Hydrant Shed

Today, my husband almost died. Some of it was his fault, some of it was accidental and the rest was because I almost killed him myself.

He started off by sleeping in. He wasn't out of the house for any chores until after noon. He dumped the loader for me and I then re-filled it and I finished cleaning my summer coop. Well, the chicken side. I still have to clean out the pig side but we have to take the wall down for that (that's another story). While I was shoveling, I got annoyed of him sitting in the loader and I demanded he be productive.

Now, if I could rewind this, I probably should have let him just sit in the loader. 😒

This set in motion a great many events. He made plans.

I was, at this point, blissfully unaware of his plans. I was still cleaning in the coop and tossing eggs to the pigs as the chickens laid them. (They are doing so much better already) I could hear banging and the occasional swear but paid it no heed. At one point, I went out to check on the kids and move my little chicks to the out coop. We let out the 10 week old chicks with the big chickens and just put the four smaller d'uccles in the safety coop. They loved it! I watched Corey make progress on the small building, vaguely remembering his plans for it. Meh. Moved on. 

Occasionally, he would ask me to stand on something or hold something, but it was still rather uneventful at this point. I asked him how he was going to lift it and he said something like:

Magic. 

I tried to argue but he insisted magic would work. I went into the house to get snacks for kids and then was back outside to make plans for my summer coop. 

That's when problems started. Now … he did manage to use magic to lift up the small building. Huh. Cool. Ok. No problem. Now I started to pay attention to his plans. 

They were shoddy, sketchy and relied heavily on positive thinking. I was hesitant but he's moved building before so … ok. Anyways … I made suggestions and they were ignored. Seriously thought. If I could rewind here I would have forced the issue. I was right in the end. 0_0. 

Everything was fine until he tried math. There was some insisting the building would fit until I pointed out the inside of the building is smaller than the outside. It isn't a Tardis. 

#Icouldhaveusedatardis

Once we established math, there was still arguing. Looking back, I see now I should have insisted and this next part may have been less painful. We got everything lined up, which was hard because railroad ties are super heavy. Then. He began to put it down. There was yelling here because he couldn't see me and if I was where he could see me, then I couldn't see the lineup. This resulted in many ups and downs and shouting and short tempers. But wait. There's more. 

Finally. He got out of the tractor and came over. I pointed out the problem and he set about trying to fix it and then I noticed the tractor … moving. W.T.F. I thought it was just settling but then it wsa literally moving. I screamed at Corey yanking him out of the building so he could run to the tractor but I had my arms holding the building (because I'm suddenly Hercules!) so he couldn't run across. I shoved him the other way and he was confused because certain death was that way ….

anyways. the building caught on the hydrant by the time Corey did manage to catch up to the loader and it bent it and I was losing my mind. (I was actually pretty calm-jk no.) Corey also decided to blame the universe for everything going wrong but I corrected him with a few I told you sos and if you had done it my ways … (that's what a good wife does in stressful moments - super helpful) (it's not) Corey solved the loader problem by putting a twig behind the wheel. 

How reassuring. 

Lucky for us, the hydrant still works. I really should have reconsidered his leadership here, but no … because not enough magical drama apparently. He explained to me what the next plan was. I mostly stared at him wondering how he even comes up with these plans. I then spent the next thirty minutes moving railroad ties by myself. inch by inch. I refused to let him get out of the loader. 

I'm traumatized for life. (Forever. Seriously)

But wait. There's still more … the building refused to let go of the loader, so Corey had a plan. WHYYY!!!!!???? He made me put blocks in it. Still didn't work. Don't worry he has another magical plan - he drags the biggest post I've ever seen and waves his hands around explaining his plan. Now we have the loader with no brakes and a quad with no ability to shift out of gear. 

Super fun. 

