They just wanted to go wrangle up the chickens...
so they got in their wranglin' duds -
every good chicken wrangler needs a pink hat!
They caught the one they were lookin' for...
and brought her in the shack to watch a movie with them!
End of story.
P.S. Karrie, these are the eggs from Zing-Zing.
You put a sock on it!
This is Dinner. She got pretty tore up one night and though most of her feathers grew back on one side...the other side is well...naked.
Since the temps have dropped in our area, the skin has been exposed to the weather and she gets pretty cold. Sis offered to knit her a scarf that we could put on her like the sock, but she is behind on a few knitting projects. We instead opted to cut the top of the sock off to protect her.
It will have to do for now.
Finally!, a summer-long project has come to a completion. Our family tends to jump into things feet first without much preparation - it is a bad habit. It can be a wonderful trait at times, but......in preparing for things - it is a very BAD trait.
These are the times that I look to my family, namely my Dad to come and bail me out. He does it and not because I bat my eyes and say "Pleeeeaaaassse, Dad, can you come help me?????" - he will do it because I am one of his favorite daughters (He only has two of us, I am one of the two).
I started out with three chickens at this time last year, Dad obliged and for Christmas he made me a chicken coop. Wellll.....during this year we added 10 more chickens to our brood. One chick died and another was taken out by a raccoon or skunk. Our brood became 11 instead of 13, which is a good thing. The chicken coop needed remodeling and an extension; this would prevent cannibalism amongst the chickens and help keep the chicken poop under control.
That remodeling finally came to fruition while Mem and I were on a field trip last Friday. The weekend before my brother and Dad came over and helped moved the two-ton hessie chicken coop to the corner of our lot. My brother was brilliant that day, but I will save that for another time.
My Dad did "pre-fab" 2 x 4 "walls" at his house and we moved them over here before he stayed with the older kids while Mem and I headed to Habitot in Berkeley.
This is what he had done by the time I got home...
It is completely enclosed so that no critters can get in or out....
There are two access points - one at the end of the chicken run
and another remains on the coop...
We put the finishing touches on the chicken run - filling the bottom with dirt, putting sawdust in the beds and putting a couple extra roosts right in the middle of the run. We introduced the last 3 chickens at night so that they wouldn't get to beat up by the others.
All I can say is "Ahhhhhhhh, a project is complete!"
Now, I have my Dad doing the little things that I need to get done before we start laying the brick down, so we can extend our patio area before the rains come. Projects never end, but I am bound and determined to complete the ones I start BEFORE I start another, even if I have to ask my Dad to help me!
Happy Trials!
This is not for the faint of heart, I'll tell you. Do you remember my little chicks that we got a few months ago? Do you remember the one named Dinner? Just to remind you of what she looks like, here is a picture of her.
Let me tell you why I am spotlighting this amazing bird. I woke up this morning and after I walked the dog; it was time to take care of the chickens. My normal procedure is to count them. We have them in a rabbit run with chicken wire over it until the chicken run is completed. So I was counting them...1..2...3..4..5...6..hmmm, there are only six and why are there 3 of them out of the cage? Pook and I looked around for the other Rhode Island Red that we have and all we found were a bunch of feathers everywhere. Something had gotten into the cage, we believe a raccoon, because we followed a feather trail to the sewer up the street. I mean do you think my chicken would voluntarily want to jump down the sewer? I wouldn't even volunteer to do that!
Alas, a chicken was abducted last night and became somethings meal. It is always a devastating thing in the family, but the kids held it together while repeating out loud "This is part of life" (that is my doing). But what you didn't see is what happened to Dinner. This is how I found her....
severely wounded. This wasn't as bad as when I was a nanny and I saw a deer that had been hit on the road. It was dragging itself across the road and because it was dark I couldn't see how bad it was hurt. I picked it up and put it in the back of the truck and took it to a Park Ranger that I knew. He said he had to put it down, but I asked if he could wait until I got a ways away from the house before he did. When I got back to the house, I looked at myself and had all this fur and blood all over me - glad I didn't see it beforehand!
