New Years Eve

Thinking today would be a good day to install these on the property. Hey, if the winds are going to be sustained at 30 mph today with gusts to 45...I want to try and harness some of that power! ;) They say chickens can't really fly...well they can today if they aren't careful.




I want to wish everyone a very Happy New Year and I hope all your wishes and dreams come true this coming year.
So many of mine have come true I only wish for it to all continue on the same path of happiness.

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It may very well be a very quiet coming New Years day. I have talked to Karen and Tiffany had forgotten that we had made plans months ago for them to be here. I was brought up that if you made plans with someone, and then other plans came up with someone else, you always kept your commitment to the first one. It seems that is not the case. Karen is letting Tiffany make the choice on her own. She had made plans to go spend the night off with another friend she hasnt seen in a while. We will see if Tiffany makes the right choice. Karen said she was coming either way tonight, then told me she had told Tiffany she would bring her this Saturday to visit. I am sorry, but this time it won't be possible. I told her Patti was coming for a visit for the weekend and so that wasn't going to work. It is just my opinion, but I think teaching a child to make the right decision is important. I would never leave it up to Shelby to make a choice, where in my opinion there is no choice. We will just have to wait and see.
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Speaking of Patti...we are in a holding pattern right now til this evening. We all know everyone is on a tight budget. The crunch of the once high gas prices still has its grip on everyone trying to catch up from paying too much before. This time of year is so tight for everyone. She will see if it will be possible to comfortably make the visit without having to stretch a dollar to its breaking point. I do want to see her badly, but I also understand. We are tight right now, just as many are, having to watch every dollar and be careful how we spend our money. Tax refund time can't come soon enough around here.
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I don't know if we will be having much company or not, but either way...Ian, Shelby and I will see in the New Year together and thats a sure thing. :)
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Now its time for me to get ready and go out to get some groceries, both for the animals and the humans. Again, everyone have a safe, happy, wonderful New Year! :)

Is It Tuesday Already?

Good Tuesday morning! The sun has graced us with its presence not only this morning, but all day yesterday. It was heavenly to be out in its warmth. Today should be even better as the weather guessers are predicting a high in the sixties.

Here we are and New Years Eve is right around the corner. I am ready for the new year to start. The days are already noticably longer, maybe only by minutes, but I caught myself coming in at 6:10 and I used to not be able to see my hand in front of my face it was so dark by that time. So we are on our way, I am leaning hard towards Spring. ;)

Fern, I am glad you got the card, sorry it was late! This year was the first year I got my Christmas cards out late. Time just slips away and before you know it, your cards are late! Paula, did you get a warm light set up for your kitty? Glad I gave you an idea for her. :) John, I am sorry to hear you have had so much loss in your life already. Bless your heart...sending out a big hug to you.

Now on to what has been going on around here. After Christmas day we had a few days of recuperation time. A friend of Ians stopped in for the day yesterday. They went riding around in Jays Cooper. Ian and Jay both have small cars that are sporty and fun to drive, so they like to take a cruise sometimes. They ended up coming back with Jay a new Iphone. Ian said he helped Jay spend money. ;)

I spent the day outside of course, since the weather was nice. Everyone was glad to see me as usual. I took a bucket, some Dawn dish liquid and some dish scrub brushes and got everyones waterers cleaned and filled. Got everyone filled up with fresh food. I turned on the heat lamps before going in at dark for the first time in a week. The weather has been so mild we haven't needed it. Last night it did get down to the freezing mark though.

We don't have any major plans for New Years Eve. Shelbys friend Tiffany and Karen, her mother, are coming to spend the night Wednesday night. They will leave on Thursday and then Patti, my older sister, and her youngest daughter with her boyfriend will come. I hope it doesnt rain on Friday. They forecast is calling for it. She hates driving in the rain as much as I do. They will stay Friday through Sunday for a nice long visit this time.

Then thats going to be it for a while. I have enjoyed and I am enjoying all the company we have gotten. We didnt have any for a long time because the gas prices were so high that no one could afford to go anywhere.

