Pink Fox: its Raining...IN MY HOUSE! :/

[pinkfox]

thanks snapshot
i get a little discouraged occasionally by how slowly i have to do things...
or when things dont turn out perfecty whe i do them myself...
like this fence...its not tight, im pretty certian unless you have perfectly level ground AND a propper fence stretcher with a tension jack theres no way in possible hell to get a welded wire fence perfectly tight lol. but its up, its sturdy enough (and i could add more T-posts to trenthen it more if i decide i need to) and the dogs love the extra space so its a win for me.
plus itll eventually be consumed by various berry bushes anyway LOL.

in other news.

1: i lost another 2 lbs this week! *Woot* (gained 1/4 a lb last weekso being down again is always nice) got about another 5 1/2 lbs to go to hit that 150lb point (a total of 200lbs lost) at which point il be quite content to enter the maintence phase...
Most people enter maintennce about a year out... but im over 1 1/2 yrs out and still SLOWLY plodding along so im incredibly happy about that. its certianly slower and harder now, but im still on my way to my goal rather than fighitng for it from 10 miles away. so happy dance.
and itll get even eaiser over the next few months because as the temperatures start to climb, my desire for cooked foods drops and i tend ot spend my summers on grilled meats and salads

2: Whent to check the buns this morning and Rowan is building her nest...
shes a first timer and many first timeres dont build a nest at all, so im realy hoping this is a good sign and well get a nice healthy litter from her and shell prove to be a good momma
shed pulled a couple mouth fulls of fur at some point this morning but nothign crazy, however the monent i put a couple handflls of hay in there she whent to town transporting it all into the exact spot i was hoping shed build her nest.

speaking of baby buns, sexed Bluebells litter and im fairly certain the 2 chins and 1 castor are boyd, and the other castor and 2 black otters are girls. im keeping the female castor. looks like the broken castor male and one of the chin males are spoken for, so that leaves 1 chin male and the black otter and broken otter females.
pretty sure rowan is going to give me all black otters too.
so excited

3: turns out i have a random wild strawberry patch in my back yard...lol. was grabbing clover for the buns this morning and saw something bright red nestled in the clvoer...a closer peek and its a TINY (about the size of a blueberry) little bright red strawberry...and theres a few of the little plants some with a couple flowers some with some tiny berries...REALY random but now im glad the neighbor didnt finnihs mowing lol.
gonna see what they do over the next couple of weeks and see if its worth hand pulling the clover and putting up some boards to protect the "bed"

not sure what todays going to bring...its thrusday and the trash guys havent been yet...little early for "easter weekend"...
its alot cooler today than it has been and theres some cloud cover...mabe rain?
My bib and romain lettuce is doing good...iceburg not so much so think im going to sew some lettuce seeds today, my spinach are doing well as are the snap peas...english are a little slower on the upstart...
Got some tiny little carrot baby leaves poking up now *yay* and the tomatoes and peppers look like there filling out nicely.
onions, garlic and beats too! oh my lol!
Got to get more lettuce in that much i know
I eat alot of lettuce tomatoe and carrot during the summer...what can i say my salads are generally kinda boring lol...
my tater bags are doing nothing...but i wanst expecting much as they were grocery store taters, i know they spray them with inhibitors and all sorts so even when they sprout they can be hit or miss...not a big deal as i dont realy each many taters anywho.

do need to figure out where im putting my squash and gourds, got butternut and acorn and im on the lookout for spaghetti...ive also got 2 packs of birdhouse gourd seeds which im hoping will grow well this year so i can dry them and hopefully pina thtme up for next year

oh and i need to figure out where my watermellons are going too! im thinking of growing those stuff up the fence but i have to figure out some edging to go around them to keep dozer from digging at them..
...

oh, garbage men just arived...lol.

....

might break out the sand paper and white paint and make a start on those cabinates today

 

[SSDreamin]

Congrats on the continued weight loss

DH has a trick for keeping the fencing tight, but I don't know what it is. I hide when he's out doing that stuff - not because I don't want to help (honest! ), but because he is so horribly bossy and grouchy when I mess up. :/ Fifteen minutes into it, I get upset and start pointing out that I am NOT one of his laborer's at work and, by twenty minutes in, I've stormed off He's always said that, as a teacher, he stinks (thats no lie! ), so I can't hold it against him. Funny thing is, DS#2 can go out, let his Dad bark orders at him, and work right along like it's nothing. He (DS#2) tells me that, if I could tune out the barking, I'd learn a lot.

Good luck on the cabinets!

 

[pinkfox]

my dad is EXACTLY like that...
if you can roll your ees and pretend the grumpy grr arging is actually a duck quacking, it can be quite comical AND a good lesson in patients lol.
he just gets flustered easily, and is vocal about his frustration...
he yells at my brother all the time for stealing his pencil when its usually in his pocket or behind his ear...that kind of stuff...

