My Goodness!!!

So, it's been WAY too long since I've updated the blog!! Sorry about that!

A LOT has changed since June!!

It turned out that Phineas and Ferb were both drakes, and Candace and Stacy turned out to be Candace and Steve! So, we traded Phineas and Ferb for 2 female Pekin from a local guy. He said they were both female, so we named them Zoe and Midna. It turns out that Midna is a drake as well!

 We then inherited our neighbors Khaki Campbell, Lily, because they were getting rid of all of their ducks. Lily was DDs best friends favorite duck, so we said we would take her. It wasn't until after I said that we would take her that we learned that she had broken her leg, and they had never done anything about it, so we have Lame Lily Duck! Around Labor Day I gave a friend 6 duck eggs to try and hatch. I had no idea if they were fertile or not, and it turned out that all 6 were fertile!!

 Then there was a mishap and the table that the incubator was on was rocked and only one egg remained. It hatched, and we named it Lucky. Since she was the only one, another friend gave us a Muscovy duckling (that we're debating is either a runner, or a Runner Scovie cross) that was about a week and a half older than her. So we had Gretchen and Lucky. Unfortunately, just the other day, Lucky choked on some food and we put her down. So, Gretchen is the only one who remains. :-(

All of our chickens are doing really well!! We ended up getting Buckeyes on 18June to replace the chickens that were lost in transit from Meyer. They all showed up happy, healthy, and chirping!

Robbie is our only rooster, thank goodness!! He welcomes the dawn every morning with a crow! He's fairly silent during the day tho. That makes me happy. We got our chicken coop done about a week before they were ready to go outside. Since at the time DH was traveling for work, it was just me building it! I did have a friend come over and help me with the initial build, but, after that I was on my own!

(yes, I know it's a little crooked... LOL)

The back is showing on this picture. I made it into 2 doors on the back, one large and one big, and the bigger door also has a large window in it. I'm going to be getting some better wiring to put over the openings, but, for winter I want to put some plexiglass, or something similar over them.

They seem to really enjoy it out there! They all free range in the back yard during the day.

(That's our neighbors RIR. They were have a West Side Story moment I think)

Recently a friend was moving and she had to get rid of all her chickens. So, we brought home 3 more hens, Boots, Lunch and Dinner. (I could only remember one of their names... LOL)

Boots

Lunch

Dinner

They're already laying, tho Lunch has just started a molt. Bad timing Lunch, bad timing!

Remember that tiny puppy we brought home?? Well, she's mostly grown up these days!! Here's some pictures of the little Annie from the last month or so. 

Sam and Annie

Annie and Dusty

Annie dressed up with no place to go!

Bat-eared Annie!

Our garden was mostly a bust this year. It was SO hot by the time the sun came out that none of us dared venture out there for more than a couple of minutes at most. Then our mower broke and we couldn't mow any grass, so the grass overtook EVERYTHING! (This was before we got the chickens and ducks out there to free range, they would have taken care of it.. LOL) At one point there was a deer sleeping in my garden! I scared it out when I went to feed the ducks and chickens. I didn't even see it! It just jumped up and ran off down the street! Oops! When we finally got everything fixed, it was just too late for the garden. We did find some interesting things in the back yard tho. Like this fellow:

Yes... that is a dead copperhead. We found it in the back yard. DS was moving the mower and it slithered out. He jumped out of the way and came and got me. Then he ran and got the neighbor and we cut it's head off. If it would have been in the back yard when it was mowed, I would have simply relocated it, or left it to leave, but with the grass being so high, I couldn't take a chance of someone getting hurt back there. 

We've already got a few things planned for next year, and we have some things in the garden now, covered by hoop houses! Lets see if we can get those to grow in there over the winter! Lets hope for a mild one! 

Hopefully it won't take me almost  months to update again! Until then, everyone have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Just some updates!

Well, things have been sorta eventful around these parts the last week or so. DH had been gone to Florida for work, so it was just the kids, the animals, and myself.

This past week seen another Tropical Storm. This one was pretty good! Still nothing major, but, it sure did leave lots of rain and plenty of wind! The ducks were LOVING it tho!

They sure have gotten big since we got them in March and early April!! Stacy is definitely a drake, and Candace is a hen. I'm also pretty sure that Phineas is a hen and Ferb is a drake. Woohoo! One of each! I'm excited about that!

We had been waiting for what seems like forever to get our chicks we ordered from Meyer. We originally didn't think that we were going to get them until mid July, but, it turns out that they had an over hatch and we were able to get them this week! Apparently it wasn't a very good week to get chicks via mail. When our 8 chicks arrived, only 3 were alive. The other 5 had gotten themselves outside of the matting and stuck between it and the box and were more than likely too cold and died. :( I called the hatchery as soon as I got home and they said that they would give me until Monday to make sure those 3 were going to make it, and they would replace them. Unfortunately, unless they have an over hatch, they may not have any chicks until August! I really don't want to wait until August to get the rest of my chicks! That would mean that I would need to give up my bathroom THREE times! LOL I think in about 3 weeks I'm going to get the chicks enclosure made up, and then they can go outside. It should be plenty warm enough that they don't need a heat lamp any more.

Here are the remaining 3 chicks tho!