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I had an incident in the pretties pen area. I don't know what gets into chickens heads sometimes. They lose their mind temporarily or something. A perfect example of this is when I had four beautiful white bantam frizzle cochin pullets. They grew up together. One day, three of them decided to gang up on one and kill the other. They pecked at her backside and ate her from her backside down to the bone. I know this is distasteful, but it happened. It us not unheard of, but no one really knows what triggers it. I have talked with others and they have had it happen.

This time, it was one of my Golden Phoenix pullets I found, huddled in the corner of the roosting pen. Her head tucked tight in the corner she was clearly in distress and frightened and in pain beyond imagination. I pulled her out of the pen. My poor girl. No one was around her so I don't even know who the culprit, or culprits were. I suspect two of the Golden Phoenix cockerals, but have no proof. She was very traumatized. I carried her into the house and cleaned up her head where they had pulled on her comb until it was torn half off her head. Then I cleaned her backside. They had pulled out all her back feathers in an area as big as my fist and then didnt stop there but had begun to peck open wounds into her back. You could see under the two small holes where the muscle was. I cleaned her up with a damp washcloth and took Neosporin and thickly coated her back with it, filling in the holes with the antibiotic. I coated her comb and the top of her head too. She was put into a holding pen and placed on the porch to rest that night. The next morning I put in fresh water and food for her. She was thirsty, but not ready to eat yet. By that afternoon she had a little appetite and ate some. By yesterday she was eating and drinking and didnt seem to be in too much pain (the antibiotic ointment has a pain reliever in it). Until her back is completely healed I can't put her back out there though. Any visible wounds would be obsessed over by the other chickens and pecked at. Last night I brought her in the house and she is warm and doing good this morning.

I have a lot of animals. When one gets hurt or sick, they always recieve individual attention. I do everything I can for whoever needs care. Here on our little farm, everyone matters. Here area few pictures of my pretty girl I took this morning, recovering nicely.






In the second picture you can see the torn half of the comb is black. I imagine she is going to lose this half of her comb. The third picture does not show the full back area, I spared you of that. Her feathers surrounding the area help to cover the bare wounded area. She is not cowering and upset anymore, she seems to be in good spirits. Now its just going to be a long healing process.

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Now, I am going to go and get me a cup of coffee and do some visiting. :) I haven't had a lot of time to sit down and relax lately, but I think between today and tomorrow I will see if I can't catch up and come by to see everyone on their journals. :)

Just Makes Ya Wanna Dance!

My younger sister was here the other day and showed me this video on her Iphone. Its pretty cool, pretty entertaining, pretty funny. :)




More on Katy Perry...

http://www.katyperry.com/

Christmas Eve, Christmas Day Entry

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas. On Christmas eve we allow Shelby to open one present. She opened one to find the David Cook CD. Even though she never watched him win American Idol, she loves his music and after listening to it she announced that every song on the CD was awesome!

I spent the whole day busy as a body can be. I started out early and made the run to Tractor Supply for the animals feed. Then I ventured over to Walmart to get some groceries...and a surprise gift for Shelby. That is what she is laying on in that picture above. I wanted her to get something totally unexpected. It stayed in the truck until she went to bed then Ian dragged it in and I got it covered up til I could get it wrapped. I was so tired by the end of the night I wrapped it Christmas morning early.

After I got back from shopping I started in on the chores outside. I wanted all the animals to have full waterers and feeders so on Christmas day I would be free of chores out there and could be with my family. That ended right after dark, then it was on to cleaning up and cooking. I peeled potatoes, boiled eggs...oh yeah, my girls are still not producing enough...so it was off to Carlton Farms again for some of their eggs to make deviled eggs and eggs for the potato salad. I shucked corn, cut the corn off the cob, cooked it in pans with some butter and bacon to make creamed corn. I made twenty ears. I was cooking corn at 3 a.m. when Ian walked in and said I needed to get some rest. I said to him what I needed to do was get the food finished. I didnt want to be having to cook the Christmas dinner in the morning. The ham was already ready, the turkey breast was a done deal. I went to bed about 3:30 a.m. and got up two minutes before the alarm went off at 7:18 a.m., letting the animals out and began cleaning up my atrocious mess in the kitchen. There were still a few things to do outside. When I have guests coming I make a point to spray off the patio, walkway and the driveway before you get here so you don't soil your shoes from any stray chicken poop that may have been inadvertantly deposited by a chicken passing through that particular area. ;). With that done I cleaned up the screen porch some and then my parents arrived. They arrived a little early so they could have us all to themselves for just a bit before anyone else showed up. We talked, shared morning coffee and Shelby opened gifts from her Mawmaw and Gaddy. A little later Ians dad, his wife Cristi, and Cristi's brother Nelson arrived. I was told I would like Nelson and I did. He was a pretty cool guy. Shelby had more gifts from her Grandaddy and Cristi to open. It was a pretty nice day, not too cold. Everyone would take some time to walk out and see the animals. Ian gave Nelson the tour since I was busy finishing up some last minute things in the kitchen.