BUT over the years of listening to him "quack" ive picked up a deacent amount of things that to this day i dont think he belives i can actually do. lol.


In other news...we have babbits...and alot of them!
Whent out to check on Rowan...cant yet be sure if shes done so im going to give it another hour or so and then get a proper head count, ill have t take the box OUT to count though because she wasnt too happy about me mesing up her masterpeice of a fur ball (i swear im not sure how shes not nekkid right now theres SOOO much fur in that nest lol) But in a quick before she tries to eat my face kind of head count i counted AT LEAST 7 babbits.
and im sure there were at least 1 more in there...

playing the genetics game i was expecting all blacks and black otters...
got some "pink" wigglers, which was complelty unexpected, so it looks like both Bigwig and Rowan carry the c gene (buns need 2 copies to be ruby eyed white) which means Bluebell is likely the one carrying the cchd gene (chinchilla)

im slowly comming to terms with bunny genetics i think. lol.

I also got a start on the cabinates...due to lack of space im going to have to do 2 doors at a time, take 2 off paint dry paint dry (and possibley paint x3) dry hang and then 2 more...so it could take a few days to get the cabiantes completly done...
got 1 of the upper cabinate frames done, 2 coats of paint on those doors and im fairly certain they will need 1 more.
got a little bit of trim and started on the door frame, and the inners of the bottom cabinate doors a rough first coat (they were nicked and stained so i figured a "pre coat" would do them good.
its already making a big difference in there, they dont feel so dingy and overwhelming. i am going to need another can of white and a can of the green i think, lots of spots on the wal that need touching up as i was being stingy on the green a i was running low and it shows.

ive come up with an interesting backsplash idea that will probbaly be quicker and cheaper than paint even...the vinyl tile i want for the floor...yup, gonna put it on the wall as a backsplash too! ran a gogle search and it not only has been done but its on a number DIY websites as a great option for a backsplash on a budget...
I think matching the backsplash and floor will look realy nice too!

i also managed to get some grand rapids and bib lettuce seed in the ground...got 1 patch of dirt left that ive got to decide what i want in there...about 4 sqft.
wondering if it woudl be worth putting some herb seed down in that zone...and see what happens.


Edit to Add...
9 wiggly babbits...none still born, now we just wait to see how many make it and how good a momma she turns out to be for this first litter.
dont want to bother her too much but do need ot be able to check the nest box a couple of times a day to make sure everyones alive and warm so thats something that i hope she'll accept without abandoning the nest.
im hoping we can get full survival on this litter too. 4 Pinks the rest blacks of some kind (wont be able to tell patten untill about a week-week and a half old) she did a beautiful job on the nest

 

[Wannabefree]

Wow...7+ kits is GOOD! Sounds like you're making a dent in things pretty quickly on the lil farm sis! Good Job!

 

[pinkfox]

well 1 step forward, 5 steps back...
*grumbles*

was out doing some weeding and hear a ruckus, the eighbors had let thier chained pitty off leash and hes at the fence diving at it SNARLING drooling and generlaly trying to eat jasper Dozer and Ruby...Ruby whent APE, shes highly dog agressive when it comes to strange dogs on HER territory so shes snarling and daving right on back, Dozer decieded very qucilly that this was no game, and wiggly boy turned into hair on end snarling barking and generally not having this trange dog trying to eat HIS self propelled squeek toy...jaspers doing his best impression f a rabid squirrel but was more interested in barking at the neighbor than the pitbull thats lunging at the fence. the neighbor tells his dog to back off...yeah right, in the mean time i have to get round there, i grab ruby since shes the one i know WONT back down, put myself betwen the fence and the dogs and grab dozers collar and back jasper up at the same time while the neighbors son carries the dog off...

5 minutes later the dogs back running and diving the fenceline...the guy didnt bother putting him inside or putting him back on his chain...seriously?! this dog is NOT trying to be friendly, its not trying to play its trying to eat my dogs...wtf, this wasnt a game why the hell didnt you put the dog up?!

then 5 minutes later i turn around and Dozer in all the curfuffle must have found a weak spot in the fence and decided to go a visiting... pushed right on under a spot where i should have tucked IN rather than out. thankfully the pit was not loose, but the neighbor just stands there going "its ok" doesnt grab his collar nor nothing...its very obvious hes NOT supposed to be running loose and you cant evn just grab the idiots collar, hes trying to drool you to death... so i had to go all the way aroud to grab the big doof and drag his ass home. literally he wasnt interested in comming at all.

