Lorihadams-- hi guys...been busy!

[ohiofarmgirl]

ohmigolly i'm getting caught up

well. i think i woulda been disappointed if i hadnt have hurled after all that! whoooot!

guess you missed the alter call for folks who were still drunk from the night before!?!

ha!

i think the funyons that WZ had probably would have been better. well you know, every body is different.

we had a great wedding and didnt spend much money. and no i didnt wear a dress.

but i woulda paid good money to see you in that pink nightmare! whoooot!

good times. nothing to do now but wait to see if you got a form letter thank you card

;-)

 

[lorihadams]

I am not gonna hold my breath....I was surprised we got an invitation to anything.....gotta make that cut, ya know!

Tuesday

Let's see, I went to the store yesterday after my therapy session.....yes, I needed one after this past weekend. I ended up spending $150. That is just ridiculous. The only prepackaged stuff I bought was 2 stouffers lasagnas and some roasted red pepper tomato soup. Everything else was bare ingredients to make my own stuff. I have been eating too much fast food crap lately and I feel awful.

I am also going to try some new recipes cause I am in a serious food rut.

Made a loaf of bread yesterday and I may try to make some bagels this week. Never done it before and my kids LOVE bagels.

Finally got my hands on some canned pumpkin and made pumpkin pancakes this morning. I really miss having a garden. I feel like i'm behind on all my food stuffs. I have been trying to try new foods and get the kids to eat more "real" food. I bought coconut milk and pineapple, yogurt, mixed berries, bananas, blueberries, strawberries, and peaches for smoothies for breakfast for me and the kids.

I stocked up on red, yellow, and orange peppers and apples and oranges and nectarines for the kids to snack on.

Mopped the floor, emptied the trash and recycling, and now I am waiting for hubby to get home so we can finish staining the shed tonight.

Tomorrow is our 9th anniversary and I am so partied out that I told him I wanted to cook dinner, pop some popcorn and watch a movie with the kids. We never do much for our anniversary anyway.

I have orders for 23 chickens so far. I think I will order 60 so we have a few extra if anyone else decides to get a few. I am giving everyone till the end of this week before I put in my order Meyers. We have to get some PVC to build the tractors. I also have to get another heat lamp and figure out some sort of a brooder situation.

I'm thinking that the new layers are almost big enought to go in with the other hens but we'll see. I'll probably give them another 2 weeks just to get a little more size to them. They're around 2 months old now I think. I have to check the dates cause I'm really not sure. I do remember figuring out that they should start to lay near Dec. so that should be about right.

I'm also wondering if I could sneak a few runner ducklings into my order so that they will be ready to lay by next spring to get some new blood into my flock. Anyone ordered ducks from Meyers?

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

i just got my meats from meyers - i think they always do a great job

 

[lorihadams]

Well, today I feel like I have been hit by a bus. I don't know what is going on with me but I have been having serious bouts of dizziness in the evenings and some throughout the day. I am also really sore and stiff in my neck and shoulders.

Hubby is starting to think I may be anemic or something.

I have decided to let the new chickens out to free range with the big birds during the day when I can watch them. Still putting them in their own coop at night though, I'm not ready to deal with the nighttime squabbles yet. So far everyone is getting along fairly well. I have the clampett tractor out in the run still and have raised part of the hardware cloth a bit so they can get under but the big birds can't so that they have a place to get away from them if needed. They seem to be enjoying it. I suspect that my brownish EE is a roo...he's bigger and more aggressive than the others even though they are still bantam sized right now. Still have a lot of growing to do yet.

Hubby and I have a really cool brooder project in the works for the meaties...I'll have pics soon. We have to go pick up a few things this evening.

We also got our electrician to come over and make a list of supplies to run the electric to the shed.

We started staining the trim pieces on the shed and decided to do the rest with a friend's sprayer to get some better coverage.

We are trying to come up with a design for a chicken tractor and may do one with pvc. Still thinking about that one. I think we are going to do 2 smaller ones and put 30 birds in each and that way when my ducks hatch more babies next year we'll be able to put them under cover and not loose any more to the hawks.

We are really trying to come up with something that can be multi-purpose. We have considered doing one of the tractors with a peaked roof so that we could cover it in plastic and use it as a greenhouse of sorts to start seeds in come spring.

We also like the flexibility of the pvc cause it will contour some to the ground and prevent gaps.

Hubby and I looked at some trees on the back of the property and were picking out some that we may try to transplant once the leaves fall off. Our pasture has NO shade.

We also discovered that we have a couple different kinds of hickory trees and we are trying to figure out if there is anything we can do with the nuts. They pelted us like crazy while we were in the woods.

Last but not least, we took the kids fishing on one of our ponds last night and caught several bluegill and 2 nice sized largemouth bass. Didn't keep any but we might move some to the newer pond if we remember to bring a bucket with us next time....

Today we are finishing up laundry and I am going through the order forms for the meaties.....we have made $240 so far and there are some people that still owe us a little money!!!

Crazy.

 

[noobiechickenlady]

So I'm just now reading about your wedding adventures and wowza... if what WZ said is true, DH and I should be tottering oldsters together.

Man, it's just a one-time ceremony followed by celebration. We spent on gas, license fees and rings less than $100 and we had to go out of state because I was only 19.

Oh, and Happy Belated Anniversary!

 

[ohiofarmgirl]

wow! great work on the moola! and i'm looking forward to the pix. we are thinking of doing a pvc tractor so we'd love to see whatcha come up with.

so....

... no big booze fest this weekend?

;-)

 

[lorihadams]

OFG--there's a fish fry tomorrow night we'll see what happens!

 

[lorihadams]

Well, the fish fry was blissfully uneventful! No more drunken sillyness for me.

We are now in the planning stages for a housewarming party for the 23rd of Oct. I kind of dread it to be honest. Hubby has sent text messages already to 40 people. He's not even done yet.

The good news is that the next few days are supposed to be rainy! We need it so badly. The state of VA is over 10 inches below it's annual rainfall. It was also cool enough last night that we could sleep with the windows open! We couldn't open them up all the way cause of the rain but it was really nice to let in some fresh air.
Good for our electric bill too!

Well, we got the shed stained so that is done. Here it is....before and after.



We are going to close in the left side lean to for the goat barn/milking parlor. They will have a 40x130 ft yard with access to the front pasture by walking them on a leash. We just have to get the fencing beefed up to divide the chicken/duck run in half for them. Here that is

 

[Javamama]

Lori I love your barn!
We are getting rain today. It's freaking all the ducks and chickens out and they are all being noisy. I think the ducks may have to go

 

[lorihadams]

here's one for ya....I had to refill the baby pool for the ducks....in the rain. Spoiled rotten ducks.

Hubby has agreed to get some new stock from Holddereads next year. I am thinking of getting 15 of the rare colored runners cause they only sell them unsexed. I wish I had ordered them this year so they would be laying for next year but oh, well.

The "barn" is a 12x16 shed that we got off of CL. We just finished the 10x16 lean tos and are planning on running electric to it and putting our chest freezers out there. We are going to close in the one side and probably divide it in half so I can put the goats (3 nigis) on one side and my milking stuff on the other. We have a platform that we are planning on putting in the run for them to lounge on and I'm sure they will get to spend plenty of time in the pasture while we're at home and can watch them. The run is in the back of the house and the pasture is in the front. The ginormous garden with 4x4 raised beds and all of the fruit trees/vines will be in between. It has turned out pretty good so far.

Now, If I could only sell my OTHER house.