Thursday, October 1, 2009

Fall

Fall is here!
It is a busy day here, we're trying to cover as much of the garden as possible before the first frost hits.
I don't know if I should be exited or not--It's sad to see the end of the growing season, but I just can't wait for fall!!!

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

News and new poems

First, the news! AKA the boring stuff first...

Still trying to integrate(note to self: buy 2-3 more chickens then you think you need and hopefully no integration will be necessary in the future)
Latest intelligence from the chickens is that sybill thinks I'm a rival chicken in the pecking order.
Yada yada yada
Blah blah blah
Oh, also we went to the U-pick raspberry place and got 4 pounds of berries!!!! YAY!
Oh, and we also made key lime pie!!!! With real key limes!!!!! (Note to self, buy regular limes, though not as good, they take much less juicing, cutting and slapping yourself for not noticing their the size of a quarter and, obviously, HARD TO SQUEEZE)

Okay, I have some poems i wrote now

Hallows Eve

Fur and Hide, Tooth and Claw, Tail and Moon and Gaping Maw. Staircase creak, Pipe Tinkle, Closet moan and Hallway groan. Witch's cackle, Gravestone speak. Black cat, Silver bone, Tail of rat. Full moon, Shadows move, Howl, Growl, Yip and Yowl. Caw of Crow and Tip of Blade, Silver glint in shady glade.

*Applause*

Stormy Day

Cloudy gray, a slow, light, drizzle. Golden Fields, a slight breeze rustles. Tattle Tales tell, Crows take flight and caw, Warning all of cat and fox

*Crickets*

Moonspiration

Full moon, Light of the Lantern, Howl of the Wolf, Crackle of a Twig, Erie echos and Flickering shadows. Jet black sky, twinkle of a star, bats chasing moths, owls hoot and animals sleep. Glowing embers of a long burnt-out fire, Muffled snores of campers in their tents, Glowing eyes of a Cat or Raccoon and the rustle of trees in the wind.

When I rite poems I tend to have a very descriptive style, there for, I only rite poems about things that suite my style of riting -- Hence the poems about night, dawn, Halloween and stormy days.

My favorite one so far has to be Hallows Eve.

Thursday, June 4, 2009

Hail

It is totally hailing like craaaaazy right now. I don't just mean little stuff, either, this is almost marble-sized hail!!! We maneged to cover the bigger bed before it did too much damage to the crops. We'll see how big this storm is and if it passes quickly.

I'll make updates tomorrow or whenever this stops...

Update: The hail seems to have stopped for now, we'll assess the damage (If any) in the morning

Update: Sorry, forgot to post this... The hail damage is minimum, I don't think we got much. It's sprinkling again, I hope we don't get hail again.

Chickens

Sybill and Minerva have been causing quite a commotion for the little chickens. Hawk didn't get enough sleep last night, so we have to put her in a box (She's so tired, she fell asleep on my mom's lap). Mini-Max is faring better, but is still getting bullied. We've tried the usual method, introducing them, letting them sleep in each other's houses, etc. (Here's a page about flock integration, we're only on day 1 of it so dunno how well it works).On Back Yard Chickens there's allot of ideas out there, some quite funny and far fetched , not just smuggling chicks under a broody hen, or sneaking pullets in and making a big fuss the next at at feeding time, but stuff like: Sneaking the little guys in at night, then spraying all the chickens with the same perfume (And your chickens smell nice all day, too!), and apparently quarantine is needed sometimes... Oh, and I like the Chicken Jail idea.... You can't run from the law forever, Sybill!

