i am back for another exciting post.

i finished up a bunch of books. kelley armstrong, patricia briggs and a bunch of short stories (trying to find some new authors to try). loved all of the books. they kept me from being able to post, or clean, or cook, or well, pretty much anything.

the kids spent the weekend with my dad and stepmom. they had a blast, and came home all the richer. they spent most of the weekend getting the yard ready to open the pool. i guess grace was such a pain that they actually paid her to sleep. seriously, i think that should tell her she has a problem with whining. will she take the hint? i doubt it.

hubby had to work on sat, and went golfing with buddies on sunday...and had tball practice. so he was wiped out.

we lost 2 chickens over the weekend. josh's rooster and one of the polish crested hens. no major loss there, the rooster was starting to get mean, and the hen only laid a couple times a week...but i would like to know what happened to them. there were feathers in the yard but no sign of what took them. ah, well, like i said, no major loss. we have a bunch in the basement ready to go out, and more on the way in june.

the pigs are doing well. well enough i guess. they a tearing up the pen like nobody's business. and they really aren't getting that friendly. haley needs to work with them a lot more.

that's pretty much it for us right now. i'll try to remember to post more. but honestly, my life has been pretty boring as of late, and i don't have much to say.

we have pigs now. 2 to be exact. i'm not exactly excited about having 2 instead of just one, but the lady we bought them from wouldn't sell just one. she didn't want them to get depressed. i don't think that bebe was depressed last year, but i can kind of see her point. her pigs were so friendly. i hope they do well here.

the lady we got bebe from last year, she was in the paper over the weekend. i guess she's been indicted for embezzlement. nice huh? she had her assets frozen or seized.

i've been really busy lately. doing what? well, mostly reading.

i think the new chicks will be here this week. we have been getting 2 or 3 eggs a day now. mostly green, but we also have been getting brown, and 1 white egg so far. the kids have been so happy to go out and take care of the chickens now. i don't even have to threaten them anymore. we'll see how long that lasts!

josh is coughing a bunch again. i think it's the weather. poor kid.

not much else to tell right now. if i can think of something exciting or worthwhile, i'll be back!

hey all! i have been a holy terror lately. i blame it on my addiction to reading. no, i do have a problem. i am addressing it. i figure that i only have 3 more books to read in the series and i should be good for a while...well not really, but i'm thinking it anyway.

i have been trying to de-stress. watching the chickens in my yard is a lot like watching fish in a fish-tank. it can be quite relaxing. and entertaining. actually the chickens are much more entertaining than the fish...unless you have piranhas or something. maybe the chickens are more like the turtles in the tank than the fish. they look so cute and sweet...then BAM!! crazy psycho killers!

yes, i do find that entertaining.

i can't wait to see these guys in action in the spring and summer. i wonder if i will actually see them eat stuff like mice and lizards. if i can teach them to get moles...that would be so cool. and profitable. i could start my own "mole removal" business. and it would be totally green! how cool would that be!

i am sitting here watching "space buddies" with the kids. they like it. me, not so much. well, it's a kid movie for sure. talking dogs are not normally my thing.

josh is turning 5 tomorrow. he's so excited. i am too...i guess. this year, out of my 5 kids, i will have one that is 13, one that's 10, and one that's 5. those are some pretty big years to me. alex is going to be a teenager, haley's in double digits, and josh is going to start school. then there's grace and zack.

i am anxiously awaiting the arrival of the next book. sad, i know. it should be here today, or tomorrow, or the next day. i sure hope it's today. that way i can read it and be all happy and ready to celebrate josh's 5th. otherwise i may end up being crazy mom, jonesing for my next fix.

i know, i know. i need help.

as i sit here finishing up my lunch (a ham, bacon, cheddar cheese and cream cheese wrap...affectionately known as heart attack on a flour tortilla), i was thinking about all the things i have done lately, and all the things that are coming up.