He hooks up the quad to the post thing. I point out it won't fit but he insists it will. Guess what … it didn't. Lots of craziness here and then the building is literally falling over and I'm like fuckit. Corey pushes up the building. (HAHA What?!?) I watched and then came around and between the two of us we got it to stay up (magic seriously.) and get it onto the blocks. William had to hold the brakes on the quad the whole time and I made Corey park the loader in a crevice, against some trees so it wouldn't go anywhere. 

I go into the building and I could cry. My bucket doesn't fit by the hydrant and all I wanted to scream was I TOLD YOU SO at the top of my lungs but Corey was in a different mood. He was ecstatic. The building was in place. 

I stared at him. Maybe a bucket was thrown, maybe it was 'gently tossed' maybe tears were shed because of being upset and maybe they were shed because of injury, maybe death threats were made but I mean those details are muddled up ...

Here is a summary of important things to remember: 

- the loader refuses to acknowledge the parking brake. 

- screaming at it to stop will not make it stop.

- pushing Corey to the loader while simultaneously telling him to hold the building is unproductive.

- there are not big enough railroad ties to put a building on when you have to move them by cms.

- attempting to hold the loader and prevent it from rolling backwards is not ideal.  

- bent hydrants still work 

- the quad has no ability to shift out of gear. 

- we're all alive. 

Now, if we had done this the way I had wanted to do it in the first place, nobody would have been at risk or panicking and it would be so much more useful.

#imjustsaying

My body hurts in all the places. I am barely moving this evening. I'm making the plans from now on. 

I aged 30 years today. 

1 month

I have been home for a month. I have left the yard twice. Once to get granola bars and once to get my chicken saddle. I didn't make it the second time because the roads were too muddy. It was scary at first, watching all the news reports and seeing the scary things. Now it's just peaceful and eye opening. 

I, literally, did not have enough time in my days to do the important things. I would work all day, come home, shove supper down the kids throat (if I had time) and then off to an activity. Late night work on my homework or computer stuff from work. I was always redoing schedules and responding to emails. 

Now, it's just, get up, have breakfast and get everyone set up for school. We have a nice routine. We eat together all the time. Last week, it was so nice to get so much done. Nikki learned to ride her bike, we take walks and are outside planning our garden and new chicken coop. I am hatching chicks, taking care of my chickens, and today we caught Sugar. She needs a haircut and a hoof trim. We spent an hour picking up and holding her hooves so when the farrier comes she's not a brat. She was only a brat a few times. It's been really nice and I'm grateful for our health. 

I am seeing with my own eyes where my children are needing educational support. Amélie dives into anything that involves writing and I have to drag her to math. William can understand something after one explanation, and once he gets started he can get it done. It's getting him started that can drag sometimes haha. Nikki loves seeing her friends and misses them crazy! I think she needs more facetime chats with them. I'll have to reach out and find some parents that are okay with Nikki chatting up their kids. She really enjoyed schoolwork and likes reading but I'm not 'Mme' and don't help her enough. Nolan thought he was so clever today with his circles. His planet drawing looks more like a cookie and he 'would rather not' write his name but even he likes the online learning. 

They all miss their friends though. 

In chicken news : 

Phoenix can't be out in the yard. We thought with the free ranging in full force he would be safe. His entire tail feathers were pulled out. He is with the chicks and will stay with them from now on. You know what this means?

I need another little pen. I vote the trampoline … I'm going to investigate it tomorrow. 

I also have a hen that thinks she wants to be broody. She even has a collection of eggs going, but then forgets where they are. It's really tiring so we've also moved her to the chick barn. 

Hopefully everyone in the chick barn grows quickly now because in a couple weeks we will have a lot of chicks hatching. Most of them have homes but some my not haha. We'll see after the hatch. 

My 2nd incubator has no turner so I have to turn by hand. It's time consuming because I also crammed as many eggs as possible in there. I have, since then, culled a few eggs. 

I had put fridge eggs in there, and if you buy eggs from us you can be reassured that they will not grow chicks. At least none of the ones I put in there. I had to try. 

