Socks

washing machine guts



some of our laundry

Hi mom! Hi dad! hehehehahaha:)

Socks are nice to have. You never realize how much you appreciate socks until the washing machine breaks and all of your precious socks are dirty.

The breaking and quitting and falling apart began a few years ago with the oven I think. It failed on Thanksgiving if I remember correctly (always perfect timing I might add). Broken appliances are always an exciting adventure for kids, not parents who pay for repairs or replacements. For kids, getting new things is fun. Now, I don't get such a thrill when things break. I'd rather have clean socks. Oh well, its still very interesting to write about. At the rate we're going I'll have to enjoy that luxury while it lasts because soon our entire house will be brand new.

After the oven things settled down for a while. Then the dishwasher broke. We have a new dishwasher. Again things calmed down and there was a break from breaking (hahaha).

In July, in the middle of blazing hot weather, our fridge died. Slowly but surely it died. We bought a shiny new fridge and figured things would die down again. Then...the computer bogged down. Some extra ram and it was a million times louder and much faster. With the arrival of fall the fan in our gas fireplace went crazy and makes awful noises. Dad turned the fan off. The fireplace still works. That's where that issue stands. How bout the insta hot (brilliant invention)? Somehow air got into the pipes. When it is turned on it dispenses water smoothly for all of five seconds. After that back the heck up or you will be burned to a crisp by the sputtering spitting boiling hot water. Those are the minor problems. Now, on to bigger and better things.

The furnace. The maintenance guy said that if he tried to clean up the pipe it would fall apart. It was that corroded. We have a new furnace. Mom's van now has brand spanking new brakes. Ha, I almost forgot to mention the garage door and the mechanism that lifts it up and down both quit. Both are new. That just wasn't good enough. As of right now, the washing machine is taking up part of the hallway, the kitchen and the laundry room. Its guts are in the laundry sink. How did you guess? Its broken. The repair man is coming tomorrow. The catch? It might not be fixable. You just never know :) How fun!

This morning I called Dad at work. I don't think he likes hearing from me when he's at work :) I had to let him know that the dishwasher was spewing yellow water all over the kitchen floor. Thrilled is the only way to describe him. HEHEHE! not. After that I called Mom. She had no words.

Reading this is actually comical :) The best part is that I'm sure I'm forgetting something. I'd say I have no idea what else could possibly go wrong. But then something else would go wrong immediately.

Hopefully soon I have clean socks!

monday: day 1 Christmas break

Its been a productive day so far! I finished editing my personal essay that is a requirement for my senior portfolio (It was too long). Then I tried the recipe for Donkey Cookies (recipe from Farmgirl_dk of On the way to Critter Farm). My chickens loved them. Thanks for the recipe! I also made some oatmeal because I've heard that chickens like that too. They do.

It seems like there's less outside for them to munch on now that its winter and they get tired of their plain chicken feed. Now I have some supplements to their diet of chicken feed: oatmeal, Donkey Cookies, diced apples, grated carrots, cracked corn (their favorite), and boiled eggs (apparently chickens love them, but its important to make sure they are fully cooked so the girls don't develop a taste for their own raw eggs).

After my chicken treat experiments I tidied up the backyard. That includes scooping dog poop (Ew. I am the only person who ever does that and I'm not such a huge fan of the dog. I just like to not step in it.), and raking over half of the yard. Fir trees are messy. I would've rinsed the "poop deck", as my mom likes to call it (our back deck is covered in chicken poop.) but the water is off to the outside faucets for the winter. Its been freezing cold around here lately.

Last night it finally snowed a little after weeks of ice cold and not a cloud in the sky. Its much warmer today and the snow is gone. I'm ready for a blizzard! Not literally, but I'd love a lot more snow.

Now its time to get cleaned up and work on my scholarship calendar. Yuck.

first egg, rebekah & cold

I'm really behind on my updates, but I'll try to catch up since I am officially on Christmas break now.

Here is my very first egg! Laid by my favorite chicken, Rebekah on August 3rd.

