Spring?!

Today I dedicated the bulk of my day to getting the back cleaned up and getting ready for my garden.  I had my cell with me, because I found out my grandpa had gotten his regular bloodwork done, and his platelet levels were way down.  I was sort of torn on whether or not I should go.  I figured the first morning there it may be crowded so I decided to go tommorow morning instead!

I ended up tearing down my hoop coop.  Despite all my preps, something had dug under the heavy fence I had at ground level.  Sigh, back to square one.  I think I am done with birds for the time being.  My dad has been interested in rabbits for a while and I must admit, I have been too.  I used to have a small herd of New Zealand White's.  Maybe it's time to revisit that experiment...... hm.........

I am thinking of a small colony.  one buck (and probably borrowed as needed) and 3 does.  The large 6x8' flight cage I got last summer will be the start of my project.. and I had rescued 6 fence panels that were used as gates... so they are 3x5'.  I was thinking of putting those to the left of the large cage in a [_] shape and putting heavy 2x2 wire over the top.  That way I could remove the wire as needed if I need to run the bunnies out of there and into another spot.

Now they need a den right?  Hm... I am thinking a few rubbermaid totes with holes cut in the bottom.. And the large flight pen?  Probably get a camo tarp to cover it in the summer time, a black one for the winter time.  Keep the food dry, and garbage out of the water.  Oh yeah, did I forget the bedding?  Lots of hay and straw :)

Lazy Saturday -

Today has been a lazy day.  It's 2pm and I'm still in my jammies.  I'm still full from dinner we had last night :)  We made from scratch home-made pizzas!!

Ok, ya'll probably know I'm a gadget geek in general so I decided to use my bread machine to make the pizza dough.
1 cup water
3 cups bread flour
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons of bread yeast.

Ok that takes care of the pizza dough enough for a 12-15" pizza depending on how thin you like it.  after you put your machine on dough and pull it out 10 minutes later lightly flour it.  Toss, press, stretch it out.  Then let it stand for 10 minutes.  The yeast makes it rise a bit, so I push down the crust all around except the very edges.  Then your pizza sauce, cheese, and any other toppings..... Bake for 15-20 minutes and you'll be drooling!

Metroid 3 Prime Corruption for the Wii.... Playing that with my son.  Will give a review tommorow when we've beaten it ;)

Feb 18th

Well, today is shaping up to be a great day.  I woke up on time, had my coffee and checked my morning emails.  I am thinking of making a couple of lean-to type structures to keep my outdoor toys n tools in.  I've know about this site for a while, but http://www.snapclamp.com/ is where I am fixing to order some snapclamps for 1" and 1/2" PVC pipe.  The 1/2" stuff is going to be row covers, and the 1" will be used in the construction of the lean-to's.  I am thinking about doing something similiar to the carport shown on the website except put some walls on it on two sides.  Keep the sun and rain off it at least.

I also forgot to add, I've got 16 strawberry plants set in peat pots filled with worm castings.  I've never had any luck getting strawberries by seed, so this will be a first for me.  I also got 4 cherry tomato plants started.  I am hoping to transplant those into pots and have them on the back patio this year... Either that or I'll try that Topsy-Turvy thing I picked up on clearance at the Home Depot last fall.  $8.99 ... Hm........

More projects for this spring............

• Build a large clothes hanger for outside.  Use heavy duty 1/2" coated steel braided cable.  It'll help to have somewhere to work if I get a bunch of Cornish Cross's...

• Put two new leads out for the dogs.  Beast the wonder mutt broke his last one... And Lassie the JRT terror always gets tangled up on hers... what to do what to do......

Sleep - When too much hurts!

Ok so last night I didn't get to bed till close to 1am.  Not too late for me, but I slept in.  Till 11:30.  Woke up feeling headachy, light sensitive, and loud noises bug me.  ACK!  By the time I got home last night I tried to catch up on emails and my favorite message board but it wasn't to happen.  I was out cold before I got comfortable.  And slept like a rock.

So this morning (ok, afternoon) I am finally getting caught up on stuff.  Hopefully a project I've been working on will be finished tonight.  I'll also have my foster daughters give me a hand with some other stuff I want to get done around the house.  We'll have a little work, a little fun, then I have to plunge out the dishwasher YUCKO! 

Anyways, ya'll have fun.  Wife is making goulash tonight.  Guess I'll have to put my diet off for one more night... good thing I have plenty of carrots and celery to fill the empty spot in my stomach that isn't occupied by coffee!

I'm Back!!!!

Well I sort of gave up on trying to keep up with this last year.  The garden didn't turn out great.  We had a very cool summer, with lots of rain.  More than once I had to replant things because it was drown.  This year I am thinking of doing raised beds for the most part.  I know it won't be as big as my row garden, but I'll be able to plant sooner, more control over the soil conditions (I have hard clay as it is) and I could do my own starts right in them if I plan things out right.  Here's to starting over!!!

Things in the hopper this year...

• Dani's Graduation & open house
• Building raised beds and filling with well composted material
• Small hoops to cover them so even if we get a bunch of rain in late march all april I can control how much hits the soil I want it to
• Cornish X's
• New Zealand White rabbits... Something my father and I have been talking about a bit.
• Moving the hoop coop and add electric fencing with a better system to get in and out. 

More Pics!

Decided to snap some pictures of the chicks since it's been a while. I ended up with a total of 12 quail that hatched and lived beyond the first few days, and 4 mixed breed chickens (BR & BO). Thought I'd give you a couple of pictures. The quail I am showing is a Tuxedo, sort of a pattern that looks like a penguin. After taking the chicken's picture, he didn't want to go back into the brooder, so I took him outside for a short while :)

Hatching Day AKA Babies!!!!!!!!!

So far I've had 10 coturnix quail hatch. Ya'll know how I love pics so here ya go! Not sure if they are going to be called McNuggets, or Tasty Yummy Egg Makers!!!!!