Chicken Update - chicks, pullets, cockerels, and orbs!

Here are some of the chickens.  This is another "meet the chickens" post.

Our flock has grown by leaps and bounds this year.  Its a lively place out there in the chicken pen.  We actually have 2 pens now; the chickens can go thru the second coop to access the second pen.  Yes, there's 2 coops available for everyone, too.  The second coop and pen normally are used as an infirmary area or chick area, but right now there's no one sick and no babies that need to be separate.

In the below pic are:  Front - gold laced wyandotte pullet named Ruffles, behind her is Doritos, a Red Sex Link pullet.  To the left and behind is Little Red, a Rhode Island Red pullet (the Reject chick).  Standing in the crowd with tall necks are 2 brothers - cockerels, sons of Muffin the rooster.  The yellow boy is the son of Pennie, the shelter hen (or the house hen, as she prefers to be known), and the boy on the right is Big Bird, son of Big Bonnie the shelter hen.

Here's Big Bird below watching my camera.  To his left is another one of the chicks - he's one of the ones I got from the farmer's market.  I think it's a boy so I'm not going to name him.  Sorry, buddy.  Directly in the background is the rooster, Muffin, the baby daddy to 4 of the chicks (Big Bird, the 2 all-black girls, and the yellow son of Pennie).

 

Here's Doritos below.   I'll let you in on a secret.  I have 3 pullets named Doritos, 4 named Pringles, and 2 named Ruffles.  I can't tell the birds apart so they were named based on their breed.

This photo below just shows how big Big Bird is compared to Little Red.   They were walking side by side.  Little Red was a reject as a chick but she fits in very well with the chicks now.

Look below at all the Pringle's tails in the air!  The 3 white leghorns on the right are Pringles.  They are some egg-laying machines.  They are so hyper and scared.  They are our least-friendly birds, always dashing here and there.  But they lay large white eggs every day.  We like them because of their eggs. 

To their left are Dottie (left most white hen) and Zoner (another white hen).  Zoner's pretty old, and is still as stupid as they come - she's one of our original chicks.  Dottie is small and a tough little bird.  Dottie is the daughter of Muffin the Americauna and a white leghorn hen.  Muffin is there in the photo, too.  You can't miss his big black and green tail.

Here's an upclose shot of the 2 Ruffles and a Pringles.  Pringles is having a conversation with the Ruffles.  The Ruffles are our prettiest birds, but they aren't our favs.  They lay medium to small light brown eggs, and they don't lay every day like the Pringles and the Doritos.  They are not friendly at all, and hate to be held. 

Here's a Pringles cruising around with her white tail held high.  The brown and grey pullet to her right is named Pickles, to honor my friend Genny's bird named Pickle.  My Pickles is a beautiful pullet - I'll have to get better shots of her in the future.  The picture below doesn't do her justice.  She came from the farmer's market as a day old chick, and she sadly ended up being one of the Reject Chicks, which makes her one of my favorites.  She is red and grey and is most likely an Americauna mix.

 This blog post is ending on an eerie note.  I was taking the below shot of Big Bonnie (and she looks terrible - she's molting!) - but notice all the circles in the photo.  They are what people refer to as orbs.  I often get orbs in my photos and have to work at cutting them out or not using the photos with orbs on the blog because they are distracting.  Are orbs ghosts or just dust?  I get orbs when I photograph outside or inside, in any weather.  It's funny how many orbs are in the shot below.  I must have a lot of ghosts or dust around here.  It is a historic old farmhouse, I wouldn't be surprised if there's ghosts and I know there's dust.  I just thought I'd throw in this photo to show you what I deal with when I'm setting up blog photos.  I'm curious on your thoughts about the orbs, too!

Losing it with Lose It!