I also have eggs from Blue AND one for SURE from Honey. I am pretty excited to see those babies as well as from a hen I know that Phoenix actually liked. 

Ok. Tomorrow. I will actually post updated pics of those 2 month old chicks. Probably. Maybe. 

Also : Nikki sang an entire song about poop and sent it to her siblings on messenger. 

I have no idea what day it is

I woke up to it snowing this morning and was immediately annoyed, but it was quiet so I took advantage of it. I pulled out my laptop and finished my final exam for my 3rd course of the year. I have one class left to finish by June 2020. I should have some time to get that done. ;)

But. The best part of this is that I will only have TWO classes and TWO practicums left before I am officially done my certificate for ECE. It will then be onto my level III classes! EEK excited! Just gotta get there.

I've also been trying to order stuff for the kids' birthdays but Amazon isn't shipping ANYTHING that isn't essential. I get it but I'm a little annoyed. I want to make each kid a 'box' of fun, crafty, unique items for them. I do have quite a bit sorted out just need to get it organized now.

My hen in the bathroom is taking a turn for the worse I think. I should have gotten to her sooner and I think I could have helped her. She is eating a bit but is moving less. :( We are sad but are still hoping for the best.

In better news, three of our four kittens have wonderful homes to go to. Disclaimer, we don't actively seek homes for our cats because our farm is perfectly happy with many cats. It's a farm, it has mice and birds and other stuff I don't want eating my chickens. We have three outside cats and two inside cats (soon to be summer outside cats) and we will be keeping Amber the calico kitten. I will now have 4 calicos and Ginger. Ginger was given to us a few years ago by Azure, along with her siblings and Julie the mama cat. I was so upset when Julie got hit on the road. :( Ginger was eating chickens last year but this year … seems to have gotten over it. Hopefully she really is over it because she's kind of nice now.

I also forgot to get updated pictures of my chicks. Tomorrow (again) I will try to do a post just about them. It's their first day in their outside run tomorrow- I'll report on that.

Nikki learned to ride her bike today. She's been working on it for a few days and I'm glad she's gotten the hang of it because I'm tired of running. 

Day 28 - RIP Auggie

It was a sad day today. Our little Auggie passed away. I realized he wasn't eating as much as he needed and he was declining quickly. He passed away in our hands and he will be buried in our garden later this spring. Summer, his little buddy from the tiny egg, was relocated to the farm with her other siblings so she doesn't have to be alone. She was quite upset at being in her brooder alone and William had to hold her most of the evening while I made arrangements for her to go somewhere else.

Speaking of chicks, the chicks that hatched are doing well! One did pass away from what I suspect was a bowel obstruction issue, but from what I've been told the rest are doing well. There was also some farm eggs hatching at another person's house. Four of those have hatched out well and they are still waiting to see if there will be more.

Incubator update : Running two incubators is more time consuming. One of them is requiring hand-turning so I've been planning that about three times a day. At first I was turning every single egg, but then I imagined what a hen would do and I gently run my hands down each row and they kind of roll a little. (shrug) We will see what happens with that. There are over 50 eggs in that incubator. In the other one, with the turner, there are 17 bantam eggs (out of 18) and 19 standard eggs (out of 23) growing. Well, technically there are 4 eggs I can't tell in the standard ones but until I can tell I'm going to count them. BOTH incubators are having a bit of trouble stabilizing their temperatures all of a sudden, and I think it's the sensor in both of them. I am wondering if it just gets super dusty. I'm temped to vacuum it but … it would suck if the sensor broke completely. My turner is also losing it's motor. I've been checking it often and even turning it off for a couple hours here and there. I'm going to need to invest in two more thermometers. Right now I have one in each but I feel safer with two in each. I don't worry about humidity during the incubation until lockdown, then I bring it up to about 60% ish. The first eggs should be hatching close to the 1st of May.

