I'm actually posting in less than a week! Can you believe it!
All is well in farm life I think. I broke my finger. It's a really nice shade of purple and blue. Oh well. Life goes on. I just don't understand how I can work all the time and never get hurt - take an entire barn down with hardly a scratch yet I break my finger moving furniture?? Go figure.
At any rate - getting ready for the party this weekend. Need to cut the grass. The neighbor Ben got us a load of gravel for the driveway so we have to work on that tonight. It is really sad when you are excited about gravel.
The guinea eggs are set to hatch on Monday. I'm excited. I know that the girls are too since I actually timed it this time so that they will be here for the hatch. I honestly didn't think about it last time and I regret that.
I need some cool things to do with Cassie. She is not her normal bright cherry self. It's almost like 8 year depression. She just isn't herself. I'm starting to wonder if this past 2 years with the divorce and all is finally taking a toll on her. Like she is missing something in her life and craving something. So I need some really cool fun small activities that I can do with her to cheer her up and have some bonding time. Maybe we will start with baking cookies. I haven't done that with her in a long time....
Anyway - off to push gravel for now....
Thursday, July 16, 2009
Saturday, July 11, 2009
Lots of updates!
Ok so it's been a while again. I'm sorry. We are so busy all the time and I just never seem to be able to find time. At least I think about it though!
Cassie, Samantha, and I.
Dave's mom stayed at the house while we were gone to take care of all the animals. Zeus plowed into Naciye and hurt her pretty bad. She's ok now - but for about 2 weeks she was hurting pretty good. My last female guinea hen got run over while we were gone too. So we only had 5 adult males left. Sigh. I took the eggs out of her nest and now have 24 eggs in the incubator. They should hatch around the 20th. Hey that's only a week away! Cool.
At any rate - we went on vacation in mid-June. Had an absolute ball. Our first vacation together for all 6 of us and mom and dad went to. We went to their condo in Naples Florida. We were actually really dreading the drive - the plan was to drive straight thru - about 16 hours. 2 adults and 4 kids in the car. We really weren't too excited about the drive. So at any rate we did it. We stopped in Atlanta for about 2 hours or so and met my sister Laura and my niece Julie at Hard Rock for dinner. I really really miss my sister and hate the fact that I don't get to see her all the time.
So really for the most part - the drive was great. The kids were wonderful. We got to Naples at 6am. We were on the beach by sunrise. No we were excited at all. :)
So the vacation was great - everyone got along. Actually everyone got along better than we thought they would. The kids didn't fight - which is unusual. Usually there always something that has somebody in fits. We spent a lot of time on the beach, in the ocean, and at the pool.
Cassie in the ocean the morning we arrived on Vanderbilt Beach.
Me and the girls the morning we arrived.
Samantha learned several ways to flip in the pool.
Cassie, Samantha, and I. Yes a picture of Dave and I does exist.
And for those of you how are wondering where exactly all my awesome photographs are - sorry. I can't post them on here. Simple reason - if I want to sell them - I can't post them anywhere. Sorry.
Oh yeah - I guess I should tell you what else we did on vacation. We decided to go to Harley to look at T-shirts and stuff. Harley Davidson of Naples lets you test drive the bikes. A lot of dealerships don't let you do this. This was actually the first one we had been to that let you. so we went there the morning before we left and rode bike after bike. Had a ball. We really miss riding. We missed it so much that we bought a bike. We bought in Florida and then had to have it shipped home. I haven't told mom and dad yet - considering that technically the bike hasn't been our possession for even a week yet (yes it took 2 1/2 weeks for it to arrive). So dad I know you will read this at some point. We bought a bike and we are sorry we didn't tell you - but we know how you feel about motorcycles.
So the bike is used. A 1994 Dyna Wide Glide. It's got LOADS of chrome on it. The guy that had it before put tons of extras on it. It only has 23k miles on it. We got it cheap. We can afford it. Put it this way - we did away with Direct TV so our finances don't change. We like the bike better than TV anyway. LOL.
Dave's mom stayed at the house while we were gone to take care of all the animals. Zeus plowed into Naciye and hurt her pretty bad. She's ok now - but for about 2 weeks she was hurting pretty good. My last female guinea hen got run over while we were gone too. So we only had 5 adult males left. Sigh. I took the eggs out of her nest and now have 24 eggs in the incubator. They should hatch around the 20th. Hey that's only a week away! Cool.
The 12 guinea keets - well I let them out of their enclosure to clean it and well they disappeared. Seriously - I saw them and then 30 minutes later when I went to bring them back in - they were GONE. I searched for an hour. Couldn't hear them, see them - nothing. I searched for 2 days after that. No sign of them at all. Then I guess my adult guineas herded home 4 females. I have no idea where they found them - but at least they brought home a few of them. So needless to say - I will be keeping all the ones that hatch from this batch since I wouldn't have anymore eggs this year.
Everyone else is great. Been riding the horses a lot more than normal. I ride with Carla, who lives behind us and has 80 acres. Daily tags along with us when we go so that I don't have to leave him home alone. He gets his exercise with all the running he does.
We had our July 4th party. It rained and it rained and it rained. So we didn't get to set off all the fireworks we bought. We've rescheduled the fireworks for July 18th for this who want to come.
So alot of work to do. Lots of projects. We need to start on building the barn. Our neighbor is getting his brothers backhoe so we can dig out of the footers. Anybody have about 500 cinderblocks???? LOL
Need to run for now. I've spent way too much time on here already.
Friday, May 29, 2009
Why can't any day be normal?
I had my day planned. It never happens that way. I should know better. Our phone is out...again. At least once a month our phone doesn't work. I really wish they would just fix it for good. I had some phone calls that I needed to make this morning and matters to attend to. Things that HAD to be done today. I have no phone. My cell phone doesn't work at the house. Ugh. So I decided to go to mom and dad's and make my calls along the way and put in some badly needed internet time to catch up and download email. At least I got something done today.
I went out to get the mail today and there was an ant's nest in the mailbox. Thousands of ants, literally overnight. I couldn't believe it. As much as we are trying to go green and not use chemicals - I figured on the mailbox I could. Now there are no more ants.
Zeus (puppy) is really testing me. This morning he is laying down and I hear scrapping. I get up to look and he is chewing on a door frame. This is something that I have not had to correct yet. So I told him no and distracted him with something else. 3 minutes later I hear the same lovely sound. I come around the corner and he just lays there, looks at me, and keeps scrapping his teeth on it. GRRRRR!! This time he gets put in his kennel.
Socks the cat has figured out how to open the screen door to the deck. It's actually pretty funny. She doesn't like to go outside unless you are there with her, so she likes it on the deck where I guess she thinks she is still in the house. She opens the door, goes out on her chair, and she will stay there.
The girls are with their dad until tomorrow night. I miss them. I hate spending time away from them. Dave's kids come tonight for the weekend.
We have to finish taking down the barn this weekend. They are set to start construction on the property next week. 5 more loads...we can do it.
I went out to get the mail today and there was an ant's nest in the mailbox. Thousands of ants, literally overnight. I couldn't believe it. As much as we are trying to go green and not use chemicals - I figured on the mailbox I could. Now there are no more ants.