I've always struggled with 10 or 20 pounds.  I'm not hugely overweight, but not where I want to be, either.  Most of the time I don't think about my weight, until I don't fit into my clothes.  I gain 10 pounds in a month or two without realizing it.  Before I know it I'm not fitting into my pants anymore.  I always notice the pants first.  If I look at my shirts, I realized they don't fit as well as they used to, either.  Then I work very hard and lose a few pounds.  It's always been a constant roller coaster just for 10 or 20 pounds.  But suddenly as I'm getting older it seems it's harder to lose the weight.  I used to just simply change my eating habits and the weight would disappear.  Now, not so much.

I recently gained another 10 pounds on top of the 10 extra that I was already carrying.  Hmmm.  I changed my eating habits, thinking it would drop off, instead I continued to gain a pound or three, four, maybe lose a pound, then gain it right back.  I worked really hard, pulling out all my secrets, like quitting diet soda, bread, drinking water when I'm hungry, eating grapefruits.  But I couldn't lose weight.  What's up????

A 20-something coworker told me she lost 10 pounds in a month by changing her diet.  I remembered back when I was 20-something and could easily shed pounds in the blink of an eye like that.  Now it seemed something was wrong with me, I was stuck being heavier on the outside than I was in my mind.  

I honestly think my metabolism changed.  It slowed wayyyyyyyy down.  I started working out more, but that had no effect on my weight.  I believe my weight has a lot to do with my eating habits.  I workout and reward myself with some chips and salsa, thinking I deserve it.  So I started a food journal and I carried it around for months on end.  But I needed guidance, instruction, and encouragement.  Finally I went online and found a site called Lose It!  I love it!

I put a Lose It! app on my tablet, but mostly I use it on the computer, since I have access to computers at work and home.  When I created a login it asked for my age, sex, weight and goal.  I said I wanted to lose 20 pounds at a rate of 1.5 pounds/week.  I thought that was doable.  It provided me with a daily calorie intake goal.  If I stick to the goal I can lose the 20 pounds by Thanksgiving!  Yes!  I log what I eat and my exercise.  The exercise subtracts from the daily calories allowed, allowing me more food.  I can eat whatever I want, as long as my daily calories are below my goal. I've quickly learned what types of foods are high in calories.  Plus, all types of exercise counts, such as "household walking".  And you can create exercises and foods, of course, based on what you actually do.

It's an awesome app.  Since I've started it on Sep 2, 2013, I've lost 7 pounds.  It really just helps me to watch what I eat, exercise more, and provides me with encouragement from hundreds, thousands, of others already using the app.  I joined Lose It! challenges to eat more veggies and burn so many calories from exercise and compete with the others online.  I am tied in first place in a push up challenge where we are supposed to do some type of push up every day, as many as each person can do.  Simple stuff!  If I really get carried away I can do weekly reports showing how much I lost a week, comparing it to the amount of calories I ate and my exercise for that week.  Lose It! allows members to become friends with other members to encourage each other.  I encouraged my husband to join, so now I have a friend on Lose It!.

I'm just happy I'm finally losing weight.  I want to lose 1 more pound by the end of this week so I will have lost a total of 8 pounds in Sep.  Piece of cake!

 

Just go with it

There's always so much to do here, and never enough time.  Today we moved our clocks forward - so basically I started out losing an hour right off the bat.  Razzberry Corner blog has been terribly neglected because of this time management issue of mine.  The problem is that time just goes too fast these days. 

Back when I was a kid, time used to drag.  Remember the lazy childhood days when you were bored, there was just nothing to do?  How come as an adult you don't have those types of days anymore?  Now it's rush here, dash there, making lists along the way so I don't forget things.  And good grief if I lose a list, then it's all over!  I never completely finish a list, so the uncompleted items get carried over to a new list.  It's a never ending process.  Oh, how I miss those simple days of childhood boredom....

