Dog training - Benelli

 Over the last couple years, our pup Willow had some puppies. She actually had 20 puppies in two years. That's an insane amount of puppies. We had kept a pup out of the last batch but unfortunately, Mango had a farm accident and we were heartbroken. 

Originally, I had said to wait until fall to get a dog because I absolutely did not want to drag a dog everywhere. 

Obviously I immediately found us a puppy. Obviously. 

She is a Springer Spaniel/Chesapeake lab x. This is new to us since we've only had labs and then Lab/Poodle. I had messaged Corey about it and he was like ... yeah sounds good. So the kids and I went to get her. She was WAY smaller than I was expecting. And ADORABLE. And stinking cute. 

She came with us to the lake and was sweet and pretty potty trained - for the most part. My memory is kinda fuzzy on some aspects (trauma block probably). She came with us in the boat everywhere too. We soon discovered she had an umbilical hernia but we were already in love with her so it was monitored. It has actually almost completely gone away so it'll be repaired when she's spayed if it's still there. 

Fast forward to the fall. I forgot how hard it is to train bird dogs to not bring you the birds that live in the yard. Benelli is an excellent bird dog. And rabbit dog. We have done ALL things and her obedience on leash is perfect. The moment she senses freedom though ... that girl is like ... I will retrieve all the things for you - dead or alive. 

Now, we have even tried TWO separate shock collars and ... I kinda think she likes it. Here's how that went. 

I got the new shock collar and put it on because we thought the other one just didn't work properly for her. We got it on nice and snug and then tried the 'buzzer/bell' sound. She would look at us. Perfect. Tried the vibration. She didn't like that. Perfect. Okay let's get outside. 

Mistake #1: should have kept her on the leash. 

She immediately takes off. So I use all my commands and when that doesn't work, I send the sound to her. Nada. She keeps running around. Okay I do the vibrate. That makes her a little uncomfortable but absolutely not enough to stop. I turn on the shock. 

Absolutely freaking nothing. Just kidding. Not nothing. She stops and looks at me and I give her the command 'Here.' She's usually really good at that when there's nothing to chase. 

Benelli: Got it. Run around some more. 

So I raise the setting and she ignores me. You guys we got it all the way up to 30 and she was bouncing and jumping and I kinda think she liked it. 

Corey: Well ... um ... we need a new plan.

Me: Yeah we sure do. (pause a moment) dammit I think she likes it.

#awesome, #dogtrainingabirddog, #definitelyretrieves

I forgot how to be funny for a while

 It's been a really long time since I've posted here in our blog site. 

For a while, I was not funny. I was actually going through some not funny things. 

But since my last post ... there have been some major changes. 

First off, we have pigs. Maybe we had pigs before but ... now we have more. Did I tell you Wilbur died? He did. Now we have Steve, Norah, Nutless and Oink (mama pig). 

We also have meat bunnies. And pet bunnies. 

And we got a new dog, Benelli! 

So this is an update post that will preview a ton of other updates that will remind you of why you probably don't live on a farm. 

- You're welcome. 

eggs

Ah yes! When you procrastinate and suddenly have a bunch of eggs....

Busy weekend

 This weekend has been crazy busy. There is a bit of a Covid outbreak in our region and I had to reorganize work accordingly so I can be home with my kids for online learning. (This will be very interesting with rural internet). 

In other news, I have a very sick little baby turkey poult. I think it's the shavings because she hasn't been exposed to anyone or anything at all. She lives in the house since her hatch day. Poor little one has moved to 'Sick Bay' with Elian and being treated with vitamins for now until I can get other stuff. I wipe her little nose every few hours and clear out as many shavings as I can when I see them. Poor little one! I'm SO glad we switched over. 

We also found Nolan's missing chick. I have no idea where he was but today he showed up in the barn! We did not, however, find Ares and I think he got eaten. 

The meat chickens are outgrowing their brooder - quickly and I can't wait until they feather out some more so they can move outside to their outdoor coop and eventually free range with everyone else. In the past they don't really ... range ... very far. 

We have 3 external pips on the turkey eggs today but nothing on the guinea ones. I really hope they hatch! My guineas haven't laid eggs in weeks! I'm fairly certain the dogs are eating their eggs. 

Take 50

 It's been over a year since I published a post. I was just doing them on Facebook but I want to get off of there so here we are again. Take ... 50 probably. 

Since last year we have gotten turkeys and guineas. We have three turkeys - 1 Tom and 2 hens (Henry, Madison and Annette) We also have our first two turkey poults from them! (Alice and Felicita)
#Idontnamethem

My chick coop is filled with chicks growing (including many silkies and meat chicks) and we have 3 guines in the yard that randomly lay eggs whenever they want. 

I will be posting more updates here over the next while and about our shenanigans. Keep checking back!

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.