Time flew and all too soon Ians dad, Cristi and Nelson had to be going. Erin, my younger sister had come along at the same time Mama and Daddy had, but she had to leave even before they left. She had a friend from work that was out of town and Erin said she would feed and water her cats for her while she was gone. She was also house sitting for someone else. Mama and Daddy were spending the night though...so after everyone else left we sat around and chewed the fat (thats southern for sitting around talking). After I closed up the animals for the night and the kitchen was all cleaned up we sat down to watch Jeff Dunhams new DVD that is out, his Christmas Special. We had a lot of fun watching that. Later, Daddy got some acid reflux happening that wanted to rare its ugly head. He couldnt lay down so we were all up talking and watching Shelby play some of her new games. One of her games comes with some run of the mill games, like Mrs. Pacman. One caught my eye. It was ZUMA! I had never heard of this game until I went to visit Sherry and she had it on her computer. That game is so addictive and frustrating! Fun but nerve racking! You love it, and you hate it too...lol. I don't really get into games that much, but this one is fun I have to say. I got Shelby to try it out. She had never played it. She was instantly addicted. Daddy was jumping in his seat telling Shelby what color was coming next to SHOOT SHOOT SHOOT! LOL...Mama was next to Daddy saying she couldnt look anymore, she couldnt watch it anymore, it was making her a nervous wreck...lol. We ended up staying up til 1:30 in the morning. Finally we all hit the hay for the night.

The next morning I got up to let the animals out, but was soon snoozing again afterwards. I didnt wake back up again until Mama and Daddy came out of the bedroom around 11 a.m. dressed and ready for the day. I made coffee and cooked us all breakfast. Real fresh eggs I had saved from MY girls, bacon, sausage, and cinnamon and brown sugar toast with honey.

It wasnt too long after that Mama and Daddy headed out for home. Guess what I did after they left? Yep, I went and took another nap. I had a lot of catching up to do on my sleep. Today I think I am all caught up.

Now we are moving on towards New Years Eve. It will be a quiet one around here. Karen and Tiffany are supposed to come out to spend the night. We don't have a big party or anything anymore. Its too much doing that right after Christmas.

Then my older sister is coming out with her youngest daughter and her boyfriend. They were here a couple of weeks ago, but the visit was cut short by her oldest daughter and her fiance'. They were in a rush to get back home to study for exams. Patti wanted and I wanted us to have some real quality time together so this time her oldest may not be coming, and her fiance' will definitely not be coming. Not going to go into depth on that one, but lets just say he rubbed me the wrong way, when I always go out of my way to make people feel welcome and comfortable in my home.

So they will be here the weekend after New Years Day...and I am really looking forward to this. :)

After that, we will settle in for the rest of winter and go into a waiting pattern for Spring. This is when the weather is at its worst here in Georgia and the animals don't get any quality visits from me. They get fed, they get watered, and thats about it. It gets inhospitable outside. I will of course be working on the birds that are going to be shown in February. They will need a good dose of Frontline Spray...then bathing comes later. Blow drying and then keeping them clean until the show. Pampering will be in order for my lovelies. :)

Again I want to say, I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and lets all look forward to the New Year and what it has in store for us. Everyone have a nice weekend, I plan to. :)

Look...

Glitter Graphics

Look what Shelby taught me...lol! She has a Blingee account...so I used it.

Two Posts In One Day

I reckon I need to get a few more words in here before the Christmas spirit takes over this house and I am so busy I don't know whether I am coming or going. ;) We are expecting my parents, my younger sister, Ians dad and Cristi, and Karen and Tiffany for Christmas dinner. After today Ian will be off work for three days, so you know what that means. I won't be around on the computer. Its fine though, I have plenty to do before Christmas day. I have a last minute gift I want to get for Shelby. I need to do some grocery shopping. There are a few things that need cleaning around here. The animals always need something. I guess it looks like I will be back around here on Saturday, so I won't be gone too long.