I seem to think that if I'm going to post something here on the blog, I should have something momentous to discuss.  But, however, there's nothing major going on here, just days flying by, blending into the next day, then the next week.  So, I'm going to try a new approach.  I'm just going to write whatever I'm thinking about, even if it doesn't seem all too important.  Let me know if you enjoy reading the blog from now on.  And then there's the photo issue.  I think if I don't have a photo to go with the blog it's not worth posting, and I don't always have photos handy.  And so there's no blog post...  So, along with my new simplified mindset of posting, please forgive me if I don't post a photo with every blog.  Sometimes it just takes too long to grab the camera and go outside and snap some shots and then I get sidetracked and the blog post never happens.  I'm just going to go with whatever is on my mind and write simple and sometimes short posts.  Sound good? 

Just go with it, that's my new motto.

Houdini Horse

I saw this video of a horse picking locks and loved it!  I had to repost it.  Found it on Yahoo!

Hope everyone is staying safe and warm and happy.  Razzberry Corner has been very busy these days!  Sorry for a few weeks of no posts!  I'll be back when time allows!  I miss you!

Creaky voice?

This blog post has nothing to do with the Razzberry Corner farm, but it just struck my fancy, and so I'm writing it.  I read today about "vocal fry" or "creaky voice" in women.  I thought it was so funny, but interesting. 

https://soundcloud.com/slateradio/lexicon-valley-24-get-your

Listen to this podcast, specifically at 4:30 when the guy tells the girl to "be obnoxious".  Also at 23:25 a clip from a Mae West film is reviewed to hear the creaky voice. 

They call it creaky voice in linguistics.  They go on to say that women use different voices to get specific results.  Linguistics is very interesting: different vocal characteristics, or voice qualities, different meanings.  They say creaky voice is specific to American women, specifically to young up and coming professional women.  The men's discussion and reaction in this podcast are quite funny if you listen to it all the way through.

Right now I have a cold, so I have a "breathy voice".    I better watch out, I could be saying things I don't actually mean!

Have you ever found yourself using creaky voice on purpose?  Get your creak on, women!

Lynn's Famous Fruit and Veggie Diet Part III

This blog post is part three of my fruit and veggie diet. 

Starting weight week 3 ~ 125 pounds

I continued to eat a fresh fruit or veggie approximately every hour as I started into week 3. This included apples, bananas, grapefruits, orange, tangerines, avocados, kiwis, celery, raw green peppers, green beans, broccoli, summer squash, strawberries, blueberries, and others.


Week Three Notes
1.  Monday I was dead tired during the day, even though I slept my normal amount of hours the last night.  Workouts ceased on Monday.

2. Man, did I crave protein.  I wanted meat, fish, beef, chicken, anything.  I ate 2 hard boiled eggs Monday at lunchtime. 

3.  Tuesday I was exhausted.  All I wanted to do was sleep.  I barely made it till 5pm, I just wanted to put my head down on my desk and pass out.  I really felt crappy, dizzy, light-headed, and really worn out.  No workout Tuesday.  I could barely walk, couldn't even consider running or working out.

4.  Tuesday I had a cupcake at 5pm because I felt I didn't have the strength to even drive home.  I had shrimp and veggies for dinner. 

5.  Diet ended on Tuesday.  I didn't like feeling so tired, and decided to eat healthy, but allow meat and carbs.  Maybe three weeks was too long for the fruit and veggie diet?  I had pizza for lunch on Wed and felt great, and went back to working out again.  Also I had 2 cupcakes on Wed.  Bad girl, but I couldn't help it!  There was this party at work, and I made the cupcakes...

6.  On Thursday my terrible sugar cravings were back!

7.  I ate mostly fruit and veggies for the rest of the week, but allowed other foods too.  I have maintained my weight at 125 pounds.  I still have 10 pounds to lose, but I am going to increase my workouts and eat healthy, but not only fruit and veggies, and see how it works out.

Final notes:
I consider the workout a success; I lost 10 pounds in 2 weeks and have kept the weight off so far.  I think 2 weeks is a good amount of time for the fruit and veggie diet.  I wish I would have stayed off sugar; I am going to work on my sugar addiction.

