huge relief

My dad's surgery went well and they were able to do it the easy way instead of slicing him up completely. He had his gallbladder removed and there was a stone lodged in his bile duct. They weren't able to get all the stones out so they will probably have to go back in and try again but not sure if it can be done at a later time or sooner??? He is horrible about asking questions and when they do tell him something he can't remember what they said!!! I need to talk to the dr to get the lowdown. Not sure when he is getting out....I'll have to call in a little while to see how he is doing. If he doesn't get out we might make a trip down there. Presley does ok down there but it is always short and sweet with candy involved to keep her happy. My dad is like a cat he has 9 lives! I hope I get his luck when it comes to dodging the big health bullets. Yesterday greg worked on the last wall for my coop. He framed in the door and ran electrical for the lights and an outlet in there for a heated waterer for the winter. Can't have frozen water for them. I am not looking forward to chicken maintenance come january here in MN!!!!

So I just took a real good look at my dogs the other day and I can't believe how FAT they all are!!! Even Carly the one that is usually so skinny is fat. They have stole so much food out of Presley's hands and eat every crumb that hits the floor. I guess when you only weight 7 pounds gaining a pound or 2 is huge. They all need to be on a diet. I know once the weather stays warm they will be outside running around more but I have been giving them tiny handfuls at feeding time cuz they keep eating so much table food from Presley. Tori was getting so fat her collar was getting so tight and it was choking her. I noticed she started having with weird raspy cough and I realized her collar was way too tight cuz her big fat neck!!! She looks like a barrel on 4 little peg legs.....

stressful

It has been a stressful last few days around here. My dad is back in the hospital he has been having some severe stomach pain and became very jaundice. When Greg and I picked him up to bring him into the hospital he looked like an uumpa lumpa!!! They think it might be his gallbladder so they were going to do surgery to remove it but then his heart rate was at 145 and they put him on the cardiac floor to get his heart back to normal. Yesterday they were able to get his heart rate to normal and are doing surgery on monday. Surgery is so risky for him so I hope everything goes well on monday!!! Presley and I are going to go visit him today. Wish me luck....hyper 2 yo in a boring hospital room = disaster. I should stop and get her a toy of some sort and when she starts getting squirrelly I can bring it out and get a few more minutes. Snacks always work too. 

Yesterday we went to pick up my 2 call ducks. It was a 3 hour round trip but Presley did very well. We watched Bee movie 2.5 times so that was a life saver. I couldn't imagine taking long car rides without it!!! The ducks are settling in good. I had them in their own little brooder yesterday but the one lighter one sat and peeped all day so last night I put them both in with the chickens and they seemed so much happier. The chickens seem good with them just a little pecking on some of their butt fuzz. I am excited for them to get a little bigger and watch them in the pond and waddle around the yard. Hopefully they aren't too noisy or else my neighbors won't be happy. If it doesn't work out I can always find them a home. Call ducks are harder to find and people are always looking for them. They are a great duck because they are small in size so eat less and do less damage to the yard. I want to keep them in with the chickens in the coop but not sure if they will be too messy?? I will let them out during the day in the pond so they will do all the messy water stuff outside and not in the coop. Greg didn't say too much about my new additions. I had been preparing him that I was getting some so I think he was expecting them sooner or later. I think they will be a fun addition to the backyard flock. They are very entertaining to watch just usually not as cuddly as chickens. They don't like to be held much but I am still forcing mu love on them!! I am all done buying birds for the year......unless all my chickens turn out to be roosters!!! Wouldn't that just be horrible luck!!!

Flat iron

I wanted to see Presley's hair straight so I had her sit and I went thru her hair with a flat iron. She sat really well and enjoyed it. She loves all things girly. She is always getting into my makeup and wanted to sit in my salon chair and says hair hair. She sits well for getting her toes painted too. She is such a lil' princess. I wonder if greg will notice her hair???

cool and rainy

so we are stuck inside watching movies and doing laundry. Speaking of laundry we went looking at new front loader machines yesterday and I am so smitten with them!!! Our machines are 10 years old and are starting to make lots of weird new noises. I think we will hold off a little bit longer but are researching all the different brands to figure out what we will end up choosing so anyone who has some front loaders tell me what they are and what you like/dislike about them. I would love to cut my loads down with the higher capacity machines and save in water and gas!! I am hoping mine go "out" real soon so I don't feel so guilty buying new machines when mine work so everyone put a curse on my machines!! The ones we were looking at were by samsumg and the guy said they had a great rep....