Zeus (puppy) is really testing me. This morning he is laying down and I hear scrapping. I get up to look and he is chewing on a door frame. This is something that I have not had to correct yet. So I told him no and distracted him with something else. 3 minutes later I hear the same lovely sound. I come around the corner and he just lays there, looks at me, and keeps scrapping his teeth on it. GRRRRR!! This time he gets put in his kennel.
Socks the cat has figured out how to open the screen door to the deck. It's actually pretty funny. She doesn't like to go outside unless you are there with her, so she likes it on the deck where I guess she thinks she is still in the house. She opens the door, goes out on her chair, and she will stay there.
The girls are with their dad until tomorrow night. I miss them. I hate spending time away from them. Dave's kids come tonight for the weekend.
We have to finish taking down the barn this weekend. They are set to start construction on the property next week. 5 more loads...we can do it.
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Too much happening...
Things are so busy around here. I can't keep up. I can't even find the time to post on here. I want to include pictures so I don't post by using my phone. Maybe I should that way people can stay updated.
We've been busy this month. We are still working on taking the barn down. Well for the most part it is down - just needs to come home. We actually got the whole barn down in a matter of about 7 days working about 5 hours a day. We did almost the entire tear down process in the rain, board by board. We had no machinery. We used hammers, pry bars, ropes, and one 32 foot ladder. Many people told us we couldn't do it. But we did. The rain did not let up for weeks. When it did stop raining, we had to wait for the field to dry out so we can get the trucks and trailers in there without getting stuck. As soon as it got close to dry enough, it rained again. Ugh. We couldn't win at all. Last weekend we finally got good weather to get more home. All the rafters and beams are home now. We have about about 5 trailer loads left and we should be done this weekend. Then we have to put it back up! I'll do a whole post as soon as I can with pictures of the demo process.
All the kids are doing great. Samantha is done with school. She graduated from preschool. How cute is that! A preschool graduation and certificate. Cassie has one more week left and then she is done. Actually it's 4 days. I am not sure if I am ready for school to be out. On one hand I am happy not to have to leave the house in the morning to get her to school, but on the other hand that means they are home with me all the time. How will I ever get anything done?? I think I am going to start putting them to work.
We leave for Florida in about 2 weeks. We are so ready for a little vacation.......
All the animals are good. The horses have a new field full of grass to eat so they are happy. The guinea keets hatched a couple weeks ago now - 16 total. I did pretty good for my first incubation! I think I know where the new nest is now, so I will gather eggs again after we get home from Florida. I will probably start selling the keets as I don't need that many. We have 7 full grown guineas and now 16 babies. But then again last year I started with 18 and now down to 7. They aren't the brightest creatures on earth. But I sure love them. Their personalities are great and I love it when they sing to me. I have a video of it somewhere. I need to post that.
The puppies are growing by leaps and bounds. I can't believe how big they are. Zeus is over 50 pounds now his back is over my knees already and Nacy is about 45 pounds or so. She is a couple inches shorter than he is. Of course keep in mind that they are 18 weeks old!
I better run for now. I am at the library posting this because I just had to do an update... No more long intervals like this!
We've been busy this month. We are still working on taking the barn down. Well for the most part it is down - just needs to come home. We actually got the whole barn down in a matter of about 7 days working about 5 hours a day. We did almost the entire tear down process in the rain, board by board. We had no machinery. We used hammers, pry bars, ropes, and one 32 foot ladder. Many people told us we couldn't do it. But we did. The rain did not let up for weeks. When it did stop raining, we had to wait for the field to dry out so we can get the trucks and trailers in there without getting stuck. As soon as it got close to dry enough, it rained again. Ugh. We couldn't win at all. Last weekend we finally got good weather to get more home. All the rafters and beams are home now. We have about about 5 trailer loads left and we should be done this weekend. Then we have to put it back up! I'll do a whole post as soon as I can with pictures of the demo process.
All the kids are doing great. Samantha is done with school. She graduated from preschool. How cute is that! A preschool graduation and certificate. Cassie has one more week left and then she is done. Actually it's 4 days. I am not sure if I am ready for school to be out. On one hand I am happy not to have to leave the house in the morning to get her to school, but on the other hand that means they are home with me all the time. How will I ever get anything done?? I think I am going to start putting them to work.
We leave for Florida in about 2 weeks. We are so ready for a little vacation.......
All the animals are good. The horses have a new field full of grass to eat so they are happy. The guinea keets hatched a couple weeks ago now - 16 total. I did pretty good for my first incubation! I think I know where the new nest is now, so I will gather eggs again after we get home from Florida. I will probably start selling the keets as I don't need that many. We have 7 full grown guineas and now 16 babies. But then again last year I started with 18 and now down to 7. They aren't the brightest creatures on earth. But I sure love them. Their personalities are great and I love it when they sing to me. I have a video of it somewhere. I need to post that.
The puppies are growing by leaps and bounds. I can't believe how big they are. Zeus is over 50 pounds now his back is over my knees already and Nacy is about 45 pounds or so. She is a couple inches shorter than he is. Of course keep in mind that they are 18 weeks old!
I better run for now. I am at the library posting this because I just had to do an update... No more long intervals like this!
Monday, May 4, 2009
From the Beginning - Part Two
August 2008
We finally have started on the basement. Something that we should have done a long time ago. We all need more room. My kids are here half the week and Dave’s kids are here every other weekend. So 6 people and 3 bedrooms don’t work out the greatest when we are all here. We are adding a bedroom in the basement for my girls, a large family room, and an office. We start on the stairs first. We honestly have no clue how to build stairs from scratch. Dave’s dad gives us a little handyman’s book on building stairs. Quite frankly – it was like reading Chinese to me. It made absolutely no sense. All that tread, rise, run… whatever. So while we were at the lumber store buying what we thought we would need, I found a neat book and there was a chapter on building all kinds of stairs. Score! This book explained things a lot better and now I actually understood what those terms meant and how to build them. Then I reread the handyman booklet. It wasn’t Chinese anymore, it was English! Now Dave is not a builder who likes to use plans on paper. He just looks, measures, and builds. It usually does work, however, we both knew that with stairs we couldn’t take the chance. Since he doesn’t have the patience to sit and figure out all the technical measurements, it was left up to me. I measured and re-measured the height, run, etc. Of course we had a limited run which made it a little more difficult since we had to make the stairs fit into a certain area and have a turn in them sothat they weren’t too steep. I finally got my measurements and instead of just cutting the wood and going, we actually took the time to draw the stairs on the wood to see if it would fit. Silly I know, but we are too cheap to buy more wood! Well my calculations were perfect except for one small detail – the stairs went straight to the wall. Hmmm, I am still not sure how that happened or where I went wrong. I won’t get into the details of how we made it work, but we adjusted and drew a new set of stairs with the correct measurements and cut the wood. Everything else went pretty smooth and in a weekend we had stairs with a landing to the basement. Yeah for us. We continue to work on the basement putting up the stud walls that would be the girls bedroom.
