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.

welcome to the computer age

I have internet on a computer! This is the most exciting thing to happen around here since we brought home the bluray dvd player. Sad right? The worst part being we have a total of three blurays, nevermind the hundred normal dvds.

I know this is probably odd to all you tech savy people out there-but I have no idea what to do with it. Maybe I'll finally figure out how to make my pictures come out the right size. Right now I can barely play a facebook game. I was so born in the wrong century.

I still have only figured out how to play dvds on the bluray player. No clue as to why there's like three different menu screens. Nor do I know how to set the time or make the internet work on it. I know some how some way with the dsl I can get internet on the wii and bluray player. But knowing it and knowing how to do it is two totally different things.

Once again there is something worse than the last revelations. Here's the worse part yet- I'm the most tech savy one in the family. Honeybear's colorblind so it is always left to me to connect the wires to their color cordinated spots when new equipment arrives. Give the man a motor and he'll tear it apart in his sleep and put it back together, give him a bunch of wires and he hands them to me.

Well its time for me to feed the mob. So if you see this post let me know, and if you don't-send me a message too. ;)

a week of vacation

Earlier this week I dropped the kids of for their summer week with their grandparents. A whole week of peace right? Ha! I haven't been this busy since we brought home Bella. The entire week was spent running everywhere-kind of like chopping Ozzie's head off. Blindly running and hitting walls then turning a different direction.

The first day was spent helping my girlfriend ,who is for the first time a SAH mom, bake a pie. Much of the conversation consisted of "Hey Ro, check the pie." Her reply was always "What am I checking for?" To which I would then get up and check the pie. Guess what it was always on the middle shelf-cooking. Imagine that!

The next day was grocery shopping day. All I got to say is my family loves food-all six of them. A normal trip takes at least three hours and that many stores. I am fanatical about getting the best deal. My mothers say, "In other words your cheap cheap cheap." Wonder where I learned that? But that wasn't the end of my day.

I then loaded up all my homeschooling planners and materials. Kim offered to help me with my lesson planning and objectives. (Remember I am still new at this.) Two moms who swear they only have an hour-which then turns into about two. And we still had more conversations the next two days to tweek.

After that I still wasn't done. Oh no. I got the bright idea to spend the night in the employee's lounge at Honeybear's work. That way I could sleep next to him once as long as we wanted without the kids home. (He works nights, and his days off weren't while the kids were home.) So I packed him and my mother-in-law lunch and took it to them. What an adventure that turned out to be! Apparently to make it through the night all of the night shift act like big kids. Add to this I'm hand doing the kids' worksheets on the digestive system. Lets just say that poop was brought up more than once. Adults my foot!

Now I sit here at Mama and Daddy's after a wonderful day of church and food. We're leaving in the morning. I can't wait for my relaxing life to start back up. Maybe I can get the laundry done!

technical difficulties

Hey everyone. I've tried what seems a million times to publish this week. Please stay with me. I have new company installing on the 18th. Till then go back and reread some of my older posts and enjoy them all over again.

to eat or not to eat

This is the story of one of my girlfriend's reaction to pics of Ozzie. Now before I go further cause I'm going to be picking on her I have to say: Britty Bacon I love you. You see Britty has been my friend since the sixth grade. We practically lived with each other until senior year (enter Honeybear-followed quickly by Martin.)

Britty watched me show both lamb and steer in 4H and FFA. She came over and fed and petted these animals. She would then come over the next week for dinner (if I need to spell it out dinner was the previous recipients of petting.) I give you this background to say Britty is now a "vegetarian".

I put that in quotes because I'm still not entirely convinced of her dedication to the cause. You see when I put pics of Ozzie on facebook she sent this reaction: ewwwwwwwww! And then continued on about how I should remember that I have vegetarian friends and shouldn't post things like that. Now I happened to see this before looking at my wall. So my reply was "Hey you've known me since high school. I haven't changed-you have." This was good natured ribbing between two friends so don't read any hostility in this. The banter continued a few more posts.

That's when I looked at my wall. Britty had posted her usual commentary about gym workouts and such. The end being "and I just finished some great general tso's shrimp". Does anyone else see the problem in these conflicting statements? Last time I checked shrimp was still meat, right?

So I text Britty (cause for this conversation you need faster response time). And I ask since when do vegetarians eat shrimp? To which she gives me some fancy shmancy name for her type. Umm..I'm puzzled. (Now don't get me wrong I love vegetables. They make great side dishes to meat.) See my definition for vegetarians comes from a bass pro tshirt of Honeybears. It reads vegetarian- old Indian word for bad hunter. The very word says it all: VEG-a-tar-ian.

So now my interest is peaked. I say okay what about eggs? Her reply-only vegetarian eggs. Okay I'm sitting here thinking-I've yet to see a staulk of celery nesting. This is were Honeybear buts in and says "come on. Even "organic" eggs squeeze out a chicken butt." (My hubby the poet.)

Now I'm not trying to anger anyone-I swear. Like I said I love veggies. I just like meat, preferably fresh. I just don't understand what defines meat. I mean don't shrimp deserve vegetarian love too? Think of all those baby shrimp missing their eight armed hugs goodnight. Poor little shrimp babies. And she said a picture of a dead chicken that didn't have a chance to reproduce teared her up. She just ate how many shrimp mommies and daddies?

Now I have only picked on Britty because one-I love her. And two how in the world can some one so close to me be so citified? Where did I go wrong? And does anyone else see the irony in someone with the nick name Britty Bacon to be vegetarian?

a country lesson learned

As I stood in my kitchen making my family's breakfast, I learned why my mother-in-law tells me to crack eggs in a bowl first. You see all our eggs come from their chickens till ours are mature enough to lay. Which I thought was so nice of them, until today.

I stood there cracking eggs into my hot cast iron skillet. Stopping to stir the fried potatos and then turning back to crack the last egg. (It takes a dozen every morning. See why we need chickens?) And my hubby asks a question so I turn my head as I crack it to answer him. About five seconds later the SMELL hits.

Giving myself whiplash- I see the black mess floating in my sunny side up eggs. I start squealing (hey even country people freak out) and Honeybear comes to save the day. Unfortanetly he grabbed the skillet handle without thinking (cast iron handles are metal as well) thankfully he didn't burn himself. He grabs a dish towel and takes it out to dump in the field.

I ,mean while, get out two different febreezes and start spraying. My house now smells like an overwhelmed florist but at least that odor is gone.

Needless to say we didn't have eggs this morning-just pancakes and fried potatos.

a winner for july

I'm sorry everyone, I have been extremely busy. (I know your thinking isn't everyone, and I took the time to come see your blog.) But I do have the raffle winner to announce. Congrats sunny bunny april! Your the raffle winner this month. If it wasn't you this month maybe you'll be the winner in the next month. The prize will be a signed copy of Kathie Truitt's new book "False Victim".

This book is her first release, and is absolutely a page turner. I am very proud to say she is a close friend of Mama and Daddy's. And a true inspiration to me. Anyone who can't wait for the raffle to buy this book will not be disappointed. Even more enthralling is that the story is all TRUE!

It is the story of a woman who thinks that the move to their dream house is perfect. Until the woman that lives behind her becomes obsessed with first becoming her, then trying to destroy her. I suggest having nothing planned if you pick up this book. It is absolutely impossible to put down!

Congrats Ms. Kathie on today's release! May God bless you and your family.