Have you Herd??!!

It's been an exciting week around here!

A week ago Sunday I asked Peter if he wanted to go to the ReStore with me.   You just gotta love that place.  It's like GoodWill for construction materials.  The best of both worlds.  After a few minutes of thinking things through, I changed my mind and said, "Never mind - I'll just find doors or stuff I'd like for the studio, but we don't have time to use and then we'll just have to store them and I'll just torture myself and it's not worth it."   I did not mean it snarkily - but really, what was the point of going?  Peter drug us there anyway and just like I thought, we found the perfect doors for my studio.  Despite my dread of just getting things we have to store and not use, we got them anyway and with a little help from my freighbor Shelly we even got them home.  By Monday night we had one set of doors mostly installed:

Peter had to say something about my pessimism and didn't he prove me wrong!  Yes, he did.  But also, maybe I just learned that a little bit of pessimism get's things done around here.  Hmm... I better be careful not to let him in on my new knowledge AND I better be careful not to abuse such power.

I've spent my days off this week cleaning and organizing the stuff in the studio.  Removing lumber and pipes and shade cloth.  Not to mention possum poo, rats nests, birds nests and other heebie jeebie kinds of things.  Ewww.  We're almost ready for insulation.  I'm very excited!  If I squint real hard I can see the light at the end of this fiber studio tunnel!

Friday we went to the new feed store down the road.  It's not as close as the local one but this one has an assortment of friendly barnyard animals, as well as a very friendly blue and gold macaw and a whole room of chicks called ChickenLand (the room not the chicks).  You know how I like chicks!  

When we got there, our first stop was the barnyard.  They had chickens, turkeys, pheasants, ducks, quail, some goats, a miniature donkey and two alpaca.  The donkey was being very nasty to the two alpaca and the alpaca were fighting back with some pretty sloppy spitting.  I've never seen such a hullabaloo.  

After we admired all the chicks and made some decisions about the breeds we'll get when we are ready, we happened to bump into the owner of the place.  A very nice man named Matt, who also happens to be an old friend.  We were talking about the donkey and the alpaca relationship issues and Matt asked if we wanted the two alpaca.  Umm... YEAH!!  The donkey was a family pet and these are recent additions to their barnyard.  They had purchased them at the local farm auction for $5.00 a piece and were willing to just give them to us because he knew they'd would be well taken care of at our house.

Free alpaca?  That's even better than the ReStore!  They were named Darcy and Darla.  Not names I love and since these were new names, the girls didn't really answer to them anyway - not saying that alpaca ever really respond to their names.  The one with the white patches on her face is now named Cheeks or Chica and the other one (the one with the impossibly long eyelashes) hasn't told us what her name is yet.  I think she'll let us know soon.  Please feel free to make suggestions - naming things has always been hard for me.  

Cadbury and Chupa seem to be mostly fine with their new herd members.  There is a little posturing, some serious smelling and all that "hey!  you're new!" stuff.  Alpaca are herd animals - they prefer living life in a group.  I'm certain that our little herd of 4 will be a peaceful and harmonious place in no time at all.  

Spring Fever

The dreary days are upon us.  Day after day of rain and mud and muck and gunk.  Not that I have SAD or anything - or maybe I do but this weather makes me ache for long summer days, grass, flowers and sunshine.

The little house on the ditch is desperately in need of some TLC and we have summer plans for just that.  But summer seems a long way off and I've got the ache now.  I'm restless and I'm ready for something to brighten my day.

Being a child of the virtual age I decided to do home improvements THAT way.  For now anyway.

This is the before picture of our little house on the ditch.

The first thing to do was some basic clean up.  Sorry, Peter, but work clothes do NOT belong in my virtual fantasy:

Paint!  The house desperately needs painting.  I wanted a bright cheery color and I'm not satisfied with this one.  I might go a bit more yellow for the real world - but for now this works.

I think the house looks like a face without eyebrows.  It needs more trim.  I was thinking shutters but Peter thinks trim will be sufficient.  For now we'll stick with just trim.  

Actually I hate to admit it, but he may be right.  Trim seems sufficient and it's definitely getting better.  Still needs more though.  Uhmm... oh - how about nice green grass??

I hear a colorful front door is a feng shui sort of thing.  I chose purple.

More color is needed.  I think flowers are in order.

and then the last, most important thing..  chickens and a chicken coop. 

 You know, I didn't touch the gray sky but it actually looks brighter.  Maybe that's just wishful thinking...

I'm done (for) now.

Chickens

Chickens.  I want them.  I want them bad.

