Tuesday, April 6, 2010

It's all about the Chickens!

So I deep-6'd 50 chickens. See, this is how it went.....

I ordered my supply of chicks from one of my favorite hatcheries (Mt. Healthy Hatchery). Originally wanting 25 we noticed that they had a special of 25 free chicks with the purchase of 50. Well, math not being my forte, I figured, ok, 25 more chicks. But then when that little concept sunk in got it was realized that 25 + 25 + 25 does not equal 50. Not even in my world, but more like 75 (most days). This was still ok (sort of), I'll let them grow and then put them in the freezer, keep a rooster and maybe 8-10 hens over the winter to re-populate next spring. But then a niggling feeling kept at the back of my brain. 75 chickens is A LOT of chickens. Way more than we need, really, and started thinking that maybe I should just call and re-do the order (even if that means giving up 25 free chickens!). So I did it. Just today. They're due to ship May 2, so likely they haven't even been laid yet (the eggs, not the chickens, let's not get into that).
My life is a bit complicated right now, and I neither have the time or space (or time to make more space) for 75 chickens. 25 additional will be a stretch, but MUCH more manageable. And they can still re-populate. And that, is how you deep-6 50 chickens!

Finished a pair of slippers last night, now have to throw them in the washer and dryer to shrink and felt them. Doesn't seem like the season to be knitting slippers, but my toes still get cold. I knit them out of bits and pieces and scraps of Lopi (which is really more of a roving than a yarn, but it knits up nicely, and will shrink felt just fine. Nice. Warm. Slippers = No. More. Cold. Toes! YAY!!

Lots of miles on the bike. Another YAY! The bike is my Zen, I start off down the road and "whoosh" everything just goes away. Very relaxing. Hubby and I are planning a 5 day bike trip around Lake Superior in July. I cannot wait. Have to talk The Mouth into taking care of my farm (and the Bu-Dawgh). She's more than capable, having grown up there, but she has time constraints too. My ultimate dream... one of these days I will ride my bike out to Colorado (brother), then on to San Diego (another brother), then up to LA (another brother), then up the coast to Alaska (another brother, that's all, I swear, there are only 4 of them, sometimes that's more than enough!) Then I will ride through the Canadian Rockies back down home. One of these days. And if hubby wants to go with, that will be even better!

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Lots of Stuff Done - check! Lots of Stuff Left To Do - check!

Took yesterday off of work so I could get bunches of stuff done. The problem is that for some reason, when I take a day off of work, my brain follows suit and figures that we don't really have to do anything because, well, because we took the day off!
So did I get the gourds out of the garden? No, I do need to do this because when hubby tears around in there with the rototiller, the seeds will get spread willy nilly and I'll have gourds and squash everywhere.


Squash is a good thing, but I prefer to put it where I want it. The zucchini, will grow where it wants, there's no getting around that, I'll just cut away all of the vines that are not in their appropriated space and in a day or so it will send out new ones.


I located some of my hollyhock plants, always good to find them, so I can mark them, thereby ensuring their safety from the lawn mower. Or bulldozer. Or whichever hits them first.


Got all of the laundry done and hung out, which with only 2 of us, is about 3 loads. But it still takes time, and when the brain is on vacation it's tough to stay on task.


That's about it. Oh, yeah, I did get out for a bike ride, that's a necessity when the temps are in the 70's.


And the temps hit 80 today. Not sure what this is all about but I'm not complaining. Tonight though I have to actually be productive.

I have to locate a bottle jack and jack out of the ground the fence posts that are surrounding the chicken pen. Then I have to repound them back into the ground along with a bunch of others. With 75 chickens coming, I have to make some room. Hopefully won't need more fencing, we'll see how much I can scrounge from my fencing pile. Thsi is a more than one day project, but since it's nice tomorrow too, and I have the afternoon off, maybe a good portion of it will get done. Also plan to plant a few more pea seeds, so far the chickens have left them alone.
Survivor is on tonight, plus I have a good book to read, plus hubby is gone fishing for most of the night so a full night is planned!