I got new chicks!
This isn't a big surprise and I plan on getting more in a few weeks to fully round out my flock to ten (or twelve) birds. The new chicks are a Blue Maran and a Silkie. I had two Silkies, but the second one didn't make it.
Sometimes that's life on a homestead. She was my favorite.
But this group of chicks is a lot more friendly than my first group. Of that group, only Little Miss allows me to pet her or pick her up. The other three just run.
Hey-Hey, our rooster is a very good protector of the girls. And thankfully we live in a town where no body minds the crowing.
A dog wandered into our yard the other day. While the majority of our yard is fenced in, our driveway is located on the side of our house and there is an open gate where that is. I pulled in from grocery shopping just in time to see a high flagged fluffy tail disappear behind our house. As soon as I parked the dog came back around and then trotted out past me and down the street. I ran to the backyard as I didn't see the chickens in their pen. Hey-Hey had them rounded up underneath the rabbit hutch and they were all hiding behind the potted plants being very very quiet.
As I said, he's a good protector.
The rabbits are a constant evaluation process. The Satin Angoras are going to be a true dual purpose breed for me as we ended up harvesting most of the kits from this spring. Both litters came down with a respiratory infection of some sort. None of them died from it, nor did any of the other rabbits get sick, so I'm not sure what to make of it. But due to that, all of the rabbits that got sick were processed. I'm not going to pass on genetics that are prone to illness. A good immune system is a must for a rabbit. Two kits were kept back, the only two that showed no signs or symptoms, unlike their litter mates. A broken black doe from one litter and a REW buck from the other. Both currently have nice growth on their wool, with a nice sheen to it. Only time will tell if they hold onto their wool as they age or not as Satin Angoras are still prone to become overrun with guard hair as they get new coats growing in. Both of them have decent bodies as well. Nothing spectacular, but nothing problematic either (One doe I'm having to cull has a phenomenal type and choosing to processing her was a difficult decision, but one that has to be made). This will also help me make determinations of where my current stock is at and what changes I'll need to make going forward.
I kept one of the meat mutt bunnies. She grew very quickly and is now almost as big as her mom and only 7 months. And she's sweet. So she'll stay on as another meat mama. I'm thinking of calling her either Pollen or Nectar, since her mom is Honey.
Friday, November 10, 2017
Friday, June 23, 2017
Spring (okay, technically Summer now)
Why do I always feel like writing this time of year? Maybe because it's so hot and the mosquitos are so pesky that I have to mostly stay in doors or risk being eaten alive? That's probably it.
Well, life has gone through some pretty amazing changes since last year. I still struggle with my depression but I seem to be in a better place mentally right now, so that's good. My DH got an amazing job working for Habitat for Humanity and is totally killing it. I was able to quite my job a few weeks ago which I feel has reduced my stress levels a lot. I still feel very busy, but not frantic - it no longer feels as if the whole world is resting on my shoulders and I have to do it all. Now I just have to do some little thing everyday, follow my bullet journal, and everything will be okay. Even if I don't get everything done I have listed, it's okay. I feel a lot calmer these days.
Don't get me wrong. My house is still chaos! I'm in the middle of redoing a dresser to make an entry table/shelf, building crate shelves in my kitchen for more storage, reorganizing the attic and my yarn and wool storage, and trying to figure out how to best rearrange the living room and front room. While trying to keep an A-average in school and keep the house at least clean.
Also, I have chickens now.
I'd say "Hurray for Texas" except that I got the chickens before the new law passed, although now that I know it is for six chickens per person, I may be getting more chickens to add to my small flock of four. But that probably won't happen for a little while. Four is plenty for the current coop.