this weekend was spent traveling to a town about 45 minutes away. every. single. day. on friday, haley had a tournament game there at 7. her coach picked her up and drove her there because there was no way i would be there early enough for her to warm up. they won that game. the coach's daughter spent the night with us, and then haley spent the afternoon with them while i went to alex's game, then they met me there. then alex and haley both had regular season games in the same town. so saturday was spent there. alex's game was a mess. the boys weren't playing their best, but the officiating was horrendous. we had boys getting smacked and elbowed in the face, in front of refs and parents, and no calls made. even the parents from the other team were upset at it. no one wants to win that way because when you don't call a fair game, it makes your team look weak. so they lost. haley's team won by more than 10 points. they played a really tough team on sunday (second tournament game). this game, we knew, was going to be tough. they are a very talented bunch of girls. one girl in particular was a monster. she's fast and aggressive...but fouled out because she let her emotions get the best of her and didn't keep herself in check. we won that game by more than i thought. hubby's cousin's little girl was on the other team, so we sat with them during the game. talk about awkward! but we cheered for both kids, and had a good time talking about how the families are. this was the first game we were held to 3 pts in the first half...and they only had 2. i think it ended up being 16 to 4 (most of our points were scored after that girl fouled out or because of her fouls). haley had 4 points in that game, and 12 on saturday. she is at least 2 or 3 inches taller than most of the other kids. her games had different refs than alex's. i don't know why they would put adults out to ref 4th grade girls and kids to ref 6th grade boys, but oh well.

we celebrated my girls birthdays and my sister's 29th birthday. haley's birthday is this thursday. it's hard to believe she's going to be 10. it's even harder to believe that 10 is also her shoe size! YIKES! i sure hope that means she's going to be tall, and not some clown footed freak. oh, i kid! so i will have a post on her coming soon.


my boys spent all weekend at my dad's house. it was much easier than dragging them to games all weekend. and we were going there anyway on sunday. haley spent the night there on sat and sun nights. grace went to a birthday slumber party on saturday night, and then had 2 of my nieces spend the night sunday night.

i got rid of 4 roosters on monday. thank you craigslist! a guy sent his son to pick them up and we are now down to 11 chickens...and 2 too many roosters. though i can't convince josh or haley of it. i asked josh if he would take money for his rooster, and his eyes started welling up...and i was all "bud, i'm just asking, i'm not going to make you!" oh and we now have a cute little black and white girl kitty.


our 8th graders from school are in washington d.c. this week for the annual pro-life trip. what a bad week for that. it has got to be crazy up there right now...not to mention not exactly pro-life friendly. and 4 years from now, it will be my haley going to d.c. hubby and i already had a talk. neither of us has been there yet, so we are taking turns. i can't wait for alex's teacher to get back (she went with her daughter) so we can all hear about the trip. i guess that would be the deciding factor of whether or not i would want to go with haley...or send hubby instead.

well, i am off to take care of my waking babies!

well, we are down to 15 chickens. i gave away the big white ameraucana rooster. the lady that took him asked me if i was sure...he was beautiful and she was planning on showing him...uh, yeah...he tried to spur my 12 year old in the face...can't have a bird that's like that. i have too many little kids around to have that kind of aggressive bird around. she is our project leader in poultry. she said we may find that we have problems with whoever steps up to the top of the pecking order. she also recommended that i "get rid" of all but one rooster. that means the 5 of the 6 roosters we have left. well, haley wasn't too happy...and josh cried for about 20 minutes...until i told them that i wouldn't "get rid" of their roosters...yet. haley's rooster she has eating out of her hand...but he pecks everyone's hands when he comes close to you now. he's a nice looking rhode island red (well except that his comb isn't perfect), so if you know anyone that would like a nice rooster...let me know. josh's is a beautiful ameraucana rooster. but he's not a solid color so he can't be shown. he's a beautiful white with black splashes. he's actually pretty nice too. i mean if my 4 year old can pick him up and hold him in his lap and pet him? he's got to be pretty good. as for the other roosters? they are all polish crested. not much meat to them. i'm not sure what to do with them. i would like some whole chickens for cooking, but i don't know if they would be worth it. haley's and josh's would be, but i don't know that i can do that to them right now.

i had the kids put the chickens out the other day. it was really pretty out and i thought they would like getting out. they did. of course the kids were all gone and i looked up and saw it was dark...and the chickens were still out. so i got my coat, grabbed a bucket of feed, and went out to bring in the chickens. they were all huddled in the corner..but i heard a rustle in the opposite corner. so i went over to make sure it wasn't one of the darker ones hiding in the dark corner...nope, it wasn't. then i saw movement at the top of the pen...it was an opossum. well, it took me a couple of seconds to react, well, correctly. at first i was going to grab it by it's tail and look at it a little closer (not a smart move). i stopped myself, held the bucket in both my hands and hit that little sucker as hard as i could off the top of the pen (without spilling the food).

