Four years later...

I'm still at it.... raising chickens, that is.  I miss my Amber Link hens. I had found new homes for all of  our chickens as we approached our second winter with them. I wasn't sure I wanted to keep them over another harsh winter. But we had a mild winter and I was kicking myself for getting rid of them.  Then that summer the moles moved back onto the property and I started getting all kinds of dirt hills in the lawn.  So... we are back at it with the chickens.  This time we have Colombian Wyandottes.  They are nice, but none of our chickens have been as friendly as those Amber Links were. 

Gosh!

Boy a lot has happened since I last wrote!
We lost a chicken, husband thinks it was an owl. We found her headless body in the yard and the other little red hens were hiding under the coop. Now they are freaked out and won't come out of the coop to free range. I'm a little worried about them. I would like to push them out and lock the door, but then my white ones can't come in to lay eggs.
We got a new little Labrador puppy! She's soooooo cute and smart! Although she's not smart in the potty training department. But she's already learned "sit", "touch", and "leave it!" Her name is Bailey.
I am so lucky! I was hired at a nearby school to be a paraprofessional! I will be working in the first grade with an autistic student. I just know this is going to be a wonderful opportunity and experience!
Jacob is doing well on his mission, he's already worn through two pairs of shoes! YIKES! So grandpa helped us out by getting him set up with some new shoes from a place that gives them a 2 year wear guarantee. They worked with a shoe manufacturer to make a shoe that should stand up to the rigors of a two year mission. If they wear out, we send them a picture and he gets a new pair that week! I love that idea! If anyone is interested in them, they came from missionarymall.com.
This is the last week of summer break! Joel is taking two of the kids backpacking on his annual trip to the Superior Trail. Jaeden is excited for her first hike! She's been waiting for two years for this! She's been wearing around her hiking shoes, breaking them in. I hope the bear spray is still loaded and good to go! *chews on nails nervously* I was hoping hubby would have his conceal/carry permit by now so he could bring his 9mm, but this year's finances have not had that in the cards. So let's just hope the bears stay away and they have a beautiful, fun filled hike!
Today we are going to be close to 100 degrees and it's very humid. Just oppressing!  They say we are in a drought, so I need to pay special attention to our vegetable garden and my herbs on the porch. It's going to be in the 90s all week. Nothing like a good heat wave to end a chilly summer! :)

Yesterday was moving day!

Last night we moved the red chickens out of the garage and into the coop with the Amber Links. There was some squawking and in the morning the red hens were all huddled in the corner on a stack of straw bales. Today we let them all out to free range.
I am so impressed!!!I have smart chickens! All but one of the red chickens made it back to the new coop tonight all on their own! DeAnna, the chicken, was found at the garage, not very happy about the new little chickens in "her coop" and being locked out. I'm sure she will have it all figured out tomorrow night.
Egg #5 was given today! A very small odd egg with a flat side, lots of speckles, a wrinkled end and a light cream colored swirl at the other end. :) I love my chickens!

Kids Skating Routine :)

If it doesn't play for you, try this link.... https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151769749549643&l=3841993937607829196

Chick Chick Chick... I'm a Chick Chick...Chick

I have not taken much time to update my blog lately, and I have felt bad about that. I know how much you'd like to see what's going on in our house. So...
Mittens came out of the woods about 5 days after she went missing. We were very worried about her because we had a few strong storms while she was away, and also there was a coyote hanging out on the edge of the property. I think she finally got hungry enough that she decided to wander out from her hiding spot to check things out. After she was home for a couple of days she slipped out through an open door and was gone for two days before I found her at the back door pawing and mewing.
Naughty kitty.
The doors are still fascinating to her and she sometimes acts unusual and I can tell she's wanting out again. But we will try our best to keep her in and safe.

Our white chickens have been correctly identified as Amber Links, not White Rocks. One of their parents is a White Rock roo, and the mom is some sort of red. They have developed markings in their feathers in the last month of molting and getting their adult feathers. This is how we made this discovery, because up until they changed, they have been very white.... Today only one is all white (Snowflake), one nearly all white (except for the one dot on her right shoulder, Snowball), one has speckles on her wings (see Speckles below), two are yellowish with markings on their wings (Amber and Link), and then we have one with many darker brown spots on her (Brownie, far left).

We have the coop finished, however there is a bunch of trimming that I need to paint still, and I'm waiting for the humidity to go away before I tackle that.
Here Brownie and Snowflake examine the lovely nesting boxes Joel built for them. I have to say that I am so super impressed with his building skills. I am convinced there is nothing he can't do!

We added six two month old Rhode Island Reds. We have them in the garage coop until they are old enough to fend for themselves.

At least they are good at hiding themselves. Hee hee.

 

Moon

Last weekend we added four little Easter Eggers to the list of chickens we have. These will lay blue/green eggs. I am super excited about them. They all look different from each other. Because they are mutts they will all look different when they are fully grown as well, but in my opinion they are some of the most beautiful chickens out there!

Munk

 

 

Chip

 

Cindy (Cinderella, named by the girls)

 

 

It will be very interesting to see how they all turn out!

I love my chickens!!