so i lock him inside...go around the fence and pull anywhere thats tucked OUTWARDS IN to the fenced area...the idea as to tuck it out because the dogs have NEVER challeged the fence before and i wanted to keep thier dogs out...so tuck it OUTWARDS so their dogs couldnt get under...nope now i have to tuck it in...which loosens up everything ive done so far and in the meantime i find theres a few spots where the fence is an inch or 2 above rthe ground...now Mr. Dozer has challnged it once and gotten out, hes going to keep trying it...
and jasper could deifnatly slip under one of those spots..and of course the neighbors dog could easily push under in those spots, so im going to need to essentially unhook almost all the fence and drag it as close to the ground as possible.
i need more T-posts to strngthen the soft spots to stop that from happening again (since i cant get it tight enough otherwise). and untill i can get that done...NOONE can be outside unsupervised.

in all this the neighbor is going on about how "when they get used to each other theyll be frineds" and "he just wants to say hello"

no mr...i know dogs...that was not "i want to say hi..." the dog was seriously agressing thorugh the fence.
i told him..."well my little female is VERY dog agressive to ogs not in her family" trying to bite my tounge before saying next time itll be a hammer to its head...
i shouldnt have to yell at MY dogs for being in THEIR yard because YOU cant keep your dog under control! GAH!.

so now ive got to go spend more money i dont have on more T-Posts tomorrow think i need about 10 of those...
and i need to find a source for some cheap but super fast growing Thorny things to plant along the outside of the fence to keep his dog off the side fenceline...and along the property line betwen us cause i highly doubt that privicy fence he was talking about is actually going up any time soon and this is the 2nd time in a week hes let this pit off chain and then let it roam about my back yard...
i cant afford to run more fence right now but i cant afford a vet bill should his dog find a way in and hurt one of mine...

Ugh! stupid people not respecting other peopels space...and stupid people not keeping their dog under control...

ok, annoyed rant over.
tomorrow morning ill have to head back to jackson for more T-posts.
im thinking i could probably get away with shorter posts for reinforcments right?! would save me about $2 a post, theyd be about 1 ft shorter than the fence itself but im more concerned about making sure its as secure to the ground as possible than anything else.
im also thinking about some kind of ground pins to hammer in alng the spots where the fence has to be folded under due to changes in ground level... so im thiking metal tent pegs would probably work for that job.

and then Something SERIOUSLy thorny for the outside of the fence...
I wish i had the money to run a couple strands of eletric from 1 corner all the way down the property line at the side. a couple good zaps would keep that dog out.

 

[Wannabefree]

Daaaaaaaaaaang...no wonder you were asking about T posts!!!

 

[pinkfox]

Oh yeah! ive come to the conclusion that im just not built to have neighbors lol. so when their house goes up for sale one day, im buying it somehow...LOL.
Privicy fence would be great, but i highly doubt theyll ever get round to it.

So...
ive decided when im fixing the fence over this weekend im going to move the fence In slightly i can use the back of the mini rex bank of hutches as support on that stretch of fence. adding a bunch of slightly shorter T-Posts just to give it a little more strength, and pinning the fence down with tent hooks anywhere where the land isnt right.
then im going to be keeping my eyes peeled for either rugosa roses, Hawthorn or Barberry bushes (or both) and im going to plant them LITERALLY along my side of the property line pretty much as far as i can go. this way if he puts up a privicy fence at some point he can put it right against the bushes...but if he never gets around to it at least ill have a thorned hedge and when i put up the perimeter fencing i can put it on my side of those thorny shrubs giving the fence a thorny first line of defence.

I need to win the lottery...id be so much happier if i could put in FULL perimeter fencing and then a full screen hedge (or install a pirannah filled mote aroudn the entire place...that would work too! lol)

after seeing the dogs behavour with my dogs against the fence, im a little worried what would happen if he ever got ahold of the goats.

oh well, spaghetti and sausage for dinner...needed something "naughty"

 

[Denim Deb]

Pinky, to get the fence tight, take an old rake handle, put it thru the fence next to a pole, and push against it. This will help to tighten up the fence. That's what I do in areas where I can't use the tractor and fence puller.

Truthfully, I don't like t-posts. I find I can't get the fence as tight w/those as I can w/wooden posts. But, the t-posts are probably cheaper.

For thorny bushes, try barberry. They're thorny and stay pretty small. Plus there's different varieties, so you could make it look really nice along the fence.

 

[Wannabefree]

Actually around here the wood posts are usually cheaper Have been IME at least. Treated wood posts may be the way to go Pinky. Call Cashway Building Supply in Adamsville. They should have the best price on treated.

 

[snapshot]

That's a great idea about using the linoleum for a backsplash! I may use that too (whenever)!

And "self propelled squeek toy"!!!!! Almost spit my water on the computer!!! Wonder if that is what Molly thinks Buddy is?!