We had constant visitors to watch us work. Remember when I said that our chickens were like pets? Well if that basement door was open, then the chickens were in the house with us. We really didn’t mind since it was unfinished. But those weren’t really the only visitors. See picture for our other guests and the rooster "Elvis" in the basement...
Yes the horses. The horses actually came into the basement. I couldn’t believe it. See, before we mow the grass I block off the backyard from the front yard and let the horses eat it down for a day or two and then mow it. Works out great. They get nice fresh grass and eat less hay. So when they are in the backyard, they can come right up to the basement and right on in.
In late August the guineas were allowed out of their house.
For 5 days they didn’t even attempt to leave their house. Sitting in the window sill was as far as they would go. Barney – the only remaining guinea of the neighbors’ has been hanging out around their house during the day. I guess he finally decided that he was tired of waiting for them to leave the house and chased them all out. Of course at night all our guineas go back into their house, but Barney hadn’t ever had a house – so he would sleep in the tree next to the house. Within a few weeks though he must have decided that it wasn’t too scary to sleep in there and he started sleeping in the house with the rest of the guineas. We were actually pretty lucky as far as guinea casualties in their first few weeks. We did lose Puny around 2 weeks. I figured that he would because he was not growing much at all compared to the other keets. We lost one other one I think from suffocation. So both of those guinea keets got buried in the chicken graveyard.
The guineas like to sun themselves on the front steps. Here is a picture I took of them from inside the house.
Later in September Dave had more training. This time we went to
Part 3 coming soon and then we should be caught up!
Pictures
I couldn't add these pictures before and I still don't know why - but here they are.
This is the chicken house "Banjo Stand"
The front flower beds after weeding...
The guinea keets soon after arrival
I think that catches us up... if I find more I will post them...
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
From the Beginning - Part 1
Since it is mostly raining today, I actually have more time than usual to play on the computer. Not that I don't have TONS to do - but this is actually a lot more fun! And as for more pictures - they aren't on this computer anymore. They are on the hard drive which for some reason I can not access with this computer. So I have to wait until Dave gets home so that I can get them off the hard drive with the other computer since he has it with him... Sigh... Sorry. OK - I tried to add more pictures and blogspot won't let me add them to this post. I will have to do it in another post. Sorry.
So here we go! By the way - this is from something that I started writing after we moved in that I have kept up with so we wouldn't forget all the things that have happened....
I love animals. All animals. I started with cats and dogs. By the time I was 6, it became horses. I was one of the few little girls who actually did get that horse for Christmas. I was 8 years old and had a horse to call my own. I got my second horse when I was 11. While still living with my parents I also had hermit crabs (the cat ate them one day) and gerbils (they were smarter than the cat). As I grew older my love of animals expanded to include reptiles. I had a Cayman Alligator, Red-tailed Boa snake, and iguanas. Then I found that I loved birds. Parrots to be exact. I hand-raised a Congo African Gray Parrot. I worked at my horse veterinarians’ farm. I loved life. I had animals wherever I turned. Then I got married and things went down hill from there, literally. My animals started disappearing one by one. He didn’t like them. Within 3 years I went from a horse, 2 cats, the Cayman, the snake, the gerbils, and the bird – down to 2 cats. We had dogs too, but in honesty, since they were working police dogs, I couldn’t really call them my own too much. I’m not saying that the lack of animals is what ruined my marriage – but it just goes to show me that he never understood me, who I was and what made me, well me.
We all have those lifetime dreams. Sometimes we succeed in making them come true and other times, it just never seems to happen. Our lives don’t go the way we planned and those dreams get pushed aside and forgotten. From the time that I was a little girl, I wanted to live on a farm and be surrounded by animals that I love so much. I knew that it would happen someday. I didn’t know when and I didn’t know how. I just knew that it would happen. When I became separated from my husband of 8 years, I knew my chance was coming. I moved in with my parents after we separated. Where else could I go with 2 little girls in tow and no money in my pocket? In time, I started to date. I began dating a man that was a long time friend of mine. He was divorced with two kids of his own. We have the same outlook on life, many things in common, and our relationship blossomed. As the months went by and our relationship became more serious, we talked of buying a place. Neither of us wanted to live in the city, we both had our fill of subdivisions, so farm life here we come! So please, come along with me to discover the great and not so great times of learning to live in the country and starting life over to make two separate families one.
We needed to decide where to look for some land. He grew up on a farm in the south end of our county, so it was only natural that we looked for a place close to where he called home. It took us a year to find a place that we could afford. We didn’t want to be house poor and we weren’t rich to begin with. We wanted a few acres. Did I mention I had horses again? Yes, we needed some room for them too. After all, that was part of the dream; my horses in my backyard. So we find this house on a few acres, the ground is mostly level. The house is a modular home and not a trailer, so that is such a plus! There is a full basement that isn’t finished. Perfect for us so that we can add more bedrooms and a large family room and still have room for storage. Our separate families are soon to join to a group of 6, with kids ranging from 5 to 16. This is going to be wonderful! I just can’t wait! We are literally bouncing off the walls that we actually found a house on some land that we can afford. Our offer gets accepted by the seller and now we are off to schedule inspections, appraisals and all the fun stuff that comes along with buying a house.
Starting Life In Our Trailer
We have now moved in and sort of settled. We walk the property to figure out what we need to do in order to get the horses here. We need to have it bush hogged. We don’t have a tractor. There are tires, trash, toilets, blankets, car parts, and anything else you can imagine all over the property. It seems that it was sort of a dumping ground. This is going to take forever.
There are 2 strange birds that spend a lot of time at our house. I have no idea what they are. They seem like some type of poultry. They are semi-tame. I look it up on the internet and apparently they are called Guinea Fowl. I have never heard of them. Mom said that her aunt had some, but she didn’t know much about them. I learn that they eat bugs and love ticks the most. Hmmm… they may be worth looking into.
We still don’t have steps to the basement.
We did fix the toilet.
The deck is still unstable.
We still don’t have a fence up for the horses which means we are still boarding them some where else.
We have discovered that all the light switches are wired backwards. It’s driving us crazy. The drapes that the sellers left behind are actually sheets sewed to go over a curtain rod.
The carpet is rental blue and stinks since it had never been cleaned since before we got here. I clean the carpets regularly, the smell only leaves temporarily.
We can’t please any of the 4 kids.
We haven’t put up gutters on the back of the house. We still haven’t run what gutters we have into the cistern. We buy our water and get it trucked here.
Maybe sometime soon we will be able to do all the things we need to. Hopefully in this lifetime.
Spring is Coming
Spring is coming. It is getting warmer out. My oldest daughter Cassie brings home a paper from school and asks me to sign it.
“What is it for?”
Matter of factly she states “So I can have a chicken.”
A chicken. She brought a permission slip home from school asking me to give the okay for her to bring home a baby chick. Apparently they are hatching chicks in her class for a school project. When they hatch they need homes. Cassie wants one.
I think about it for a few minutes and decide what the heck. We live in the country. She can have a chicken. Why not? I can’t say thought that chickens were on my list of animals I want to have though.