Anyways, I know that was a total side note, I am sitting here reliving the whole thing in my head. Back to Dinner. Pook and I hopped onto the web to see what we could do to help her out. Don't take this wrong, but I didn't want to take a $5 chicken to see a $100 vet. We would do what we could to make sure that it doesn't get infected and that it doesn't get attacked by the other chickens. She is separated until she heals and we spray her twice a day with Hydrogen Peroxide and Bactine. The skin is not weeping now and is starting to already scab, we will see how she does through the night.
Poor thing, I felt really bad for her. I think she was in shock this morning. Sis held her for a while in a towel and just comforted her and we are making sure that little pesky flies aren't bothering her. Mem hand fed her and Pook has kept a watchful eye on her. Even the other chickens didn't seem to bug her, but just as a precaution we took her out so that she wouldn't get pecked - that would be all she needed.
See there is always something going on around here. Tomorrow Mem starts her little Preschool Co-op - now that should be something!
Hopefully tomorrow will start out a little on the safer side!
A couple of weeks ago we added to the poultry population at our house and with that comes that daily excitement of having young birds around the house. They are here for a purpose, to lay fresh "organic" free range eggs at our home. They are also here to amuse us, to love and to cherish that is until they met Mem.
We had purchased 10 total in a matter of a week. We know for sure that we have a couple of Rhode Island Reds, a couple of Wyandottes and supposedly there is some type of "Sexbird"- seriously I am not making that up, both my oldest daughter and I heard that from the feed store lady! I am not an expert on identifying the breeds of chickens. I have spent some serious time on the internet trying to figure out what the lady told me at the feed store but I have come up with nothing. There are never pictures of birds as chicks they are always shown as adults. If any of them are having an identity crisis because they don't know who they are - well, they will just have to work it out until I can figure it out.
Pook's chick died on Sunday. His name was Caruso and he was the definite runt. He had barely grown at all compared to the other birds. Mem was the most affected by it. Caruso was buried in the yard before she woke up that morning and she didn't get to say "Good-bye". Well, lo and behold if the next day she didn't dig the bird up to say "Good-bye"!
Let me introduce a few of the new members of our elite egg-laying club....
This is Sis's bird, Hannah Montana (original I know, poor singer probably loves to know that animals are named ofter her!)
Here is Mem's bird, Dots...
This is my bird, Lady Liberty...
Our next finalist belongs to Hot Rocks, this is Zing-Zing...
Her name means "Star" in Chinese. We got it off of the back of a fortune in a fortune cookie.
Up next, is the ever so lovely, Oreo, she is presently owned by Sis...
Following Oreo is Mem's other bird, Theodore. Isn't that a lovely name for a lady bird?
Hot Rock's other bird is affectionately named "Dinner". Yes, you read that correctly folks!
Sacajawea wouldn't stay still long enough for me to snap her picture but I did get Pook's bird, Indiana Chick. She has a little story behind her....
Indiana Chick is the sole survivor of Pook's birds. He handled Caruso's death pretty well because A LOT of his animals die. I was very proud of him for how he handled it. You can never figure on the "Mem factor" though. You just NEVER know what she is doing. Yesterday, she was playing with the chickens. Holding them closely, killing them softly in her arms - did I say that ? Oops, I didn't mean to say that!
She decided to give Indiana Chick a BATH! Yes, she had drawn the water from the spigot...filled her bucket and proceeded to dump the chick into the water several times until it was drenched! I was inside starting dinner, when she brings the bird inside in a complete panic, crying out "I didn't mean to kill it. It's gonna die, fix it!" The bird is barely chirping, it's eyes are half shut, it's shivering and all I can think of is Pook losing another animal at the hands of his younger sister, no less.