Take a look at this...



Dad. (Ray)..you know what this is. :)

Last year I recieved this in the mail from Mary and Dad. I still have it, and got many beautiful blooms from it in January. I am anxiously waiting to see the new growth sprout from the bulbs again. Thankyou Mary and Dad. I will enjoy this for years to come.



Speaking of plants..when we went to get our tree at Lowes we found these beautiful bushes of Rosemary on sale for 75 percent off! I got four of them. Gifts for our guests on Christmas day.






While out taking pictures of everything this morning I got a few pictures of Troy being goofy. He smelled something...goats and horses do this. Sometimes you can catch Derby doing it also. It is usually to detect a female from what I know...but I am the only female around this morning, maybe I smell goaty? I think I will have a shower this morning. ;) Sometimes they do this after they urinate on their face (yes, I know, lovely, its supposed to attract the ladies)but he hadnt done that before this face he made. Eddie is still in the bed so I didnt get his picture. He poked his head out and said hello, then went right back in.

I have a silly story to tell, that is one reason I took a picture of Troy this morning. It was around noon yesterday I heard a truck pull up. Then I heard a knocking on the front door. I opened the front door, but left the outer glass door locked. There stood three hispanic men with big grins on their faces and seemed excited about something. I asked if I could help them. One spoke up and pointed over toward the goats area (I am assuming that is what made them stop, there is something about goats and hispanics...I know they like to eat them, I do know that much.)and asked if my animals were for sale. I smiled back and felt like saying "Do you see a sign out here anywhere that says Animals For Sale????" but, instead I smiled and said "No, I am sorry, none of my animals are for sale. You see, they are my pets". They all looked at me quizzically like I had lost my mind. The one that first spoke up said..."What?" I proceeded to tell him again..."They are NOT FOR SALE, they are my PETS!!!" Still not fully understanding why I kept food for pets I guess...they said okay, thankyou, and wandered back to their truck and left.

I get this a lot. I get a lot of hispanics wanting my chickens to eat. This is the second time I have been asked about the goats. I get asked about the pigs too. Sigh....maybe I am crazy, but I love my farm animals as pets. Its just me, its how I am. One persons food is anothers cuddly sweet baby.




Surely they won't see Derby as food? I hope not. Derby has his winter coat now. Here he is this morning sauntering over to see if I might have something for him. He was a bit naughty and tugged my jacket before leaving to my taking pictures. Mouthing is a big no no. Mouthing can lead to biting. We broke him of this awful habit, but he seems to have forgotten that this morning and it surprised me. He knows its a no no though, he jerked away and walked off right after doing it.

I get nervous when hispanic men come by and ask all too enthusiasticly about my animals. I break out the padlocks anytime I am going to be away for more than a few hours, and especially if we are gone overnight. It has been known to happen to other people, their animals disappearing in the night, and not by the usual predators either. I would lose my mind if this happened to me, I would be on the rampage.

Well, I reckon I am going to sign off and see what I can get done around here. I want to wish each and every one a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS! I know times are lean for a lot of us, but if we have someone we love close by, whether it be a furry friend, a feathered friend, a human friend, or a family member, it makes the season brighter. We don't need a bunch of stuff to mark it Christmas...we just need each other. SO from my family to your family...have a wonderful Christmas, and I will see everyone afterwards. HO! HO! HO! ;)

Last Weekends Ramblings

Thankyou everyone for your nice comments on our Christmas tree. I am glad I inspired y'all to do the same. :) Fern says he has been doing that for many years, and I am not surprised by that, he is a salt of the earth kind of man. I would expect him to get real planting trees every year.

My younger sister got herself into some more trouble recently. I won't elaborate on here. If you read my regularly, you will know that I don't elaborate on the sorted details of things unpleasant to read. She came out for a visit this past weekend, starting Friday night and left early Sunday morning. We didnt do a whole lot. Just sat around and watched some tv, talked a little, but nothing too heavy.

