Everyday life

There is so much constantly changing and happening around here, that its hard for me to be able to remember what all to share with you all. The baby rabbits are growing swiftly. Its hard to believe that they are going on 3 and 2 weeks old already. I'm watching the older ones hop in and out of the nest box already, with no effort at all. The younger ones, I notices have open eyes, so it wont be long before they are out of the nest box hanging out with their mothers as well.

Bella (the hound) is really calming down a lot for us. Since we have folded up the crate, and put it away, she's changed even more. I suppose she really didn't like the crate. She's interacting with everybody in a much calmer matter than what she was. She took a lot of time, and patients, and love, but we have survived those first months with her. Sam took to her right away as a play buddy, and Jasper has finally accepted the fact that she's not going any place.  I love to watch the different personalities interact.

I've been canning like mad lately. I had to go out and get a few cases of jars, because I had actually used up all of my quart jars. But the other day I canned 9 jars of chicken, and 2 jars of broth, We split that with our friend Aaron, who helps with the butchering, and some of animal housing related activities. I'm so glad that we have his help, because with my physical disability, that is only getting worse as time goes by, I am less and less help. (I have 2 really bad hips, that need to be replaced, but due to my age, 34..they are having me wait as long as is possible.)  The other day my mother in law gave us a big bucket of squash and zucchini, because she can make anything grow, anywhere. I cubed that up with some onions and got 8 pints canned. I believe this is going to be a great winter.

Yesterday, we had to get some mud balls off of some chicken toes. We were hoping that the crazy birds would groom themselves, but that didn't happen, and we ended up with some giant mud balls that was making them walk incredibly funny. There were 4 chickens like that, so Frank caught them, and held them upside down, while I wrapped them with a towel and covered there heads to keep them calm. Then with the help of a water hose, a pocket knife and the back of an ax head, we were able to carefully cut away most of the mud balls. Once we got so close to where the toes were, we soaked down the remaining mud and carefully scraped down to the toenail, and then worked it until it fell off. The first one we did was a buff orpington, who took the longest because we had to figure out the best way to do it, the second one was a Rhode Island Red, who we had figured out better, the third was a very flighty Leghorn, who we had to grip firmly because the towel was not working to keep her calm, and the last was one of the older Easter Eggers who went much quicker, because she was the calmest. She didn't squirm, or carry on, she just let me hold on to her, and we got done with her in under 2 minutes. That was probably the most exciting thing we did all day.

Once we were done with all of the animal chores, we settled in with a movie. We chose an old movie from the 1980's with Steve Martin. That man cracks me the heck up!!! We watched the movie Parenthood, which is truly a hilarious movie.

Well, now that I've filled you in on us, hopefully I didn't bore you all too awful much, and I hope you will all come back and visit us again!!!