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.