Birds of Paradise

The chicken coop is built.  Well, the yard anyway.  The animals will have to wait until Dad gets back home from work to have a little shelter.  A tarp is serving the purpose when needed, right now.  Time to pressure wash the carport since we are free of that mess again.

There's a chicken in here somewhere, but the ducks seem to have the best amenities.

I think they quite like it.
                                    

**NOTE**

The next morning after this was built, Clayton and I walked out to check how they were doing.  We didn't find the chicken anywhere.  There were no feathers or signs of anything, really.  She was just gone.  After discussing it with the girls, Allison and Morgan realized the wire hooking the gate closed, was on the ground and the gate was shut with a shoestring.  They also found bread in the pen.

Now, I'm not one to accuse anyone of anything without the facts, but here are the facts:

1.  We were out of bread for two days prior to this.  Even if we weren't, we wouldn't have given them bread.  Where'd the bread come from?

2.  What's the deal with it being shut with a shoestring and not the wire?

3.  The chicken roamed free with the ducks for about a week before the pen was built.  Before, they were in a cage behind the house.  No predator got her then when she was out in the open.

4.  Our neighbors got a rooster about a week before we got our hen.

Who would steal a chicken?  Furthermore, where we put the pen is in the back corner of the house.  It can't be seen even from our driveway.  She was in the pen just for the rest of the day after being built and throughout the night (or whatever time she disappeared).  The only reason I wouldn't think she was stolen is because no one can see what goes on at our house, much less know we put the pen up.  I'm just confused about it all and it upset Emily because it was hers.

So, what did we do?  We bought 4 more. :)  Yes, we are quite the little farmer family now.  Only problem with these, we don't know what gender they are.  I'm so hoping we didn't wind up with 4 roosters. 

By the way, we did find out the gender of our ducks.  Male and female.  Their names?  Daisy and Duke.  (Daisy Duke, not after Daisy Duck)

The girls named the new chickens without caring what the genders were.  We now are proud owners of Sonny and Cher & Romeo and Juliet. 

Room of the Week

Ok, so with promises of befores and afters of my house (a year's worth of promises), I've decided to do it like this.

Each week, I'm going to post one room.  I'm giving myself a week for each room because there are a few little odds and ends I'm wanting to finish up before posting and a week should give me enough time to finish those areas.  A few of them will still be works in progress, but you will get the idea. 

Here is a teaser for the first ROW (Room of the Week...obviously)...

So, check back soon for these postings.  I'm thinking it will get me on the ball with finishing the small details  that are keeping me from posting them.

Getting Our Ducks in a Row

I never thought I'd ever own a farm, but these days it's beginning to look like one around here.

The ducks are grown, although not fully matured.  The chicken is well on it's way too.  They have all three shared a little cage since we got them and have now outgrown it.  Allison got brave and let them roam free during the night.  They did great!  They didn't wander at all, which means they haven't been back in the cage since.

We found a mess they left behind under the carport yesterday.  If you are unfamiliar with these animals, they are quite the mess makers.  We found them sleeping on our dog Angel's bed last night.  Angel is obviously female (the name) and is very protective of all the animals we have.  So, she let them have her bed.  I had just washed it too.  It will not go back into my machine after this.  Eww.   (*note* I edited out the majority of the mess on her bed for easier viewing purposes.)

So, today my father-in-law and Clayton are going to build a chicken coop.  I think Clayton said something about just a fenced in area for now until he comes back from work next time.  (He'll be leaving soon)

I'll be so happy.  With the plumbing that was done the first part of this month, I haven't smelled stinky when I walk into my home.  These little mess makers have now allowed me to smell it just before I walk into my home.  I don't think so.  They have really taken a liking to Angel's bed, so I guess the coop will work out great for me.  We are going to put it at the far corner of the property.  I don't want there to be a "fowl" smell before entering my home. ;)

A Little of Everything

We FINALLY got RAIN last night!  I've never been so excited about rain in all my life.  The last time any precipitation fell from the sky here was April 4th, which was a tiny bit.  I remember we needed it then too, so hard telling when it fell before that.  It came down hard last night, so hopefully the burn ban has been lifted.  There are no puddles, but the ground is still wet today.  YAY!

The garden is looking good.  Plants are shooting out really fast.  I find Clayton outside looking it it quite often.  I think he's proud of his accomplishment.  My flowers are growing too.  I still think they will be taller than the hedges before the season's over, but oh well.  Maybe by this time next year, my hedges will be filled out quite a bit.  Hopefully, anyway.  I tried to fight fever today, so I went out and planted some more things on the side and back of the house.  I cleaned up in the back a bit, making it look a little better.  At least I got that finished, somewhat.

Right now, I'm suffering from an abscess.  Second one this year.  I felt it coming on and was in pain the night before last.  I woke up yesterday with a swollen jaw, so I headed to the ER...again.  He gave me antibiotics, of course, but I asked if I was going to get a shot as well.  He said no.  Ok, that's fine, as long as the pills will work.  I slept all day yesterday and woke up around midnight.  My entire neck and side of my face was swollen, so I head back to the ER to get a shot.  As soon as I walk in, I see the same doctor and he tells me that he'll see me, but he won't change anything.  I asked, "What about a shot?"  He shakes his head, "No", then looks back down at his paperwork.  I walked out.  This hospital is nothing but a bandaid clinic anyway.  I know these things are nothing to sneeze at, so I was very upset.  I came home, cried a little more, threatening to go to a better place and get something in my system immediately, but was too much in pain to want to do anything but sleep.  It has gone down a little, but only because it has spread out a bit more.  Can't wait for it to go down and get this junk taken care of.  No more putting things off!

