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Family: We’ve have been getting used to our new arrangement of taking and picking up my friend’s little girl from school. It is actually working out well and little man is smitten with her…the feeling is mutual at her end too. I have been working at losing some weight and inches to help with my hernia. I had to raise my headboard 4 inches and take a muscle relaxer at night, but am feeling much better. Sunday dadabean’s mom is coming to take little man back to Alabama for a 1-2 week visit. As little man has never been away from us more than a couple days we are at loss as to how to deal with this. I am sure he will have a blast and the grandparents are excited, but we are anxious at this end. We have not told little man…he would worry us to death about it, so he will be pleasantly surprised when she pulls in the driveway. We are enjoying our little car and so far are sharing it quite well with each other. I can make a whole tank of gas last a month, since I don’t really go that many places.
Bicycles: Saturday we are going to take some of the forest roads on the bicycles. I have been itching to do some riding and if we can take it easy it won’t bother me much. Little man is now able to push off by himself on his bike, so hubby is planning to take him to some trails when he gets back from his visit to grandparents. We are trying to teach the little girl how to ride without training wheels, unfortunately it has been raining so we have only gotten one day at it, but she was doing rather well and enjoying it.
Chickens: Salt, a golden neck polish, game mix has taken Dipsticks place in the rooster we keep. Salt has a better disposition and doesn’t mind being handled. Dipstick is also getting a little too rough with the hens and pullets. Pepsi has hatched out 3 babies, Neva (who is a George baby), Sara, and Stinker (who is a Zanzibar baby). We are excited because we have been wanting a Zanzy baby for a while now. As Sara gets older we will be able to tell who she is from. Neva came from a big egg and is the color George was as a baby. Stinker has five toes like Zanzy.
Knitting: I have completed one of hubby’s socks and am halfway through the cuff on the second. I am using double pointed needles and am getting quite a good handle at them. I will be doing a lot of knitting with little man gone, so I should be able to finish the sock and hubby’s hoodie that I put down in frustration. With exercising more, I am more tired and weak, so I haven’t been able to do much knitting. I am getting more energy, so I will probably be able to actually do some today.
Well that is all for now, hope everyone is doing well.
Alot has changed with us lately. We finally sold the scooter and bought a car. I know, I know, we were supposed-to be a car-free family. That would’ve been a much easier option living in a larger town or city, but we actually have to travel a distance for some of the things we want, and a scooter won’t carry three of us at the same time. That has always caused some problems with us as far as getting Tal watched by someone, or one of us staying home with him. Also, we are watching a friend’s daughter before and after school, so we need to be able to drop her off and pick her up. We bought a silver 2001 Toyota Echo, 2-door, manual shift. It gets excellent fuel mileage, probably low 40’s, and has been taken good care of. It was owned by the maintenance chief at my shop.
Funny thing about us getting sick and not being able to ride, and then purchasing an automobile: suddenly, there are people riding bicycles and using them for shopping and errands in our town! I have seen several commuter-specific bicycles, plus the obligatory mountain bikes, some with trailers. I even saw a classic three-speed one day. An older lady was riding it on a small road outside a neighborhood development, at somewhere between a leisure and fitness-level pace.
We all got sick with stomach problems, throwing a wrench in our riding plans and abilities. Cyclingchicken wants to get back on hers, but is trying to work out the details on how to go about it because she found out she has a hiatal hernia. I have only been riding back and forth to work lately, a distance of maybe 200 yards round-trip.
Ruckus, our free-ranging rooster, is doing fine, but we have had predators take his hens several times. I built a new house for him, up off the ground and fortified with fine mesh wire. I think that will help. Now that there have been predator problems, he is able to convince his one hen, Fuar, to go to bed earlier than dark. I want another hen for him, preferably a game hen.
I have been butchering young roosters lately, two at a time, to reduce the number of chickens we have to feed. We have a pretty good idea which two roosters we want to keep, so whenever one we don’t want to keep begins crowing or fighting too much, I take care of them. I don’t like the taste and texture of rooster meat, so we have been cooking them and giving them to the cats. That reduces our cat food costs.