A few days later the chicks hatch and I have to go to school to pick up our new pet chicken. The chick was fuzzy yellow and was promptly named Buttercup. I tried to explain to Cassie that yellow chicks grow up to be white chickens. She didn’t care. So Buttercup it was.
I am really knowledgeable when it comes to animals. I had raised ducks before and chickens can’t be that much different. Keep Buttercup fed, watered, and warm and we should be good to go.
Buttercup was lonely. Buttercup is VERY loud when lonely. Buttercup kept me awake all night. PEEP PEEP PEEP! She never quit. As soon as the kids were in school the next morning I drove to the closest poultry farm and got more chickens to keep Buttercup happy. I wanted 3 more, then there would be one for each kid. For the price of 3, I got 4. He gave me brown chicks. Said I wouldn’t like the white ones when they grow up. The kids wanted yellow ones. But the expert said the brown ones are better for our situation.
We now have 5 chicks living in a box. The cats think it is dinner time and will not leave the box alone. We put the chicks in the bathroom and shut the door to keep the cats away from them. Then I come to the realization that the chickens can not live in the house and we need to build something outside for them. Next project – a chicken house from scratch.
I am officially chicken stupid. Buttercup is sick. I ask my mom about it. She grew up with chickens. She remembers her dad putting tablets in the water for something. She doesn’t know what they are called or even what they were for. I go to the feed store and ask the girl working. She has no idea. She knows nothing about chickens but points me in the direction of the chicken supplies. I finally find 2 different antibiotics for chickens that go into the drinking water. They both treat the same things. I close my eyes and pick one. Once home, it’s time to mix the water and antibiotic. Hmmm…. This small package is enough to make 512 gallons at 200 mg per gallon. I want to make only a ½ gallon of this at a time. Oh this is going to be good. It takes some good math on my part, but I got it right. Unfortunately, it was too late for Buttercup. By that night she passed on. We lost another one named Butterfly a few days later. She seemed to of had something neurologically wrong with her. Now we are down to 3 chickens.
We now officially have a chicken graveyard.
We have chickens in the kids’ bathroom.
We decided that we would like to have guinea fowl. I found a lady that is not too far from us that sells day old keets. A friend of ours decided that they would like some too, so I ordered 12 – 6 for each of us. The breeder tells us that it may be August or September before we get them since she is a small time breeder. We really don’t want to wait that long. We want them to eat bugs this summer. I found a large breeder in Iowa with day old keets available in June. Minimum order is 30 in order for them to stay warm during shipping. That’s a lot of birds. We go ahead and order them figuring that we would lose some in shipping anyway. Now we wait another 2 months for the arrival.
It’s now May. The chickens are still in the house. They are about 8 weeks old. They have been in the house the whole time. The bathroom stinks except for the first 5 minutes after I clean it. On the plus side, the chickens are friendly. They truly are pets. We have 1 rooster and 2 hens. The cats are afraid of them now.
We still don’t have a chicken house..
We still haven’t bushhogged the field.
We still don’t have a tractor.
We still don’t have the fence up
We still don’t have steps to the basement.
We still don’t have gutters on the back of the house.
We decide to get started on the chicken/guinea house. We are broke. With some searching and thanks mostly to Craigslist, we got a lot of free used wood. One person took out their old wood pool deck and gave us the old wood. Another person had a garage full of wood and other miscellaneous items he gave us. He also gave us 8 4x4 posts that were 12 feet long. Perfect. Building day comes and we disagree on the size. I want bigger. We finally agree on 8 feet by 8 feet with an almost 8 foot ceiling. We have no plans – we just start hammering things together. Somehow we managed to get up the framework for the 4 sides and the joists for the floor. Cool. Day one a success. We have not spent a penny on this project yet. Call it going green by reusing wood. Day two – the flooring doesn’t go very smooth. The wood from that person’s deck is not the same width. Plus they are cut into 3 and 4 foot sections. It is like a jigsaw puzzle. We finally manage to get the floor down. Day two is over. I should mention that day two didn’t even start until 5 pm after work.
Two weeks have gone by and we haven’t had time to work on the chicken house. It looks like we have a stage for a banjo band in the backyard.
The guineas are coming in less than a month. The chickens are still in the house, however we did move their cage to the basement and set them up a pen outside to be in when we are home.
We still haven’t bushhogged the field.
We still don’t have a tractor.
We still don’t have the fence up.
We still don’t have steps to the basement.
We still haven’t finished the basement.
We still don’t have gutters on the back of the house.
Even if we haven’t finished the chicken house, we have managed to redo the flower beds out front of the house. Before they were weed beds. Literally. There was not one flower in the entire 3 beds. Just weeds. We dug weeds, tilled soil, added better dirt and peat. We built a new retaining wall using creek rock from the creek beds. Thanks to both of our mothers, we got a bunch of new plants to put in them. They look really nice and we are really proud of our work. We still haven’t bushhogged the field.We still don’t have a tractor.We still don’t have the fence up. We still don’t have steps to the basement. We still haven’t finished the basement. We still don’t have gutters on the back of the house.
JUNE 2008
We are down to 2 weeks before the guineas arrive. We have to finish the house. The only thing that we bought for that house were about 12 2x4’s and the siding. Total we spent about $100 on the entire thing not including paint. The house is done enough for the chickens to take up residence there. They love it. They are now able to free range the property. They are total pets and follow us everywhere.
We got a tractor! It’s small, but it will do what we need done. It’s a 1940 Ford 9N. It has been mostly restored and runs great. When we get it home, we proceed to drive around for a while playing. It stalls. It turns out that there was gas that sat in it for years. Now there is all kinds of crude in the gas tank. This is going to be fun. We borrowed the neighbors’ bush hog and get to work. The tractor stalls every 10 minutes. Once we clear the filter it starts right back up again. After several days of working around this, we decide that next time the gas tank is empty, that we need to take it out and clean it out. Kerosene and rocks did a good job cleaning it out. It only stalls about every ½ hour now. I can live with that. It can only get better.
It’s late June. The guineas come today. I had given the breeder my parent’s address to ship the birds to. I didn’t want them sitting here on the front steps until who knows when we get home. They sent the guineas by US Mail. They called at 6AM from the post office to tell me to come get them. Remember I sent them to my parent’s house so they are at their post office, 30 minutes from me. Sigh. I get to the post office and the woman at the door yells that the bird lady is here. I am expecting a big box for 30 birds. She brings over a peeping box that measures about 8 inches by 6 inches. There is 30 birds in there?!?!? I am required to open it and make inspection. Everyone wants to see the guineas. I can’t believe there is 30 birds in this box. They are TINY. I had no idea that they would be so small. I take the guineas back to my mom’s house since it is close and these birds need some water. They have been in a box for 24 hours. There is one guinea that is DOA. There is a total of 35 live ones. Wow. Mom and I make sure each one gets a drink and we put them in a larger box. There is a small one that I promply adopt for myself and named him Puny since he was so small. Then there was another one that ran around like crazy who we named Loco. I get the guineas home and divide them. Dave and I take the ones for our friends to their house. Their son falls in love with them.
Our guineas sleep in the bathroom their first couple nights. Yes we did finish the guinea/chicken house, but for some off reason I want them in the house. The cats really would like to get a hold of these little guys!