*question: do opossums eat chickens? i mean like pretty much full grown chickens? i could see them getting some chicks, but they are more scavengers than hunters (i think). *

it was pretty funny though. i told my hubby about it and he gave me a hard time about it. "what if it was a mom with babies in her pouch?" "maybe you should go look and see if you knocked any out when you hit her". no no, dear reader, he isn't really worried about that little creature. he just knows that they are one of my favorite animals, and was surprised i was so protective of the chickens i guess. or he just likes giving me a hard time. yeah, i think that's more like it.

now we are ordering more chicks from http://www.ideal-poultry.com/ (thanks jayedee). we are getting some quail belgian d'anver bantams, and some buckeyes. please don't tell the hubby! he's wasn't too happy when i said something about getting some different ones. so i figure when they get here in march, he should have forgotten by then.

good pic of the bantams here http://www.waidinmiki.com/Ryan/Ryan.html

good pic of the buckeyes here http://www.mypetchicken.com/images/product_images/Large/buckeye-bc.jpg

now i'm not a huge fan of the buckeyes. they don't look very cool to me. i really tried to talk him into getting some black australorps. they are really pretty with shiny black feathers. http://www.mypetchicken.com/images/ChickenPix/medium/FRE_AstlrpCk_1_M.jpg
but he's raising them, so i'm trying to let him choose. i tried to talk him into the japanese bantams too. http://www.freewebs.com/professorchickensbreeds/japwheatenpair.jpg. well, i hope he does well with them.

i have to go. zack is going to the doctor today. he's been running a fever since friday, with a cough and runny nose...oh and throwing up a couple of times too. saturday night his fever was 104.6...and it only went down to 104.2 an hour after his dose of motrin. i had to put him in the tub to get it down. talk about freaking me out. i hate it when they get sick! especially when we haven't gotten the new insurance card yet. we have insurance, they just haven't sent our card to us yet.

well, i took my hubby to meet up with 4 other guys going to chicago for training this morning. he won't be back until thursday evening. i now find myself extremely crabby. i didn't think it would bother me so much. not that i thought i wouldn't miss him, but i figured it would take me a little longer than the car ride to take him over there.

i finished up making the dough for the peanut butter blossoms. they are a peanut butter cookie that you bake as a ball and when you take them out of the oven, you push a hershey's kiss in the middle. very yummy. we've made these cookies all my life. (if you want the recipe, leave a comment and i'll post it) they are fantastically peanut-buttery. and there is nothing better than one about 5 minutes after they are out of the oven. the chocolate is still melty and the cookie is still warm...........yummmm!

the roosters are starting to crow. when we were leaving to take hubby to the meet-up, you could hear them. it's not the "cockle-doodle-doo" you would expect. it's more like a baby trying to talk. some of it you recognize...but not all of it. they are huge too. we have at least one that rooster that is not going to be shown. he has messed up toes (they bend all funny) and he has a pretty bad cross bite. i think it's a rooster...maybe it's a hen. it's hard to tell because it's a bearded polish crested chicken. i guess i should try to figure that out. to show hens at the fair, you have to have a matching pair, and other than haley's rhode island reds, i don't think we have a matching pair. the poultry superintendents have decided to order chicks from http://www.ideal-poultry.com/ this year. i think we may have to order some more...hubby will be so pleased. he may end up travelling more if i bring home more animals!

i still have some presents to buy. i have to take the little guys out to buy presents for grace and alex. i think that i still have to buy one for grace too. i think i'm just going to give some money to the rest of the nieces and nephews. i think that's all we have left to get. i hope that's all i have left to get! i am so done with shopping.

so far so good! the hubby still is likin' the new job. i mean, if the man can get out of bed and be at work by 6:30 in the morning (this includes a 45 minute commute), well he must REALLY like the new job. that or he's living off a "new job" high. probably the latter. this week he's working 6 days...at 10 hours a day he's making some good money.

sunday we went to visit my mom and grandparents...my two aunts...and my uncle and his little girl...and my sister and her husband and their 3 girls. we had a pretty good time. i love my family. they are a little off their rockers, but i love them anyway. my mom asked me if we were really thinking about getting a bulldog.
me: no. no dogs.
her: well i thought i heard you guys were looking and i thought i might get one for santa to give to the kids.
me: santa would be taking it back with him. i don't want another dog. it hasn't even been a year since we got rid of the last dog. no way.
her: well haley really misses having a dog.
me: she can have all the dogs she wants when she has her own house. i am tired of being the only one that takes care of it. i don't have time and i have too many little ones in my house. no way.
her: yeah i guess you guys are pretty busy.