Rebekah has since disappeared. She was so friendly and loved to sit on my lap and "talk" to me. She followed me all over the yard and guided and guarded the other five girls. I was so sad. I wonder if I'll ever have another chicken like her. For about a week after Rebekah disappeared, the other girls wandered around the yard like they didn't know what to do with themselves. Rebekah was definitely the boss. Now there is no boss, just a little group. I still expect to see her sometimes.

Lately it has been freezing cold and I have to work really hard to make sure their water doesn't freeze over. Chickens get really thirsty! I also learned that its better to let them run around outside rather than keeping them cooped up because they can stay warmer that way. It is so funny to see them all puffed up. They puff their feathers to hold in more heat. They seem to be handling the cold well so far.

on mondays and how they are all the same...

The definition of Monday should be no fun. Cause that's what Mondays are more often than not.

I woke up dark and early (6:50am) and my room was an icebox as usual. My bed was warm and I did NOT want to crawl out of it and into the frigid atmosphere that is my room even more than usual. I got up anyway.

I was ready by eight. I ate some breakfast. My plan: deposit my paycheck, study at Starbucks and be at school by eleven. No such luck.

I got out of the neighborhood and onto real roads were you have to drive over 25mph and my truck started making really scary noises. I thought perhaps it needed to warm up a bit more. Not the case. I went home a creepy crawly speed. After I called my dad I got out of my truck and popped the hood to see what I could see. I could see nothing. I closed the hood, and tried to get back in my truck. Foiled again. There were my keys residing upon my seat. My truck is holding all keys hostage along with my purse (the spare key was in my purse), my backpack with all study materials and homework, and my cell phone.

(Note that it is especially important that I get to school today because I have a math test and it is finals week, and that I do not like to be without my phone.)

The first time I called my dad it was to notify him about the strange noises which can mean nothing other than expensive. The second time was to tell him that locksmiths charge 50 dollars. All he said was, "I'm having one of those days myself. There's some money upstairs so you can pay the locksmith".

I love my dad. He is never mad at me even when I do the dumbest things. I am very grateful for my mom and dad and I wouldn't trade them for anything. God knew what he was doing when he created parents.

Now, I am waiting 45 minutes to pay a kind locksmith 50 dollars to unlock my truck.

finally...

So many things have happened since my last post! I can't believe it took me so long to get back here.

I've been daydreaming about my farm quite a bit lately. Decorating in my head. Its going to be perfect!

Anyway, moving on to a quick update.

School started, that's going well. I'm very busy and I always have tons of homework. I am a major procrastinator. That's a bad combo.

XC team is trying to go to state. Three more weeks of very hard work ahead of me for that to happen. The lady jags are undefeated in the SPSL south and we have the division title. YAY!

I'm thoroughly enjoying football season. Fall is my favorite season. Football, Halloween, Thanksgiving, school, cross country. There's nothing bad about that :)

I'll continue my update later, its time for school!

summer in full swing

I haven't blogged in quite a while :/ Oops. But summer is in full swing now so I should have lots to talk about.

So far I have been to the point defiance zoo and aquarium, climbed little si, worked for three days and done quite a few other odd things. Its all very fun. The best part is doing everything with my best friends!

I need to make a chicken tractor badly. The makeshift one I am using right now is a total pain. Argh. I'll convince my dad to start it on Sunday maybe?

free!

I love free! Tomorrow I am going to Orange Julius for a free 20 oz. Tropical Sunlight Light Smoothie (get your free coupon at the frugal coupon living blog on my favorite blogs list!).

Now, let me back up and tell about the whole plan for my day tomorrow.

To begin with I am not going to school (It is the last day, I only have one class and we will not be doing anything at all). I plan to be up by eight and out of the house by nine, off to buy gas and stop at the farm store for white wood shavings, chicken feed, and diatomaceous earth. After that I will go back home to store my bird supplies, settle my flock in their tractor and pack a bag for a weekend at my Grandma's house. As soon as I am packed I'll head out the door, stopping at Orange Julius on the way. Sounds pretty fabulous to me.

My Grandma and I plan to go to some zoo or another. I am very excited for my first weekend of adventures. There are also a possibilities of a farmers' market, Pike's place market, shopping, lunch at a cafe. Anything could happen! I'm bringing my dad's digital camera along because if you remember, I plan on taking a million pictures.