The guinea/chicken house has now been divided into 2 sections. One side is a nursery for the guinea keets. They can't get out and the chickens can't get in. The other side is for the 2 hens and the rooster. They can come and go as they please.
It's July. We have spent a lot of time bush hogging the fields. We finally get a section fenced with electric so that the horses can come. I am so glad that they are finally here!
So here we go! By the way - this is from something that I started writing after we moved in that I have kept up with so we wouldn't forget all the things that have happened....
I love animals. All animals. I started with cats and dogs. By the time I was 6, it became horses. I was one of the few little girls who actually did get that horse for Christmas. I was 8 years old and had a horse to call my own. I got my second horse when I was 11. While still living with my parents I also had hermit crabs (the cat ate them one day) and gerbils (they were smarter than the cat). As I grew older my love of animals expanded to include reptiles. I had a Cayman Alligator, Red-tailed Boa snake, and iguanas. Then I found that I loved birds. Parrots to be exact. I hand-raised a Congo African Gray Parrot. I worked at my horse veterinarians’ farm. I loved life. I had animals wherever I turned. Then I got married and things went down hill from there, literally. My animals started disappearing one by one. He didn’t like them. Within 3 years I went from a horse, 2 cats, the Cayman, the snake, the gerbils, and the bird – down to 2 cats. We had dogs too, but in honesty, since they were working police dogs, I couldn’t really call them my own too much. I’m not saying that the lack of animals is what ruined my marriage – but it just goes to show me that he never understood me, who I was and what made me, well me.
We all have those lifetime dreams. Sometimes we succeed in making them come true and other times, it just never seems to happen. Our lives don’t go the way we planned and those dreams get pushed aside and forgotten. From the time that I was a little girl, I wanted to live on a farm and be surrounded by animals that I love so much. I knew that it would happen someday. I didn’t know when and I didn’t know how. I just knew that it would happen. When I became separated from my husband of 8 years, I knew my chance was coming. I moved in with my parents after we separated. Where else could I go with 2 little girls in tow and no money in my pocket? In time, I started to date. I began dating a man that was a long time friend of mine. He was divorced with two kids of his own. We have the same outlook on life, many things in common, and our relationship blossomed. As the months went by and our relationship became more serious, we talked of buying a place. Neither of us wanted to live in the city, we both had our fill of subdivisions, so farm life here we come! So please, come along with me to discover the great and not so great times of learning to live in the country and starting life over to make two separate families one.
We needed to decide where to look for some land. He grew up on a farm in the south end of our county, so it was only natural that we looked for a place close to where he called home. It took us a year to find a place that we could afford. We didn’t want to be house poor and we weren’t rich to begin with. We wanted a few acres. Did I mention I had horses again? Yes, we needed some room for them too. After all, that was part of the dream; my horses in my backyard. So we find this house on a few acres, the ground is mostly level. The house is a modular home and not a trailer, so that is such a plus! There is a full basement that isn’t finished. Perfect for us so that we can add more bedrooms and a large family room and still have room for storage. Our separate families are soon to join to a group of 6, with kids ranging from 5 to 16. This is going to be wonderful! I just can’t wait! We are literally bouncing off the walls that we actually found a house on some land that we can afford. Our offer gets accepted by the seller and now we are off to schedule inspections, appraisals and all the fun stuff that comes along with buying a house.
Inspection Day - November 2007
He’s late. The inspector is late. Maybe he got lost out here in the sticks. Maybe we are early. No I marked it on the calendar when we made the appointment. We are at the right house I know we are. Why do these things always happen to us? Think he will show up? Over and over in our heads these questions come. At promptly 4:30 the inspector shows up. We were really early.
The inspector is nice friendly guy. We like him. He starts outside the house. “Hmmm… The gutters need some attention just so you know,” he says.
That’s easy we can clean them out.
“Umm… the gutters are missing on the back of the house,” he informs us.
“Really? We didn’t notice that before.” We look at the gutters, well ok, just the front gutters, and we realize that they no longer run into the cistern. Great. What brainchild took away the water source?
The inspector notes a few other minor problems and climbs down off the ladder. He tells us the siding looks to be in great shape. While looking around the house he wonders why the cable and phone is stapled to the siding and then a hole drilled into the house the way they were. Why not run them into the basement properly and disguise them on the underside of the floor. Sounds like the same brainchild at work to me. Sigh. We can fix that.
We head into the basement since the only access to it is from the outside of the house. Yes that’s right. You can’t get to the basement from inside the house. There’s no stairs. Actually there should be stairs. There is a place for stairs. But in the few years of the houses’ life, no one has bothered to add stairs to the house. They must actually enjoy walking around the house all the time to get downstairs. But that is not a problem. We are handy and can build stairs, so we overlooked it from the get go.
At some point in time someone made a pretty good effort to start to finish the basement. I didn’t say it was done well, just that they made a good effort. They only dry walled the ceiling. They also dry walled where the stairs are supposed to come down. Idiot. Oh yeah - they put the dry wall on facing the wrong way too. Sigh.
“There’s water damage here,” he notes. “It looks like the dishwasher upstairs probably leaked at some point. It’s dry and no mold, but the drywall will have to be replaced.”
Yes we knew that too. Of course the whole entire ceiling will have to be replaced because brainchild ran the electrical lines and plumbing lines on the wrong side of the drywall. Yup you can see them all. I thought ceilings were supposed to conceal that stuff? But then, maybe I just grew up in a house that they were concealed. I wonder how you paint around those. I guess they were probably just going to paint over them. Same brainchild. Sigh.
It is time to go upstairs. We exit the basement through the wooden doors and walk around the house since there is no other way up. This is going to get old fast. I make a mental note that the first thing we do after we move in is to put in the stairs.
There is nothing major wrong with the inside of the house. That’s good news. The systems work. Water runs. Drains drain. We head to the master bath. There is a note on the toilet from the seller. It read something like this: “Inspector, we just replaced the valve on the toilet as it was not working correctly. It needs time to seal itself and may still run. Please make sure that the toilet stops running so we don’t run out of water.” Umm, ok brainchild. The toilet needs time to seal itself. Sorry it doesn’t work that way. We look inside the tank. It’s one of those cheap $2 valves and it’s not installed right. Nice. We don’t think that it will seal itself. I added another mental note to fix toilet.
The inspector steps onto the deck to check it out. We stay inside. Did I mention that the deck was not built correctly and the posts are on the outside of the deck and not underneath of it? We don’t think it’s safe. The inspector is braver than we are. He walks to the end of the deck, spreads his legs like he wants someone to search him, grabs the railing and proceeds test the sturdiness of the deck by shaking it back and forth as hard as he can. Oh my god, the inspector is going to die. The deck is swaying back and forth like a swing. He is a brave man. The deck barely passes inspection only because it didn’t fall down. Another mental note added to put a weight limit sign on the door to the deck until we can fix it.
“One more thing before I go, I need to take pictures of the trailer certification,” he informs us.
