Spring Cleaning

Despite it being an absolutely gorgeous day outside, there were some chores that absolutely needed to be taken care of. Oh well, every day can't be a play day.

Tim headed outside to clean rabbit cages.  We've had a request to purchase rabbit manure for gardens, so he had to sacrifice a little extra time to bag up the poop.   The dogs got to spend a lazy day playing outside and the chickens got significantly more free range time.

While Tim was working on rabbit cages, I decided to tackle the house.

I hate to clean.  Hate it.  Usually my approach is get a bit done here and a bit done there and ultimately I spend hours piddling around and not getting much done.

I decided today to tackle one room at a time.  First up- the dining room.  We don't sit at the table that often, so Tim tends to toss his junk on that table and go on about his business.  It took quite a while to sort through the junk and throw it out, then put the useful items in their proper place.

I did some dusting, which I also despise, and spend the next 10 minutes sneezing around the house.  Ughhh dust.

I found some old blankets tossed in a chair that the cats had been sleeping on- they went into the washer and are being dried now.

I spent a good hour cleaning the garage (also a site of "just toss it and forget it) and setting up the new heavy plastic shelves I bought from an estate sale yesterday.  Then I gathered up all the various boxes of mason jars for canning season and moved them out to their new home on the shelves.

All in all, I spent 3 1/2 hours working on the garage and the dining room. There is still plenty of cleaning that needs to be done, but I think I earned a bit of a break!

-Kristen

Free Can of Rise & Shine Cat Food

There is a simple way to get a free can of Friskies Rise & Shine Cat Food this morning!

Simply go here and upload a picture of your cat to enter their sweepstakes to win free cat food for a year.  Just for entering, you can print a coupon for a free can of Friskies Rise & Shine Cat Food, a 60 cent value.

-Kristen

Sneaky Girl-

One of the Ameraucana hens has been escaping the coop several times a week. We couldn't figure out how she was getting out or why.

Yesterday, she disappeared completely after we opened the coop to let the girls out to play.  We couldn't find her, so we figured she was hiding and would get lonely and be back soon.  After two hours, I began to really worry.  We had been outside the whole time and hadn't heard the sound of anything attacking the flock.  The dogs were out with us and they hadn't alerted us to anyone in the yard- she was just gone!

I began walking the property, looking under every bush, the deck, the barn, etc.  Finally, I saw a flash of gold and brown- could it be her?

It was! She was asleep under a bush in the front of her house.  She had greeted me at the front door one morning when I went to work, but it had been almost a month before and I didn't really think too much about it.  

I crawled through the bushes and picked up my sleepy girl- then almost dropped her again.

She had been hoarding eggs in the bushes! When all was said and done, there were twenty eggs in her little nest.  Who knows how long she has been hiding them.  She wasn't happy that she was taken away from them and she's been even less happy today because she is no longer able to get loose. 

I am so relieved we found her!  She is definitely our favorite of the standard hens and I was so worried.  Now we should see an increase in eggs we are collecting as well.

-Kristen

By the work of my hands

I came home from work today to find a beautiful day waiting for me.  I had been trying to decide what my project was going to be today- whether it was going to be cleaning the garage, decluttering the house, etc.

What ultimately won out was the reorganization of the chicken coop.

Tim and I took down the walls to the coop and moved them about a foot to the right, which repositioned their little house (which is too heavy to move hehe).  The coop was originally cobbled together from two different sizes of fencing, with a sloping roof.  We took apart the smaller walls and put them to the side, then removed all the chicken wire from the inside of the larger fencing.

While the walls weren't connected, we took the opportunity to scrape out floor and change the shavings on the floor.  Then we put the walls back up and spent ten minutes trying to wrangle the girls back in to their new home.

It took us around an hour to get everything torn apart, cleaned and put back together, but it looks so great!  The hens are all traumatized, but once they get over the shock of things being- *gasp* different, I think they will be happy.  They currently have a few small patches of grass growing in the coop from where we shifted it, but I won't hold my breath that it will last past today.

The smaller walls of the coop are currently residing in our garage.

It is very satisfying to see the new area, cleaned up and looking nice.  It's immensely satisfying to work with your hands and get things done.