(I have already started that and have some pictures of my flock free-ranging. More on that later.)

I better go make a list. I can't live without those things :)

Pictures!!!

Door that opens up for ventilation, easy cleaning and egg collecting.




















Chicken ramp that I built myself :)















Hanging feeder and waterer.















Above: My chicken coop, minus a paint job.
Below: The flocks favorite roosting branch. They all sit on the same one and look out the window.

coming soon...

I promise to post some new pictures later on today of the finished coop and my chickens. They've gotten really big since the last pics. I am pretty bad at keeping up on that. I took some good ones this morning, but then the camera battery died. I have to wait for it to charge before I can upload the pictures to my computer.

Whoa, Dream Big!

Yesterday I was updating my mom on my latest plans for my future. I thought you might like to be updated as well, so here goes...

I am planning to go to college (in Oregon, Washington or Utah) to become a Dietician (I hope to be self-employed, and I am going for a master's degree). That could take a while. At the same time, I hope I will have a part time job. While I am actually going to college I won't have much opportunity to save money (If I save money I won't be as eligible for financial aid). I can imagine that I'll need quite a bit of money to get the next part of my life going.

After college I hope to live somewhere small and not too expensive for a year or two, probably in Oregon (even though I really love Utah... Oregon is in the middle). I hope to be working at that time so that I can save as much money as possible.

When I have enough money saved I will start looking for the perfect place to live. I would like about two acres of property and a two-story five bedroom farmhouse, and possibly an existing barn (If not I can always build one later).

My vision for this place is a long gravel driveway, a white fence around the whole property (with at least chicken wire on the inside and buried in the ground to eliminate some predators), the barn painted dark green, swings hung from trees, a small pond, a vegetable garden (green beans, peas, carrots, potatoes, strawberries, corn), a tiny orchard (cherries, apples, peaches, plums, whatever), blackberry and raspberry bushes, and a flower garden (wildflowers, poppies, tulips, irises, sunflowers, etc.).

In the house: curtains in every window, one wall painted with a giant orange flower, a color palette of bright green, yellow, purple, blue etc, wood floors, a claw-foot bathtub, a long hallway upstairs, glossy cream colored trim everywhere, rain boots, lots of open space downstairs, possibly a basement, a huge bookshelf, and fabulous furniture.

In the barn: one or two goats and a pen, a flock of chickens, a cubalaya rooster, and a coop, a cat or two, a few ducks, tools (lawn mower and gas, shovels, rakes, gardening gloves, wheel barrow), animal supplies (medicines, wood shavings for bedding, food), garden seeds, and a mini greenhouse (just in case some of those seeds needed to get started in the winter).

Somewhere on the property there would be a compost pile ;)

I think that's just about everything! I know of quite a few people who are going to think I am absolutely crazy. Oh well, I'm not. Now maybe you can see why I'll need money. But who doesn't need money. This is my best idea yet :) And that's saying something. Anyway, that's my plan!

neighborhood roosters?

I didn't think I would ever want a rooster. I was glad I didn't because I wouldn't want to disturb the neighbors or have them complaining or reporting on my lovely flock.

Then I saw this picture. This is a Black Breasted Red Cubalaya Rooster. This is a rare breed, originating from birds of the Phillipines and bred in Cuba. They are said to be friendly, brave and good protectors which is exactly what I am looking for in a good rooster. They also have no spurs; that is a plus.

I have decided that I want a rooster. A rooster would protect my hens and be beautiful to look at. We have lots of potential predators and a bit of protection would be a very good idea.

I am sure you are wondering about my previous reason for not wanting a rooster. Roosters crow. Yes, I have thought of that and I for one do not care. Also, I suspect that someone just down the street from us does have a rooster. I can hear it crowing. I am planning to further investigate very soon. The sound doesn't bother me and as far as I know, no one else has complained. The rooster noise is still there indicating that the rooster has not been removed due to the complaints of rude neighbors who do not understand chicken people.

