbit cages.  Yes, kindled is the term used when a rabbit births its young.  I have two more that I think are due tomorrow if they are pregnant.  They are tricky little buggers, and not as easy to proliferate as most people believe.  "They breed like rabbits." is an expression used by those who have  never tried breeding rabbits.  I have had one doe I could not get 'in the mood' until it was 85˚.  Hey, maybe tomorrow is her day for nookie!  Seriously, I think I have her re-bred after giving birth to a stillborn litter the other day.  This is only her second litter ever and the first one was such an awful experience for her.  She is a small rabbit, a Netherland Dwarf, and they only are supposed to be 2- 2 1/2 pounds.  She had 4 kits the first time around and they were not so small as to pass easily and ended up losing all of them after it took 3 days to have them.  The poor girl was in such a state, I could not breed her again for a while.  But, rabbits can be re-bred almost right away.  It depends on your prespective.  Some people go right ahead and breed the same day they kindle if the litter is lost.  I like to give them at least a couple of days.  But I would only do that one time and then give them a while to rest up and get back into shape, even if the second litter were lost.  I just can't see asking one to go 3 rounds of being pregnant right after the other, that would be just too much.  And it does depend on the condition of the doe as to whether I would breed again the second time anyway.  You have to use your senses.
So, I will have a few cages full again by next month at this rate.
Have I mentioned anywhere that I am now the proud 'Momma' of 23 ducks?  Yes, I am so entirely, undoubtedly, certifiably insane.  I know this and can admit it, so I must be on the path of recovery, which is to expand my poultry dwellings to accommodate all my poultry.  Easy peasy.

I went to a friend's house who has all sorts of poultry: ducks, chickens, geese, turkeys and lots of them!  I wanted to see about getting a few for my kids to show at the fair this summer.  The boys said they would show meat ducks, and since Daughter is too small to handle carrying big old meat ducks, I got her some little, cute as a button Call Ducks.  They are so stinking sweet!
 
Now a week and a half later, they are about 3 times this size.  The Pekins are getting to be a handful already, though they still have their fluffy down and will have for a while yet. 
But you know what happened?  I took Middle to a farm and fleet store with me on Wednesday, and they had newly arrived, baby ducklings!  Yaaaaayyyyy!  So, he looks at me with his sweetest little boy look and says, "Oh, Mom, pleeeeease?"  I couldn't say no.  We came home with 3 Swedish Harlequins and 5 Khaki Campbells. God, I must be crazy.  To top it off, I have duck eggs in the incubator!  I still have 4 Call eggs and 3 or 4 Crested duck eggs too.   Let's not forget a couple of turkey eggs too.

So, as my kids and their school year are winding down, I am just cranking it up.  We will have plenty to keep them busy over the summer months.  But how is it I know I will still hear them saying, "I'm bored."?

CC

Constitutional rights

I read a thread today on my favorite backyard chickens forum (backyardchickens.com) that this veteran in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania got some chickens that help him deal with having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  His idiot neighbor protested him having them because his coop was 4 inches too close to the property line.  Give me a break!  4 inches?!?!  Here vets are coming home from these damn wars going on over in no man's land, and they are messed up to the nth degree.  One of them finds comfort and peace from all the baggage they are left to deal with by keeping a few chickens, and his dumb ass neighbor has the balls to complain about it????  I apologize for the language, but really????
So, a fellow veteran and his wife hear about this and build him a chicken tractor (portable coop to you non-chicken folks) and now he can keep his chickens.  Thank Goodness!  Isn't that just awesome that someone would do that for him?
I am confused, I understand why we have laws regulating the keeping of animals in towns.  But I don't understand the restriction of keeping chickens in your backyard within a reasonable number, of course.  What happened to our Constitutional right of pursuit of happiness?  To some people like this one vet, it is truly about the pursuit of happiness.  It seems like more an more the government is taking away the rights of people to actually pursue happiness.  There are extremely stringent laws on how dairy products are handled for raw sale and consumption, like just because we don't want to go cook I mean, pasteurize all the goodness out of our milk to then fortify it to return the goodness back into it that was there naturally in the first place that was killed in the heating process, that raw milk is all bad and carries e-coli.  There was a farmer who was selling raw dairy to consumers here in my own state, who was blamed as part of a small e-coli outbreak because someone he sold to got e-coli.  Uh, there were other people in that same outbreak who had never had any of his products, so how can it be his fault?  I am confused.  So, something like that comes up and the first people to get blamed are the ones doing it raw or natural or organically.  That is proposterous!  The fact is, that our food that we buy in our grocery stores is mostly shipped from over 1,000 miles away at a minimum, and it isn't all that fresh either.  SO, isn't it just possible that the really bad food stuffs are not from the local farmer trying to sell good, wholesome (key work WHOLE) and fresh foods is the one to maybe NOT worry so much about.  But, oh yeah, the neighbor selling the raw milk isn't to one lining the pockets of the lobbyists so that bills can get passed to help out those big guys who cook the milk and spray our fruits and veggies so they can ship them across continents and across the country, so they can arrive in our grocery stores nice and fresh(?).
I know, how did I go from a rant about chickens to this?  Well, it all goes together.  This is getting insane.  Like someone has to legislate what we can and cannot buy to eat because we are too stupid to decide what is good for us?  Is that what this is about?  I don't think so.  I think it is more about  money and the little people trying to do what is good and what is good for us trying to eek out a living by doing so, getting in the way of big food corporations that won't stand for some little guy getting in their way of monopolizing the supply of food. 
What is next?  Am I going to be breaking the law if I plant my own vegetable garden?  Are my chickens going to be taken away?  What?  I don't understand how the lawmakers use the Constitution to tell us what we can and cannot do, but they blatantly disregard the rights that same document gives each and every one of us to make our own choices.
It just doesn't seem right.

