Frustratedearthmother's Journaling Journey

[Denim Deb]

Lack of shade is one problem I have in my pen as well. But, the hen house sits several inches off the ground, so they can all get under there if they need to. Next year, I'm going to try something-don't know if it will work or not-but I'm going to be planting some sunflowers in there. I'll put something around the plants so they can't eat them, but it will provide shade. And of course, once they get to a certain height, I know they won't be able to mess w/the plant.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Britsea - THANK YOU for that recipe! I will definitely give that a try, it sounds amazing. I will eat a fig just about any way I can. We fight the mockingbirds for them, but thankfully they are't too greedy. If it gets too bad, I'll throw a net over the tree but then it's just as much trouble for me to get to them.

I was considering moving all my black chickens to a shadier pen, but I think I will just add a tarp for additional shade. They have plenty of afternoon shade, but even the morning sun is too hot these days. I think that will be less stressful for all concered instead of moving them. I'm going to have to start coming home for lunch to refresh everyone's water. It gets too hot form them to even drink. Geeze - give me winter any day!

DH has the new patio dining set assembled. Because our climate is normally so humid we sprayed down all the pieces with clear Rustoleum as an extra layer of protection from rusting. We'll be picking up some Scotchguard for the cushions today. After that - we'll finally be able to use it. It actually gets semi-comfortable outside for about 7.5 minutes before full sunset. Maybe we can use that time to scarf down a quick dinner in celebration of the new porch, lol.

We ordered 3 exterior ceiling fans and they should arrive, hopefully, today. After we get them hung I'm sure it will make it much more comfortable out there. We didn't order the light kits yet - cuz the fans were expesive enough! I've been looking at some creative'lighting options. One thing I found is how to make lamps out of empty wine bottles - how cute is that??!!! Some cute hangers would finish off the look. And, if needed I could burn citronella in them to keep the skeeters away. Thankfull, we don't have too many skeeters right now - it's been too dry. Where's the 'knock on wood' smiley?

Not getting anything done sitting on my behind so I need to get busy. Ya'll stay cool out there.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

My DH is the sweetest guy in the world! He's arranged a little 4-day mini-vacation for us. We're going to Cali in late July. We'll fly in to San Jose and tour the "haunted" Winchester house. Then drive to San Francisco, have dinner in China Town and stay the night in a "luxurious boutique hotel" near Fisherman's Wharf. The next day we'll drive to up to Bodega Bay and somewhere in there we'll take a walking tour through the big trees. The next day will be winery tours! (really looking forwars to that!) DH is my built-in designated driver - he doesn't drink - so I can!

BUT - the BEST thing is ....drum roll please.... Most of this trip is F.R.E.E.!!!! Airline tickets are free, rental car is free, "luxurious boutique hotel" is free, and the next two nights we'll stay in a Hyatt facility and that will be free too! DH has points with SW Airlines that we are using for the air fare, rental car and the first night's hotel. The next two nights hotel stays are being paid for by AMEX points. So far - all we'll be out of pocket for is the tour fee of $80.00 for the Winchester house, meals and maybe a souvenir or two.

However, along with the excitement comes a whole lot of work. We're going to set up a new watering system for the critters that will use insulated hoses and automatic waterers for each pen. And, some of the pens will need new auto-feeders too. Pasture critters are always ok this time of year. They don't get grained as a rule, so they won't notice anything different in their lives whether we're home or not, lol. They've got an automatic waterer and a pond - so no worries for them. Dogs have auto-feeders too.

Neighbors will check on the critters and maybe pick up a few eggs. Does are still nursing their kids so that'll keep them in production and I won't need anyone to milk for me. I think I've got everything covered. The only thing that could throw a glitch into our plans would be a hurricane - and by golly - I'd probably still go on my trip! Maybe... anyway, I'm excited and have something to look forward to!

 

[Britesea]

That sounds like way too much fun! Although if it were me, I'd be wanting Cioppino at Fisherman's Wharf rather than China town.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

That's another good idea! Poor DH though...he's got a shellfish allergy.

But, not everything for this trip is set in stone just yet and I can't see leaving without having some good seafood somewhere...

Now to the bad stuff.... this trip got totally planned without looking at the goat calendar. I have two more goats to kid this year and guess when one of 'ems due????? Her 145th day is the day before we leave and the 150th day is the day after we get back. Geeze, what do you think the chances are that she'll deliver while we're gone?

I'm thinking that the neighbor who saddled me with this crazy baby bird is gonna be goat-sitting! Many years ago she raised goats too, so I think she can handle it. And even if she doesn't commit to watching her - I know she won't be able to help herself, lol. She calls me everytime one of the goat sneezes so there's no way she'll let one deliver without her sitting out there! HA - it helps to know one's weak points!