I'll post an update on my investigation into the current neighborhood rooster as soon as I dig up any new dirt (very chicken-like don't you think?).

so close

i am looking forward to the beginning of summer. i have so many adventurous fun things planned, not to mention tons of time to do nothing. next week is the very last day of my junior year of high school. after 2:10 on friday the 19th i will officially free.
my goals for the summer:

• not let one moment go to waste
• get a perfect tan
• have lots of adventures
• read tons of good books
• give my life a makeover
• take a million pictures and spend tons of time scrapbooking
• spend just enough time on things that need to be done and i don't want to do

the verse i am currently thinking of is Zechariah 4:6 "'Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit,' says the Lord Almighty." i'll keep that in mind.

for now, i should go write a four page letter on the expansion of Washington State marriage laws to include gay and lesbian couples, while capturing the style of Paul's letters. so far, Paul's style proves to be very illusive; it must not like captivity.

Memorial Day Weekend

I enjoyed the fabulous three-day weekend and it only made me more ready for summer.

Last week was absolutely spectacular. I passed the math compass test with a 55 (i only needed 31) and scored high enough to take pre-calculus II if I felt like it. I picked my classes for fall quarter. FULL TIME RUNNING START! YAY!!! I'm excited in case you couldn't tell.

I did well on all of the test I had last week. Which was quite a few. In chemistry the class is starting qualitative analysis which so far seems extremely simple and very very fun.

This week I have some serious work to do on my signed song. Not looking forward to that much but otherwise the week should be simple. Only four days total, two are half days and Friday is spring fest :)

Anyway, my weekend: I went shopping yesterday with my mom and got two new pairs of "school appropriate" shorts that are cute despite the fact that they are long. I also got an adorable dress that I am going to wear today. Which means I should probably get a move on.

coop pictures

Here are some pictures of my chicken palace and beautiful nesting boxes. There may be some modifications made, such as covered nest boxes. Chickens appreciate a dark, "safe" place to lay their eggs. Understandable. Isn't is spectacular?

more names...

Buff Orpington- Buffy (original, i know. but it totally fits. there's nothing else to call her.)
Wyandotte- Matilda (possibly Tildy for short?)
Black Sexlink #2- Luna

PR

Today we had a track meet against Todd Beamer. I ran the mile and PR'd by 19 seconds! 5:47!!! I am very proud of myself and am a firm believer that racing is 90% mental :) It was the best race I've ever run. I finally got my head in the game. I also had the fastest split in the 4x200 meter relay. Yay!

that's not my name

I am in the process of renaming my chicks. Some of their baby names don't fit very well any more and I feel like they will need more respectable names since they will be hens eventually. So far the black sexlink with white toes has been renamed Rebekah (formerly Bolt). The lighter Rhode Island Red (formerly Jig) has been renamed Audrey (much better don't you think?). Rasberry, the darker Rhode Island Red will still probably be called Raspberry most of the time but I also want to call her Athena because it just fits. That leaves three chicks without suitable names. The Buff Orpington, Wyandotte and the other black Sexlink. Here is a list of possibilities: Maddy, Chloe, Lottie, Luna, Lucy, Molly and Matilda. I think Molly, Matilda and Luna are my favorites. Most likely the Wyandotte will end up Matilda and the black sexlink with no white toes will be Luna (which means moon if anyone was wondering). I love naming things :)

chick pics

Finally, here are some pictures of my peeps and their home ;)

the coop

Today my dad and I started on a coop for my chickens. So far we've finished the four outer walls and the front wall of the actual chicken house. The coop is going to be a chicken palace. It's way more amazing than I imagined and my dad is a pro at building stuff. That always some in handy. Thanks Dad! Still to build: a door, nest boxes, a roost, the roof, not to mention buying a bigger feeder and waterer, primer and paint... We've still got a ways to go but it's so fun! I love having a project. I wasn't even bored when we went to home depot this morning to buy supplies. I am always bored at home depot. Anyway, here are some pictures of the coop in progress.

chickens!

On April 4th, 2009 I bought six chicks! Two are Rhode Island Reds, one is a Wyandotte, one is a Buff Orpington and two are black Sexlinks. I'll have pictures soon. So far they're growing quickly, getting their feathers and learning to fly. I'm planning to build a fairly large playhouse chicken coop, just in case I somehow end up with a few more chicks ;)