Chickens

I am sure you have heard the term "Crazy Cat Lady". You know the reference to an old lady with no family but tons of cats living with her. Well while I like my chickens and enjoy them I don't think I would like to be known as a crazy chicken lady.

My mom and I worked last week to make better surroundings for my budding egg layers and my future suppers. We used some old fencing and weaved it through the trees to build an enclosure for the chickens. I want my chickens to get outside but I also don't want them finding their way to my flowers or yard or garden. We built it big enough to keep them happy and are they happy when they get outside. My broilers are getting really big and they don't do much except walk to find water or food. Some of them will be butchered while Adam is home because some he works with would like to buy some. The rest will be left to fatten up for another two weeks and will be done the next time Adam is home. Maybe I will be taking orders in the spring for home grown chickens?????

We have 5 roosters. Three little white guys and two black and white ones. The black and white roosters are named, Noodle and Pete. Noodle has emerged as the cock with the walk...the king of the castle. He is the bigger rooster and is just starting to try out his crowing muscles. The girls are so proud of him and I can't wait for his first Cocka doodle do.

I had an evening of drama with my girls. There are two little openings (6inches by 12inches) in which the chickens can get out of the coop. One entrance is contained within the fencing the other is not. I staples some chicken wire over the entrance of the one not within the fences confides so I could leave the door off and have some air circulation through the coop. When the chickens are out I have been tying up the dogs as I am sure they could make it through the fence if they wanted too and I just don't want to worry. Anyway I had put the chickens away but left to one door off so keep the air circulating. Johnny came inside with us and I, as usual, left Farley outside. Later that evening I went to let Johnny out for a pee and to feed Farley. I called and called for Farley and no one came running. All of a sudden my heart sank. I dreadfully walked to the coop and saw my fencing on the little door mangled. I opened the coop door expecting to see a chicken lost war zone but out came Farley and I saw no blood shed within eye sight. I walked through the coop and did a head count....about 15 short. I walked the dogs back to the house and locked them up. As I was walking back to the coop I started to spot some loose chickens. After two hours of rounding up, catching, chasing and counting all my chickens I retired with a full head count and a quiet coop. I am still thankful and somewhat in disbelief that Farley did not kill one chicken. The opportunity was there and I will never know what happen in the coop BUT I am happy he left them alone or they were quick enough to escape his jaws.




I have pictures of the roosters and broilers but they are poor in poor lighting. I will take some better pictures and post them soon.

Gaining Time....

From this....



To this....


Now I don't believe myself to be a complainer. Last year when we moved here the previous owners were kind enough leave behind their old riding mower. Now it did the job last summer and for the first cut this year BUT it was extremely slow with dull, uneven blades which cut but not nicely or easily. A lot of areas would need to be cut twice or three times just to ensure everything was got. As you can imagine, when cutting 3-4 acres of grass this can add hours to your time. We had been discussing getting a new mower this year and decided it needed to happen sooner rather than later. Adam came home yesterday and we headed into town and bought ourselves a new mower. We choose a bigger model than originally planned and I am glad we did. What once was an afternoon job can be done in 2 hours. Its like adding time onto your day. It is easy to operate, fast, big cutting deck....and according to Adam I look damn good on a John Deere.

My Monkeys

Natasha tried the monkey bars today and could go one swing to another bar. After a little bit of encouragement and some technique advice I went to clean out a little bit of the envoy. Natasha came running over to the envoy to tell me she made it all the way across. Here is the proof:

Sick and Tired...

I am long overdue for an update and it has been weighing on my mind so here I am at 11:15pm. I had a long days work and I just finished making a batch of sushi (pregnancy craving) to munch on tomorrow. I am going to go by days here and they will be brief but at least let my readers know I am alive and have been kind of busy. If I miss any days they were pretty uneventful and I can't remember anything that was blog worthy.

Saturday - I shot my first wedding. It was a lovely wedding though I was pretty stressed out about getting good pictures. Between my mom and I we got some great shots. I shared some of the pictures with the bride and groom before they left on their honedymoon (Mexico) and they were happy with what they saw...big sigh of relief from me. The girls spent the day with my Auntie Betty. They had a great time with her and Natasha did not want to go home because she wanted to have a sleepover. It was a long day and we got home around 10:00pm.

