Blue Desk and Paint

I redid a desk for storage in the bathroom. Before:

 And after as a pretty, pale blue desk for bathroom storage:

 Sanding, paint, and new handles do wonders. But inside the draws I found that the wood had originally some sort of sign.

Ignore every bit of disaster area in the back ground. And remember paint on top of plastic not newspaper and latex based paint comes of floor fairly easy.

Lucus is Targeting

Luke as I call him is now targeting the ball, plus here is the basketball court we are using. This is the video I'm emailing the professor to show progress and that I did it.

Tricks, Chickens, Rats, and Deer

So in my Ornithology class this fall we taught chickens to do tricks. My little chick Clarice:

 She learned to peck the red dot (shown in picture), follow it around, climb steps, cross a balance beam, ring a bell, fly between tables, and we were working on flying down from the balance beam when we ended training at the end of the semester. She is an absolute sweetheart who was perfectly happy to chill on my shoulder and cuddle during training.

 I ended up bring her, another Silver Laced Wyandotte but a rooster named Bodie who is an asshole who likes to bit people, and Zazu a little Easter Egger hen who was Clarice's roommate while they where at the lab who was very attached to her.

They are doing pretty well with the big flock besides, Red beating up on Bodie when he is being an asshole. But Bodie tried to play with one of the twin fawns from last year the other day. The touched noses and then jerked away. And then the fawn tried to do that head bump, jump fawns do in play and then ran to her mom and sibling. But I only managed to get pictures right as she started to jump away. But the Ornithology 3 are the 3 closest to the fawn. And then Red and his daughter (3/4 EE, 1/4 BA) next to him, the red hen is the Rhode Island Red cross hen from my grandmother and the little Buff Orpington on the side is also from my grandmother. So far no eggs from the new girls.

In Animal Behavior this semester the same professor that had us train chickens last semester is having us train rats. This time around we have to work in groups to train them to play basketball. So this is little baby Lucus, who I'm calling Luke and who may be coming home with me at the end of the semster.

That's a classmate's hand containing him

But I'm working on the house cleaning, remodeling, having friends move in to help pay bills, and all sorts of stuff that I'll hopefully be updating you on soon.

So did you miss me?

Sorry I haven't written in so long my life has been a mess. But brief catch up I was down to Red my rooster, 2 3/4EE/1/4EE hens, and my brown leghorn hen this summer. When I for some stupid reason agreed to let my brother watch them and the 13 eggs the black 3/4EE/1/4EE hen was sitting on. And he lets something eat the brown leghorn hen, the black 3/4EE/1/4EE hen, and all 13 eggs she was sitting on while I was working fairs. And then didn't tell me about it until I came home and discovered it.

So that sucks. My grandmother because she is an awesome person gave me 2 of her hens a buff orpington and a hen who is at least part Rhode Island Red (might just be crappy hatchery quality, might be a mix I really don't know). Who are both doing fine.

But my flock may be growing again soon, my Ornithology class in college was hatching chicks to train, which failed with only one chick hatching who has ended up being raised by the student aid in the class. But the teacher ordered more and my little chick is doing well in training and I may be allowed to take it and possible some other chicks home at the end of the semester. But we will see and we will see if I'm back in my actual home soon or not. I'll try to stop by more often.

Death and raccoon's again

I had been having eggs being eaten and destroyed, we discovered that it was raccoons eating them. So 2 weeks ago I caught the 1st raccoon,  another raccoon was found to be doing the same thing so I caught it ( it was female and possibly mother of the first) but it wasn't in the trap first thing that morning but got it's self trapped mid-morning ( the chickens where on lock down and safe).  That night (Monday) I went out and came home to one of the little roosters and 3 hens on the deck. The one popdoor hadn't closed right and something had forced it open, and on top of that it was pouring rain and thundering and lightning. Red and the bantam hen where inside safe, and one of the other hens was in the trap. I got everyone off the deck and into the coop, and look for the other 4 hens and the other little rooster with no luck. With the storm in full force and no birds in sight I had to give up.

The next morning one little hen showed up and the rest never did. The missing little rooster's feathers where scattered from the old dead tree (where I did look) part way down the yard, nothing of the 3 hens ever turned up. The hens where all 3/4 EE/ 1/4 BA (Red and the BA/EE hens) that where hatched last fall, two where black with red lacing on the neck and one was the classic EE coloration.

5 Days later I caught another raccoon, who has very aggressive and did something I had never heard a raccoon do it screamed. And I don't mean the shrieks and other random noises raccoons make, I mean sounds like a human child is screaming. It was one of the creepiest noises I've heard. But it has now been 4 days and no new raccoons/predators have been caught and no other deaths or stolen eggs have occurred so hopefully this is the end of it for now.

I gave away the mean brown leghorn rooster a few weeks ago to someone to butcher, plus these losses I'm down to 6 hens and 2 roosters. And the remaining brown leghorn rooster will hopefully go to a new home with my grandmother soon, as her rooster Hawk has become mean and she plans to butcher him and take the brown leghorn. If that happens I will be down to 6 hens and 1 roosters, if she doesn't end up taking him I'll probably give him aways as 2 roosters is way to much for 6 hens. And that's what's been going around here.

Changes

I haven't posted much as life got busy and my life changed drastically. My Mother passed away very suddenly in April and everything is kind of up in the air right now. But as to the animals I gave away the attack rooster last night to a women who is going to butcher him when she butchers her meat birds. Here is him in his box waiting to be picked up.

But Spot who had a serious neck wound last month, and who we believe had 3-4 strokes in the last two months, pasted away last night/early this morning. He is the last of our cats descended from my original cats. He is now buried about 10 feet from his mother (Blue Eyes) and his litter mate Rex. He is pictured here with his other litter mate Dot who passes away several years ago, Spot is the one with his head down.

They don't respect the porch

As you can see Nick doesn't really care about the chickens.