Other news, it was finally nice outside for me to really take stock of the chicken yard. I had a friend make a chicken saddle for my hens and it works really well! Or … at least it looks adorable and she looks so fashionable wearing it. My friend is going to make me at least 4 more. These little hen saddles protect my hens backs from the roosters. A couple of my girls have gouges from being the 'favorites'. Poor girls.

I also have a hen in my bathroom, again. I really thought she would be dead by now but I can't bring myself to throw her outside. I have been giving her a bath in ACV and Epsom salts daily as well as hand spooning her vitamin water. Tomorrow I'm going to hard boil some eggs and give her two baths and hope that helps. I'm fairly certain she is egg bound OR the egg has cracked inside of her. I need to act quicker when this happens.

We are also looking at changing our feed. I want to start mixing it ourselves. Corey is less eager for this project. I will be looking for flax seed, oats, barley, maybe some split peas, corn maybe? I will see what's available around me from some local farmers. I want to get myself set up for the winter too, but that project might be trickier. We have to fix up our summer barn to be a little better for the winter so I can house MORE chickens than usual. Plus guineas.

Alright, that's a big update. I'll leave the rest for tomorrow! 

Day 23 - Tiny egg and chocolate chicks!

Sorry. I missed a couple days.

I was uberly distracted by chicks hatching.

There has been 18 chicks that hatched and there are still 2 eggs in the incubator. Both have had their air sacs drawback and I can still see movement in my tiny egg. I'm trying to remain calm. This hatch has been so adorable and exciting and I really, really want that tiny egg to hatch.

There have been some adorable and unique chicks that hatched. I'm almost sorry to see them go, but I'm also really happy they will go to a good home and I can hatch more. I hope I get more chocolate colored ones, definitely.

I am sad about the chick with the crooked beak/deformity but it IS eating and drinking and so … as long as we don't see it in pain or having too hard of a time it will stay here and grow. Hopefully that tiny egg hatches and it will have a buddy until they are a little bigger to go into the chick coop. I'll add some pictures another day when it's uploading properly.

Day 20

20 days into quarantine.

I have no idea what is going on in the outside world. That's not entirely true, I somewhat am aware of what is happening out there but am blissfully unaware of the severity. I haven't left the house more than once in 20 days. I may be going to st louis tomorrow to drop off some eggs, but perhaps not. Perhaps Corey will go.

I should get more details about what's going on with the virus but I also know my anxiety couldn't quite handle it yet so for now I will read the highlights that seem important to me. Stay home, school the kids, hatch the chicks, clean the house.

The schooling was okay today. William finished most of his stuff (we can't get his French stuff figured out but we'll work on it next week), Nikki is a keener and finished about 30 seconds after her teacher was done talking. Amélie has not started on any of her work, except math which hurt my brain. I'm disappointed in myself because I love math but explaining it to someone who doesn't want to learn it is very difficult.

I got absolutely none of my own work done today. Tomorrow I will have to focus on that in order to finish up one class and take another class.

We also had a very sad loss today. J-Feathers, our unique little chick that wasn't growing feathers passed away. Amélie is heartbroken. She always takes it pretty hard. We had some good news though and had a chick hatch today! It's all black with yellow tipped wings. I'm thinking it's very likely a barred rock x hen. The ones that grow to be all black, (obviously).

I also put a new hen with Phoenix and realized … he has no idea what is going on LOL. He tried but … no … so I'm going to let the girls out and keep one hen with him and the chicks. He's not quite ready - which is okay too - but disappointing. He may do a lot of growing once the weather is better and they can all be outside!

There is one more pipped egg in there and hopefully there will be lots of action tonight and tomorrow. Most of these chicks will be going to their new home on Monday, so they better hatch by then.

Also - I got a new incubator! That's right - I now have two. Boo. Yah. I have the second one settling in right now and over the next few days I will adjust as needed and then start a second hatch while the other one finishes up and gets cleaned.

I am very excited for all the new babies! 

Happy Anniversary, babe!

