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!