My duck lady called and the ducks hatched and she said i could come and pick them up this weekend. Now I just need to be on my best behavior and cater to Greg all week so he lets me have 3 ducklings. They will be great for the pond on keeping the algae clean but ducks do poop a fair amount so I would have to be on poop patrol. They are small call ducks so they aren't as messy as the bigger breeds. Speaking of the pond we are having problems with a leak and have been narrowing down the cause. The leak isn't in the pond because water level remained the same when the falls were turned off. So greg spend 2 days pulling all the rocks out of our 20 foot waterfall and no holes. SOOO the leak is either in the waterfall holing area or the pipe that circulates the water. If it is in the pipe that circulates the water that is going to be a horrible job to figure out. The pipe is buried 2 feet under the ground and has to be 30 feet long so to dig it all up would be quite the job. Greg is so stressed over it and I feel so bad. He wants to get rid of the pond but it is my favorite thing in our yard and I would be so sad to not have it anymore. The sounds of the rushing water is so relaxing and I love watching the fish. I guess we will figure it out but it is just so much labor. We still have quite a bit to do on the coop and the run. The chicks will be ready to go outside in about 2-3 weeks so we need to kick it into high gear. I think wed. I'll ask my mom over and we can work on it. 

I totally called it!!

2 posts back I said she was going to try to steal a swipe of the birthday cake and I was right!!!! Mer caught her sticking her finger it in while she was trying to put the candles on it. Presley is such a cake freak she loves the frosting. This was an ice cream cake and that is one of her faves!!! I worked at DQ so many years that I just don't like it as much as most people I think I got burnt out......I still ate it though. The party was great and she came home and slept for over 3 hours so Greg and I got a ton of work in the yard done. I cleaned up all the flower beds and cut back all the perennials and loaded 9 huge yard waste bags. I was sore this morning but the yard looks so much better. Now after a few more days of rain we will get a little more green around here. I am so excited to see how much everything has grown again this year. 

love the weekends

AWWWW Greg got up with Presley this morning at 5:38 am!!! I played dead in bed and got to sleep in. They left the house at 7am in search of new parks. The weather is finally warm enough to be outside....even though the next couple days are going to be rainy and cool. Greg loves driving around in search of new and different neighborhood parks. We live in an area of soooo many little parks. I swear every mile they is a cute little park tucked back in a neighborhood. He gets so excited when finds a real cool one. He called and said Presley has learned how to swing on the big girl swings all by herself. She is so tall for a 2 yo that she can do so many things because of it. She is as tall as some smaller 4 yo's. I should measure her and see what she is up to. I'm not sure if she will end up real tall or if she is just an early sprout'r. I am just 5'7" and Greg is 5'9" on a good day but closer to 5'8" I think. We both have some tall family members so one just never knows about genetics. We are off to a birthday party so I better get in gear....have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!

made it the first night

Well the 6 new fuzz butts made it their first night home. They seem to hold their own pretty good with the bigger ones but do get stepped on quite a bit. I told Greg to come home with a new big cardboard box from work today. They are in a 55 gallon tub but it does seem more cramped in there now with the 6 extra ones and the older bunch is just growing so fast. I think they will like a little more room. I also want to put in some branches so they can roost on them. I have one in there but it keeps falling down and I don't want the new guys to get crushed under it so I will try to secure it better in the new brooder box. The older bunch is getting much more used to my hand. I have been feeding them oatmeal out of my hand and now when I stick my hand in there they all come running like oh yeah mommy has treats let's go see. There is nothing cuter than chicks peeking your hand and their lil feet crawling all over you!!! I am just in heaven over here with my chicks. Last night Greg worked on the coop till almost 11pm again. He got all the insulation in and the interior walls up and 2 roosts mounted. So today I need to pick up some paintable caulk and caulk all the seams and paint the interior walls. He is putting the can lights in tonight and finish the ceiling....I guess I should wait till he gets that done and paint after. Then the only thing left is the back wall where the door is going to be then the coop is done and we can work on the run. He is such a great guy working on this for me. He did score with a new power tool that he "had" to have to work on this coop so he came out ahead as well. Tomorrow we have Jaxon's 2nd bday party so presley is so excited for the birthday cake. Hopefully the cake is hidden for the first half of the party or else she will be standing right at it trying to steal swipes of frosting!! 