Ending weight ~ 125 pounds ~ Lost 10 pounds on fruit and veggie diet!

Lynn's Famous Fruit and Veggie Diet Part II

This blog post is a continuation from yesterdays where I documented the first week on my fruit and veggie diet.  I lost 5 pounds already!

Starting weight Week 2 ~ 130 pounds

On week two I continued my diet and exercise regime, and boy, did I feel great!  I had so much energy!  My craving for sugar was gone!  I continued to eat  a fresh fruit or veggie approximately every hour. This included apples, bananas, grapefruits, orange, tangerines, avocados, kiwis, celery, raw green peppers, green beans, broccoli, summer squash, strawberries, blueberries, and others.


Week Two Notes
1. I got used to never feeling full.   It was ok.

2.  No more sugar cravings!

3.  I learned what a pomelo was!  It's like a huge grapefruit!  I ate 2 pomelos this week.

4.  Once during this week I cheated and had a small portion of protein, such as chicken or fish or lean beef for dinner. Mostly fish. Still potatoes or bread.

5. I started eating 2 hard boiled eggs a day at lunchtime.

Week two weight loss was 5 pounds. Yeah!

Ending weight after 14 days on diet ~ 125 pounds.  10 pounds lost in 2 weeks!

Stay tuned for week three tomorrow!

Lynn's Famous Fruit and Veggie Diet Part I

This blog post is going to be a little bit different than most - it's going to be personal.  Tell me what you think about me bearing my soul to the public...

About 15 years ago I went on a fruit and veggie diet and lost 20 pounds, and I thought I'd try it again, and this time document it. 

Starting weight ~ 135 pounds

I'm 5 foot 2 inches and at the start of this diet was 135 lbs.  On a short frame like mine, 135 is uncomfortable.  I had eaten a lot of sweets over the winter and put on 10 lbs and my clothes were getting tight.  There was no way I was going to buy larger clothes for summer!  And worse yet, I was gaining on average a pound a day, and it didn't look like the weight gain was stopping anytime soon. 

I wanted to eat mainly fruit and vegetables, and cut out pasta and bread and my personal weakness, sugar.  I planned on dieting till I got to my goal weight of 115 lbs, however long it took.  I wanted my clothes to fit comfortably, and I wanted to tone my muscles for summer. 

One of my pet peeves is that I don't think people eat enough fruit and veggies.  There's too much junk food, fast food, available, and it's convenient, as we all are busy.  I think we'd all be healthier if we ate a whole lot more fresh fruit and veggies and less processed food.

I should mention that I consider myself active.  When I'm home alone I usually never sit down, unless I'm at the computer.  There's always chores to be done around the farm.  I also work out at the gym and at home, I like to work out. However, I have a desk job during the day, and am recovering from "golfer's elbow", which has slowed me town tremendously from what I used to be.   During this diet I exercised every day between 4 and 5pm. I would run or walk, do the stairclimber machine at the gym, or the elliptical. Also I worked out abdominals every morning at 5:00am for 15 minutes. 

This blog is to document my experience on my fruit and veggie diet.  I ate a fresh fruit or veggie approximately every hour.  This included apples, bananas, grapefruits, orange, tangerines, avocados, kiwis, celery, raw green peppers, green beans, broccoli, summer squash, strawberries, blueberries, and others.


Week One Notes
1.  About every hour I was eating something.  And I was starving all the time.  It was really hard to deal with never feeling full.  

2.  Man, did I crave sugar!  I couldn't handle no sugar!  In the beginning of the week, I allowed myself one small sugar treat, like a Tastycake cupcake, or a cookie in the afternoon.  Halfway through the week I changed that sugar treat to a piece of fruit, like an apple or a banana.

3.  After the afternoon workout I was starving and usually immediately ate an apple or pear or banana.

4.  About every other night I cheated and had a small portion of protein, such as chicken or fish or lean beef.  Mostly fish.  No potatoes, though. 