Edit:
Okay, so this has nothing to do with chickens, but I'm getting back into knitting (I got bored of it once spring came)and I wanna learn how to knit hats next. Hats seem like usefull things.... :)

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Sybill

Sybill has been an increasing pain in the butt. A couple days ago, she attacked Sunny (Sunny was unhurt, luckily). And, of course she's been pecking poor Minerva's wing to un-death. And lately she's been campaigning against Mini-max and Hawk.
Here's the story:
We knew that Minerva and maybe Sybill would be the meanest to the newcomers, because they were last and 3rd in the pecking order, Sybill continually pecks Minerva to keep it that way. And we were right, at first we brought the hens up to see the chicks and yes, Minerva was rather mean to them. Sybill wasn't too mean to the chicks, maybe because she wasn't even sure if they were going to be in their flock. But apparently, either Sybill realized she'd have to contest with these fuzzballs in the pecking order, or she's gotten very mean.
We stayed late at a game party last night, the little girls were in the big girl's coop and when my dad and Harry got home, they didn't know that the little girls were in there, so they let the big girls out and they ran into the big coop. The next morning it was pretty loud, and we guessed there was allot of henpecking going on, as we knew about the lucky mistake (We think them going to bed together helped the little girls integrate in to the big girl's flock). And Sybill was probably giving them a hard time, but she even went to the extent of not letting Mini-Max lay in the coop.

I have no idea what we're going to do with Sybill, but one things for sure, if I had to eat one of our chicken's it would be her. *Sigh*

Maybe I should threaten here with debeaking and being eaten or something, not that chickens understand what I'm saying....

Monday, June 1, 2009

Dawn

Bats flutter in and out of the lightening sky as crickets sing their last good-bye's to the night.
The stars and the clouds together in a sea of pastel blue.
No sound but the bat's wings flapping almost silently and the cricket's chirping and the rustle of the wind in the trees.
A bird song in the distance, the sky is brightening yet more and suddenly the air explodes with song. Chirping and singing, birds fly trough the sky greeting a new and a wonderful day.
The crickets tire and burrow deeper into their homes, the stars hide themselves among the sky, the bats retire and fly home with stomachs full of insects.
The squirrels and the rabbits take this as their cue, and emerging from their dens and warrens, begin to forage in the early light.
And gradually, the sky brightens from a dark blue to pastel and then into lavender and pink and soon the sun appears, turning the clouds above it magenta with flecks of gold and orange.
The bird songs become louder, more animals wake up to eat and bask in the morning sun.
The robins and the starlings, the morning doves and the blue jays all come out to eat with the early birds.
Dewdrops form on the grass as chipmunks and squirrels skitter up and down trees stashing nuts and seeds here and there.
The flickers and robins gobble up worms and grubs as they emerge from the ground, drawn up by the dew.
A rumble of a distant car, a bark of a distant dog , a splash of a distant river-- and suddenly it is morning.
The air is damp and cool and the sun shines brightly down upon the earth, the air is heavy with the smell of dew and the songs of birds.
And then the world awakens, people getting up and going to work, people walking their dogs, people watering their lawns, people getting ready for school, people on their front porch sipping their coffee and their tea.

Monday, May 25, 2009

5 Eggs!

Yesterday one of our two pullets, Mini-Max, layed an egg. So that brings our total of laying hens up to 5! I keep expecting to see a blue egg.

Hawk's doing well (Hawk's the surviving Ameraucana. We had a fox attack)

Minerva, our little Black Austrolorp, has been having problems with her wing, the tops of the feathers getting chewed (Or, in fact pecked) off. We only recently caught the culprit. It was Sybill who was henpecking her. Now I've got a pretty good idea of the pecking order with them now (Though It'll change as soon as we integrate Mini-Max and Hawk)and poor Minerva has been nicknamed 'Zombie Wing' because of the Zombie look on her wing, and Sybill's nickname is now 'Death claw'.

Here's the Pecking order we think:
Maxime aka 'Sun hen', Alfa hen.
Ginny, Deputy.
Sybill aka 'Death Claw', 3rd in the Pecking order
Minerva aka 'Zombie Wing', lowest ranking.

And Hawk aka 'The Survivor' is the deputy in her and Max's two-hen flock we think.

Not much more news, it's been quite rainy the last couple of days. The gardens are doing great, a bowl of strawberries everyday. Here's a post about the gardens in more depth. The rats are doing good and sunny's her usual, high strung, barky self.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Awesome Animal Art!