I snagged the bird from her hands, wrapped her in a warm towel and tried to explain to Pook what just happened to his lone bird. All he could say was "If she dies, Mem is buying me a new one. Make that 2!" I don't quite know where he thinks a 4 year old will get the funds to buy him a new bird or what hard labor I could force upon her, but I understood where he was coming from.
Indiana Chick sat wrapped in the towel, in the sun, close to Pook's chest for a while. We then placed her under the heat lamp where she finished drying off nicely. Indiana Chick survived the ordeal and thus Mem has been placed on "chicken restriction". She is not allowed to touch the chicks at all for a while. She longingly watched them from a distance today - wanting to touch them, to hold them, to love them, to TORTURE them! That will have to wait for another day though.
I have already recruited my Dad to come and help "remodel" the coop area in the backyard and have submitted the plans for his approval. LOL It's all about the 2 x 4's - give him a big stick and the man is happy!
Until our next exciting adventure here at Camp Cookman - Happy Trails!
some people want nothin' at all....me, well, let's just say I am content. I know this is gonna blow your socks off, because I have the MOST amazing Christmas present to show you! It is from my awesome ultra-talented Dad. Some people want diamond rings, some just want everything, but if I didn't have a Dad that likes to take care of his kids, I tell ya, I would be in a heap of trouble! Everyone put your fingers on the keys of the piano and do the little "da da da dun..." because here it is folks, the best present a Dad could EVER give his daughter.....
A CHICKEN COUP!
I do have to say that it was for my husband and myself. I still have to paint the bare wood red & green and then the finishing touches will be placed on that baby and my little chickens are gonna be the happiest layin' birds in town! It isn't even done yet and they have already started to lay away! AMAZING! Love it!!!
So did everyone have a great Christmas? Our sweet Toti had a major stroke after she got home, so we have been back and forth to her home town since the beginning of January.
I made myself a little birthday cake the other night...wanna see????
It was something I decided to give a whirl at combining. I did my fave chocolate cake - Denver Sheet Cake from the Colorado Cache Cookbook and one of my dearest friends, Peanut Butter Frosting recipe - combined the two and Viola! A sweet Peanut Butter and Chocolate cake with dark chocolate shavings on top!
Decided that I would start to actively recycle this year....
and last but not least, I finally stamped. I know, I know, pick yourself up off the floor. You read it correctly, I STAMPED. It's OK to say it, I confess, I have been lame about it, but I have succeeded in accomplishing 2 cards (identical) even after getting home from Sacramento today.
I need to put a little pebble on the "cute" saying and I will be satisfied but I feel a rumble comin'. That rumble of creativity just wants to be let out. It has been caged far to long - it is time to let it dance on the winds of oh, I don't know help me out here - it's getting a little late....LOL
I have a bunch of misc. things I am just gonna throw out there and try to keep things short and sweet - a lot like my birthday week was - SWEET and way to SHORT!!!!
I guess, I am gonna mosey on outta here - see ya when the stars are big and bright!
Trix
You know something is always bound to happen when you leave - well, while I was down at Karrie's my cute little baby finch (Annie Oakley) died. I don't feel like she lived long enough to enjoy her name but she definitely lived the extreme!
My mom-in-law (m-i-l) had been bird watching them for me. She was sitting on her couch enjoying their little banterings and the door bell rang. My kids were back for the their last night of house-hopping. While my m-i-l was still at the door with my friend - the kids start wailing. M-i-l walks over and there are major tears going on and little Annie on the floor of the cage with a little twitch in her bumm with no other movement going on. They don't know exactly what happened but they believe that Annie flew into the side of the cage at great speed and broke her neck. I'll tell you she lived life in the fast lane.
I know it probably sounds like I am a little rough on the edges. I was saddened because that was the families first offspring from any animal that we have had but, we have had our fair share of death around here. My backyard seems to be more of a pet cemetery than anything else. Three rabbits, countless fish, a frog and now Annie. For each one there has been a memorial service at graveside with most of the family present. So later in the day Monday, I found myself once again digging a grave for little Annie Oakley.