Sunday - We went into Camrose to return my brothers car. We spent some of our day at my parents place just lazing about.

Tuesday - We headed into Edmonton because the girls had dentist appointments. Another thing I love about where we live is that we are close enough to Edmonton to keep the wonderful doctors we already have. Anyway Natasha has two cavaties which she has to get treated. One will require a cap and the other one will just be a filling. The cavities are both in the back molars in between the teeth and were found via xray. The dentist and hygenist say she is so good that they can do both in one visit and she will just require nitrous gas (and then freezing). The only part Natasha and I have discussed is the nitrous gas as she will worry about the needle from now until the appointment. I would like to go in and hold her hand but they said they do much better without a parent present so I will just sit and stew in the waiting room. Ashley had no cavities but the dentist said she has a very small mouth so be prepared for crowding in later years. After the dentist we grab something to eat and then headed over to my cousins place to pick up some baby things she was giving away before they move. The girls played with her boys. They don't see each other often but they always have a great time together. We drove back to Camrose and stopped quickly at my parents. We then went to Safeway quickly and then grabbed a ice cream cone before heading home for the evening.

Thursday - I woke up and was taking an easy morning. I got a call from my cousin asking when I was planning on stopping by after my doctors appointment. I, with my pregnancy brain, thought it was early afternoon. I looked at my calendar at 930am only to learn my appointment was at 1040am which left me 1hr10 min to get dressed, drop the girls off and get to my appointment in the west end. I did not make it in time but I called the office and let them know I was going to be late and to not cancel me of the appointment list for the day. I got there only to sit and wait for a while. My blood pressure was raised for the day which I predicted considering my panicked morning. After the appointment I ran to the Childrens Place and got the girls some summer clothes for knocking around outside. I headed homeward bound and stopped at my parents to check on the girls. I went home and checked my chickens and then laid down for a nap. I woke up after about 45 minutes only to fall back asleep. I finally woke up at 530pm and then headed back to Camrose to help my dad change the roters on my vehicle. He was surprised how easy the process was compared to the difficulty he has had changing my oil. I helped put the girls to bed and then headed home around 930pm. I got home and fell onton the couch. I watched a little bit of a movie before heading to bed for the night.

Friday - Woke up and did some cleaning and laundry without the girls present (which makes it so much easier). The girls and my mom came home around 1200-1230. We sat down for a coffee and some lunch before heading outside. With the help of my mom we got a lot accomplished. We planted a good chunk of the garden and made a fence for my chickens. They can now get outside and enjoy the sunshine, bugs and fresh vegetation. I think the dogs may be able to get through the fence so they may need to be tied up while the chickens are roaming about. We may have to build a better fence in the future or a dog run for the mutts.

I am totally exhausted but I feel better having updated my blog.

GNITE!!!

Published

Canadian Scrapbooker

This brag is three fold. I took some pictures at Natasha and Ashley's joint Birthday/Halloween party last year. The pictures sat dormant for a while until my mom decided to scrapbook. My mom sent it in for submission to Canadian Scrapbooker.

Now getting asked for submission is cool enough but we just found out it will be published for the September 1 issue.

So the brag is three fold because my name will be mentioned because it was my photo, my mom published because it was her layout, and of course Natasha because she was the inspiration.

The layout and picture was to be taken down anywhere it was posted so I apologize for not being able to share.

So watch out for Canadian Scrapbooker in September 2008.

Hoo Doos

Royal Tyrell Museum

Drumheller

On Friday we took a trip to Drumheller with a coworker of Adam's and his wife. They are moving back to Newfoundland and decided to finally do a tour of Alberta (packed into one weekend) before they leave. So we were on the road at 8:30am and didn't get home until after 10:00pm. It was a long day but a fun one.

The following pictures were taken before we got to the Royal Tyrell Musuem. We loaded the girls into the Envoy still wearing their PJs so we had to do a wardrobe change.