 

[Wannabefree]

Don't have time to catch up right now but wanted to say hi!!!! Miss ya FEM!!!!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Hey you!

HI!!!! Miss you too!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

G'morning everybody - Happy Independence Day!

It was absolutely wunnerful to hear from WBF!

Today is another day to get some more work done, sigh.... DH has almost all the porch furniture put together. The dining set is assembled and has a coat of rustoleum on the frame and scotchguard on the cushions. The lounge set (2 rockers with a side table) is mostly done too. One chair is fully assembled and has it's coat of scotchguard. The other chair is also assembled and cushions just need a spray and they'll be done too. The table for this set had to be special ordered and will take almost 2 months to get in - grrrrrrrrrr. But, it just 'goes' with it so we went ahead and ordered it. Now it's time for general clean-up and decorating. The fun stuff!

We've been hitting up the local antique shops and have picked up a few items that I really like. I'm still tossing around the idea of an antique weathervane that I saw. It's so awesome - not cheap - but I'm not sure I have the perfect place for it. I don't want to buy somethng just to buy it. I want it to all be cohesive.

I came home at lunch yesterday to give the critters cool water and to feed the baby bird. I found a guinea baby floating in a water bucket. I didn't know guineas could swim, lol. It had wings outspread and was floating pretty good - but it was definitely in trouble. I don't think it woulda made it much longer. It couldn't even walk when I got it out. I put it in the sun and it's adoptive mama came to check on it and by the time I got home after work it had fully recovered and I couldn't even tell which one it was.

Garden is still spitting out summer squash and okra, but that's about it. Winter squash is developing, but not ready yet. Tomatoes have been overtaken by the stinkin' stink bugs despite my best efforts to keep them covered. I'm going to concentrate now on just saving the plants until fall. I think/hope the bugs will have moved on by then. It's so hot they're not setting new fruit anyway....I did get a couple good pickings of tomatoes, but not enough to do much with except enjoy that deliciousness on a few sammiches! Yummy

DH is headed out to pick up the ceiling fans for the porch and I guess I'll get started with the mower. I need to call the young man who helps out occasionally and see if he wants to earn some extra money today. I've said it before and I'll say it again - I'm gonna miss him when he heads off to college next month.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Progress has been made! DH got all the new ceiling fans hung on the porch - yippee! We sat out there for a while today....temp was 97 degrees and it was comfortable. I'm so proud of him. There was an issue when he hung the second one - there was a short and it kept tripping the breaker.... but he found the short and fixed it and everything works now.

Have you ever noticed that everytime you do something it leads to something else that needs to be done? Now we've decided to have the house painted. How we got here from there is crazy - but it needs to be done. When I bought this house I decided that it begged to be painted barn red... it looks so good barn red because the architecture of the house looks barn-ish (for lack of a better word, lol).

After a decade or so I decided to have all the wood ripped off the house and replaced with hardy plank and in doing so I let DH pick a new color... He picked a nice sage-y green and I've hated it ever since. This time its going back to barn red and it's gonna stay that way, by golly. I'm excited, but dreading it at the same time. After that - the roof - ugh. It's 15 years old and at the end of it's life span. I'm not going to do that for some months though, ad I'll be secretly wishing for some strategically placed hail. On my house only - don't want to be responsible for damaging anyone elses property... But, I'd sure like it if the insurace company would pay for a new roof....

Found the missing hen today. I figured she was brooding somewhere and I was right. She showed back up today with a chickster - just one though. I'm ok with it - too many little mouths running around here as it is.

OMG, I'm swimming in figs. I've got the third batch in the dehydrator and I threw about 5 lbs in the freezer tonight. I'll save up some and then make a batch of preserves. I'm soooo looking forward to that. I haven't had any in years!

Sleepy, sleepy, sleepy. I needa head to bed.

 

[Britesea]

We ended up with a new roof a few years ago courtesy of a pine tree that fell on ours. Luckily, no one was hurt, although one of the branches crashed through the ceiling directly over DH as he sat at the computer with his first cup of coffee. It stopped about 1 foot above his head, and when he found his voice again the first thing he said was "S***, now I need to get a new cup of coffee"

I opted to pay a little extra to get a metal roof installed, and we also got a brand new spa out of it, since it had also been skewered by a branch, and the backyard fence. The fence had been just no-climb wire fencing that we had sitting around, but the contractor somehow convinced the insurance company to spring for a nice wooden fence with a gate.

Just this year, I noticed another tree that looks dead although it's still standing. This one is a little further away- it's actually on some land owned by the power company- but it looks tall enough that if it comes down it may still hit our perimeter fence and maybe the area where the duck house and yard is being built. I need to contact the power company and warn them that it's a potential danger so that hopefully they'll take it down. I don't want to lose my ducks, even if the power company's deep pockets would cover their replacement.