Speaking of expanding animals: I took a good long hard look at my English Angoras last year, and as the boys grew I noticed something wrong with their hind legs. All of them have what are called "pinched hips" which means that their back feet splay out. And that's not good. Also, as they grew out, their coats seemed to change and become more difficult to handle, with a more cottony texture than is desirable or usable. So UniKitty will be moving on with the rest of the boys. Chang will be used as the meat-mutt sire and a new EA buck will be brought in to be a herd-sire. He comes from a line of easy-care coats and his breeder is hoping that he 1) possess it himself and 2) passes it on. He'll be bred to both Duo and my new EA doe from last fall, Eowyn. His name is Legolas. I also decided to get into Satin Angoras last fall, and oh my! Their coats as compared to EA's are a lot easier to care for. Still a lot of work, but not as much as the EA's. I have three litters growing right now - two SA litters and a meat-mutt litter. Honey turned out to be an excellent mother, and would have 8 babies if I hadn't made a mistake and thought she wasn't bred. She lost six having them on the wire. Her two remaining babies are doing so well though and will be 8 weeks next week. I plan to grow them out to 16 weeks before their processed. One of my SA kits will join them, as he has fur and not wool and that is an undesirable trait in a wool breed! Otherwise, I have a short list of four SA kits that I'd like to hold onto, but I'm trying to get that down to two or three. Two does from one litter and two bucks from the other. One doe is a definite keeper and at this point looks to be an improvement on her parents as she has the right dimensions currently, very awesome crimp to her wool, and is a good candidate for growing out. The other doe looks very similar to her mother, a bit longer in the shoulders than I'd like, but solid hips and decent wool. So I'm not sure about her... the two bucks from the other litter that I'm watching are just solid bodies at this point, with blocky heads, so their probably keepers. It's hard doing evaluations at this stage and it's a constant process. And they are all so adorable!
Well, life has gone through some pretty amazing changes since last year. I still struggle with my depression but I seem to be in a better place mentally right now, so that's good. My DH got an amazing job working for Habitat for Humanity and is totally killing it. I was able to quite my job a few weeks ago which I feel has reduced my stress levels a lot. I still feel very busy, but not frantic - it no longer feels as if the whole world is resting on my shoulders and I have to do it all. Now I just have to do some little thing everyday, follow my bullet journal, and everything will be okay. Even if I don't get everything done I have listed, it's okay. I feel a lot calmer these days.
Don't get me wrong. My house is still chaos! I'm in the middle of redoing a dresser to make an entry table/shelf, building crate shelves in my kitchen for more storage, reorganizing the attic and my yarn and wool storage, and trying to figure out how to best rearrange the living room and front room. While trying to keep an A-average in school and keep the house at least clean.
Also, I have chickens now.
I'd say "Hurray for Texas" except that I got the chickens before the new law passed, although now that I know it is for six chickens per person, I may be getting more chickens to add to my small flock of four. But that probably won't happen for a little while. Four is plenty for the current coop.
Speaking of expanding animals: I took a good long hard look at my English Angoras last year, and as the boys grew I noticed something wrong with their hind legs. All of them have what are called "pinched hips" which means that their back feet splay out. And that's not good. Also, as they grew out, their coats seemed to change and become more difficult to handle, with a more cottony texture than is desirable or usable. So UniKitty will be moving on with the rest of the boys. Chang will be used as the meat-mutt sire and a new EA buck will be brought in to be a herd-sire. He comes from a line of easy-care coats and his breeder is hoping that he 1) possess it himself and 2) passes it on. He'll be bred to both Duo and my new EA doe from last fall, Eowyn. His name is Legolas. I also decided to get into Satin Angoras last fall, and oh my! Their coats as compared to EA's are a lot easier to care for. Still a lot of work, but not as much as the EA's. I have three litters growing right now - two SA litters and a meat-mutt litter. Honey turned out to be an excellent mother, and would have 8 babies if I hadn't made a mistake and thought she wasn't bred. She lost six having them on the wire. Her two remaining babies are doing so well though and will be 8 weeks next week. I plan to grow them out to 16 weeks before their processed. One of my SA kits will join them, as he has fur and not wool and that is an undesirable trait in a wool breed! Otherwise, I have a short list of four SA kits that I'd like to hold onto, but I'm trying to get that down to two or three. Two does from one litter and two bucks from the other. One doe is a definite keeper and at this point looks to be an improvement on her parents as she has the right dimensions currently, very awesome crimp to her wool, and is a good candidate for growing out. The other doe looks very similar to her mother, a bit longer in the shoulders than I'd like, but solid hips and decent wool. So I'm not sure about her... the two bucks from the other litter that I'm watching are just solid bodies at this point, with blocky heads, so their probably keepers. It's hard doing evaluations at this stage and it's a constant process. And they are all so adorable!
