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!

***********************************************

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.

*********************************

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!

*************************

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.

Hotel Workouts

I spend nearly every weekend staying in a hotel.

Which isn't all that bad...

Someone to clean up after me every day.

But I'm also in a 60 day fitness challenge with Sabrina.

We are working out together 

Tuesday & Thursday evenings.

We are on our own on Saturdays.

I wanted to do my new 

T-Tapp Senior Fit Tempo 4 workout.

It's 47 minutes long.

Teresa just "knows" when my weight is shifting forward.

Every time I feel my weight roll onto my toes,

she cues "weight back in your heels!"

I swear she can see me!

It doesn't help, or maybe it does, that I've done this particular workout with her personally

with only about 10 people in the room and almost all the others were trainers,

(it was a master trainer class, I just got lucky to be able to join them...)

AND I was front and center right where she could practically touch me...

In fact she caught me leading with my chin several times and said she 

had never cued that before and was going to put it in the dvd.

So I KNOW whenever she cues that she IS talking directly to me.

I'm flattered.

And annoyed that she still catches me, a year later.

Anyhow.

In the new Tempo 4, she cues "weight in the heels" a gazillion times and it really helps.

But half way through my workout this morning,

my dvd froze up.

Darn it!

I messed with it for awhile, and then gave up.

Instead I moved to the same spot on the 

Level 1 workout.

It's the same workout, but with more reps.

So it's just over an hour long...

But there ARE lots of great tips and tweaks.

Just no "weight in heels" cues.

So I did my own.

This is a terrible picture.

I should have turned off the lamp.

But notice the cue on the mirror!

LOL

I love writing on mirrors.

And luckily I had a dry-erase pen in my suitcase.

NO idea why it's there.

But cool that I remembered it!

Now off to the showers and

BREAKFAST!

(ok, lunch, it's nearly 11:30)