Chicks have been arriving at the post office every few days.  They arrive on the early truck and hang with us mail carriers peeping loudly begging for release from their cardboard prisons.  Someone usually comes to pick them up by mid morning.  It's too bad we don't get to deliver them.  I could just imagine driving around in my little tin can LLV with the the music of little chicks echoing.  Then again, that much noise in such close confines might cause me a bit of stress..

At any rate, it really pulls at my heart strings.  I love chickens.  We've had a couple weeks of freezing temperatures or below around here.  We were told a "hard freeze" would kill the virus that's developed here.  I wonder if our cold snap has been enough.  I worry that it hasn't.  Do I go ahead and get some new chicks, fall for them only to have them die horrible deaths in 6 months?  I'm really torn.

I am leaning toward getting them.  And since I'm leaning that direction I'm thinking chicken coops.  I want to create a home for my fowl that will make the neighbor chickens jealous.

I'm thinking something architectural, funky and fun like one of these:

And then, of course, there is the chicken breed!  I really liked my Rhode Island Reds (Carmen, Carmen and Lucy).  And my barred rock, Teri(yaki) was loads of fun.  Salt and Pepper were silkies.  They were cute, but weren't as gregarious as the others. 

Perhaps I will get one of each kind of chicken I can find.  It would make them easier to tell apart.  Stay tuned for updates and photos...

I'm Stumped!

I like tradition. Granted this tradition has been a bit hit or miss over the last few years but for awhile our tradition was for Peter to risk our lives on holidays.  

Today is a holiday.  New Years Day to be exact.  One Christmas day we got stuck in the snow, the following Thanksgiving were lost in a very foggy state park after dark wandering around in circles.

After several hours of working outside cutting brambles and trimming trees Peter sprung the news on me that he wanted to go to the river to get wood.  This didn't make sense to me because we have plenty of firewood and why would we want firewood from the river?  He told me the river was low so the wood was not wet or  water logged and it should be a BREEZE to get home.  After a bit more prodding on my part I got the full story - apparently there was an uprooted tree that had a very interesting root system and Peter wanted to bring it home for little house on the ditch beautification (and photographing).  Our target wood was just off the road, across a small bit of gravel.  It wasn't very big and our adventure would be an easy one.  Peter said I didn't really need to go if I didn't want to - he just thought it would be nice to spend time together.

It was late afternoon when we borrowed Peter's mother's mini-van, loaded the chain saw and the hand truck and set off on our mission.  We parked the car, climbed down a muddy slope, crossed a large frozen puddle, hiked across some loose sand, over a dune, down another sandy slope, and there was the tree.  Located in a high and dry log jam.  Peter grabbed the chain saw, climbed atop the pile and cut off the root system he so desired.  Unfortunately, the roots were entwined with other debris in the log jam and additional cutting was needed to cut it loose.  We pushed and pulled and eventually managed to roll it off the pile.  A bit more pushing, pulling, and rolling and we had it upright and on the hand truck:

It was bigger and heavier than Peter expected it would be.  The wheels of the hand truck sunk into the loose sand.  With a lot of effort, Peter pulling, me pushing, we got it all the way back to the muddy slope, just  before the road and the car.  We even got it 1/2 way up the slope by taking it off the hand truck and rolling it up hill but neither of us were completely convinced we had the energy to get it the rest of the way up (considering I'm really not THAT much help with this sort of thing.)  We were both sweating - despite the sub-zero temperature and our muscles were complaining.  We stood it back on end, put it back on the hand truck and pondered our options.  

At that point a most incredible thing happened, a giant wandered by and offered to help.  He and some friends had been target shooting nearby.  I said, "my, you're a large fellow."  His reply?  "I'm 6'8" and 340 pounds."  He and Peter hauled our tree right to the road, barely breaking a sweat while I leisurely followed.  It's good to be a princess every now and then.

We thanked our friendly Giant, he wished us a happy new year, he squeezed himself into his little car and off he went leaving us to stare at our tree and the back of the mini-van.  The tree was taller than the van.  We thought the hard part of retrieving the wood was over but now we had to figure out how to get the thing the rest of the way home.  We managed to lean it into the van - but sliding it into the van involved lifting it.  Where was a giant when you need one??  

It took us about 15 minutes of wrestling this monstrosity but we eventually got it in the car and eventually home.  I'm not sure where it will end up but I'm sure it will a beautiful addition to our landscaping.

My life was not at risk today - unless we take into account physical exertion and the potential for a heart attack or stroke.  It was really quite a fine day and a good way to start the new year.