From left to right we have Nugget, Bonnie, and Louise. I was going to name them Thelma and Louise, but DD had other plans. Of the ones that were gone when I opened the box, 2 were yellow, 1 was grey, and the other was chipmunk like Nugget and Bonnie. The other chick was a "meal maker" free chick and I'm pretty sure it was a black Australorp. I hope that when we get the new chicks that they're not all chipmunk. I'll update on Monday and let y'all know if I'll be getting chicks next week, or in a couple months. :/

Annie went to the vet this morning. She's getting SO big! She got her 12 week shots, and weighs 17 pounds.  She's gained almost 13 pounds since we got her. How crazy is that?!?! She's pretty much outgrown the crate that we have her in. We have a bolster bed in there, so if we took that out, she might still fit, but there's no tray to the bottom so I would feel bad about not having a nice squishy bed in there for her! Here's a picture of her in her favorite sleeping spot... under our table!

How could you ever be mad at that face? Even if she does have your $80 tennis shoe in her mouth! ;-) She's actually doing really well with the whole chewing thing. She mostly uses Lilly as her chew toy. Of course, lots of barking and hilarity begin about that time as well. :-)

Jackie-O and Annie

So, before Spring Break, my daughter was furiously working to learn as much about Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and she INSISTED we call Jacqueline Kennedy, for her 3rd grade project, The Living Wax Museum.   Her and 3rd grade her peers had to pick a figure, learn about them, and make a presentation dressed up like them to the rest of the 3rd grade classes and parents. (They split them into 2 groups) Bug had first picked Taylor Swift, but was sick the day that they had to turn their slips in. Two other girls wanted to be Taylor Swift, so, she had to choose someone else. She finally settled on Jackie-O.

At first I didn't know WHAT I was going to do to dress her like Jackie-O! There are a lot of vintage dress patterns out there that Jackie-O would have worn, but they don't come in Bugs size! Some dresses she can still wear a 5 or 6! (She will be 9 in June btw) I searched everywhere I could possibly think to look. I had a lot of people suggest sites, but none of them actually had a childs sized pattern, and being such a beginner seamstress, I had NO idea how to make that work. Finally I looked to handy Pintrest for an idea. And I found the wonderful Jessica at Me Sew Crazy had a fantastic tutorial on her blog about how to make a small sized Jackie-O dress! (view here) Bug was super excited about wearing this dress! And of course, the day before her presentation, she comes down with strep throat! She mad the honor roll again, and the ceremony was Monday. I talked to her teacher and we set up a time for her to do her presentation on Wednesday, and that was that! Of course, she did have her speech memorized, but after a week and a half of no school, she forgot it! It was okay tho. She did very well on her presentation. I was so proud of her!

I made the dress, the pillbox hat, and the 3 strand "pearl" necklace. Quite proud of myself actually! It wasn't super complicated, but it was the most complicated thing I think I've ever made! Of course, she was the only one on Wednesday to be in costume, but that was okay. She got a lot of compliments from teachers on her way to her classroom. Apparently after I left, 3 of her friends "claimed dibs" on her dress, gloves, and hat.

On Saturday we had gone to the Farmers Market, and while we were there, the kids were both given a coupon for a free Frosty at Wendys. Now, normally we don't do much eating out, but Wendys is one of the places that we do go, as well as Chick-fil-a and CiCis Pizza. Well, after church on Sunday, we went to go pick up some medicine on base, and eat at Wendys so the kids could use their free coupons. Both of the kids got kids meals, and inside was a "travel sized" Apples to Apples. We sat there and played the game, had some good laughs and we decided that we were going to buy the game on the way home at Walmart.

Apparently it was fate that we showed up there when we did. In the parking lot we find this tiny little puppy. As a family, we had already talked about how we weren't going to get another dog, that we had 3 dogs, and 4 ducks, and that was enough. Well, this tiny little puppy did not have a very promising future in the Walmart parking lot, and DD looked up at DH with her big blue eyes and said "But she's so cute!" and that's all it took. We walked out with Apples to Apples Jr, a small bed, a leash, a collar, and a puppy. She was dirty and I found ONE flea on her. Our next stop was to Tractor Supply so we could pick up some dog food and since I had found a flea, some flea shampoo. Not knowing how old she was, I didn't want to get a real harsh one, but, they ALL say 12 weeks and up, but we ended up with a flea shampoo with oatmeal in it. I just couldn't risk her giving the rest of the dogs fleas! None of them are on flea preventative, and we have not had a problem at all. I would like to keep it that way! She curled right up in Monkeys lap and went right to sleep. Bug decided to name her after our music director at church, Annie. (Notice the cross on her butt?)

We get home, and I walk thru the front door and straight to the bathroom to give her a bath. She's scared, but allows me wash her up with minimal fight. I mix her some of the puppy milk we got, and some of the puppy kibble. She CHOWED DOWN like there was no tomorrow!

Then, she took a nice nap in her new bed. (We used Lillys old crate. I guess now I know why I never got around to selling it!)

The first couple days, Dusty was not fond of her at all. She actually tried to pull her out of the crate by her ear!! So, we decided that she should wear her track muzzle around her for a while. She's doing better now, and will even let her play with her a little bit. Lilly isn't too fond of her yet, but this morning she played with her a tiny bit, but growled at her when Annie tried to puppy play with her. Doc, on the other hand, doesn't care one way or the other, as long as she doesn't bite him.

She has made quite the impact on my sleep. Sometimes I feel like I am running on fumes when I get up in the morning. Taking her out to potty in the middle of the night 3-4 times is exhausting! I feel like I have a newborn baby! LOL