5.  I drink 3 diet sodas a day and plenty of water, and that's it.

Week one weight loss was 5 pounds.  Yeah!

Ending weight after 7 days ~ 130 pounds ~ lost 5 pounds!

This post is getting long, stay tuned for week 2 tomorrow.  I experienced a surprise during this diet that's worth reading.

New Blogger Interface???

OMG, have any of you gone to the new blogger interface?  What do you think of it?  I tried it for a minute and hated every second!  I can't find anything!!!  I guess the page it displayed was the dashboard.

Maybe I'm old fashioned, but I just returned to blogging from a short hiatus, and I'm not ready for a major change right now.  I need to know how to navigate around my blog, I don't have time to figure this out.  Please tell me what you think, is it that bad?  Have you made the change?  Are we all going to be forced to jump to the dark side eventually? Should I just suck it up and take the plunge and deal?  Or can I stay old fashioned in my old blogger interface, where comfort abides and all is known and friendly?  Help me before I jump! 

 

Key West Gypsy Chickens and More

I was missing from the Razzberry Corner blog for the month of September dealing with no internet connectivity.  And then finally I got the internet back, only to have to go away on travel for my day job.  And, to make it even more interesting, while I was gone, there was a surprise surge and outage at our house which finally killed our old office computer.  That's the computer I use to blog and which has all my photos.  The computer's motherboard died.  It was an old computer anyway.  I didn't upgrade already because it was still running, although it was old and slow and tired. 

And so I was gone another week on travel, and then home a week without a primary computer. 

Yeah, I have other computers in the house, but the home office computer is the one that I always use on the blog.  And honestly, as busy as I am these days, I don't mess around on a computer when I get home.  That's what I've realized about having an old farm - there's always so much work to do around the house and property or dealing with the animals, that there's no free time to play on the computer.  Maybe I just don't want to deal with the computer when I get home, I do that enough at work. 

I'm not complaining, just stating facts.

And so, this week, I got a new computer!  Yeah!  It's all shiny and fast and has cool features and I'm excited!  I'll have to setup my old hard drive in this machine so I can access my old files.  But right now, the new one is clean and empty and fast.

I'm posting some photos that I took with my cell phone while I was on the trip last week to

Key West,  FL.

I absolutely loved Key West! 

It was a warm, tropical, happy place.

I saw this big, old iguana on the side of the road and HAD to get some photos.  

I saw lots of smaller iguanas, but this one was huge!  He was approximately 10 feet long with the tail. 

He probably could have chopped off my head with one swing of that tail.  I know their tails are very sharp and can cut you if they swing at you.  He looked like a hundred years old, I was so lucky to see such a big boy.

  

The biggest surprise for me in Key West was the chickens!  There were wild chickens all over the streets of Key West!  The locals said they were protected animals and were not allowed to be killed.  They are called Key West Gypsy Chickens. 

It so amazed me to see chickens in the downtown area of Key West.  It made me feel right at home!

Here's a link to a webpage about the chickens:

http://sarah-goodwin-nguyen.suite101.com/key-west-gypsy-chickens-a100879

Once last week in Key West I was in the car in a busy intersection.  A big rooster and a number of pedestrian people were standing by the intersection waiting for the light to change so they could cross the road.  The people were talking, not paying attention, didn't even care a rooster was standing amongst them!  When the walk light came on and the traffic stopped, the rooster started walking big as day right across the crosswalk to cross the road.  The people noticed he was walking and followed along behind him and crossed the road.  I was speechless.  He lifted his legs high and proud and crossed the road.  I didn't get a pic of him because I was too amazed to move.