A Fool Waits...

And I am that fool today.  I don't think I have ever waited until April 15th to get our taxes done, but I did this year.  I just couldn't bring myself around to getting them done until I finally looked at the calendar and said, "Holy Crap!".  So, because of my procrastination, I am now sitting here with my stomach hurting and churning and gurgling, because I probably put myself under more stress in the last 6 hours than my kids have put me under in the last month.  That is really saying something too, by the way.
I swore, I was not going to do this this year.  So, what happened?  You don't want to hear every excuse why, lame or valid either one.
BUT I wasn't the only one waiting until D-day.  My husband is trustee over his parents estates/trusts that now have to be enacted and distributed and taxes done.  We sent everything off to the lawyer/tax man a few weeks ago, but we didn't receive any of the paperwork until today, well yesterday now.  Even the pros wait until the last minute sometimes, I guess.

CC

The Grass Woke Up

  We got a big storm on Saturday night.  I didn't really hear it, I sleep like a rock almost every night.  When we woke up in the morning though, things were blown all over and needed to be picked up.  The other thing we saw though, was that the grass had woken up from its winter slumber.  Green began peaking out and the ground isn't brown all over any more.  The tulip and daffodil leaves are poking out now too.  Someone mentioned mowing lawn, and I hope it is a while before we have to do that!

Every spring, along with more sunshine and rain and things turning green, I always manage to get a cold.  Well, mine arrived a little early this year and I felt like a truck was running me over about 7:00 last night.  I turned in before the kids for the first time in a while, and that wasn't enough, I slept in this morning too while my husband got the kids off to school.  I spent the day dragging and feeling like my head has been in a fog.  I hate colds.  I tried to practice the two songs I have for my piano lesson, and it was hopeless.  Then I realized, I don't even have a lesson this week because I will be gone.  Had to tell the teacher that.  I did see her when my two kiddos had their lessons tonight and told her the story.

What is the story?  Well, I am going to a class 3-hours away, so I can get certified to blood test poultry.  Anyone who is 'into' poultry would know what that means.  However, tonight while waiting for my darling daughter to finish her dance class, I saw my BFF.  When I said I wouldn't be around the next 2 days, she said, "Where are you going?"  to which I replied, "A class on testing chickens."  She burst out laughing at me.  She knows I am all into my chickens, though  I am certain she doesn't understand how one could be that thrilled with them.  Shall I explain, that a responsible chicken owner/breeder (which I am aspiring to be) should have their flock tested to make sure it isn't carrying diseases?  It is the equivalent of a dog or cat owner taking their pet to the vet to get tested or immunized, right?  So, why does it seem absurd to a non-chicken person to do the same with poultry?  Or maybe it is just funny to her that it is ME going to this class?  Perhaps.

Tax day is nearly here, and do I have ours done?  NO.  I am panicking now because since I am feeling this way, I am just not sure what kind of job I am going to do at getting it all done.  I told myself this winter that I would not be putting it off until the last minute.  But here I am again.  I have been doing our taxes every year since we were married.  It isn't like we have a gazillion things we need to itemize, but it is still a tedious thing to do.  I always hate it too that we never get back as much as we think we should.

My husband came back from 2 weeks in California doing some training for work.  I wish I could have been excited and jumped up and down when he walked in the door, but I couldn't muster the energy for that.  A simple hug and I missed you was about all we exchanged.  He deserves better than that, but it was not my choice to feel this way.

I guess I should go and sleep some more and in the morning I may be up to finishing taxes and getting things set for me to be gone a day and a half.  You wouldn't think it would be that big of a deal, but trust me, it is.