Thursday, May 26, 2016
The Depression Monster
It really is like a monster.
Creeps out of secret places in your head.
I've been having a difficult time with it lately. And I'm having issues getting it under control. I know that stress is the main culprit, driving it into the forefront. But I also haven't been taking very good care of myself lately. I'm so worried about finances that I'm stressing about every penny. I know that I shouldn't be so worried all the time. It keeps me from sleeping well, it keeps me from enjoying life. When I'm not stressing about money, I'm feeling like a failure because the house is a mess. I yell at the dog, the cats, and cry to my husband most days. I miss having time to read, to color, to paint, to do yoga, to just relax. But I feel like I'm being pulled in a hundred different directions because I can't seem to focus on one thing. If I accomplish something, I feel like it doesn't matter because I still have 5,000 things left to do.
I hate feeling like this. I just want to relax.
But the monster isn't letting me.
When I think I've got him down, he creeps back in again.
#welcometodepression
#depressionchronicles
Creeps out of secret places in your head.
I've been having a difficult time with it lately. And I'm having issues getting it under control. I know that stress is the main culprit, driving it into the forefront. But I also haven't been taking very good care of myself lately. I'm so worried about finances that I'm stressing about every penny. I know that I shouldn't be so worried all the time. It keeps me from sleeping well, it keeps me from enjoying life. When I'm not stressing about money, I'm feeling like a failure because the house is a mess. I yell at the dog, the cats, and cry to my husband most days. I miss having time to read, to color, to paint, to do yoga, to just relax. But I feel like I'm being pulled in a hundred different directions because I can't seem to focus on one thing. If I accomplish something, I feel like it doesn't matter because I still have 5,000 things left to do.
I hate feeling like this. I just want to relax.
But the monster isn't letting me.
When I think I've got him down, he creeps back in again.
#welcometodepression
#depressionchronicles
Monday, May 23, 2016
My amazing husband
So I didn't take the day off on that Friday. I pushed myself passed my limit and crashed for about a week. I'm still recovering. It's hard for my husband to watch me cry for any reason, and it's so frustrating for both of us when I cry for no/every reason.
He was very gentle with me.
He always is.
I'm trying to let go more and be more forgiving of myself.
Of him, I forgive everything.
Seriously, I don't even remember some of what others might consider big things.
He asked for my forgiveness about something once, and I just told him it was already forgotten and smiled.
He cried then.
Anyways, DH came to my rescue today with our washer/dryer unit and laundry cubby. It's a stackable and its been tilted since it was installed (came with the rent house, but we were already moved in when it came). The dryer door is positioned in such a way that while I'm bending over removing clothes from the washer the door starts swinging shut. I've hit my head on it too many times to count. So today he fixed it. Not totally fixed as it still isn't level. But the door no longer swings shut! I should no longer be hitting my head on that door every other week! He also hung a shelf in there so I can put some miscellaneous laundry stuff on that instead of on top of the dryer where I can barely reach it!
I have an amazing husband :)
He was very gentle with me.
He always is.
I'm trying to let go more and be more forgiving of myself.
Of him, I forgive everything.
Seriously, I don't even remember some of what others might consider big things.
He asked for my forgiveness about something once, and I just told him it was already forgotten and smiled.
He cried then.
Anyways, DH came to my rescue today with our washer/dryer unit and laundry cubby. It's a stackable and its been tilted since it was installed (came with the rent house, but we were already moved in when it came). The dryer door is positioned in such a way that while I'm bending over removing clothes from the washer the door starts swinging shut. I've hit my head on it too many times to count. So today he fixed it. Not totally fixed as it still isn't level. But the door no longer swings shut! I should no longer be hitting my head on that door every other week! He also hung a shelf in there so I can put some miscellaneous laundry stuff on that instead of on top of the dryer where I can barely reach it!