i am glad we had this discussion when i wasn't PMSing. i might have been a little more ummm pissy(?). i don't want any more dogs. i am tired of neighbors complaining about dogs. i am tired of cleaning up after dogs. i am tired of petting dogs. i am tired of dogs. i have too many kids to deal with...that want and need my attention, i don't need a dog wanting and needing attention too.

that being said, tiger, our cat disappeared last week. i thought he went up to the in-laws, but they hadn't seen him either. no one has seen him. i am hoping someone found him, thought he was a sweet little stray and kept him. i am totally fine with that. he's a sweetheart. he wants lots of love and attention. i think he was getting tired of all the little guys' attention (perhaps being worn as a hat didn't suit him?) and he left for greener pastures. i hope that's the case. i think some of the local toms were giving him some trouble too. he was coming of age, and i guess they didn't want the competition. well, we still have smokey. he's got his little house on our front porch and he's loving life. he is a gorgeous gray with green eyes. he's smaller boned. i'm thinking about getting him fixed...but it seems that as soon as i put money into a cat they die...so i'm not so sure i want to do that. so far he's doing good. but i think he's a little lonely. maybe he needs another friend.

hubby would kill me if i bring home another cat.

still have 16 chickens. they have grown more, and i haven't noticed as much fighting. that may be because the crests are starting to cover their eyes more. i hope that the other roosters don't start picking on them. i need them looking good for the fair.

i found out i have 4 kids in my swine group. i am kind of nervous about having a meeting. i don't really know anything about pigs. add the fact that one of the kids has a dad that was a pig farmer...well, yeah, i'm a tad nervous.

so far, so good

well, the hubby starts his new job on monday. so he's been off all week (that's why i've been away).

he's been home...all...week. i love him, and i love when he's home for a few days...but really? a whole week?

anyway, his former boss told him he could come back anytime. that's always nice to hear. he also had a few other nice things to say. some of the guys he was working with showed up at the bonfire we had last weekend. they also had some really cool things to say. some guys he had worked with a long time ago also showed up...like from about 5 years ago. it's always nice to see some faces from the past.

anyway, the bonfire was a hit.

we moved the chickens outside finally. oh, did i not say anything about them living in the basement for the past month and a half? uh, well they are in the coop now. i also believe i have about 4 or 5 roosters...out of 16 chickens. they're already fighting some. i'm hoping when the crests are a little more poofy, well, that they won't fight as much. it's hard to fight someone you can't see.

well, i have to go get some sleep. the public school is out tomorrow, and my kids are out early. so that means there will be tons of kiddos running around at the "zoo". yeah, i really really really hope the day is nice! i don't want them hanging out in the house all day!!!

the new count

well, i went to orschlen's and bought 8 more chicks. 3 rhode island reds and 5 ameraucana chicks. then, on the way home, my oldest totally ratted me out to the hubby.

to say he was not pleased, well, that would be an understatement.

you see, his brother had offered to give haley a few chickens. these hens are close to a year old...or are a couple of years old. my brother in law doesn't believe in handling or interacting with the chickens. you go in, feed them, give them water, take their eggs, and that's about it. no handling unless you are getting them out to butcher. not exactly what she needs for trying to show. you have to be able to handle the birds. the judge needs to be able to handle the birds.

not to mention the unpleasantness that surrounded the last time we dealt with chickens and my brother in law. not something i want to experience again.

anyway, hubby was not pleased. he said, "the coop is only 8X8 and that's not big enough for that many chickens". um, excuse me? the plans said it was for 25 chickens. "there's only 4 laying boxes". um, so? why would that matter? brother in law only has 12 laying boxes and about 40 chickens. it works ok. they don't need their own private condos! all they are doing is laying an egg, and then leaving.

how do i make him understand that i had to get more chickens? the 8 i have right now, i have no idea if we have hens or roosters. they were straight run. for all i know, they are all roosters. and even if they aren't, they aren't the "production" type of chicken. they are more "ornamental". they will lay eggs, but they won't have the output of other breeds.

anyway, i'm excited.

rhode island reds look like this
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/48/Rhode_Island_Red_hen_on_street.jpg

ameraucanas look like this
http://www.fowlvisions.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/new-chicken2.jpg

oh, and i was told wrong about one of the polish ones. he's a black one with a white crest.
http://thai.wunderground.com/data/wximagenew/c/ComptonPhotographer/100.jpg

cool aren't they?

ahhahahahahahaha!!!!

i think i'm addicted. i'm off to buy more chicks. i'm not telling my hubby (he will want me to...well, none of your business) and i'm going to take the kids and pick up a few more.

i'm doing this for the kids you know. and well, we like eggs. and i have lots of rationalizations for you, but you don't really care, do you?

haley needs some laying hens...and i need some others to look cool and lay eggs. that's right. that's what i said.

so after my shower, i will head out to pick up some more chickens. i think haley will need 3 or 4...and i guess i can get by with 4 or 6. whatever. even numbers. i have 8, if i add 8 more, i'll have 16 chicks, if i add 12 more, i'll have 20. hmmmm, guess i'll update you when i get home on what i got and how many. and then in june, we'll add a few more for the other kids (market chickens).