I've been into Werewolf/were-animals lately and I've found the coolest site while web surfing. It's got all sorts of cool fantasy artwork: Griffins of all sorts (not just eagle/lion, but eagle/snow leopard, white tiger, puma, ETC.), dragons, Fae folk (Fairy-like people/creatures), Werewolves, wolf people, animal people-- And there's much more....

But anyway, I'd advise anyone who likes mythical animals, werewolves or were-animals to check out this site , it's realllllllly cool. I think my favorite piece of artwork there is the "Shift Happens" one.... ;)

Anyway, that's all.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Star Trek Foods.

This is a post with Star Trek-Like foods,(any Space explorer Wannabe would like them :D)


Clingon Tentacle Dogs
Makes: 1 serving
Ingredients:
15-20 pieces of spaghetti
2 hot dogs

Cut hot dogs into 1-2 inc pieces, stick 2-6 pieces of spaghetti into each piece. Boil until cooked and eat!


Space Meal
Makes: 1 serving
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of milk
1 banana
1/4 cup of oats
1/2 cup warm water
food coloring

Over a stove heat up the water until boiling, add the oats and continue to cook until the water has mostly evaporated. Mush banana well and add the milk, mush until the milk and banana are mixed well and add 2-4 drops of food coloring of your choice. Mix until the food coloring is evenly spread out, Combine the oatmeal and the banana mixture and eat.


Jiggly, Gelatinous,(tasty) Space Goo
Makes: 1 serving
Ingredients:
1 cup jello
whipped cream

Slice up the jello (With a spoon) into small pieces, squirt on whipped cream (As much as you like!). Mix quickly and serve ASAP.


Picard's Pudding
Makes: 1 serving
Ingredients:
1/4 cup cranberries
1/2 cup yogurt
food coloring (optional)

Mix the cranberries in with the yogurt and stir until well mixed. (If desired, add 2-5 drops of food coloring of your choice)

I'll post more recipes as soon as we invent more! :)

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

How to Shut up Your Dumb and Anoying Chicken(s)

Have you ever had a chicken (or two, or three, or four, or five, or any other number) that just won't stop cawing? Wether she layed an egg or you locked 'em in the coop and they're mad, WE HAVE A CURE!!!! Yes, it's true, we have found a way to shut up that dumb anoying flightless lump of feathers!!!!! So if you need a cure for cawing chickens, READ ON. ***Not many of you may have anoying, cawing chickens, or care, but still, but you should read on anyway (Who knows, you could buy some chickens and they'd probobly caw like mad)***

If you copy the chickens 'Alarm Call' (it sounds like this: buk-buk-buk-BAGAKK!!!!! they say it over and over) while they're cawing about being shut in their coop on a nice day or letting the whole world know they just layed an egg they'll be quiet!!! So simple, yet so efective... ;)
They seem to start grooming after you do it, I think that the 'Alarm Call' could mean something like this: "Hey, everybirdy, The rooster's coming! Better clean up, you big featherbags, you all look horrible!" and then I think they just forget what they were cawing about in the first place. Who knows? At least they shut their beaks.

***DISCLAIMER: They may pipe up after 15-20 minutes (Without seeing a rooster, that is) if you have no rooster, they will think you are the rooster and be quiet if they see you, but you may have to do the Alarm Call again (Snuggling with them works well, too. Just make sure you're not snuggiling with Sibyll)***

OKAY, NEXT POST WILL HAVE PHOTOS!!!! Unless I have something else to rite about before then! :)

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Can't...Think...Of...Name...

Today we had a big blizzard, well it wasn't really a blizzard (We got only got about 5 inches) But we did have a big power-outage that was off and on and lasted, oh, from about before any of us got up to 5:30 or so. Yeah, it was a looong cold day...
But most of all I realized just how much we depend on electricity. Our stove is electric, as well as our toaster oven, lights, refridgerater, computers, TV ETC.

Description of the day from when I woke up to right now.