Since she left early on Sunday I went outside for most of the day. It was quite cold and the wind was unforgiving. It made it hard to work with tarps and hard to hay down pens. Nevertheless, I pushed myself on through the day doing what needed to be done before the coming cold was to come that night through last night. Sunday night it got down to 17 degrees with a wind chill of 8. As I have said before, we have no windbreak, so everyone must be sheltered from that wind. The heat lamps ablaze and the pens covered up...everyone made it through that awfully cold and windy night. Monday night was not much better, but it only got down to 30 and the wind was not so bad overnight. It has since picked up, but we are going to have a heat wave in the 40s today. ;)

There is some sense of satisfaction to knowing you have done what you can for everyone to weather the cold. After a full days work...coming in at dark, you know everyone should be able to tolerate the night.

Now before I show you the pictures, I have to say something. Winter, to me, is an ugly time of the year. Everything is dead, brown, and lifeless. So adding all these gray tarps to the pens..well, it just makes an already ugly scene, even uglier...lol. So, for the record, I do know that this is not 'pretty', but it is very functional. I just have to get me one of those signs...it says...



So on with the pictures of my work on Sunday.




First up is Shelbys cat, Fergie. She has decided the front porch rocker is too cold and windy and has retreated to the screen back porch. To accommodate her I have set up a heat lamp, clamped on to the back of one of our outdoor chairs with the afghan donated to Fergie when she arrived on our doorstep. Add the small chair pillows around the sides for more comfort, and there you have it, a warm place for her to rest her little fuzzy head at night. For the record, Mocha has a heat lamp too. :)




Buckbuck and Babe's pen covered. (that is not one of them standing there...a polish rooster has wandered onto their side of the fence)


"Hey mom! Whatcha doin' out here? Bring anything out for me?"

Row of pens completely covered now. These house all of my breeder Seramas, my four show birds, the Silver laced polish, and Johnny (he is doing better, but that leg is never going to be the same, he is getting along though)

The Sultan pen...almost completely covered, just a small space at the door so I can peek in on them.



Yes...even bad boy Alan has been covered.




The psycho twins are covered on the left (those two young roosters, polish silkie crosses, that had to be locked up..remember they ganged up on poor Bubba and beat him up. He hasnt been the same since, has lost his dignity and still hasnt found it.) Rusty and Rudy on the right, my two Serama boys I hope to show one of these days...if there is ever a Serama judge at any of the shows I attend.




THIS...now you see that tarp draped over the top of a pen...there is a cage underneath this tarp that is tied down to the fence. Mama says I am just catering to their whim by doing this...and maybe I am. I have about 8 or so chickens that roost on this part of the fence at night. They are right in the path of the breezeway so the wind is even more brutal to sit in this spot. It was getting dark and I had to find a way to keep them from becoming chicken icicles. I had a thought. I have one extra pen, would make the perfect frame, throw a tarp over it and secure it, wire one of the cage doors open so they can get in and out of it, set it on the fence and the roof of this pen, so they can still roost on the fence...making any sense??? LOL...anyway, it worked, and they all caught on in one days time as to where to go the very next night. Smarter than you think. :)




This is a horrible picture I know, but this is the bed area the emus have chosen for themselves, not myself. I took the picture through the screen porch and that is why it looks like it does. You can see two of my old girls, Speckled Sussex hens, wading through the hay. They turn it for me, it keeps it from getting too flat and also turns any emu poo that has been left overnight. My poor emus, I don't think they were made for winter weather. Yesterday while feeding them I could see them shake and shiver from the cold wind.




Last but not least...I gave the pigs almost a whole bale of wheat straw to work with and they seemed to have made themselves a very comfy cozy bed for the two of them. You can see, they don't seem the least bit interested in coming out of their bed into the cold morning air.

I also added hay to Speckles harem pen, and the two Sultan boys pen.


Other than getting the tree at Lowes on Saturday, I reckon that is pretty much my weekend ramblings. Since we have rain coming in for Christmas Eve, Christmas day, and possibly the weekend, I imagine I will be doing this all over again. Ah such is the life of a farm girl and her menagerie of pets. I don't mind though, I love my animals and if I could afford it I would probably have them all set up with heated houses. I am not a rich person though, my family and I get by, and then a little more, but a barn is a couple of years in the future right now. We will have one though, you can bet on it.