WE ARE GETTING CHICKS!!!!

i called our 4-H poultry leader to let her know we had our coop. she was checking out different hatcheries by ordering a bunch of chicks this fall. there were a lot of problems with the hatchery they had used previously*, so they wanted to find one that was better. basically she has an abundance of chicks right now, so we are getting 7 polish crested chicks. some are golden, some are silver, and one is white with a black crest.

what will they actually look like?

goldens look like this http://www.oldfrogpondfarm.com/master/images/chickens/Golden_Polish_Hen.jpg


silver look like this
http://www.ruralramblings.com/blog/uploaded_images/rooster-769381.jpg

and the white with the black crest will look like this
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3246/2518853535_4e1c9df428.jpg

don't worry dear friends. we will still be getting more. haley is wanting to do laying hens (so she says) and so we have to get some white leghorns for her. not to mention the market chickens we have to get. so our little 8X8 coop will be full...eventually.

and no i haven't told the hubby yet. believe me, he'll be taken care of.

*there were some problems with chicks being deformed. so they have decided not to use them anymore. i will not post the name of the hatchery, but if you want to know, i can email it to you.

IT'S ALMOST FINISHED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

my dad, my little brother, and my kids, are almost finished with the chicken coop. they had to work on it at my dad's house because, well, my brother is not allowed to leave the house. (long story, and not mine to tell) anyway, they started on it saturday, and for the most part, it's done. it just needs the nest boxes, and some stain, and i think i may put in some linolium (for cleaning). that's it! well, it needs a door, and it needs to be moved to my house.

my dad had the kids all help him. he was really impressed by zack though. he said zack was hammering like a champ. he was most impressed with the way he did it correctly (bending his wrist). how many 3 year olds do you know that can do that? shoot, i'm 30 and i can't!


alex leaves on friday for his "birthday present" trip with my stepmom. alex still doesn't know where he's going! i don't think he would ever check my blog...but i don't trust the kid so i won't say until friday where he's going.

this is bookfair week. i already have been there, and helped out. but i have to go back on thursday for the "family night" event. my sister in law and i run that. it's pretty easy. really really easy. all we do is make dinner for about 200. no sweat! we usually have about 6 helpers, and that's plenty. the money we raise goes to our library, and buying tests for the kids.

and apparently this is also the first day for the runners club at school. i thought it didn't start until next monday. i still have to send in all the sign up stuff to school. and bring clothes and snack and water up for my kids that are doing it.

that's about it for now!

ballgame, ball practices, and a couple of sign ups

i love it when everything hits at once. alex plays baseball tonight at 6, haley and josh practice at 5:30 until around 7, and we have to sign the kids up for 4-H tonight.

i sure wish i had a money tree growing out back.

oh, well.

it looks like there will be 6 children raising chickens at my house.

funny, i'm pretty sure i only have 5 kids...and only 2 that can actually raise animals in 4-H...

i told the parents of the kids i watch, and those that i used to watch that it would be ok if they wanted to raise them at my house. these kids live in subdivisions, so it's not like they can raise chickens at their houses. plus, they spend quite a bit of time at my house. plus, by the time the chicks get here, they will be getting out for summer break. plus, these kids are great kids. they are always helpful. i know that they will be responsible.

so, i am really looking forward to my dad coming home. he's been stuck in detroit (apparently people up there don't like showing up for work*) and he's hoping to get the job site to a point where he can come home...with some stuff to help us build a chicken coop.
well, chicken and turkey coop. alex wants to do turkeys too. i told him to think about guineas. they eat ticks. that would be pretty darn useful!

so i guess i will be missing alex's game tonight. he's going to miss his soccer game this weekend (him and grace both) because they will be on a float trip. haley's going to miss her volleyball game (darn, 9pm game, and i'm going to miss it). they're going to be back for haley's soccer game on sunday.


*i've never been to detroit. i'm not "hating" on it. that's just the issues my dad's had with some of the contractors up there.