Rain Rain

Well, it's calling for rain all week long. It looks like I won't be moving chicks outside this week. I really wish Frank's work schedule wasn't so packed. We haven't been able to get anything built, or anything. We have a house for the Orpington pen, that still also hasn't been out up, and the list goes on.

I've noticed this trend in some of the facebook groups that have to do with farming, or chickens. Someone has these more expensive chicken breeds, and a dog gets in and kills them all. So they do the big sob story and ask if anyone could sell them some replacements for free or cheap because they can't afford to spend a lot now. So someone falls for it, and then a few weeks later I see these same birds on another site for sale for full price by the person who lost them to begin with. I'm pointing this out because if you raise and sell chickens, I don't want you to get suckered in.

My peach trees are full of fruit, I'm really hoping they make it to maturity. I want to can some this year. I bought some from Walmart last year to try and can, however they had no flavour and were hard. So I put them in a dark place and thought I'd let them sit overnight and see if they got ripe. Wouldn't you know, I checked them the next morning, and they were all rotten on the bottom that fast. I should have went to the fruit stand and bought a case. It probably would have worked out better for me.
 

Moving along

It's raining pretty good out there tonight. It drizzled most of the day, but after 8, it let loose. At least I was able to get all of my animal chores done.

Tomorrow I hope to finish getting my grow out pin ready. My chicks that came in from Ideal are ready to go out. It looks like one of my Delaware chicks may possibly be a little boy. I'm not upset about the possibility though, because we eventually planned on getting a Delaware rooster and breeding our own replacements for the sex link breeding we are planning on.

I have to replace my 3 gallon water container I had in my big chicken run. I had a 3 gallon and a 5 gallon. Well I went out there the other evening, and the entire side had split open. Sometimes I get lucky, and it's the cheap stuff that has to be replaced.

Those crazy ducks are still growing quickly!!! They are eating a lot as well. We're still playing the guessing game with their genders. Right now we are guessing we have 4 or 5 females looking at the shapes of their tales.

And finally baby ducks!

Here they are!!! My 4 week old baby ducks!!! Sorry I didn't get to post the pictures of them from when I first brought them home. It's really hard to believe just how fast they grow, but I could watch them all day long. Please excuse the messy run, I had to learn that I'm better off cleaning it once every 2 or 3 days. With the bedding I use, clean up is easy, and quick. From what we can tell, we only have 4 girls. I think a flock of 5 will really be perfect for us. Honestly we still have a lot to learn, and I did kind of get them at a fairly crazy time. Between Frank's work schedule, and me getting close to a hip replacement surgery.... Well you know. What can I say??? I'm a glutton for punishment!!!

picture test

So, I gave myself an hour of quilting time, and thought I would use my quilt pieces as my test subjects. I'm working on the mystery quilt that we do at the sew and vac in town.  If this works I will definitely share pics when it's done!!!

testing

So, I have my kindle, and this is a test post to see how easy it's going to be to use. I'm debating on purchasing the app, but haven't decided yet. I plan on taking some puct with this later on today to see if I can start loading them again. Right now this is like a fun new toy!!!

oh!!! Happy Mothers Day out there to everyone!!!

Sometime next week

Morning all!!!! The sun is working it's way up in the sky, and I'm sitting here drinking my coffee, thinking about what the day is going to bring for me. I'm thinking it's going to be a great day based on the fact that it's not calling for rain.

I was on Amazon the other day, and found they were having a sale on their Kindles. I ordered the one that they came out with last year. I just couldn't bring myself to pay for the newest version. Mostly because 1 it's rather expensive, and 2 chances are, and with my luck, if I would have paid that much money for one, and for two, an even newer version would have come out, and the price would have dropped drastically. I went with the no rush shipment so that I could get the $5 credit to Amazon Pantry. I thought that was pretty neat. As much as we use our Amazon Prime subscription, I'm pretty sure we will be able to get a full cart of groceries in no time! But anyways, it will be here next week, and once I learn it, which I'm thinking won't be much different from using a smart phone,  I'll be able to start getting pictures up here again. I especially want to get pictures of the ducks before they get too much bigger on here. I can't believe we will have had them a full month this coming Saturday already.  They have grown so fast!!!! Frank and I were having a conversation about them yesterday. I told him that I had noticed some of the ducks tails were starting to flip up on the end, but not all of them, that some of the tails were staying straight. I was thinking that maybe it was because they might not all be the same age. Frank said he thought that only the male ducks tails flipped up on the ends like that. So last night while I was out in the pen with the ducks, I was trying to get a good count of the straight tails, because obviously we want the girls. It looks like, if Frank is right I have 3 girls, with a possible 4th. I'm a little leery on the 4th one, because the tips of it's feathers are slightly curled up, but are staying straight. Of course that one kept jumping into the water as well, so it's kind of a wait and see sort of deal I guess. Any of my followers have any experience with ducks???? Specifically White Peking?