Woke up and heard the news about the power-outage.
Mom had prepaired Pop-overs, but then the power went out when she was heating up the oven, we waited pateintly for the power to come back on (and stay on) then finnaly we had deflated Pop-overs (Still tasted great, though!) because the batter had sat for too long, well, it's not like it was our fault.
We ate and went outside to feed/water the chickens, and I didn't wear snowpants because I thought we were just feeding the chickens, alas we went out in the schoolyard and I got my pants soked. *Sigh*
Dad bought a Kerocene heater.
We came back and munched on strawberries and read Warriors, a series by Eren Hunter about wild cats competeing for food and hunting rights (It may sound boring but it's not!)
We cooked some nachos on the grill (They were actualy the best nachos I ever had. Who knew a power-outage, as scary as it may seem, could taste so good?)
We had power flickering on and off through out the day.
Dad was just about to soke the wik of the heater with Kerocene when the power went back on, YAY!!!!
I ran downstairs to tell dad the electricity was back on!!! Luckily he hadn't poured the Kerocene in.
Then Harry ran the computer to play roblox, I ran to the other computer to, what else? Blog!!!!!!!!!! Dad ran to the TV to watch a basketball game and Mom ran to the thermostat.

And that's how the day went.
Phew! I'm glad that all was over.

Now I'll be looking forward to a nice, warm house, warm meals, and all those other nice things like lights and computers and TVs and toaster ovens. And I'll defenetly have a new respect for electricity.

And I think the chickens are happy, too. Because now they have warm water (warm being
not frozen)
And I think all the other animals are happy, sunny and the rats are happy for the heat, and the fish as well, I have no idea how the fish would have survived a night supost to go down to between 15 and 20 degrees. :)

And I just saw a beutyfull morning dove at the birdhouse/feeder. I love colorado weather!

Thursday, March 26, 2009

Yeehaw!

Woohoo! We're finaly getting some snow and it seems like we're getting enough snow for 5 winters! We're expecting about a foot of snow over the next few days and I'm exited! But, of course, there's always a down side to somthing good. *Sigh*
And this time it seems like the down side is Chickens laying, under-insilated chicken houses and frostbite. I'll explain more: My mom noticed it was starting to get veeeeeerry snowy, windy, cold ETC. and she went out to take the chickens and put them in the garage, witch is considerably warmer then the outside, Sibyll, unfourtunitly, was laying an egg, so my mom let her lay in peace. A while later I remembered about Sibs' and wondered if she was done laying, and me and my mom went out to see. Sure enough she was out in the coop, wondering were the heck everyone was and probobly freezing. So mom picked her up, and if chickens could shiver, she would have been, we carried her over to the garage and filled a small box with hay (realizing that the hens needed a place to lay, in case anyone else had an egg to donate) and the most nice and amazing thing about this is Sibyll never pecked me!:D Probobly because I was keeping her neck warm with my gloves, but I'll take what I can get (^.^)

Last I was out (about 45 mins ago) the snow was up to my ankles! Sunny loves it, though she is clearly not bred for it. And one last odd thing to report: Our cars look like they're made out of wood. Yes, there was no typo's in that, nor did you misread or misinterprate it, our cars look like they were carved out of wood. it's kinda hard to explain but Ill try my best. The snow is covering our cars and leaving sharp lines on them, so they look like little wood carved cars not smoothed off all the way. It's realy a weird day. And I'm injoying every moment of it! Oh, and we got some pictures of the madness, once I get around to posting them!!!!!!!

Friday, March 20, 2009

Spring is here!

Now that spring is here we should be getting some more rain, not to mention snow!
Acording to our neighbors this has been the dryist march since they've lived here. So we should be getting more rain and snow to make up for what we haven't had so far.

We had some little drops fall her in Fort Collins, but not enough to even get you wet, the ironic thing is we saw big storms to the north and south.
We were going to plant some bulbs and flower seeds, but after the game of mini-socer in the school yard and a tour of the Windsor Dairy, we decided just to sit back at the computers and zone-out playing gamefudge and world of warcraft.

Now for Some Chicken News:
The pullets should be laying soon.
Maxeim is now in the most non-glorious part of her molt and is starting to look especaily shagy and run-down.
Sibyll is geting better at not attacking me, or at least I'm getting better at not agrovating her (I've found that if you run past her not even that fast she tends to attack you, also if you're trying to stop her from going into the garden or anywere else she starts to get anoyed and then she attacks)

Now for Other Pet News:
The fish got new water in their tank.
The rats wish they got their cage cleaned. pateince, pateince, little raties.