This is a trailer?!?!?! What!!!! We aren’t dumb people, but we had no idea that this was a trailer. Boy they sure don’t make trailers as poor as they used to. We decide that we don’t care that it is a trailer. We like it and it suits our needs. I’m about to become a trailer queen.
The inspector is nice friendly guy. We like him. He starts outside the house. “Hmmm… The gutters need some attention just so you know,” he says.
That’s easy we can clean them out.
“Umm… the gutters are missing on the back of the house,” he informs us.
“Really? We didn’t notice that before.” We look at the gutters, well ok, just the front gutters, and we realize that they no longer run into the cistern. Great. What brainchild took away the water source?
The inspector notes a few other minor problems and climbs down off the ladder. He tells us the siding looks to be in great shape. While looking around the house he wonders why the cable and phone is stapled to the siding and then a hole drilled into the house the way they were. Why not run them into the basement properly and disguise them on the underside of the floor. Sounds like the same brainchild at work to me. Sigh. We can fix that.
We head into the basement since the only access to it is from the outside of the house. Yes that’s right. You can’t get to the basement from inside the house. There’s no stairs. Actually there should be stairs. There is a place for stairs. But in the few years of the houses’ life, no one has bothered to add stairs to the house. They must actually enjoy walking around the house all the time to get downstairs. But that is not a problem. We are handy and can build stairs, so we overlooked it from the get go.
At some point in time someone made a pretty good effort to start to finish the basement. I didn’t say it was done well, just that they made a good effort. They only dry walled the ceiling. They also dry walled where the stairs are supposed to come down. Idiot. Oh yeah - they put the dry wall on facing the wrong way too. Sigh.
“There’s water damage here,” he notes. “It looks like the dishwasher upstairs probably leaked at some point. It’s dry and no mold, but the drywall will have to be replaced.”
Yes we knew that too. Of course the whole entire ceiling will have to be replaced because brainchild ran the electrical lines and plumbing lines on the wrong side of the drywall. Yup you can see them all. I thought ceilings were supposed to conceal that stuff? But then, maybe I just grew up in a house that they were concealed. I wonder how you paint around those. I guess they were probably just going to paint over them. Same brainchild. Sigh.
It is time to go upstairs. We exit the basement through the wooden doors and walk around the house since there is no other way up. This is going to get old fast. I make a mental note that the first thing we do after we move in is to put in the stairs.
There is nothing major wrong with the inside of the house. That’s good news. The systems work. Water runs. Drains drain. We head to the master bath. There is a note on the toilet from the seller. It read something like this: “Inspector, we just replaced the valve on the toilet as it was not working correctly. It needs time to seal itself and may still run. Please make sure that the toilet stops running so we don’t run out of water.” Umm, ok brainchild. The toilet needs time to seal itself. Sorry it doesn’t work that way. We look inside the tank. It’s one of those cheap $2 valves and it’s not installed right. Nice. We don’t think that it will seal itself. I added another mental note to fix toilet.
The inspector steps onto the deck to check it out. We stay inside. Did I mention that the deck was not built correctly and the posts are on the outside of the deck and not underneath of it? We don’t think it’s safe. The inspector is braver than we are. He walks to the end of the deck, spreads his legs like he wants someone to search him, grabs the railing and proceeds test the sturdiness of the deck by shaking it back and forth as hard as he can. Oh my god, the inspector is going to die. The deck is swaying back and forth like a swing. He is a brave man. The deck barely passes inspection only because it didn’t fall down. Another mental note added to put a weight limit sign on the door to the deck until we can fix it.
“One more thing before I go, I need to take pictures of the trailer certification,” he informs us.
This is a trailer?!?!?! What!!!! We aren’t dumb people, but we had no idea that this was a trailer. Boy they sure don’t make trailers as poor as they used to. We decide that we don’t care that it is a trailer. We like it and it suits our needs. I’m about to become a trailer queen.
Starting Life In Our Trailer
We have now moved in and sort of settled. We walk the property to figure out what we need to do in order to get the horses here. We need to have it bush hogged. We don’t have a tractor. There are tires, trash, toilets, blankets, car parts, and anything else you can imagine all over the property. It seems that it was sort of a dumping ground. This is going to take forever.
There are 2 strange birds that spend a lot of time at our house. I have no idea what they are. They seem like some type of poultry. They are semi-tame. I look it up on the internet and apparently they are called Guinea Fowl. I have never heard of them. Mom said that her aunt had some, but she didn’t know much about them. I learn that they eat bugs and love ticks the most. Hmmm… they may be worth looking into.
We still don’t have steps to the basement.
We did fix the toilet.
The deck is still unstable.
We still don’t have a fence up for the horses which means we are still boarding them some where else.
We have discovered that all the light switches are wired backwards. It’s driving us crazy. The drapes that the sellers left behind are actually sheets sewed to go over a curtain rod.
The carpet is rental blue and stinks since it had never been cleaned since before we got here. I clean the carpets regularly, the smell only leaves temporarily.
We can’t please any of the 4 kids.
We haven’t put up gutters on the back of the house. We still haven’t run what gutters we have into the cistern. We buy our water and get it trucked here.
Maybe sometime soon we will be able to do all the things we need to. Hopefully in this lifetime.
Spring is Coming
Spring is coming. It is getting warmer out. My oldest daughter Cassie brings home a paper from school and asks me to sign it.
“What is it for?”
Matter of factly she states “So I can have a chicken.”
A chicken. She brought a permission slip home from school asking me to give the okay for her to bring home a baby chick. Apparently they are hatching chicks in her class for a school project. When they hatch they need homes. Cassie wants one.
I think about it for a few minutes and decide what the heck. We live in the country. She can have a chicken. Why not? I can’t say thought that chickens were on my list of animals I want to have though.
A few days later the chicks hatch and I have to go to school to pick up our new pet chicken. The chick was fuzzy yellow and was promptly named Buttercup. I tried to explain to Cassie that yellow chicks grow up to be white chickens. She didn’t care. So Buttercup it was.
I am really knowledgeable when it comes to animals. I had raised ducks before and chickens can’t be that much different. Keep Buttercup fed, watered, and warm and we should be good to go.
Buttercup was lonely. Buttercup is VERY loud when lonely. Buttercup kept me awake all night. PEEP PEEP PEEP! She never quit. As soon as the kids were in school the next morning I drove to the closest poultry farm and got more chickens to keep Buttercup happy. I wanted 3 more, then there would be one for each kid. For the price of 3, I got 4. He gave me brown chicks. Said I wouldn’t like the white ones when they grow up. The kids wanted yellow ones. But the expert said the brown ones are better for our situation.
We now have 5 chicks living in a box. The cats think it is dinner time and will not leave the box alone. We put the chicks in the bathroom and shut the door to keep the cats away from them. Then I come to the realization that the chickens can not live in the house and we need to build something outside for them. Next project – a chicken house from scratch.