Dipstick, a Cubalaya/Golden Phoenix mix is top candidate for being kept. So far, he has a calm demeanor, isn’t concerned with Tal, and helps Benelli by doing a head-count before bedtime. Pepper is a young Old English bantam cockerel, white with black flecks. He is very good about being held, loves to eat scratch or chick starter out of a cup, and is beginning to crow. He has that cute almost-strangled crow going-0n. We have room for only 4 roo’s in our yard, so if those two survive, they will join Benelli, our Millifluer Duccle’, and Blue Man, our Blue Bantam Cochin.
We are also watching our friend’s 11 year old Dachsund, Buddy, during the week, and he goes back on the weekends. He neither eats or drinks while our friend is away at work, and does nothing but sleep. Coming over to our house, where someone is home all the time has given Buddy some pep, plus we are feeding him some Wellness puppy food to put some weight on him. He has dry skin problems, and I am hoping they will clear- up with some attention, brushing, and good food. We’ll see.
Summer is starting to wind-down. It’s starting to get cool in the morning and evening, so we can spend more time outside with the chickies, kitties, and walking Buddy. School just started back. I am looking forward to the fall…
Hi, it’s me. I kinda’ have a problem with a blog having writing and no pictures, so I have been staying away. Wifey updates from time-to-time. Perhaps, when we get a new cellphone, we can get a camera phone and start uploading to the blog again. Wifey is visiting a friend today, helping her pull-up carpet, so I am on the friend’s computer. I have today off.
I think I mentioned before that I run a tractor mowing roadsides for our county. Well, they bought me a new tractor and mower, then hired another worker to operate the old tractor. Now, I am able to get alot more done. With the amount of rain we have recieved this season, I am not able to keep-up with the grass growth by myself. The new tractor is sooo nice! Smooth, powerful, and electronic shifting, what would be called paddleshift on a car. I can use the clutch pedal if I want, but I only use it to start the engine anymore. After so many stressful, aggravating, low-paying jobs since I left the Coast Guard, it’s nice to be spoiled and drive in an air-conditioned cab all day, not being bothered by anybody. I have much to be thankful to God for!
The week off from riding that Wifey mentioned was actually a month, and I really got lazy! I walked back and forth to work, but rode the scooter everywhere else. Now, riding farther than a mile is difficult, especially in this heat and humidity. We are supposed to spend the 4th with Wifey’s friend, so I have asked her if we can ride over. Normally, her friend picks us up. It’s about 4 miles away. I am also working on a ride of moderate length for Sunday. The new Schwalbe Marathon tyre is very nice, smoother than the Cheng Shin that was on there. Even though it has an aramid belt, I added the tyre liner from the other tyre for extra insurance. The Schwalbe tube is much thicker and feels more quality made than the Chinese ones I have dealth with lately. Why is it that only Schwalbe makes a kevlar-belted tyre to fit rod-brake roadsters and dutch bikes? I have e-mailed other companies to ask such a question, with no answer.
Wifey pretty-much covered things with the chickies, except that we have several free-rangers in the back yard now. Someone at work gave me a fighting-bred rooster because it crowed too much. He looked like he was going to kill Blue Man and Benelli, so we put the new rooster, named Ruckus, out in the back yard. We gave him two females, Nutmeg and Toffee, to keep him busy. The fellow settled right down to protecting and leading around his two buff orpington wives and looks to be a really good, mostly quiet rooster. We put up some fence on the side of the house so our new “tick patrol” can’t get into the front yard. Tal can go out and play with no problem. In fact, Ruckus actually keeps an eye on Tal to make sure he’s safe. We have a dog carrier that the free-rangers go into at night for safety. They wait on top of the carrier in the evening for us to come tuck them in. To start with, they left their eggs where we could find them, but now hide them back in the woods. Nutmeg has come-up missing, so we are pretty-sure she is sitting on eggs. However, just-in-case, we put out a phoenix female, Goose, to replace her for the time being. If Nutmeg comes out of the bush with little ones in tow, I will probably catch her and chicks to put in a brooder for awhile, anyway.
Other than that, we have a blue Duccle’ rooster named Orion, given to us because he has a crooked lower beak. He has a hard time eating normally, so we sometimes help him by taking him inside and putting him in the feed sack until his crop is full. Orion is quickly becoming spoiled and very tame! He is as tall as a soda can, and if he is still growing, it’s very slow.