I have been informed

I posted picks of the chicks I thought might be easter eggers and I was told they are silver seabrights so i looked them up and man they are very pretty!! Here is a pic of one of them I really hope one of the 3 is a hen!!! Everday is like christmas right now waiting to see what they all are going to look like the next day!!!  I know I am weird

ok no more chickens!!!

I went to Tractor supply and came home with 6 more baby chicks!!!! I have a sickness. Ok that is it I'm done. I can only have 4 chickens where I live and now I have 18 chicks!!! Granted at least half if not more will be roos so they have to go bye-bye right away when we figure them out. I will craigslist the roos. Then say that leaves about 7 that might be hens and of those I will pick the sweetest and prettiest of the bunch and craigslist the rest.  We still might have one or 2 that might not live cuz chick mortality rate is fairly high sometimes. I am not positive what I picked out but I think 3 are d'uccle and 2 of those might be a porcelain color which would be very pretty and the other 3 I think might be easter eggers?? if so they lay blue/green eggs and I really wanted one of those so we will see.  All six are lighter in color and that's why I picked them because the ones I have now many are darker in color so I wanted a nice variety. In about 5 weeks i should know who is who and what i will be keeping and then figure out names. Greg I think is so done with me!!! He refers to me as the CCL meaning the crazy chicken Lady. I mean really what are a few more chicks??? When everything is said and done I will end up with 4 beautiful hens and sell the rest and break even and I got to enjoy watching them grow up. Everyone seems to be getting along well so that is good. There is just about 7 -8days between the new and old ones but they are so tiny. It really is crazy how fast they grow and change. Every morning I look at them they are getting new feathers and grew like weeds over night!!! I have found a new love I think I might have to move onto a chicken farm!!!!

1 week old

one day old

one week old

wow that week flew right by!!!! My chicks are now a week old and they have grown so much. They are getting their wing feathers and a few tail feathers. All of them are going really well. I keep hoping that they will all make it which I think they should they didn't have much stress coming here like some that are shipped do. I found a lady about 1 and 1/2 hours away that raises call ducks and I think I am going to get 3-4 ducklings next week from her. They will keep our pond clean from all the string algae that grows on it. Greg  doesn't know about my ducklings yet so I better say something verses just come home with them. I have mentioned getting some ducks and he wasn't too keen on it but I think if I use the keep the pond cleaner aspect he will be on board.

Happy Easter

It was a beautiful day for a Easter egg hunt. We had family at our house to celebrate the day. I had the typical ham dinner with all the fixin's....nothing special but it turned out good. I just wanted it to be mellow and not get too worked up over the preparations. Presley spent the whole day all jacked up on sugar and chocolate. She was just crawling out of her skin cuz she was so wired.  She was stuffing so much candy in her mouth she couldn't chew it and spit it all out in grandma's hand! I figure it is one holiday that is all about the candy so let her at it. That is what I remember about being a child was stuffing myself all day on Easter with candy. Grandma Dorothy loved getting us baskets full of all kinds of candy. My favorite was the big huge chocolate bunnies.  They would take a few days to eat the whole thing but I never let any candy go to waste. We hid her basket behind the couch and got video of her finding it and she was so excited. I love these moments in time!!!! I did buy her a big chocolate bunny too

looking good

we got a couple days to work on the coop and it is getting closer to being done. The exterior is just about done we need to work on the back wall. The interior still needs a lot of work but I wanted to get the wood painted and protected from rain that is due in a day or so. I got my barn red color!!! Greg wasn't too keen on the color he wanted a nice neutral tan but chickens  love the color red so I want them to be the happiest chicks in town. I think just a few more full days and the coop should be done.

going out on a limb

I am just driving myself crazy trying to speculate what are going to be hens or roosters. The average is a 50-50 chance so if that is the case 6 out of 12 will be hens. I will just laugh it only 2 turn out to be hens. Oh well I'll just have to sell the roos and buy more chicks....I have a pretty good idea that the 2 bigger black silkies are roos. They always coming running at my hand when I stick it in the brooder and they are big bullies always pecking at everyone. They are also much bigger than the other 2 silkies that were hatched the same time. They just have the 'tude that roosters are known for. It will be interesting to find out in a couple months. So on that bit of info I have went out on a limb and have named one of the 12 chicks. I am pretty sure she is going to turn out a hen...just a little" Sheila" intuition and I am usually pretty good but not all the time. So the chick I named and hopefully is a hen is Pearl the only white chick and she is a silkie. She is tiny and just so sweet and mellow. She loves falling asleep in my hand and just passes out on her back all cozy in my palm with her lil' chicken legs hanging. Everyone is doing well and I hope we make it thru without any casualties. They are probably sick of me holding them but that is one way to make them use to being handled. 