 







Mittens

I've never really BEEN a cat person. When I was a kid I wanted a cat. But later I became allergic to them and then I had a series of bad experiences with them, and decided that I was indeed NOT a cat person.
Then last fall someone dropped a six week little starved and scabbed up kitten on our doorstep. The children all begged for us to keep her, most especially Joy begged the most. As I thought about all the mice in our garage and sheds, and knowing I had a young adult in the basement that often took food down there, I relented and gave in after a vet check. We adopted Mittens and gave her a good home. After we brought her home from the vet and released her into the house with the dogs, she strutted very bravely into the room as the two dogs clamored away, and did whatever they could to get as far away from her as possible. They'd been sprayed by a skunk recently and probably did not know what to expect from this little fur ball that walked right up to them like she owned the place.

She's been a wonderful cat, very patient with the hugging, kissing, funny poses, pulling and squishing that Joy has put her through.  Every morning she greeted Joel at the door and talked to him, rubbing on his leg until he gave her food. Then when I'd wake up she'd repeat the ceremony until I gave her a couple of chicken flavored treats.

Yesterday she went missing. We called for her all day, put food and water out for her, and waited. We had to leave the house for several hours in the evening, and when we came home Jaeden went up the back steps to the porch and saw a cat that she thought was Mittens. But this cat ran away from her and into the woods. Never coming back. We haven't seen her since. Last night we had a terrible storm with winds and pouring rain and hail. I have been sick with worry about her. She doesn't have front claws to defend herself. I really thought she'd be back home by now. :( I'm worried we won't be seeing her again, and I will be going back to not being a cat person. </3

Wishy-washy Wafflers

Yup, we are wafflers.  My little apples don't fall far from the tree. I am the biggest waffler sometimes.

Our plans have changed, and they might change before the summer is done, again. *sigh*
At this point, now, I am planning on applying to some local schools as a Paraeducator. Hopefully I can get some work this coming school year.  If I get hired, the kids will go to the local school. If I don't, the girls will be schooled at home, and the boy will go to the local school. He's very attached to his music and it is important to him that he stay where he can keep playing his saxaphone.

The Horns of a Delema

Oh man, I can't believe I am going to let this leave my fingertipss, but here it is.....

I am rethinking my choice of schools, which also affects my choice of careers!

Ahhhh!

This was not supposed to happen!

I have so many interests, it was extremely difficult to pin down the one choice I had made and stick to it. Now that I have done that, I am finding that maybe the school I have chosen maybe not the right school for me. I can't even tell my best friends this in person. (I don't ever want to come off to anyone as seeming wishy-washy. I have image issues with that).

 I don't, however, have that particular image issue with my husband. I had spent some time this afternoon searching the internet to see what it said I should do when I say, "How do I find out what I want to be when I grow up?!" Their advice was to ask other people that know me well what they think I would be good at. So I asked Hubby what he thought I would be good at. Hubby couldn't name anything off hand. In a little way that hurts. (I do have issues with thinking that he doesn't think very highly of me or my intelligence or skills. This was one time that makes me feel that my concerns might not be invalid.) He left for work telling me that if teaching SPED is what I want to do, then I should keep going with it. I told him, I do want to be a SPED teacher, but I am having some serious doubts about the school I've chosen.

There are quite a few reasons why I am doubting this school, two of the biggest reasons are:

1) I have taken quite a few online classes before, and have come through them pretty unscathed. I didn't have a problem understanding the directions or what was expected of me. Those were college classes. Now that I've taken two classes from the University, I have had quite the different experience both times! Both classes had teachers that were difficult to understand. These two teachers were completely confusing, didn't stick to the original syllabus very well, wrote very confusing directions for assignments, and were not easy to get ahold of.

2) The one person, the key bearer to all those who wish to be endowed with a teaching licence in SPED from this University, is a woman named Sue. Sue was the teacher for the class I took this semester. She is also the woman I have had to meet with a few times and she has confused me in those meetings too! She talks about things to people who are new to this like we know everything and I felt really dumb asking her to break it all down because there is so much I wasn't getting. I did try to ask questions that would get me the answers I needed, but she also dumped a ton of information on me all at once. While she talked she also typed things on her computer screen (apparently it was a chart she was sending to me) but I coulnd't see what she was looking at because she had a crappy screen. So she would talk about this one class, point at it, highlight it, and I would have to strain to try to see it and make sense of what she was telling me. Sue is also extremely busy and very hard to get to agree for in-person meetings. In my last class at the college there were several students complaining about her lack of response and availability to students needing meetings with her to plan their course schedule.

I'm feeling really discouraged and nervous about staying with this choice. So today I visited the Department of Education and found where they have a link to all of the Universities that have teaching licensure programs. I don't have many options.

I don't have many options.

I'm still just trying to let that sink in....

That means, if I choose another school, I probably have to choose another career.

I don't know what that would be!

What's that sound?

Oh yes! It's little peeps that are alive! Yes, it's spring here in Minnesota and I couldn't resist getting a head start on the bug control by raising my very own little ecologically friendly bug management system.
This is the first day we brought them home... The ducks were almost the same size as the chicks.

This is one week after we brought them home. The chicks are getting lots of wing feathers and have started to get tail feathers. The ducks are growing at an enormous rate!

 

 Especially one of them! The bigger one is almost twice the weight as the other one. Their personalities are much different as well.  The smaller one is more quiet and docile and the bigger one is more outgoing, curious and extroverted.  The bigger one eats from my hand, where the smaller one doesn't want to so much.

No names yet, we are waiting to see what sex they are. Suggestions?

Joshua Playing the Viola

 

The Can-Can and Indian Lament

Josh wanted me to mention that my phone makes it sound crappy and that his viola sounds much more pretty than on this video :) He's right.