It has been 15 years since I married Corey and this morning, I discovered that we share our anniversary with Prince Charles and Camilla. Interesting. I think I might have already known this. We don't have any plans. I might do some yoga, take a shower, brush my teeth … we'll see. Oh wait! I do have plans. It's day 20 of incubation which means there should hopefully be some pips and hatching going on. I did hear some peeping overnight which means we have some internal pips going on. At least one. So, I'm actually going to be pretty busy today getting a temporary area ready for the chicks that hatch until they go to their new home. Hm. I suppose we might watch a movie tonight? (JK watching the incubator) I am definitely not cooking ……. I will probably cook something because we'll get hungry and I don't want a corndog. Anyways, after 15 years of marriage we are doing this quarantine thing pretty well I think. Except his moustache has got to go. I have not liked it for a long time but now I have to literally stare at it every. single. day. and … it has to go. He tried to tell me something (hopefully not important) last night and I just couldn't take it. I immediately left the room. He was a little bit … uh … insulted but … no. Can't do it. I remember on our wedding there was very little snow on the ground, as opposed to this year. I also remember our wedding meal, it was amazing and there were crazy amounts of desert. I had a beautiful dress and lovely hair and married an amazing man. (who did not have a moustache). #pepereandloismadedessertandallthefood We have been through some incredibly hard times and it hasn't always been smooth. We have four beautiful babies earthside and 4 (probably) beautiful babies in heaven. We have a home, jobs (kinda right now), vehicles and lots of animals. We have a good life. I can't imagine doing this without him (like fixing stuff). The kids and I love him to pieces (except the moustache - it has to go).

xxoo

Day 19

I just realized that the quarantine days are the same as the days we are into the chick incubation. I knew that at the beginning but … I guess I forgot. (shrug)

Today, Nikki's class went off pretty well again. It usually does. She did all her homework AND read a pile of books. It was actually super annoying because she likes to read out loud in a very monotonous and obnoxiously loud voice. She's doing really well but I was trying to edit an essay and get Amélie onto her platform.

Amélie did not get onto her platform and neither did William. I did manage to get William's platform onto my phone and kind of figure some of it out but William won't be able to post anything on there, it'll always have to be me so that kind of sucks … or maybe it's for the best haha. (just saying).

I asked Nolan to do a little school work and he informed me that he didn't have to because he was going to invent a new dance. I didn't argue.

In my own schooling, I rocked a plagiarism exam and I struggled with a grammar quiz. Truly struggled not with correcting sentences or making them sound nice, but with the official terminology. I did not care if I was using an adverb, or a pronoun, or a conjunction. -.- so now I have to go and do a little homework on it before advancing to the next level.

In my other class, my last two assignments were waived and my final exam will be an essay! I'm actually not displeased about that since I am now an expert at recognizing plagiarism (hahaha we'll see) and I like to write words.

Chicken update wise : I lost a barred rock hen yesterday and I'm still really displeased about it today. When I went to inspect chickens this morning I didn't see anyone else struggling but this weather can seriously go away. For real! This time last year they were out and roaming around. :( I need this weather to smarten up for my chickens! My chicks are growing like crazy - except for J-feathers. I have no idea what's going on with that one … it looks … maybe it's going to be a late bloomer?

It's been an ongoing debate about which kittens are girls (originally thought they were all girls) and which ones are  boys (kinda think maybe 1 boy?) They are also superbly annoying and scratch and climb my legs. It NEEDS TO GET NICE OUT. kthanks

This post lacks a lot of charisma because I'm grumpy at the wind. Maybe tomorrow I will have a much happier post.

Oh wait! I know ... I'll add some chicken pictures.

Mille Fleur d'Uccle at 7 weeks old

Some Buff Brahma x babies at 7 weeks old

A group photo of some of the others

This is J-Feathers. He/She should really have more feathers for being just about 7 weeks. Hmmm

Day 18 - Technical difficulties

Day 18 consisted of multiple technical difficulties with our online learning. Amélie joined hers with 10 minutes left and only Nikki was really able to kind of participate in hers. We are still waiting to hear if the school will be lending us a computer to use for the distance learning. The kids don't really 'need it' but it will be good for them to keep at least up to date with what they've already learned.