they made it thru the night

one of the brahmas

the cochin?

white silkie

one mille fluer

the one polish

the other cochin

group hug

I picked up my 12 lil fuzz butts yesterday afternoon and drove as fast as I could home to get them in their warm brooder. I had the heat in the car blaring and at one point I looked back at Presley in her seat and her face was bright red and she said momma hot. I said the chicks need to be warm. They are so very cute. I sat as much as I could last night just watching them do their "chicken thing" poopin', peepin', peckin', posin'. I have 12 of them and 4 are silkies ....3 black one white. I am pretty sure 2 black are roos. They are fairly bigger than the other 2 and are such bullies! They have no fear and when I put my hand in there they come running to check it out. The one black little one sleeps a lot and isn't as active so not sure it she will make it? I will be so sad to find a dead one but I know it is very common to lose a couple when they are so young. One good thing is they didn't have the stress of being mailed. I have 2 mille fleur and they are so tiny and I can't wait to see them feather out their coloring is just beautiful. I hope they are both pullets. I also have 2 brahmas I think one might be a light and one a buff. then 2 cochins I think but not sure if they are silver laced or Well not? They are so pretty with their coloring right now.  And last but not least are 2 golden laced polish which are my fave looking ones. I am so excited to see their feathers and praying they are both female but they are both more aggressive but it could be their breed? Now that they are here Greg stayed up till after 11 working on the coop. I think the pressure is on knowing in about 3-4 weeks they will be big enough to be in their coop. Well we all know what I will be doing today....sitting in front of the brooder watching the babies. Presley likes them a lot too but is a little scared of their feet.

not much coop progress

Well yet again mother nature strikes (last night)and therefore we didn't get much time to work on the coop this weekend! Greg did get the nesting boxes built in the garage and mounted them last night. I am not sure if we will get time to work on more today? The sun is coming out so this snow should melt real quick and maybe we can do some more work? I am so anxious to see if I'll be getting my chicks tomorrow? I have a feeling the breeder is going to not have any for me. I know tractor supply is getting some in this week either monday or tuesday so I have been calling just about everyday. They are only getting in 50 assorted bantams and I am nervous they will sell quickly so I want to get there right away for good pickins if my breeder man can't deliver. Greg and Presley left early this morning to my mom's house to get her a new TV and set it up so I got to sleep till 9:45am rolled out of bed to a quiet peaceful house made some coffee and just chillin' on the 4 season porch surfing the web. AWWWW so nice! I couldn't ask for a better way to end my hectic week. All I need to do today is clean a little more a couple loads of laundry and grocery shoppin'. I did all my homework last night so that is out of the way. I had 2 big writing assignments and they took forever!!! I hate writing I have the worst grammar. Oh well my instructor doesn't really care he is quite laid back. Greg worked on the pond Friday night he power washed it and filled it up and now we have the sweet sounds of the waterfalls. We have to wait a week or 2 before the koi can go back into it. It takes awhile for all the chlorine to neutralize out of the water. We could treat it and put them in sooner but i am not a fan of chemicals and avoid them at all cost. All the koi except one made it thru the winter in the holding tank. Of course the biggest one is the one that died. She was about 4-5 years old and our neighbor gave us her in the fall because she was too big for her pond. It was so sad!!! I thin we have about a dozen koi but I think we are housing some for the neighbor? I think 7 or so big koi is about all we need. We hope they will breed but i think they need to be about 4 years or age before they are ready and we always seem to kill them off before then. Hope to have better luck this year.

SO MAD!!!!