With that said, this card is in memory of her....
Need I say more! Until tomorrow....
It's just your ordinary chicken love....
or is lovin' your chickens the way they do
really ordinary?
Nope, haven't lost that lovin' feelin' yet.....
those chickens into their own home. I need to build it first - I think I am going to recruit my Dad. This is the design I thought of.... I need to figure out the measurements now....
This is a sooped up coop. Maybe someday my house will be of a similar design.....?????
This is picture of me from the second grade and I have wanted to do one of these types of pixs for each of my kids...so I decided for Mother's Day this year I was going to do them for myself! I will probably make smaller ones for the grandparents in a scrapbook fashion but mine will be large wall portraits. I was talking to a couple of my friends and we are going to do pictures of their children also.
Last but not least is the latest addition to my finch family. A while ago I had posted that my finches had laid three eggs, unfortunately, only one survived and this is the little cutie. I believe it is a "she" - so her name will be Annie Oakley. She got booted from the nest yesterday by her parents but had some difficulty flying around so my oldest daughter was the enabler. She put Annie back in the nest until she gets the boot again. Isn't she cute though????? Sweet little chirpy sound too!
I am on a major gluing episode right now and the gluing has a deadline too! Oh, what would we do without pressure? I can't tell what it is right now because it's for my fabulous CBS core group! I just love those ladies - they have been such an incredibly loving, encouraging and mentoring group of ladies that really love to talk about the Word. They have really made my first year at CBS a true delight!
May you find a super soft pillow to rest you weary heads! (If they are weary or if you have a soft pillow! :) )
We have almost have had our chickens for 2 weeks and I have got to tell you, I really like having them! I was out in the desolate yard the other day watering plants and pulling weeds and the chickens were in the background doing their bug thing all over the yard. I felt totally at home almost like I didn't belong here - I needed to have a big red barn that we had converted into a house; with this massive vegetable garden that was half dead because I forget to water, and animals roaming hither and tither. The sun setting behind me and a quietness/calmness that Big Skied places bring forth. Yes, I am not quite sure why I am here in urbanville but God has a reason, a perfect plan...ugh who am I kidding sometimes it is a wilderness! LOL
I am amazed that the chickens were from this science project and....
they were so small...
look at them today. Cute huh!
We had a really close call yesterday with one. They were in the yard wandering like we let them do and the dog was in the dog run. Audrey wanted to know if Duke could come in, I told her "NO, the chickens are out right now." Well, Audrey has a mind of her own, while I was making my bed she let him out unbeknown st to me. I went out a little later into the back and the dog was running loose. Mumble was in the shack, Rose was hiding in the Camille bush and Latte was nowhere to be found! Panic stricken I started to race around the backyard (after I put Duke back in the run) I couldn't find feathers anywhere. This was Chase's chicken and after many deaths of his animals I thought this one would put him over the edge! Well, Latte FLEW into the neighbors yard! Let me tell you what relief!
I got some goodies last week but my camera ran out of batteries and we are broke until next pay, so I had to rummage through the electronic toys to find some working batteries, so I could take pictures. Kind of funny if I do say so myself. We are working sooo hard at being debt free it got us in the butt this time but the Lord totally provided all we needed prior to this so we are just riding it out.
These were a special treat - my sis told me of an awesome "deal" for the Big Kick at Costco.com and it makes those beautiful embossed background pages that you see all over her cards now a days.
Then there was my SU! order - I LOVE the doodle stuff and I use to doodle ALL the time - I should of kept it up - I could of made some money off of it. LOL!!!! 
Actually these were bought within the last month, funny how time slips away so easily.
Another random thing, made these Killer Sticky Buns last night for CBS stayed up WAYYYY to late making them but they turned out really good! Love a Killer Sticky Bun so does my own bumm!
Well, I will be hobo-ing it out of here - hope to catch you on the next train ride!