I have an amazing husband :)
Thursday, May 12, 2016
Recognizing exhaustion
I feel like saying hello to my old friend exhaustion.
"Hello"
Now that I've done that (she said hello back, by the way. Okay, so she didn't really say hello, it was more of a shrugging nod of acknowledgement but whatever), I think I'm just feeling a bit stressed. Finances, work situations, and school are all getting to me, so my mind desperately wants to escape all of the stressors, which it does by telling me I'm exhausted.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a part of depression.
Depression some times manifests itself with an intense need to sleep for extremely long periods of time. This can go on for weeks, months, years even before being diagnosed as depression.
Not to say that I'm not legitimately tired. I am. And one of the things I've really recognized about myself is that I have to allow myself a day or two of what I like to call "me days" where I allow myself to be wherever I am at mentally, to do nothing productive or whatever, to just do what I want when I want to without being hard on myself. Without any negative repercussions from myself. I allow myself the space to close the door to any negative self-talk I might engage in (i.e. There are dishes, sweeping, laundry, etc to do, and you should be doing that not just sitting there binge-watching Castle and eating chips and salsa: stuff like that).
So today's self-care looks like recognizing that I need a me day tomorrow. And I'm going to take it :)
#selfcarechronicle
#depressionawareness
"Hello"
Now that I've done that (she said hello back, by the way. Okay, so she didn't really say hello, it was more of a shrugging nod of acknowledgement but whatever), I think I'm just feeling a bit stressed. Finances, work situations, and school are all getting to me, so my mind desperately wants to escape all of the stressors, which it does by telling me I'm exhausted.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a part of depression.
Depression some times manifests itself with an intense need to sleep for extremely long periods of time. This can go on for weeks, months, years even before being diagnosed as depression.
Not to say that I'm not legitimately tired. I am. And one of the things I've really recognized about myself is that I have to allow myself a day or two of what I like to call "me days" where I allow myself to be wherever I am at mentally, to do nothing productive or whatever, to just do what I want when I want to without being hard on myself. Without any negative repercussions from myself. I allow myself the space to close the door to any negative self-talk I might engage in (i.e. There are dishes, sweeping, laundry, etc to do, and you should be doing that not just sitting there binge-watching Castle and eating chips and salsa: stuff like that).
So today's self-care looks like recognizing that I need a me day tomorrow. And I'm going to take it :)
#selfcarechronicle
#depressionawareness
Monday, May 9, 2016
Post show and self-care catch-up
Last week was very stressful. My DH and I spent a good chunk of the week building a new carrying cage and a new grooming table for the rabbits for the show. As well as work, school-work for me, website building for him, and him putting in job applications and doing interviews for prospective jobs. I decided where I am going to plant my garden, as the container garden I have going isn't working out too well. Our yard is a lovely environment for all sorts of bugs, and the caterpillars have been wrecking my beautiful basil plant. And I think Perish (I named our resident Opossum) has been eating my ripening tomatoes :( So when I do plant the garden, I'm going to have to fence it, and I may have found a use for all of the eggshells we go through.
The rabbits did pretty well at the show. It turned out I was the only one showing angoras that day, but that meant I got to talk to one of the judges about some specifics with my tiny herd, and I got to feel good about my pick of the litter as the judge thought he was the best as well, though he recommended growing them out more as they are only 3 months old and still have some developing to do, and to see how their coats turn out. UniKitty is a definite improvement on his parents, and I will be keeping him. But Badger and Heero will likely need to find new homes. Duo I'll probably breed back to UniKitty and see if I can get better shoulders from them. Chang will become a sire to my meat mutts, as I picked up a Satin doe at the show for that purpose. We still have to decide on a name for her. Current options: Honey, Barley, or Silo. She's a beautiful, big booty doe who I hope will be an excellent mother.