Well, I guess that’s all for now.
Ok I have now switched to riding to the library in the evenings now, so that I can leave little man at home with daddy. Which means I have only 2 days that I can come, Tuesday and Thursday. The heat index is reaching to around 110 and up, so it is best he stays home. The heat wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t so blessed humid, but one good thing about the heat is I burn more calories while riding.
Chickens: We have had some hawks hanging around our house since they discovered they could pick off the neighbor’s chickens (got two of her babies ’til she figured it out). Hubby and I have to remember to bring the pellet guns out when we give the chickies their scratch. The hawks tend to come for a small time in the morning and in the evening. Luckily, we haven’t loss any of our chickens to them. We now have over 70 chickens…you would think we would get this addiction under control…. 
Most of those will be butchered due to the fact they are baby roosters. We have had a lot of babies given to us as well as a few of our own being hatched out. George (who’s baby Buffy ate) is now the proud mama of 3 silkie mixes our neighbor gave us to hatch. Dandy (who decided she didn’t like hubby’s tone of voice and flew at him) has a beautiful grey baby. We believe the baby is a blue cochin. Little man lost another tooth (3 so far) and got another chick and recieved a free one from the lady at the store when she heard about our tradition.
Bicycles: Despite the heat I have picked up my riding. I have been slacking and am noticing the effects of being a bum. Hubby got a Schwalbe tire for his bike. He had been out of commission for over a week due to a flat tire. Little man got his new bike for his birthday and loves riding it when he can. He is a little short and needs help starting off, but once he is let loose he does wonderfully. His bike can go on dirt trails, so hubby is going to attach the trailer to his bike and strap little man’s bike to it and take him on some trails.
Knitting: I gotten to the edging part of hubby’s hood and have taken a break. It is giving me fits, plus I need to work on some Christmas gifts. I can’t believe it is already the middle of June. I still have to order more stuff for other gifts. Fingers cross that I get everything done.
If all goes well I will be able to come and devote an hour to the blog. But for now, time to go battle the heat.
You would think by not spending time on the computer- except at the library- that I would have hours of free time. Not happening. I have been on the go all this week…visiting the library twice. So here is the run down at our place.
Bicycles-Hubby got a flat on our way to Wal-Mart during the weekend. He turned around and then used the scoot to finish shopping with us. It turns out that the slime patch didn’t do its job. This got us talking about alternatives to flat tires and has us seriously considering foam inserts. We found a place online that has our size and we can get them in a lot of different colors. The down side is that the minimum order is $200 dollars which equals 20 tires. Still in the decision process…Ups is that we would have spares when the tire eventually wore out, I could have green tires to match all my frog stuff-he would choose red, and it would mean no more flats. Downs is that is a lot of money to save up and where do you put 16 extra tires?
Chickens-Girls are still sitting tight on the eggs. I get to candle them tonight. We ran out of our natural de-wormer, so we had to give the chickens some that we had bought. This meant we couldn’t eat the eggs for a week and I left the eggs for a couple of days. It enticed a couple more hens to go broody, but we broke them up do to the fact we have no way to protect them out in the open. Great thing is that today we can start collecting the eggs again. I ordered the natural de-wormer again and we should be getting it soon. The baby chicks are growing so fast and Snowflake has become such as sweetie sitting on our laps. She is becoming long and lanky and we think she might be a modern. I told hubby that if she is we are renaming her Thoroughly Modern Millie. He laughed. We went out the other evening and didn’t get back until dark. To our pleasant surprise the last of the babies finally put themselves to bed. Yeah.
Knitting-I am about half-way through the front side. With all my running (I should say riding) around I haven’t had much time to knit. Although, I did take some time yesterday to work on it. I am printing out the pattern since I can no longer just look it up. I will also be printing out some other patterns that I will start on when I am finished.
Kittens-Are growing like little weeds and can walk around pretty well now. They come and attack feet when we come in the storeroom. Coon is long-haired and has wide feet. We are going to fix and keep everyone. I am looking into options, but it looks like it will be one a month, starting with mama. It won’t be much longer and they will be eating kitten food.
Well my time is running out…more next week.
cyclingchicken
dadabean