I am officially chicken stupid. Buttercup is sick. I ask my mom about it. She grew up with chickens. She remembers her dad putting tablets in the water for something. She doesn’t know what they are called or even what they were for. I go to the feed store and ask the girl working. She has no idea. She knows nothing about chickens but points me in the direction of the chicken supplies. I finally find 2 different antibiotics for chickens that go into the drinking water. They both treat the same things. I close my eyes and pick one. Once home, it’s time to mix the water and antibiotic. Hmmm…. This small package is enough to make 512 gallons at 200 mg per gallon. I want to make only a ½ gallon of this at a time. Oh this is going to be good. It takes some good math on my part, but I got it right. Unfortunately, it was too late for Buttercup. By that night she passed on. We lost another one named Butterfly a few days later. She seemed to of had something neurologically wrong with her. Now we are down to 3 chickens.
We now officially have a chicken graveyard.
We have chickens in the kids’ bathroom.
We decided that we would like to have guinea fowl. I found a lady that is not too far from us that sells day old keets. A friend of ours decided that they would like some too, so I ordered 12 – 6 for each of us. The breeder tells us that it may be August or September before we get them since she is a small time breeder. We really don’t want to wait that long. We want them to eat bugs this summer. I found a large breeder in Iowa with day old keets available in June. Minimum order is 30 in order for them to stay warm during shipping. That’s a lot of birds. We go ahead and order them figuring that we would lose some in shipping anyway. Now we wait another 2 months for the arrival.
It’s now May. The chickens are still in the house. They are about 8 weeks old. They have been in the house the whole time. The bathroom stinks except for the first 5 minutes after I clean it. On the plus side, the chickens are friendly. They truly are pets. We have 1 rooster and 2 hens. The cats are afraid of them now.
We still don’t have a chicken house..
We still haven’t bushhogged the field.
We still don’t have a tractor.
We still don’t have the fence up
We still don’t have steps to the basement.
We still don’t have gutters on the back of the house.
We decide to get started on the chicken/guinea house. We are broke. With some searching and thanks mostly to Craigslist, we got a lot of free used wood. One person took out their old wood pool deck and gave us the old wood. Another person had a garage full of wood and other miscellaneous items he gave us. He also gave us 8 4x4 posts that were 12 feet long. Perfect. Building day comes and we disagree on the size. I want bigger. We finally agree on 8 feet by 8 feet with an almost 8 foot ceiling. We have no plans – we just start hammering things together. Somehow we managed to get up the framework for the 4 sides and the joists for the floor. Cool. Day one a success. We have not spent a penny on this project yet. Call it going green by reusing wood. Day two – the flooring doesn’t go very smooth. The wood from that person’s deck is not the same width. Plus they are cut into 3 and 4 foot sections. It is like a jigsaw puzzle. We finally manage to get the floor down. Day two is over. I should mention that day two didn’t even start until 5 pm after work.
Two weeks have gone by and we haven’t had time to work on the chicken house. It looks like we have a stage for a banjo band in the backyard.
The guineas are coming in less than a month. The chickens are still in the house, however we did move their cage to the basement and set them up a pen outside to be in when we are home.
We still haven’t bushhogged the field.
We still don’t have a tractor.
We still don’t have the fence up.
We still don’t have steps to the basement.
We still haven’t finished the basement.
We still don’t have gutters on the back of the house.
Even if we haven’t finished the chicken house, we have managed to redo the flower beds out front of the house. Before they were weed beds. Literally. There was not one flower in the entire 3 beds. Just weeds. We dug weeds, tilled soil, added better dirt and peat. We built a new retaining wall using creek rock from the creek beds. Thanks to both of our mothers, we got a bunch of new plants to put in them. They look really nice and we are really proud of our work. We still haven’t bushhogged the field.We still don’t have a tractor.We still don’t have the fence up. We still don’t have steps to the basement. We still haven’t finished the basement. We still don’t have gutters on the back of the house.
JUNE 2008
We are down to 2 weeks before the guineas arrive. We have to finish the house. The only thing that we bought for that house were about 12 2x4’s and the siding. Total we spent about $100 on the entire thing not including paint. The house is done enough for the chickens to take up residence there. They love it. They are now able to free range the property. They are total pets and follow us everywhere.
We got a tractor! It’s small, but it will do what we need done. It’s a 1940 Ford 9N. It has been mostly restored and runs great. When we get it home, we proceed to drive around for a while playing. It stalls. It turns out that there was gas that sat in it for years. Now there is all kinds of crude in the gas tank. This is going to be fun. We borrowed the neighbors’ bush hog and get to work. The tractor stalls every 10 minutes. Once we clear the filter it starts right back up again. After several days of working around this, we decide that next time the gas tank is empty, that we need to take it out and clean it out. Kerosene and rocks did a good job cleaning it out. It only stalls about every ½ hour now. I can live with that. It can only get better.
It’s late June. The guineas come today. I had given the breeder my parent’s address to ship the birds to. I didn’t want them sitting here on the front steps until who knows when we get home. They sent the guineas by US Mail. They called at 6AM from the post office to tell me to come get them. Remember I sent them to my parent’s house so they are at their post office, 30 minutes from me. Sigh. I get to the post office and the woman at the door yells that the bird lady is here. I am expecting a big box for 30 birds. She brings over a peeping box that measures about 8 inches by 6 inches. There is 30 birds in there?!?!? I am required to open it and make inspection. Everyone wants to see the guineas. I can’t believe there is 30 birds in this box. They are TINY. I had no idea that they would be so small. I take the guineas back to my mom’s house since it is close and these birds need some water. They have been in a box for 24 hours. There is one guinea that is DOA. There is a total of 35 live ones. Wow. Mom and I make sure each one gets a drink and we put them in a larger box. There is a small one that I promply adopt for myself and named him Puny since he was so small. Then there was another one that ran around like crazy who we named Loco. I get the guineas home and divide them. Dave and I take the ones for our friends to their house. Their son falls in love with them.
Our guineas sleep in the bathroom their first couple nights. Yes we did finish the guinea/chicken house, but for some off reason I want them in the house. The cats really would like to get a hold of these little guys!
The guinea/chicken house has now been divided into 2 sections. One side is a nursery for the guinea keets. They can't get out and the chickens can't get in. The other side is for the 2 hens and the rooster. They can come and go as they please.
It's July. We have spent a lot of time bush hogging the fields. We finally get a section fenced with electric so that the horses can come. I am so glad that they are finally here!
Summer is here. It’s hot outside. It is a typical Kentucky summer. One day is gorgeous outside and the windows are open, the next day it is 90% humidity and you can’t even breathe. On those days we bite the bullet and shut the windows and turn the air. But most days we leave the windows open. The cats like to come in and out so when I am home, I open a little window with no screen in it so that they can come in and out of the house as they please.
As most mothers do, I spend a lot of time and effort to try to teach my children proper manners. I insist on please and thank you and really stress not to interrupt the adults when they are talking. For some reason the interrupting part, just don’t get through to them. Especially when I am on the phone. I know that I am not alone here. My girls can be nowhere in sight and precisely one minute after the phone rings, they are on me like flies “Mom, can I… She hit me…. Where is my….” And on and on and on. You get the picture. We have all been there. I keep telling them that unless it is a matter of life or death or someone is bleeding, then not to interrupt. They still don’t listen, but I won’t lose this battle!