In the evenings the chickens roosted in the palm trees.  I looked around for eggs on the ground, didn't see any.  I was the only person amazing by so many chickens in a downtown area.  There were different colors of chickens; I seem to have only taken photos of brown roosters because brown was the most common color.  I noticed more roosters than hens; the hens were very small.  I watched the roosters having cockfights on a downtown pier one afternoon.  No one else seemed to notice.  I watched them walk amongst the people; no one else looked twice.  I did not see any chicken/car accidents or any dead chickens on the road, although I did see a human bicyclist get hit by a car and I did see a man laying drunk out by the side of the road. 

It was an interesting place!

 The Key West sunset was gorgeous.  As the weather is getting chilly at home, it was nice to get away to the tropics for a quick break.

Can't you just feel the warmth in the below photo?  (I was in my bathing suit when I took it!)

Alas, I am now back at Razzberry Corner.

Hopefully I will start back up the Razzberry Corner blog about all the going's on here at the farm!  Lots is going on!

Stay tuned!

I'm Baaaaack!!

Well, hello there!!!
I'm back!
My Internet in my home has been out for the past month, but now it's fixed!
You all have missed so much in this past month! 

Oh, my, I don't even know where to start!

However, you'll have to wait till tomorrow! 

Sorry! 

This post is just a tease! 

I cannot take the time right now to post properly, but I want you to know I'm excited to be online again.  I've missed my online personality, it's a part of me, and mostly I've missed all my online friends. 

I did find time to do other things instead of being online, like working out, and working in the office, taking a computer class.  So I have stayed busy; and time never stops here at Razzberry Corner!  You know how it is on a farm, there's always something going on!

Stayed tuned to hear all about the past month's adventures!

And current activities, too!



King of the Coop

New Work Boots!!!

I've been wanting a good pair of work boots for years now.  Boots that can go outside and slosh around in the mud.  Boots that I wear when I clean the chicken coop and work outside.  Boots that could be worn in winter or summer.  Durable and hard working.  Yet I still wanted boots that were fashionable and show my feminine side.  I wanted boots that can handle the farm work, and still look cute.  Previously I was wearing an old pair of sneakers outside to work, and when I'd come in I'd take them off because they would be trashed.  But sneakers absorb water and dirt- I was looking for something more waterproof/dirt-proof.

And so I kept my eyes open, waiting for the perfect work boots to enter my world.

Today I found them!

What do you think?

I luv them!

I found them on sale at DSW - one of my favorite places.

They are Bogs Classic High boots.  They are cold tested down to -40°F. They have a non-slip sole that kicks away dirt so that you always have a sure step. Breathable, perforated insole provides shock absorption and vapor reduction.

I am a happy girl today.

PS - I also bought a new pair of sandals on sale!

Fortune Cookie

My Sister's Visit

Back in January, my sister, Barb, and her family visited Razzberry Corner!

And I clearly wasn't thinking straight ~ I didn't take any pictures while they were here!

Luckily Barb took pictures, which I borrowed from her blog, Barb's This and That.

Normally I am the one taking pictures, hence, there are NO pictures of me in my blog.

Alas, Barb broke my no picture streak and posted a picture of me and my boy Leggy. 
I remember how very cold it was on that January day. 
If you look closely, you can see his spur on his left leg.  He's got some SERIOUS spurs. 




Leggy and Lynn

 

 While they were here Barb collected eggs and visited all the chickens.  Here are some of the chickens roosting and preparing to go to sleep.



Top row, left to right ~ Muffin's tail, Freckles, Zoner, Raspberry Leggy, Meg, Lilly, Blackie, Charlotte
Bottom row ~ Chloe, Bella, Cinnamon, Jade, Ethel

 Down by our well there's this huge old tree ~ to me it looks bigger in person than it does in the below photo.  I love it because it must be so very old.  If only trees could talk, I'd know all about the history of this property.  The tree makes me think of the Ents, the talking trees in The Lord of the Rings and The War of the Ring by J. R. R. Tolkien.  I've named this tree Treebeard, after one of the Ents.

Here's Barb and her son JJ in front of the tree.