A New Tradition

Good Monday morning! It was a busy weekend here on our little patch of paradise. We had company, we went and got a tree, and I spent the day readying the animals for the cold night we had last night and will have tonight. No, I didnt knit sweaters for each one. ;) Before I get to all that I wanted to share my epiphany I had. I know I am not the first to think of doing this, but I was glad I thought of it for us. Hmmm...something is up with blogging this morning, I can't seem to break to another paragraph. Lets see if I can get a picture in here.


The only way I can seem to keep typing is to type under Html after any break in the sentences, so that is what I will do.

This is a picture of our Christmas tree. You may be asking yourself, why is it so small???

Since I met Ian, we have always gone with his parents to cut down a real tree on a Christmas tree farm. This was a lot of fun and we all really enjoyed it. Over the years things happened, things change. My mother in law, Roz, she passed away right after Thanksgiving seven years ago now. Christmas has never been the same since. Ian, Shelby and I have still gone to cut a tree. Since we live so far from his dad now, we don't get together to do that, and havent for a long time. Ians dad has since remarried to a wonderful woman that we love very much, but tradition has changed. Sometimes it is time for a new tradition. This is where my epiphany came in.

We dont have a lot of trees on our property. We have no windbreak. We need some trees. I hate raking leaves, so I want evergreens. Why not go to Lowes and buy a real tree...but in a pot, so we can keep our tree alive each year by planting it in our yard? I was excited about this new idea. We could get a tree every year and plant it to have forever. What a concept. :) So that is exactly what we did. The picture above is the tree we picked out. It is called an Emerald Green Arborvitea. Here is a link so you can see what it will look like all grown up one day. :)

http://www.aboutarborvitae.com/emerald_green_arborvitae.shtml

We love our little baby Christmas tree and can't wait to watch it grow up. :)

Since the blog format or whatever doesnt seem to want to work right for me, I will just save the weekend ramblings for another entry, at another time.

Lets Talk About The Weather

Does weather affect your mood? Especially if that said weather goes on for days? I am very affected by weather. As I sit here writing this we have had four straight days of rain, drizzle, fog, and just dreary weather in general. I know that some areas of the world are saddled with this type of weather for weeks on end. I don't know if I would ever adapt to it. Four days is a very long time to not see the sun at all in Georgia. The ground is saturated. The air stays damp. Its like you are breathing in mist. Nothing dries out, everything stays wet.

Tip, Phoenix, and Clyde are fortunate enough to be inside with Ian, Shelby and myself. We can escape the damp air and the muddy ground by being inside. The other animals on the farm have to endure it. Everyone has shelter, but who wants to stand in a shelter for four days? Especially if your used to going out and taking a stroll around the back half. Goats hate getting wet, so the only time they come out from their house is when its not raining. I haven't seen a whole lot of those two needless to say. The horse hates being wet but insists on standing out in the rain. I still don't understand that. The pigs stay in their house, in their bed of wheat straw. The only time pigs like to be wet is in the summer when its hot. The emus don't seem to mind too much. Their feathers have a waterproof seal so underneath the main feathers they are dry. For four days this has gone on. There is only so much you can do, and then you just have to suck it up and endure it. I have put down so much wheat straw just to walk out around the chickens.

Don't tell me you can't see they misery in these faces. LOOK into their eyes, see their discomfort and unhappiness. The animals mood is affected just as much as mine. This makes me even sadder that they are miserable. What can I do?

The one thing no one can control...is the weather. It is what it is. The only thing we can do is sit and wait it out until the sun shines again and dries up some of our mud.

Here are some pictures I just took of what it has been like here for us. I know others have terrible snow blizzards, others have their plight, but I am just not used to this day after day.





BuckBuck and Babe come to me with pleading eyes. BuckBuck seems to be asking when this dreary weather end.



Blue on the left and Bubba on the right...hanging out on the pool deck to escape the mud, looking in through the screen. They seem to be asking me to make it all better.



Goatmans hair is ruined in this weather, he just gives up and stands there in the rain.




Just look at the ground beneath their little chicken feet. Even with all the wheat straw I throw out it quickly is soaked into the muddy ground.




