Busy Day

So, as some of you know, I'm a housewife/farmer/pattern writer/recipe trier outer, some days are busier than others. My husband works 12 hour shifts, mostly nights. Its the days/nights that he works that I'm the busiest. I like to try to get as much done as I possibly can while he's sleeping (well the quiet stuff) And then after he leaves for work I really put the wheel to the grindstone or however that saying goes. My favorite thing to do is to actually sit down, and write out a list of stuff I absolutely want to get done. This is day 2 of a 3 day work stretch, so my list was bigger than his 2 night work stretch. (Those who work 12 hour shifts will understand the 2 and 3 day stretches)

For tonight's dinner, I had cooked down a chicken in the crock pot, and then picked it apart. I used it for chili. I didn't do what's called white chili with the white beans and whatever else is put in that. I just used the basic chili recipe that's used for the chili used with beef. It was a pretty big hit, and I made enough, that I've got left overs for tomorrow evenings dinner. That will help out with the amount of dishes that will need to be washed.

Right now though, I'm kicked back with the dogs, watching one of my favorite movies. (Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, the one with Kevin Costner) Bella has worn herself out with a rawhide, and Sam and Jasper are in the middle of the floor pretending that they don't care she found one of the hides they stashed. I think they are waiting for the perfect opportunity to steal it back.

I'm just under a week until I find out if my rabbits will give birth or not. I'm quite anxious about this. This will be Doris's second birth. I truly hope that this one goes much better than the first did. I had given her a nest box over the weekend, thinking that maybe she would want to nest early, or get comfortable. I had to take it back out yesterday. She started using it as a potty box. I washed it thoroughly and left it in the sun to dry. In the morning, I'll carry it back into the rabbit enclosure and put it on top of her cage until we get closer to time. We are only about 5-6 days away from their due date. I'm thinking I will give it back to her on Monday. Ginger is still carrying hay around, and rearranging it. She takes it out of her nest box, carries it around, and then puts it back in. I need to give her some more though I'm thinking. She's got a pretty impressive hole made. She hasn't pulled any more fur, so I'm waiting to see if that happens again.  Her and Fred both carry the blue and chocolate gene, so I'm really excited to see what we will get out of that pairing. My rabbits that are pedigreed all come from excellent lines.

I'm not sure if I told you guys yet or not, so I'll tell you again just to be sure. So, Frank and I decided that we had better go ahead and check out Cadburry and Pinkerton to make sure of their genders. We also decided maybe we had better weigh those two, especially Pinkerton who is getting quite impressive in size. Cad weighed in at 6 pounds, and Pink weighed in at 7 pounds. So we poked at Cad, and I was like oh no, she's a boy!!! So I'm was thinking that she was a he, and we put Cad back in the cage. So we pulled out Pink, and Pink is definitely a boy, no doubt about it. (they were too young to properly determine the gender of when we checked that first time) So Frank says to me, are you sure Cad is a boy, because that looked like a taco to me...(yes, the girls look like Taco's and the boys look like tubes) So we turned on all of the lights in the living room, and flipped the poor thing back over, and Cad is not a boy, Cad is a girl, we were both poking, and looking, and I am surprised the poor girl has bee letting me pet and love on her after that ordeal. We plan on mating those two for sure, because we think they would make some beautiful babies, and I'm hoping for some broken patterned babies.

My older Chickens are still laying. We have been referring to them as the Senior girls. Today all 4 of them gave me eggs, which is always pleasant . They will get to live on since they are from the original 8. I feel like they survived our learning curve, so they get a pass. (The other 4 of the original 8, had to be culled...they turned into egg eaters) Two of the older girls have been giving me some Freakishly big eggs. I need to crack them to see what I'll get. I need to do that outside though in case its got a funky smell. Our one friend Aaron got one of those eggs from us one time, and he said it was a very funny color with no yolk. (Don't worry I plan on taking pictures of that event)

Well, I suppose I've rattled on enough about my dogs, chickens, rabbits, and whatever else it is I've chatted on about. Hope you all have a fantastic night!!!!!!

Brandi