Today happens to be a nice day. The windows are open. There is a nice breeze. I’m doing laundry and cleaning the house some. The phone rings and its Dave calling from Virginia where he is for work training. Not 2 minutes in the conversation, Cassie is tugging at my shirt. “Mom. Mom, I need to tell you something.”
“Just a minute Cassie,” I whisper to her.
Cassie stands there for 10 seconds.
“Mom, I need to tell you something,” She says again.
“Just a minute Cassie, he has to go back to class, so hang on.”
“Mom, it’s a ‘mergency there’s a snake in the house.”
I give her a funny look. Yeah right, a snake in the house.
“Mom, I’m serious! There is really a snake in the house. Come see it’s right over here.”
I tell Dave to hang on so I can look. There coiled up nicely under the bar stool is a snake. It’s small, but there is a snake in my house. Sigh. I hang up the phone and try to figure out how to get the snake out of the house. I don’t like to hurt any animal, so removing this animal must be done nicely. I get an empty garbage can and try to corral the snake into it. The snake doesn’t want to go. I sigh angrily. I finally manage to get the snake in the garbage can and take it back outside to nature where it belongs. Never a dull moment here.
Part 2 coming soon.....
A little about us...
I guess I really should tell you a little about us. There are 6 humans that call our house home. Besides Dave and I, there are 4 children ages 5, 7, 11, and 16. Technically, we are not one family and Dave and I don't have any children together (and there won't be any either) - but both of us each have 2 children from previous marriages.
We have known each other for a long time as friends and one day figured out that we are pretty much soul mates. Funny how that works! So basically we are starting our lives over, creating a home, a farm, and a wonderful place for the kids to grow up. We both wanted to be out in the country so it works perfectly for us.
We live in the rural part of Northern KY, about 45 minutes south of Cincinnati. We only have a few acres, but it's a start. As time goes on, we plan on buying more land as we can.
We currently are also the "parents" to some animals. Animals are a huge part of my life and I am so incredibly happy to be able to finally have what I want and have the room for them! Currently we have 7 chickens, 10 guinea hens, 2 horses, 3 cats, and 2 puppies. We don't have the heart to eat our chickens, so basically they have a forever home with us and provide us with eggs in exchange. The guinea hen numbers keep dropping, less than a year ago we started with 18. I have lost 1 to a hawk, several have been hit on the road, and 2 disappeared and I have no idea what happened to them. But on a bright note - I currently have about 36 guinea eggs in the incubator and also have a hen sitting on a nest with about 20 more. I really don't plan on keeping all those keets if they all hatch, so I will most likely sell them.
All of our poultry is free range. They have food in their house which this time of year they only eat at night before bed. The eggs are SO much better with free range and the animals are healthier.
The 2 horses are Star and Daily. OK technically it's a horse and a pony. Star is an American Saddlebred and Daily is a Welsh Pony. Daily is just 3 this year, so sometime soon that little guy gets to learn about riding. Star is 10 this year and we are thinking about maybe breeding her this summer, but I said that last summer too. We would like to breed her to a Friesian to get a Georgian Grande.
The 3 cats are Riley, Socks, and Stitch. They mostly live in the house and when the weather is nice, they are free to go outside. Stitch is our hunter and she is always bringing us presents.
The puppies are Zeus and Naciye (pronounced like Nacy). They are Anatolian Shepherds, which are livestock guardian dogs. They are currently almost 14 weeks old. At last weight check at 12 weeks Zeus was 36 pounds and Naciye was 26. Zeus will most likely be about 150 pounds and Naciye around 100.
We are currently in the process of dismantling a 90 year old barn and moving it to our house to rebuild. It's a gorgeous barn and we are really excited. It is TONS of work though. I will post more about the barn soon and some pictures of the dismantling progress.
So there is a little bit about us so you have the basics of our lives at home. Pictures to come soon...
We have known each other for a long time as friends and one day figured out that we are pretty much soul mates. Funny how that works! So basically we are starting our lives over, creating a home, a farm, and a wonderful place for the kids to grow up. We both wanted to be out in the country so it works perfectly for us.
We live in the rural part of Northern KY, about 45 minutes south of Cincinnati. We only have a few acres, but it's a start. As time goes on, we plan on buying more land as we can.
We currently are also the "parents" to some animals. Animals are a huge part of my life and I am so incredibly happy to be able to finally have what I want and have the room for them! Currently we have 7 chickens, 10 guinea hens, 2 horses, 3 cats, and 2 puppies. We don't have the heart to eat our chickens, so basically they have a forever home with us and provide us with eggs in exchange. The guinea hen numbers keep dropping, less than a year ago we started with 18. I have lost 1 to a hawk, several have been hit on the road, and 2 disappeared and I have no idea what happened to them. But on a bright note - I currently have about 36 guinea eggs in the incubator and also have a hen sitting on a nest with about 20 more. I really don't plan on keeping all those keets if they all hatch, so I will most likely sell them.
All of our poultry is free range. They have food in their house which this time of year they only eat at night before bed. The eggs are SO much better with free range and the animals are healthier.
The 2 horses are Star and Daily. OK technically it's a horse and a pony. Star is an American Saddlebred and Daily is a Welsh Pony. Daily is just 3 this year, so sometime soon that little guy gets to learn about riding. Star is 10 this year and we are thinking about maybe breeding her this summer, but I said that last summer too. We would like to breed her to a Friesian to get a Georgian Grande.
The 3 cats are Riley, Socks, and Stitch. They mostly live in the house and when the weather is nice, they are free to go outside. Stitch is our hunter and she is always bringing us presents.
The puppies are Zeus and Naciye (pronounced like Nacy). They are Anatolian Shepherds, which are livestock guardian dogs. They are currently almost 14 weeks old. At last weight check at 12 weeks Zeus was 36 pounds and Naciye was 26. Zeus will most likely be about 150 pounds and Naciye around 100.
We are currently in the process of dismantling a 90 year old barn and moving it to our house to rebuild. It's a gorgeous barn and we are really excited. It is TONS of work though. I will post more about the barn soon and some pictures of the dismantling progress.
So there is a little bit about us so you have the basics of our lives at home. Pictures to come soon...
Monday, April 27, 2009
Today I am becoming a blogger!
Well I am finally doing it at the urging of a lot of people to start writing about exactly what we do with our lives everyday. Most people find the daily happenings of our lives extremely funny and will ask each day what is going on at our house. So I think this will be the easiest way to tell everyone at once.
Since this is just a start and I am still trying to figure out exactly how I am going to go about this and how much of our lives to include _ I really don't want to tell TOO much of our lives. We are entitled to some privacy, yes? I know most don't think so and with the amount of people in and out of our house all the time and everything that we do - well yeah, we do like some privacy.
Look tomorrow - I will play some catch up to get to where we are today so that we are current on here.
Blogging here I come!
Since this is just a start and I am still trying to figure out exactly how I am going to go about this and how much of our lives to include _ I really don't want to tell TOO much of our lives. We are entitled to some privacy, yes? I know most don't think so and with the amount of people in and out of our house all the time and everything that we do - well yeah, we do like some privacy.
Look tomorrow - I will play some catch up to get to where we are today so that we are current on here.
Blogging here I come!
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