Presley is so on my shit list right now!!! Little gadget girl stuck something in my sewing machine so the embroidery part won't work now!!! That girl has to touch every button to everything she sees. I can still use the machine I just can't do any embroidery work for now. I guess I'll have to call and see how much it is going to cost to fix it and hopefully it is in deed fixable. She has been fighting naps all week too. She usually falls asleep but it is a struggle. I think she is missing her nuk but she hasn't asked for it but I know she is having a harder time falling asleep without it. After finding my machine today I just couldn't even look at her I was so mad so I went to the club and put her in daycare and I sat and did some homework...I should have got my fat butt on a machine but I really need to finish my essays for class on monday. Greg is working today so it is just her and Me. I have been cleaning all morning getting ready for company for the week. I called my chicken man last night to see if he had any ducks available and he doesn't until closer to summer and he asked if I was able to wait until april 20th for my chicks? He has many people waiting and now I might not get my chicks on monday and that isn't helping my mood!!!! So if he doesn't have any for me I might have to see what Tractor supply company is getting this week and maybe just get some thru them. They probably won't be what I want but at this point I just don't care I am ready for whatever hatches and next year I can always get something different. It will be cheaper cuz I think TSC charges 2.50 for the bantams and his chicks are 6 bucks so I gotta look at the bright side right??? Also southern Mn has a blizzard warning for tonight and tomorrow and he lives an hour south from me so the roads might be bad too. UGGG Presley is in there whining and knocking on the door I so need a stiff drink right now....calgon take me away it has been a stressful day and it is barely 2pm. Ok enough complaining I better go do something to take my mind off being so crabby.

about time

Oh man it is finally friday!!! I don't know why but this was such a looooonggg week. Yesterday was great. We went to the children's museum with sam and the boys. The bad news was Presley fell asleep on the car ride home which she never does and I knew we would be in trouble when we got home. Once we pulled into the garage she woke up and of course wouldn't take a nap after that so I didn't get any time to clean up or rest. Then I had Sam for my only client and after that we went out shopping together and out to my fave mexican joint! I had a jumbo margarita and it was so yummy. Sam has a smart car so it was fun to ride around in it. I have thought about getting one for our second car. It is so funny how many people look at you when you're in there. She has the convertible and man it is a cute lil' car. Right now we have been fine with one car cuz Greg has a work van but there has been times when he takes Presley in the car and I am stuck at home without a car. I think we could make it work a couple more years and then when Presley is going to more activities we will need another car for the person not driving her around. The smart car would be perfect. There will be more of them at that point and real inexpensive for a used one. Greg informed me last night that he has a work guy from out of town that is going to stay with us for the week and I will be taking care of the 11 y.o. girl for the week!!! Yeah he sprung it on me last night. I guess it will be ok Presley will have someone to help entertain her but now I am going to spend the whole weekend cleaning for the company. I'll have to figure out food for the week for everyone too. It will be interesting??? I will have to figure out what a 11 y.o. girl likes to do?? Depends on the weather too which I think it is still going to be cool next week. We could probably hit the mall of america since they are from out of town and I am sure she hasn't been there. Maybe do the MN zoo one day too since we just got a membership there. Or the como zoo is free but they won't have many animals out yet but the gardens inside are wonderful and they have a few inside things to see. I also am hosting Easter so I need to figure out what to serve and get a bunch of plastic eggs and fill with candy for the big egg hunt. I pray it is nice outside!!!! 

Not an April fool's joke

This is what We woke up to today...yeah yeah it is pretty but not for the first day of April. I went out and tried to take some pics for class that need to be high key but not sure if this is going to cut it??? I think I need to see some more examples of high key. So I called my chicken breeder to check on monday and he said they usually call about 7am and tell me what hatches. The breeds I want aren't hatching well this year he said due to our nasty cold weather i guess so not sure if I will get exactly what I want. I gave him some backup breeds that I would take if he couldn't fill my order with what I want. Pickup time is from 2-10pm so I guess Presley will be taking her nap in the car ride down there, it is about an hour. I have class monday night so I have to go first thing. I so want to skip class but we are having another test so I better go! I'll have to make sure my assignments are done by sunday night. So on an american idol note I think the bottom 3 will be anoop, megan, matt, with anoop going home??? My fave last night was Chris I love "ain't no sunshine" it is one of my faves. I am a huge adam fan but didn't dig his performance last night. We should really get out of the house today Presley is driving me bonkers but now it is getting too close to naptime. I'm letting her trash the porch with playdoh I really don't care right now I'll deal with cleanup later I just need a break. Tomorrow night I get to go out and enjoy some grownup time with my GF Sam. I am in dire need of a furlough!!!! I can't remember the last time I got out by myself (other than school) to have a fun night???