Barb, JJ, and Treebeard

This was a root from the tree that ran across the ground.  It had a little hollowed-out-spot that a small animal could have used as a home.

Treebeard's root

Here's a picture of a Guinea ~ I think it's a female.  I'm still trying to figure out the gender of the guineas.



Lone guinea



And finally, here's a picture Barb took of my old home.  It's a work-in-progress.  The renovation progress never moves as fast as I wish it would, but that's life! 

Thanks for visiting!

National Weather Service Radiosonde Found!

Guess what we found in our woods?  A radiosonde released by the National Weather Service!

First, some history on radiosondes:

For over 60 years, upper air observations have been made by the National Weather Service (NWS) with radiosondes. The radiosonde is a small, expendable instrument package that is suspended below a 2 meter (6 feet) wide balloon filled with hydrogen or helium. As the radiosonde is carried aloft, sensors on the radiosonde measure profiles of pressure, altitude, geographical position (Latitude/Longitude), temperature, relative humidity, wind (both wind speed and wind direction), and cosmic ray readings at high altitude.  The weight of a radiosonde is typically 250 g (8.8 oz). It should also be noted that the average radiosonde is lost and never recovered.

Worldwide there are more than 800 radiosonde launch sites. Most countries share data with the rest of the world through international agreements. In the United States the National Weather Service is tasked with providing timely upper-air observations for use in weather forecasting, severe weather watches and warnings, and atmospheric research. The National Weather Service launches radiosondes from 92 stations in North America and the Pacific Islands twice daily. It also supports the operation of 10 radiosonde sites in the Caribbean.

The radiosonde that we found was suspended by a rope, ranging in a tree.  It had the remains of a small balloon at the end of the rope.

We cut it out of the tree and brought it home for inspection.  It was released by the NWS from Sterling, VA on 9-23-10.

 

A message on the instrument requested it be returned to the NWS.  A prepaid envelope was inside the box.

The machine had various gauges on it for taking different readings.

We packaged it up and returned it so it can be reused by the NWS.

 
 

Meeting Genny

Have you ever met one of your online blog friends in person?  Do people do that?  Is it dangerous?  

Of course it's dangerous to meet a stranger. 

All risks must be evaluated, all threats must be considered. 

But sometimes, it all just turns out wonderfully!     

The other night I met up in person with a fellow blogger, Genny, from Downeast.  I had a great time chatting and talking about everything with her.  She summed up our meeting very well in her blog - check it out here if you get a moment!

Thanks, Genny!!!!!

Old Western Saloon

Recently Randy built a single story saloon building for some friends down the street.  It's a one-room building which looks like an old western saloon - complete with the tin roof!  They plan on using it as a entertainment room - sort of an extension of their house with a wild wild west theme.

I loved how it looked and thought it deserved a post on the blog, even though it doesn't really have to do with our property!  I can just picture a cowboy coming out of this saloon with a drink in his hand after a long day of robbing banks and riding horses.

Fortune Cookie fortune

Got this in my fortune cookie the other day:

It is better to have a hen tomorrow than an egg today

This One's for Mom

My Mother has been visiting us this past month on vacation.  We stayed busy while she was here, running here & there, going to the farmer's market, going to dinner, driving around the property on the ATV (yes, she drove on the ATV!), and we even had time to cook and bake.  We all had fun, and we all even caught a cold, too!  She went back to her home again a week ago.  I miss her already!

Here's some pics of her cats, Alex and Katie when they were visiting.

Alex

Katie

Mom & I this week

Help! Little caterpillars are invading!

Please help me identify these pests!! 

These awful little caterpillars have started showing up near our outside dry cat food bowls.  They're black with brown heads & legs, with mean-looking pinchers.  They're small, less than an inch.  I've tried to research them, but have been unable to find them online.  They kinda look like a worm, not real hairy like a caterpillar.  I'm sure they're some kind of larvae...