Lunch Bags

Sabrina and I have started to bring our lunches to work.

And there's just nothing fun about bringing food in a WalMart bag.

So we needed something more fun to carry it in.

This one is for Sabrina.

It has sparkles.

And ruffles around the handles.

So does this one!

It's a little bigger in case she needs to bring extra stuff.

And mine is the little Panda guy.

(I made a striped one too, but forgot to take a picture...)

These are such easy bags.

I bought a bunch of little girl t-shirts on the clearance table.

Turn then inside out.

Stitch across the bottom.

Cut off the sleeves.

Cut around the neck.

DONE!

Monster

This is a MONSTER.

It was on the light outside the garage when I got home from school tonight.

It is bigger than my fist!

He used to have a buddy who lived on my patio.

Luckily that one moved on.

Or got eaten.

Or something.

But it used to make me nervous.

When you have a frog that big,

I just KNOW it's going to jump on my head.

And on that note,

have a nice sleep!

LOL

Random Ramblings

Today I ran out to grab some lunch

and this pulled up beside me.

I've never seen one before!

This is the "half pipe" trailer they rescue Manatees in.

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Hey Arizona!

We got snow too!

Ok, so it's really foam from the fire trucks.

But it LOOKS like snow on the side of the road.

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The new girls got to try out their new paddock.

They enjoyed getting out, spreading their wings,

and eating some bugs.

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While Rod was beefing up the fencing, I looked up.

The sky was beautiful tonight!

Looking East. 

And looking West.

Not Again!

They were supposed to be doing a controlled burn

on the other side of the preserve today.

But it got a little breezy, and it jumped their break.

Ended up in our woods at the end of the street.

The same area the arsonist burned a couple of months ago.

Only more on the other side.

So now about 80% of my trails I ride all the time

are burned.

Luckily it's spring.

It should start to grow back quickly.

As soon as it stops burning.

Lots of smoke in the air.

The girls were thirsty.

Oh!

And I found 7 eggs in the old girls' coop tonight.

There are only 7 girls in that coop.

I checked this morning when I fed and there was nothing in the nest.

Eggs take 24 to 26 hours from start to finish.

So it's not likely somebody laid two today.

Which means Old Red might have FINALLY laid one today!

(We've had her for a year... about time!)

And whoever is laying in the new girls' coop gave us another one today.

A little bit bigger than yesterday.

Super Cute!

One of my new chickens seems to have nice red

comb and wattles.

And today I got a little (VERY little) surprise.

A first little egg!

See?  Little.

And these were the other eggs I gathered today.

Isn't my little baby cute?

So tiny!

Semi Retirement

My new employer has changed our hours to 7:30 to 4:00

Five days a week.

No flex time allowed.

Which puts a serious cramp in my teaching schedule.

So.

I'm "semi" retiring.

I'll be training a new instructor this weekend for a review class.

In Green Acres.

Seriously.

LOL

The following two weekends I'll be training my replacement 

for the Boynton Beach class.

And the next weekend I'll be teaching my final Orlando class.

I'm now the "gypsy" instructor,

which means when they need a substitute, 

I'm who they call.

But I no longer have my own schools or a set schedule.

It doesn't make our bank account happy,

but I'm really looking forward to spending some time with 

my family,

my husband,

my horse,

my chickens.

I got off work today at 4:00 after an 8 hour day.

I generally work at least 9 or 10.

It felt like a half day.

And then Kyle and I went for a nice walk in the woods.

Tomorrow we might go for a bike ride.

I'm looking forward to doing some kayaking.

Taking Andy for a ride 

(as soon as his boo boo heals)

Taking more walks in the woods.

I'm also unable to use my phone or the internet at the office.

So I'm back to blogging at night.

I'll TRY to stay current.

But in the meantime, if I'm not around much,

Know that I'm having fun!

Happy Valentines!

My darling husband gave me roses a couple of weeks ago.

Always ahead of the trends, that guy!

He's been doing a run across the state every night for the past couple of nights.

Which means he doesn't get home until 6 am.

(POOR GUY!)

So this morning when I got up,

this is what I found.

I know, hard to read.

But it says Happy Valentines Day

I added a bunch of hearts as my contribution.

We had a conversation about Valentines at the office this morning.

The consensus was,

none of us like to receive roses.

Too much $$$ for too little bang.

But most of us like those little "posie" bundles from the grocery store.

And I'm not a big card person.

Hey!  I'm listening to Glenn Beck and "Keith from Palm Bay" is on.

He's a regular caller on our local talk radio.

He's FAMOUS now!

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On an unrelated note.

Kyle went and pick up 20 new chickens for me yesterday.

And then we hurried and "finished" the coop.

Not FINISHED, but "finished".

Enough to put the birds in there.

And then we let them out of the crates they were in.

But by then it was dark and they were asleep.

So they didn't WANT to get out of their crate.

But they were mashed in there like sardines.

10 birds to a crate and not tall enough to stand in.

So I dumped them over and then had to pull them out one by one.

And then I had to lift them onto the nest boxes one by one.

(Didn't want them on the floor overnight and we haven't put up the roost bars yet...)

Once they were all settled in (with food and water)

we brought Bison and Ozzie out to spend the night in their fenced area.

To protect them from night predators.

(The neighbor has been losing chickens to a bobcat.)

(Kyle has seen the cat a couple of times at dusk...)

(He now carries his 22.  Just for protection.)

(yeah, right.)