CC

When I Was Their Ages

I have had reason to reflect on my younger years lately.  My children come to me and share their thoughts and disappointments and worries, and it sort of makes me laugh because they have so much life left to live, yet they are so worried that there is not.  My daughter, for instance, is all upset lately that she is never going to fit in.  She is in 3rd grade.  Sadly, the cliques and name calling and being mean because you aren't perfect (like kids this age know anything about perfect) has all begun.  "I don't want to be your friend because you don't where the same cool shoes I do."  It is so trivial and so immature, but that is her little social world.  Then I remember when I was her age.  We moved the summer before I started 3rd grade.  We had gone to a Catholic school with about 15 kids per grade to a public school that had 25 kids in each class, and my grade for the district had over 300 kids in it.  Talk about culture shock.  You want to talk about feeling out of place.  But I managed to make some friends that year.  Of course, I had the mean teacher who had every student believing that she had a belt in the bathroom where she took kids who were bad and spanked them.  I would like to see how that kind of discipline would fly these days.  I don't think she really did that, and I was a good little girl and kept out of trouble anyway.  There were a couple of boys though who went to the bathroom almost daily.
I think about those days and can't believe it was so long ago. 

My younger son is 12 1/2 and in 7th grade.  He is in the middle of a dilemma of trying to fit in, but trying to be an individual.  At that age, it is near impossible to do both at the same time.  He has those days of being glum and sad about his life, but then he has those days of being happy to be who he is.  I think about 7th grade and my best friend Debi.  I remember a boy laughing at me one day in class because I had a close fitting t-shirt on and you could see the seams going horizontally on my bra cup.  It was a 'training' bra, and they weren't very flattering to begin with, but he had to point it out loud enough so several people could hear.  Well, if that didn't just make me feel like a freak.  It was in Social Studies class with Miss B.  She was quite a woman.  She would get talking so fast that she would have drool coming down out of the corners of her mouth.  NO KIDDING!  She also taught French to those who chose to for their free period.  I was thinking study hall would have been a better choice after the 10 weeks we had that going on.  Socially, I started feeling like I fit somewhere.  Debi and I became best friends and we spent a lot of time together.   So, I am hoping for my son that someone comes into his life soon that will be his best buddy and he can feel more like he belongs somewhere.

My eldest.  Nearly 15 and wanting to drive every time we have to go somewhere.  Driving for him until his birthday means backing out of the parking spot and driving down our long driveway.  I let him drive a couple of miles yesterday when we went to our friends' house to pick something up.  It was just on the back dirt roads for about 2 miles, if even that far.  He was all nervous and being overly careful.  I must admit, I was not such a good passenger, but we made it there.  I let him drive just as far back and took over the wheel just as we got to the paved road.  He got a taste of driving at least.  Now, I can hold it over his head about getting his permit if he doesn't straighten up his act!  Yes, 14 going on 24.  He knows everything.  We (his parents) are stupid.  Sound familiar?  If you have ever raised teenagers, I am sure it does.  One minute he is the mature, helpful, hard-working young man.  The next minute, he is the bratty, mouthy, selfish, self-righteous adolescent.  I don't know how their switches change so quick, but he surely has a switch that flips in a heartbeat sometimes.  Is it hormones?  Is it stress?  Is it lack of sleep?  I have no idea, but there are times when I look in his eyes and I just have to relax and let him blow up, then send him to his room, and hope he will sleep it off before I have to deal with him the next day.
Was I like that?  I am sure there were times when I was his age that I got just as angry at my parents.  Just as angry with my younger sister as he does his brother.  I felt just as enraged at times too.  I worked hard and did my best at school.  It is a sucky age though, being a teenager.  You are no longer a child, but you are not an adult yet either.  You want to be grown up, but you don't really want to let go of those little perks of being a kid.  I remember oh too well how all that felt, and I can empathize.
One time, my brother and I and some friends bought tickets to go to a concert.  It turned out that it became so foggy that to try driving 35-miles to get to the concert was just stupid.  I was still determined that we should go, in fact, I was sure my brother and our friend ditched me to go to it (and they might have and I never knew about it).  I went across the street from our house and tried calling them on the pay phone and my father came over and dragged me home, well, I wasn't really dragged.  He told me I was a fool and no one was going anywhere in that fog.  I was so mad and I went in my room and cried.  It was so unfair, and I had paid for my own ticket too.  Well, in hindsight (years later) I thought back to that night and realized what a dumb ass I was being.  I would tie my kids up to keep them off the road on a night like that.  I was just so young and ignorant and selfish about the whole thing, but it took years to be able to see that.

My husband and I have three wonderful kids.  They are good hearted, strong willed and they can make things happen for themselves.  I know these times they are going through are just part of growing.  I wish I could make them see that this is all just a short part of their lives and they will get through it, that there is so much life beyond their school years.  But I can't.  They have to live through this and like me they have to find out for themselves what is really important, what really matters, and what really doesn't.  So, for now, I can hug away the tears and hurt feelings a little and give them words of encouragement and support.  I can tell them over and over and over and over that this too shall pass.  One day, I am sure they will come back and say, "Mom, you were right."  And of course I am, I am the Mom.

I have been there and done that and I survived, and so will they.

CC