-Kristen

Saying Goodbye

The hardest part of having a hobby homestead, or having pets, or owning animals of any kind, is that we have to say goodbye to them all too soon.   No matter how much lover and affection we shower on them, they will be gone before we are and it's heartbreaking.

Pot as a young pullet.

Today we had to say goodbye to Pot, a black bantam cochin hen. She was only 14 months old, but developed a prolapsed uterus. I researched the problem as best I could and based on my findings, decided that the best thing for her was to euthanize her. Unfortunately, as a young hen in the prime of her productive life, the problem could occur every few days- or several times a day, even if we were able to fix it to begin with.

That's no life.

The hardest part of being with animals is loving them, naming them, then holding them for one last time, knowing you are about to forever put an end to them. I can tell myself she had a good life with us, she was loved and cared for. I can tell myself that she could have just as easily passed away as a day old chick, or lived with someone who neglected her, that a good short life is better than a long bad one, but in the end- a short life is still short.

Pot & Kettle- the day before Easter, 2013

It is important to remember that sometimes, the only gift you can give your beloved pets and charges is mercy.  So I hugged Pot close one last time, stroked her neck feathers while she murmured to me and whispered a quick "I'm sorry".  Then we let her go.  Not because we wanted to, but because it was what was best for her. 

It's part of life, but oh, I hate it so much.  I hate saying goodbye.  I hate even more making that decision, or having to be the one that ends the life.  I don't think it's something I'll ever get used to or take lightly.

Still- maybe there is some comfort in knowing that she couldn't have been loved any better, or missed any more.

-Kristen

Guilty

I've been guilty of neglecting this blog lately.  With having been sick, coupled with the various other hobbies I have, it's been pushed to the back burner.

I've been working a lot on working my Thirty One business lately.  It's been paying dividends for sure.  In addition to my paycheck in March (which was a HAPPY pay check!) I ended up winning two contests.  One was from the lady directly in my "upline" (aka, the lady I signed up under) and I won a $65 purse! I also tied in her second contest for having someone sign up under me, though the prize went to the person I tied with- quite rightly, I thought.

The second prize I won was second place in the Director's contest- and I won a set of $35 cosmetic bags in my choice of color.

So, I ended up adding $100 in free products to my paycheck in the month of March! Woot woot :).

Add the extra money coming in from Thirty One to my couponing, rebates, surveys and the fact that we no longer have to make payments on my car and I am feeling pretty good right about now- knock on wood, of course.  We all know life has a way of knocking you down a peg when you start to feel too good, but right now I plan on enjoying it!

-Kristen

River's Big Day Out

Despite waking myself up coughing every few minutes, I rolled out of bed all too early Friday- as is becoming all too common.

Tim & I loaded up River and headed to Concord, North Carolina.  There was a dog show going on at the Events Center and along with that was a health clinic.

I thought our appointment was at 11:20, but it was actually at 11:00. Oops.  Add to that the 20 minutes we wandered aimlessly trying to find the clinic and we were significantly late when we showed up. 

Thankfully, the ladies running the desk allowed us to wait and the doctor and her assistant were kind enough to go ahead and take us around noon.

River had to be coaxed in to the door- she hates small, confined places.  And mailboxes.  She's a nut.

We watched as an echocardiogram was performed.  Basically, they were looking for any arrhythmia or problems with the heart.  The "ear test" went off with out a hitch, but I don't think I breathed the entire time we were looking at her heart on the screen.  I'm pretty sure the most traumatic part for River-butt was when the vet tech clamped her mouth shut with his hands so the doctor could listen to her heart beat.

Finally it was done and we got the results- our baby girl is 100% normal!  Her test results will be sent in to OFA and she will become certified as having a healthy heart!

This means...wait for it-

River will be entering a breeding program!  Ok, breeding program sounds a little grand for my plans, but River, her "sister wife" Sienna and an adorable little mini poodle I happen to know named Biscuit will form the trio for KW Kennels- Breeding Small, healthy Goldendoodles.

Yes, goldendoodles.  There is a market out there for these dogs and my kennel partner and I have very carefully selected healthy dogs with excellent temperaments to meet the needs of those wishing to add a "doodle" to their families.

I'm very, very excited, as River will be bred very soon.  She will be coming back to raise her litter here- I can't wait!

-Kristen