new fuzzies

We have more fuzzies. These are not homegrown -at least by us. We bought them from a woman Honeybear works with. They're suppose to be Rhode Island Reds (known to chicken fanatics as RIR). Ha I've yet to see yellow RIRs but still wont complain. They were much cheaper than feed store chicks.

We're trying like crazy to expand our homestead. But its so much stinking work! Not that I'm whining-much. Right now we're planning our fall garden, building another chicken pen (for meat chickens), and trying to find a goat that's bred and a sow in the family way.

Now most people look at this list and think- no prob go to craigslist. It's so much more complicated than that. I'll explain one at a time. And if you don't understand read the paragraph again slower, seeing as how I'm not there to talk slower.

Fall gardens are more complicated than you think. They require more planning, because they have more finicky plants or hardier plants-depending on what you're going for. You can't just throw them together or else the hardier plants choke out the finicky plants. Lots of the plants require hills, which means lots of raking and such to make them. Some one remind me why we're doing all this?

Then there's the new chicken pen. Your probably thinking a chicken is a chicken, why do you need another pen? Well meat chickens are bred to grow at excellerated rates. All they do is eat, drink, and POOP! I don't mean like oh they just poop more often. Heck no, their piles could cover an egg chicken the same age at six weeks. And since that's all they do they make the pen nasty in a hurry. Its also unsanitary for the egg chickens since all excrement has acid. So my meat chicken venture is taking more out of us then expected at first. Hopefully we can sell a couple of them at enough of a profit not to lose money. Honeybear is extremely worried we quoted to low a price. (On a side note: If you ever come to visit the Outhouse Animal Sanctuary watch were you step!)

The goat and pig is always a problem. For one you have to wonder if the animal is actually bred (usually a vet report is requested for a one animal sale) then what reason are they selling a sucessful breeder? Knowing the attitude issues that these two animal breeds tend to have makes me very wary. Both have a Houdini streak-they have more jail breaks then Mayberry with Otis. Pigs root right under fences, and goats just slip through like there's nothing but air there.

Then there's the attitude issues. Anyone ever worked on a pig farm? No one? Okay well lets just say they're not the nicest creatures and God saw fit to give them two razors apiece. Which is why most farms cut their tusks at an early age. This however does not prevent them from being cannibalistic. Which makes you very nervous when buying a bred sow. Once a cannibal almost always a cannibal.

Goats don't eat their own kind or anything. But God did invent the head butt just for them. And their favorite targets tend to be bottoms. Which gives a whole new meaning to bottoms up when they get you. They also tend to eat the laundry and be awful mothers. (I have several friends whom refuse to call their childern "kids" because of how awful at mothering goats are.)

With all this going on I barely have time to think. Which makes me wonder if they shouldn't do a study on being a mother killing brain cells instead of just becoming a mother. If they ever prove my theory years from now it'll will explain how so many of us end up forgetting our own names.

Till next time this is ...um..well..nevermind. Have a good day.