This morning, after I first got up, I decided that I had not weighed myself at all this month, and I needed to do so. I had lost 65 pounds by the end of last month. Honestly, I thought I had gained weight back, and was a bit afraid to hop on. However, It's one of those things, I really needed to hop on so that I knew if I needed to be a good girl, or if I was still on track. Much to my happy surprise, the scale read 191!!!! I'm down 69 pounds!!!! I'm fairly certain that I'll make it under 190 this month if I can keep being good. My goal is to make it to a 110 pound weight loss. I may have to lose more, It all depends on what my doctor says when I take off 110 pounds. I'm also working on putting money back to help pay for skin removal surgery. My health insurance will pay for what they call the Apron, but not the other stuff. I'm going to have to have skin removed from my upper legs, my upper arms, and my upper back. It's not going to be cheap.  However, I feel like I've managed to accomplish so much this far, that I'm sure I can keep going.

Well, that's all for my morning ranting. I suppose I should throw on my blue jeans, and get up the hill to feed the ducks, who probably think they are starving!!!!!
Hope everyone is doing well!!!!

How are we this far into May already?

It seems like time and life is moving at a rather fast clip these days. I blink, and we've turned the calendar. It feels like the year just started, but I suppose it's true what they say, the older we get the faster time flies. I like to think it's flying by so fast because I'm having fun.

I swapped out half of my rabbits water bottles for a different brand last month to see how I like them. I had been using some from tractor supply, that weren't exactly cheap. They had a flip top lid that makes filling them quite easy. However, they kept developing leaks really fast that I couldn't make stop. So, I decided to try the other ones that they had there at TSC, that aren't flip top, and have balls in them. So far, I like them a lot better, even if I have to take them off of the cage to fill them. I'm thinking I'm going to replace the rest of my water containers, and then buy my extras for swapping out to wash. We haven't done any rabbit breeding because we have to completely rebuild a bunch of cages. We bought some wire from Lowes for the bottoms of the cages, and I guess something went wrong on the line somewhere while it was being made. Frank is starting to think that at this point, it would be easier to just buy the pre built cages from Tractor Supply. Honestly, I'm thinking he's probably right. Especially since we've added the ducks.

Ah, my ducks!!!! I really do love the little critters. They seem to be the happiest animals on the farm right now. I think it's because they always look like they are smiling. Unfortunately though, I've a bad habit of not handling my farm animals very much unless its absolutely necessary. This is a practice I started when we added the rabbits because of all the horror stories of "cross contamination". I've learned that they aren't always true, however I like to practice better safe than sorry. Anyways, since I have only handled the ducks twice since we got them, once when we brought them home, and then again when I had to put them in the carrier to take them outside, they aren't much up for interaction. I don't know how this will go for me when they are full grown, but they do know that I'm the bringer of the food and water.

My chicks that came in the mail are growing swiftly, not as swiftly as the ducks, but fairly swiftly. I think I will be able to have them outside in 2 weeks for sure. As long as it's nice out, I like to try and have my chicks outside by 3 weeks old. One of the 5 Rhode Island Red rooster chicks had to be moved into the brooder with the chicks that I was hatching. I think the poor little guy got crushed a bit when I had them in the starter brooder. He was leaning to one side, and had to hold his wings out for balance. I wasn't sure if he would make it or not when I put him in that brooder, but he's doing great. He barely holds out the one wing when he walks, and is walking upright now. I think he just needed to get to heal.   I'm not positive, but there is a slight chance one of my Delaware chicks is a boy. Ideal poultry only guarantees 90% that they are male or female, and if it is a male, out of more than 100 chicks that we've ordered from them, this would be the first time they sent me a male in place of a female. However, we aren't going to complain about it one bit, because we've been thinking about wanting to raise our own Delaware's anyways. I'm not overly familiar with the breed though, so I can't say for certain if my assumptions are correct.

I called UVA (University of Virginia) This morning to get the ball rolling on my hip replacement surgery. I got transferred to the guy who does all the scheduling for stuff like that. However, my call went right to voice mail, so I'm probably going to be waiting for the rest of the day for him to call me back. Nothing like hurry up and wait! If I don't hear back from him today, I guess I'll call back again tomorrow, and probably get to go back to voicemail.  That or he will call me back tomorrow while Frank is having his gum surgery. I am not complaining though, because I know how busy they are. However, I'm not happy that I have to go all the way to Charlottesville. The surgeon here won't touch me due to the severity of my hip.

So, now you all are caught up!!!! Eventually I'm going to get a tablet. I've given up on being able to post pictures from this computer. We have gone through and changed every single setting, and I've tried different  internet servers, and nothing!