As I walk around to the gate to take the pictures of my layer hens Blue and Bubba follow me around to this side of the deck. Bubba closes his eyes, hunching up against the blowing drizzle saturating his feathers...just trying to get through it all. LOOK. LOOK into their faces, my poor babies. At least the weather is mild right now. It has been in the sixties. That will soon end though. On Monday winter will make a return.


Looking out to the right, straight out, and to the left from my front porch. This has been the scene for four days now. I will still take it over the city life any day though. A bad day in the country is still better than a good day in the city for me.

So all you folks that are enjoying the sunshine, enjoy a ray for me and my animals today. I do miss the sun desperately, as do they.

Visit With Grandmama

Before you get all sentimental and say AWWWW to these pictures...I have to give you a reality check. Grandmama is not one of those sweet little old ladies. She is my grandmama and I love her, but she is in a nursing home because she can't seem to get along with her family for any length of time. There is a rocky road to where she is now, but I won't elaborate. Now that she can no longer walk and needs more care than ever it is best that she is where she is. The nursing home she is in is very nice and is actually out in the country right outside a very tiny town that has a little tiny square. Its so small, the only place to go and eat is Subway. So that is where we go to pick up lunch for Grandmama and us before we stop in for our visit.

I left my house around six thirty a.m. and got to Mama and Daddys house around quarter til nine. Traffic on I20 was a parking lot. I always forget that the morning rush on I20 is a nightmare. We still left pretty quick and we were on the road just after nine. Three hours later we arrived at the Subway and Mama and Daddy went in to get the sandwiches and cokes while I dressed Phoenix in his snowman diaper outfit for the visit.

Grandmama was waiting in her room for us. We had a nice spot at the end of a hall to have lunch together. Grandmama always likes to have Subway sandwiches. It is such a nice break from the food there at the nursing home. Not that the food is bad, its just..well, kind of like hospital food you know. Its tolerable, but given the chance, you would like to have something else.

Since there was so much room to spread out where we were sitting to eat lunch we spent most of our visit there at the dining table. Daddy had brought some pictures of my younger sisters visit to Paris and was showing Grandmama those. I had pictures on my camera of Shelby to show her. She hasnt seen Shelby in several years now and wanted to see how much she had grown up.

Grandmama doesnt like the typical things you would think. She doesnt want to be given plants, flowers, nick nacks, wall decor, nothing of that nature for her living quarters. Bring her some candy and popcorn. Bring her some cokes. She loves her news too. She has her views on politics, but we don't like to discuss politics. It always ends very stressfully.

For some reason she loves my little chicken Phoenix. When we are coming to visit she always asks me to be sure and bring him. This time I was prepared and it was stress free with the diaper outfit. Everyone could watch him, hold him, pet him, and there were no worries. Employees and residents alike peeked in many times to see the little rooster. Everyone knows when we are coming and asks Grandmama if I am bringing him. I always do of course. I am glad there is something I have to bring that she enjoys. We went back to the room when it was almost time for us to go. I was doing the driving and I don't like to drive at night so we had a very short visit. Even leaving when we did I still had almost a two hour drive in the dark. We took some nice pictures in the room before we left.

Here are some of the pictures from our visit.

I Am Back, Now Time For Catch Up

Visiting hours are over til Christmas now. ;) I have gone to see folks, I have had folks come here. My younger sister is supposed to come the weekend coming up, but that is just a leisurely time.

I cleaned and I cleaned, for two weeks I cleaned. Every nook and cranny is clean in this house. Now if I can just keep it that way until Christmas day when friends and family come for Christmas dinner.

So lets back up. I have pictures of things that have gone on and I am backing up to right after Thanksgiving for todays entry. We were invited to Brians twin girls birthday party he was having for them at his house. Shelby is good friend with the girls. It was a typical day as of the past weeks, overcast, drizzle, cool, and windy. Seems that is the theme for this time of year. Once we were there and inside it was better. Here are a few pictures from our visit with them.




Shelby and the girls catching up




Their birthday cake




Official TEENagers now...13




Opening presents




Brian dipped the icecream as folks came by with their plates of cake

It was a really nice visit that day. Everyone lives so far away from us now, its always a special visit when we go to see anyone.

Next up...pictures and an entry on the visit with Grandmama...