I'm just going to interject that I'm pretty sure Nikki does not talk to her school teacher the way she talks to her current … teacher. Ahem ahem. Nikki. #whysosassy? #raiseyourhandsassypants.

In other news :

My barred rock hen died today! I was so upset! And confused. She wasn't half eaten or chewed or frozen just dead. I thought maybe squished? But that is weird considering how much room is in their coop. I looked around for blood or any signs of anything weird. Nothing. Just dead. :( I will be keeping an eye out for some replacement barred rock chicks because I really like those ones and now I can't hatch my own.

Also, Phoenix the rooster attacked Nolan. It was quite hilarious but also a big nono. Phoenix did not like the discipline he got for it but he better not keep it up or he'll be gone. I don't mind the attitude as long as they don't attack the kids. That's a big nono. Nolan was crouched down playing with chicks so he did look exactly like another rooster and since Phoenix was beaten up, I could understand. I've been collecting the eggs from the girls he is with and hopefully he's been keeping himself busy and we'll have some adorable baby chicks from him soon. I think tomorrow I'm going to update the chick pictures but … I might have hatching pics to upload … we'll see.

Time to watch some youtube or Netflix or read a book because I did homework all day today. Boo yah! 

Day ... 17

It's 17 days into our … stay at home … quarantine? Isolation? … but I was not inspired to blog before day 17. I had a lot to do and still have lots to do like … cleaning. Also, I need to be cleaning my coop but the weather is seriously not cooperating and you can't shovel hard … well it's probably not hard because the coop is a bit heated. I don't want the chicks to get cold.

I have not left the house for 17 days - except once to get granola bars but that took 20 minutes.

My laying hens (and roosters) are freezing their butts off in the big coop (not really but it's not as cozy as the small coop). They are still laying really well … remarkably.

#cuelayingfreeze

The pigs are also adorable. I really just want to let them run around but I don't think they'd go anywhere because - it's cold outside. I would also be over them running around ten minutes after they started because they are pigs. They make big messes. Literally.

In other news, I have eggs in the incubator - wow this update is actually just going to be about chickens but I already facebooked that so I'm going to talk about our first day of distance learning.

First of all, Nikki was super excited and we did get her hooked up with her class. We do not have a computer that is able to handle the platform they want to do but I do have the work computer so … temporarily until the school can help us out, that's what they will use with strict supervision. I'm having a hard time following all the schedules because … 4 kids … that's … insane. Also, at the end of Nikki's class I was wearing a super low cut shirt and … I'm sorry kids. My bad. I will be more careful next time.

#awkward

I know you are thinking : Well teachers have 30 or more kids at different levels - except … they don't all have kids of various ages trying to all learn different things at the exact same time. At least in their classes they have a 'general' consensus of what's being learned. Maybe not the same letter of the alphabet but at least the alphabet.

This is not a complaint just a realistic view of all this with all my kids. I am not sure how anyone who also works is supposed to do the schooling thing but .. you do what you can.

Amélie we struggled with the platform to see the screen share so we actually have no idea what went on in that class. Ha. William was able to see everything but I was busy with my own class so … it's basically like we missed most of that. I am getting confusing emails from a lot of teachers and I know they are trying to sort it out on their end but since I can't actually access anything on the platform … I'm just … randomly doing things and probably going to be very annoying until we get organized.

Nolan didn't have class today because his teacher has a low internet connection. I feel her pain. Rural internet is kind of brutal most days.

All in all, it wasn't a complete fail.

I also made chocolate cake and read about plagiarism because that's what my next class is about and also grammar. Hahahaha. Grammar. Who needs that? Pffff.

#Ishouldworkonmygrammar, #grammaire, #plagiarismiswrong, #myeggsareinlockdown