Easter Sunday, we went letterboxing nearby.  We searched for 5, only found 3.  It wasn't as fun the second time, but that's only because I was starting to feel sick and the girls just weren't in the mood.  It was still fun, just not as fun.  Maybe I'm the only one who feels that way, though.  Still looking forward to many more.

Until next time...

Happy Easter!

Yesterday evening we went to Clayton's parents' home in Jasper for an Easter egg hunt for the grandkids.  Not all of them were there, but we still had fun.  I don't guess my kids will ever grow out of hunting them.  I had two teens out there having as much fun as the babies.  I can't blame them, though.  Clayton has ALWAYS made Easter very special for them. 

Clayton's not a mushy type of dad, but if there is any holiday that has to be recognized, it's Easter.  I'm not talking about for the true reason we celebrate it either.  I remember in our first years of marriage, the kids may not have gotten much for Christmas, but they were going to get a basket and a chocolate bunny for Easter, even if we were flat broke.  I didn't even think about Easter baskets or chocolate bunnies this year.  Maybe because I just felt like they were too "old", or maybe I just didn't get into the spirit of things, I don't know.  He took off yesterday morning, though, by himself, and brought back Easter baskets filled with goodies.  He did a great job picking them out to fit the personality of each girl.  Way to go, Dad!

Last year, Clayton being the fun Easter dad that he is, played a game with all the kids once the eggs were found.  He had a few eggs left over, some with money in them, some with candy, and some empty, having each of them gamble on trading one of their eggs for one he had.  Yes, teaching the kids to gamble, but it was truly fun to watch them try to decide what they should do.  This year, he stuffed and hid three eggs as prize eggs with more money than I would have agreed with, had I known.  Luckily, our teens found two of them.  (that's my girls, knowing where the cash is stashed!)  ;)  He also stuffed some with Brazilian money, which I thought was pretty hilarious.

Even Grandma's goat wanted to join in!

Happy Easter, everyone!  Let's not forget the true meaning of Easter.  Thank you, Jesus!

Our First Letterbox

As I was looking up more information on geocaching, I ran across letterboxing.  I skimmed through it at first, not really getting into it, thinking geocaching was enough.  I don't feel that way now.  I looked again and found how interesting this could really be in addition to geocaching.  I found a few here in our little town and one of those were in a location I was very familiar with.  I took off to see just how accessible it would be.  When I found it, a childlike thrill consumed me.  I had located it, but didn't touch it.  I wanted to save that for the girls.

So, we headed out just a few minutes ago and had them go on their little search.

I read there are some photos that are frowned upon to post on the internet when it comes to this type of thing.  I'm new, obviously, but I think it may be things like spoilers and such.  In that case, I'll leave those photos for the girls' log books.

The kiddo that thought all this was for people with no lives....she was all up in it!  In fact, she sort of took over and wanted to be the one to grab the box.  Even wound up with battle scars from it...

I don't care who you are, this was fun!  Looking forward to many, many more.

Geocaching

I've wanted to try this out for a while now.  I didn't know enough about it and never got around to really digging deep into it until a few days ago.

We were at my in-laws' house, visiting, while a friend of my father-in-law's saw the girls' prom pictures.  He said, "this looks like that place out at such and such".  I told him that's exactly where it was.  He said he has done a lot of geocaching out there.  Of course, I was surprised about this, so asked him more details about it.  He said there were loads of them in the area and told me to go to geocaching.com.  I did.  Now, I understand it a little better. 

Our gps is out of date with maps, so nothing will display.  Ok, let me bring out my handy dandy ipod touch and see what I can do with it.  Well, after downloading a few apps on the subject, I found only about a trillion treasures to hunt down.  There's quite a few only a mile from our house! 

I told the girls about it.  Allison wasn't thrilled.  I tried to convince her it would be fun, but she just didn't seem to understand, saying that it was for people without lives.  Teenagers.  Morgan and Emily, however, are all for it.  Allison just wants to search for treasure if it's something of value she can keep.  She still didn't quite get it. 

I looked closely at one of the places on my map and realized exactly where it was.  I didn't need coordinates for this one.  Super easy.  Our Wal-Mart here is built behind McDonalds.  There is a big deep ditch with a few culverts separating the two parking lots.  I told Allison about it.  Still, no sign of light in her eyes.  Not until we went to Wal-Mart today.  As I drove right beside that big ditch, I was reminded.

"Look, Allison, there's a cache somewhere down in that ditch, probably hidden in one of those culverts."

Allison's head pops up as she looks down toward the ditch...with a grin on her face.

"See, it's exciting to know that, right?" 

A bigger grin spreads across her face as she continues to look at the ditch while we drive on.

Uh, huh.  For those without lives, huh?