Sunday, June 10, 2018
Eggs
Set 12 guinea eggs last night under my broody hen. 27 more days till hatch, fingers crossed for a good hatch.
Friday, March 23, 2018
Of Mice and Dishwashers
I'm this house's primary dishwasher. A combo of hard water, a water softer that needs re-bedded, and a lack of money prevent me from using a dishwasher. But the house does have one and as a general rule it get ignored. I'm not even one of those people who stores stuff in it. But the last couple days it has gotten a lot of attention and not for the best reason.
It started with me walking into the kitchen the other night to see little Cloud jammed under the boot rack. When I asked her what she was doing she popped out holding a mouse in her jaws. This is kind of par for the course with an old farm house and well I appreciate the cats' efforts, I don't like cleaning up guts so all kills go outside. So I told Cloud to drop it and she looks at me, growls at Wrangler who comes to see what is happening, and drops it. And it looks at me and makes a run for it. Cloud follows but gets detracted by a toy in the same corner. Little mouse runs the edge of the kitchen and into the crack by the dishwasher where none of us can get to. Two mice kills later and we still don't have that little brown mouse. Instead we have cats pulling at the insulation around the dishwasher in what seems to be an attempt to get the injured/dead mouse.
So the current debate is do we pull the dishwasher and see what we find or do we wait and see if a smell develops?
It started with me walking into the kitchen the other night to see little Cloud jammed under the boot rack. When I asked her what she was doing she popped out holding a mouse in her jaws. This is kind of par for the course with an old farm house and well I appreciate the cats' efforts, I don't like cleaning up guts so all kills go outside. So I told Cloud to drop it and she looks at me, growls at Wrangler who comes to see what is happening, and drops it. And it looks at me and makes a run for it. Cloud follows but gets detracted by a toy in the same corner. Little mouse runs the edge of the kitchen and into the crack by the dishwasher where none of us can get to. Two mice kills later and we still don't have that little brown mouse. Instead we have cats pulling at the insulation around the dishwasher in what seems to be an attempt to get the injured/dead mouse.
So the current debate is do we pull the dishwasher and see what we find or do we wait and see if a smell develops?
Thursday, March 1, 2018
Just Keep Going
Just keep going, that is what I tell myself at least once a day. From my personal life to work or to my stubborn ducks who won't go to bed on time if at all. It keeps me going and helps me keep sane (though the antidepressants really help that).
To anyone who is still reading I left off with Nick in bad shape. He ended up passing away a few months later in November of that year after multiple rounds of antibiotics failed to kill off his urinary tract infection. It hurt like hell. He was my baby and had been basically my mother's forth child. But in a way it was a relief, at the end he was in so much pain, had to wear doggy diapers which he hated, and he did not deserve that. His final resting place is under the apple tree in my yard next Sparky the beagle my dad had when I was young. But life goes on, no new dog yet but when I have the time and energy to deal with all the love and pain a new dog has to bring.
But speaking of time and energy I still do not have a job in my field (If you happen to know of one in PA shot me a message) but I am working two jobs both in retail. One is full-time, the other part-time but it all equals out to being around 45-50 hours a week on the low end. It makes ends meet but some days it is really hard to just keep going. But I'm doing it and will keep doing it until I find something better that allows me to support me and my animals.
The animals as usual ebb and flow in numbers here. There is currently 7 hens, 2 ducks, 2 turtles, 1 rat, and 7 cats. Yep 7, last summer started with the 3 boys I had when I last posted Butterscotch, Rodolph, and Darkside. In the being of spring I was trying to catch a starving cat down the road from me a tiny black and white thing. I caught her but she got away from me and was never seen again, but as she escaped me I noticed something. Nipples, she was nursing babies who I had never seen the multiple times I had stopped and feed her. So driving by her spot a few days later I slam on the brakes and swerve to avoid a pile of kittens curled up of the road. I scooped up a little stripe (Tesla) and a tiny tortoiseshell baby (Cinder), while a tiny black and white baby (Houdini) just like his mother made a run for it. With the help of a neighbor teen and his friend who stopped we caught all of the starving babies and I took them home. It took the big boys a bit but they grew to love them and Rodolph adopted them as his own with lots of cuddling and grooming. But the worse happened Roo was hit by a car and had to be euthanized. Then a friend and I while driving around at one in the morning stopped and rescued a small black kitten with a white spot over one eye of the road. She was only about 2 weeks old and despite our best attempts, little Eclipse passed a few weeks later. Then a 8 or 9 week old grey and white baby (Cloud) crawled out from under my sister's car and made herself at home. We are currently working on getting everyone spayed and neutered, but I will always be here for them.
But we just keep going birth and death, blown up engines and new jeep (and new engine in old), frustrating jobs and the more frustrating hunt for a better one, this sucky but much loved house with all of it's issues and my desire to own it 100%. The next goal reached, next failure, or the next dream will all come to be but only if I just keep going.
To anyone who is still reading I left off with Nick in bad shape. He ended up passing away a few months later in November of that year after multiple rounds of antibiotics failed to kill off his urinary tract infection. It hurt like hell. He was my baby and had been basically my mother's forth child. But in a way it was a relief, at the end he was in so much pain, had to wear doggy diapers which he hated, and he did not deserve that. His final resting place is under the apple tree in my yard next Sparky the beagle my dad had when I was young. But life goes on, no new dog yet but when I have the time and energy to deal with all the love and pain a new dog has to bring.
But speaking of time and energy I still do not have a job in my field (If you happen to know of one in PA shot me a message) but I am working two jobs both in retail. One is full-time, the other part-time but it all equals out to being around 45-50 hours a week on the low end. It makes ends meet but some days it is really hard to just keep going. But I'm doing it and will keep doing it until I find something better that allows me to support me and my animals.
The animals as usual ebb and flow in numbers here. There is currently 7 hens, 2 ducks, 2 turtles, 1 rat, and 7 cats. Yep 7, last summer started with the 3 boys I had when I last posted Butterscotch, Rodolph, and Darkside. In the being of spring I was trying to catch a starving cat down the road from me a tiny black and white thing. I caught her but she got away from me and was never seen again, but as she escaped me I noticed something. Nipples, she was nursing babies who I had never seen the multiple times I had stopped and feed her. So driving by her spot a few days later I slam on the brakes and swerve to avoid a pile of kittens curled up of the road. I scooped up a little stripe (Tesla) and a tiny tortoiseshell baby (Cinder), while a tiny black and white baby (Houdini) just like his mother made a run for it. With the help of a neighbor teen and his friend who stopped we caught all of the starving babies and I took them home. It took the big boys a bit but they grew to love them and Rodolph adopted them as his own with lots of cuddling and grooming. But the worse happened Roo was hit by a car and had to be euthanized. Then a friend and I while driving around at one in the morning stopped and rescued a small black kitten with a white spot over one eye of the road. She was only about 2 weeks old and despite our best attempts, little Eclipse passed a few weeks later. Then a 8 or 9 week old grey and white baby (Cloud) crawled out from under my sister's car and made herself at home. We are currently working on getting everyone spayed and neutered, but I will always be here for them.
But we just keep going birth and death, blown up engines and new jeep (and new engine in old), frustrating jobs and the more frustrating hunt for a better one, this sucky but much loved house with all of it's issues and my desire to own it 100%. The next goal reached, next failure, or the next dream will all come to be but only if I just keep going.
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