So last weeks self-care looked like working with my hands, getting blisters, and playing in the dirt. It also looked like spending an hour on the phone philosophizing with my father about politics, depression, and self-talk. I got to discuss things that I learned while in therapy a year ago and Dad talked about Philippians 4 and the parallels. It was good.
Today's self-care looked like tidying up the kitchen from the trip this weekend.
The rabbits did pretty well at the show. It turned out I was the only one showing angoras that day, but that meant I got to talk to one of the judges about some specifics with my tiny herd, and I got to feel good about my pick of the litter as the judge thought he was the best as well, though he recommended growing them out more as they are only 3 months old and still have some developing to do, and to see how their coats turn out. UniKitty is a definite improvement on his parents, and I will be keeping him. But Badger and Heero will likely need to find new homes. Duo I'll probably breed back to UniKitty and see if I can get better shoulders from them. Chang will become a sire to my meat mutts, as I picked up a Satin doe at the show for that purpose. We still have to decide on a name for her. Current options: Honey, Barley, or Silo. She's a beautiful, big booty doe who I hope will be an excellent mother.
So last weeks self-care looked like working with my hands, getting blisters, and playing in the dirt. It also looked like spending an hour on the phone philosophizing with my father about politics, depression, and self-talk. I got to discuss things that I learned while in therapy a year ago and Dad talked about Philippians 4 and the parallels. It was good.
Today's self-care looked like tidying up the kitchen from the trip this weekend.
Sunday, May 1, 2016
More self-care and English Angoras
Today's self-care looked like planning a rabbit grooming table and planning for the show next weekend!
I have English Angora rabbits. They are big balls of fluff and a whole lot of maintenance. So today I pulled out my three junior bucks and gave them all a thorough brushing. The boys aren't fond of holding still so its always a test of my patience with them and them with me. We all did pretty good today. Especially since they had to endure the discomfort of getting tattooed today as well. Tattooing is a way to identify rabbits from one another and it is required at an ARBA sanctioned show, which this weekends show is. I'll get to meet up with other Angora breeders for the first time, and I'm really hoping to gain a lot of knowledge and wisdom from them and their experiences. I'm getting nervous about how my rabbits will do and I'm just hoping the judges will have some good comments about them. I don't expect to win anything with my current stock, as my senior doe Duo is 3 years old (past normal show career), and the boys are only 3 months old and have a lot of growing and maturing to do. Their coats are currently in transition, so they are kind of an ugly cute right now. But grooming takes about 5 minutes everyday, mostly to get them used to it :) All of them currently hate the blower, but they get that for about 5 minutes everyday as well. Thankfully they are starting to get used to that as well!
I think I'm going to go do some coloring now though. More self-care.
Feeling a bit more calm today.
#selfcare
#depression
#carechronicle
I have English Angora rabbits. They are big balls of fluff and a whole lot of maintenance. So today I pulled out my three junior bucks and gave them all a thorough brushing. The boys aren't fond of holding still so its always a test of my patience with them and them with me. We all did pretty good today. Especially since they had to endure the discomfort of getting tattooed today as well. Tattooing is a way to identify rabbits from one another and it is required at an ARBA sanctioned show, which this weekends show is. I'll get to meet up with other Angora breeders for the first time, and I'm really hoping to gain a lot of knowledge and wisdom from them and their experiences. I'm getting nervous about how my rabbits will do and I'm just hoping the judges will have some good comments about them. I don't expect to win anything with my current stock, as my senior doe Duo is 3 years old (past normal show career), and the boys are only 3 months old and have a lot of growing and maturing to do. Their coats are currently in transition, so they are kind of an ugly cute right now. But grooming takes about 5 minutes everyday, mostly to get them used to it :) All of them currently hate the blower, but they get that for about 5 minutes everyday as well. Thankfully they are starting to get used to that as well!
I think I'm going to go do some coloring now though. More self-care.
Feeling a bit more calm today.
#selfcare
#depression
#carechronicle
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)