This morning when I went out to feed, they were ALL doing the quiet, happy chuckle.

Not a real "cluck".

Just a quiet chuckle.

And having, probably their FIRST dirt bath.

Happy chickens.

We need a light in there.

It's pretty dark.

But here's a first glimpse at the new girls.

There are 14 whites and 4 reds.

They are all production birds.

The whites are a Rhode Island Red / White Rock mix.

The reds are RIR/Barred Rock mix.

They are bred to be prolific egg layers.

They lay a large brown egg.

And they lay 350 eggs in a year.

But they only lay for about 2 years and then they are pooped.

So I'll be rotating in new babies every year.

But this time I bought "nearly" point of lay.

They are about a month out from their first egg.

I have a customer who wants every egg I can sell them

As soon as I can sell them.

So I needed to get online as soon as possible.

But I'll be getting 20 new babies as soon as we have a brooder set up.

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So, at work when we were discussing Valentines Day and what we like and don't like to get.

I don't like roses (for Valentines - I like them other times though...)

I don't really love cards.

I'm trying to cut back on chocolate.

So one of the girls said "So Collette, what DO you like?"

I said....

CHICKENS!

(And love notes on the mirror from my darling!)

Happy Valentines Day!

Hope YOU got what your heart desired.

I did!

LOL





Early Morning

My "new" employer changed our hours to 7:30 to 4:00

with a mandatory 30 minute lunch.

(Clock out - no food at your desk...)

It doesn't start until next week, but I'm practicing this week.

And failing.

It was foggy out this morning.

My camera wasn't awake yet.

It was so peaceful and quiet!

(Until Andy started banging his hoof on the metal gate...)

The new chicken coop has wire!

Top AND bottom

And a ROOF!

And the nest boxes got lowered a little.

It's much better.

Just needs a door and a couple other finishing touches

and we are ready for new chickens!

Busy Week

My day job employer sold the company to our insurance carrier.

Next week is the final week of our company.

So this week has been full of "goodbye" activities.

Tuesday we had a potluck.

I made a big pot of spaghetti (with cream cheese) in the crockpot.

It was YUMMY!

But there was a TON of food, so lots left over.

I brought it home.

Where it was WELL received.

The little the girls didn't eat, the dogs were happy to clean up.

Then today, one of our numbers is pregnant and we had a shower for her.

Some of our ladies are super creative and made some darling decorations.

The green thing on the wall is a baby stroller with flowers and butterflies coming out.

But you have to check out the other stroller!

SO cute!

The wheels are burp rags.

They are held together with an empty paper towel roll.

The basket is filled with diapers and covered with a receiving blanket.

The top is another pack of diapers with another receiving blanket.

DARLING!

And tomorrow is jeans/company polo shirts with pizza provided by the company.

That's the good news.

Stay tuned.

The Coop is Coming Along

The guys were working on the new coop yesterday.

But then there was this HUGE bang.

Rod said it sounded like the space shuttle's sonic boom.

But it was just Andy putting a huge hole in the barn with his foot.

So today they are back to working on the coop.

And they are cruising along at a pretty quick pace!

The "drawers" sticking out the side are nest boxes.

On a slight angle.

So when eggs are laid, they roll down to a covered

section so they can't be eaten, pecked at, sat on, or

uh... pooped on.

Most of the nest box is inside the coop.

There will be a "lift up" lid on the outside.

So all you have to do is walk by, open the lid,

reach inside, pull out the freshly laid,

super clean,

extra handy

eggs!

BRILLIANT!

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Meanwhile, Andy is doing well.

He is sore.

He is limping a little.

Last night he tried to trot to dinner.

And nearly fell over.

So Kyle carefully walked him to the barn.

Silly horse.

The Fun Never Ends

Today, at work, Rod called in a panic.

Andy put his hoof through the barn wall.

Looks like he kicked - double barrel.

He and CJ do that sometimes.

He made a pretty good sized hole.

Darn big, in fact.

He also made a pretty good sized gash in his leg.

Down low, by his hoof.

Which resulted in a LOT of blood.

(WARNING - PICTURE OF BLOOD)

This was, actually, AFTER it had slowed down.

We called out our trusty vet.

He is 30 miles away.

But he said a horse can easily lose a gallon of blood or more and not feel anything

but a little tired.

In fact, some of the radical show folks bleed a gallon or more out of their

horses before a show ON PURPOSE.

People.

They are sometimes pretty stupid.

He was a good patient.

Especially since he was just about asleep on his feet.

Our vet gives GOOD DRUGS!

He is now sporting a fancy new bandage.

It's pretty tight.

(Even after a bunch of stitches, it was still bleeding pretty good...)

The wrap stays on for 2 days.

Then we'll re-wrap it daily, for a week.

And he gets more drugs.

Not the good ones though.

Hopefully he learned his lesson.

He's 24 years old, for crying out loud!

You'd think he'd grow up!

LOL

Oh, Nice.

So.  

It was time to head to work.

I walked out of my hotel.

And this is what I saw...

Either it was a HUGE herd-o-birds.

With elimination issues.

(And no, I wasn't parked under a tree...)

Or I had a disgruntled student.

But whatever - it was a MESS!

(And the windshield fluid thingie on the driver's side is plugged.)

Luckily there is a drive-thru car wash just a couple of blocks away.

It's not perfect.

But it's BETTER.

And, luckily, I have a son who is a professional detailer.

We might need to trade vehicles on Monday.