That's all the news worth reporting (or not) that I can remember. I'll post those pictures next post, or maybe the next... :)

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Okay, I forgive Sibyll. Kind of.

Okay, I forgive Sibyll. Why, you wonder I would forgive a evil chicken from hell? Because today we proved she does not only hate me, she hates everyone.

Just kiding.

She doesn't hate everybody, and infact she doesn't hate me persay. I think it depends on the weather. Example: If the weather's realy crumby and windy and blowing her feathers all about she mighnt be a little agrovated, and attack. But, if the weather is nice and cool and she's having a nice day she mighnt just run away from me, or anyone else, instead of chalenging them and trying to peck they're shoes to death.
Anyway, I think we've proven that she is not mean (Well, somtimes she's mean) just anti-socal.

I just thought of something: Sibyll has a bare neck and it could just be she's cranky because this cold weather gets her neck, well, cold, and maybe she's just mad because she thinks we should still be living in CA (or that we move back there). But I don't think we're gonna be moving back there anytime soon. Sorry Sibyll!

I think it could also be that if somone agrovates her enough (in Sibyll's case thats trying to pick her up and snuggle her) she would start to get angy and attack.

And so, for now atleast, I forgive Sibyll. But I will still be wary of her, for one never knows when she's in a Foul mood.
Pun not intended, well, maybe it was a little...



UPDATE: I was running through the yard, taking pictures (For a future blog post!!!!!!!!) when Sibyll charged at me! I know, what manners! I stood my ground, trembling with fear though, who wouldn't? an evil chicken from hell charging at you? anway, so I stood my ground and, thankfully, she backed off. But all that goes to show that the moment you forgive an evil chicken from hell bent on destroying earth she'll charge at you. So, the moral of this story is: *Drum roll* DON'T FORGIVE EVIL CHICKENS FROM HELL BENT ON DESTROYING EARTH, they will just charge at you.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Harry just made a song.

Here goes his song, it's called 'The Cow Song': Mooooooooooooooooooooo.Moooooooooooo. MOOOOOOOOOOOO. MoOoOoOoOo. mOOOOOOOOOO.Moooooo.MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MOO DOo MOOOOOOOOOOO DoO. MoO mUuUuUuUuUuUUUU Muh-oooh.
I think he's working on more...


I wish Maxeim would stop eating her molted feathers, it can't be good for her...

Gaming away the day! And other things...

We've been into online games latly and play: World Of Warcraft a MMORPG (Masivly Multi-player Online Role Playing Game), Roblox, an online building game based on Legos, but they've cleverly avoided Trade Mark Trouble,we also visit Gamefudge.com for online games, some role playing some Multi-player and some just 1-person.

I've also been wanting to create an online game, I've created a game that's just basecly sheets of paper and some cut outs that kinda stand up. Oh, and of course there's some dice! But anyway, back to the online game stuff, i've found a website called BYOND filled with online stratagy, board, card, RPing, multi-player and single player games, all created by difrent people, I have to say the website dosn't have the best design, but they do have a guid, witch is better designed and prety strait forward and is meant to help you create games! I'm only on chapter 3 or so, and there's around 19 chapters!
The good thing is that the guid is easy to understand, it's a quick read, and it's got qotes from Bhagavat Gita, and it's a pretty cool website overall.
(Mind You I havn't found the place were you create the game, only the instructions, so if anyone out there has please tell me!)

We're starting to see the first sign of Spring! Although, for me it's too soon, we barly got any snow that lasted more then a day! The sprouts in the cold frame and hoop house are flourishing, as well as the weeds! And, for that matter everything else is starting to sprout, wether they're in the cold frame, or in the ground that's just begining the thaw.
I've been rescueing the sprouts of Onions who are starting to grow were we had our Onion pach last year, of course now that's either the walkway around the hoophouse (Built Partly on top of the old Onion bed) or it's under the Hoop house, were they will almost sertainly die. I've been rescuering these runaway sprouts that pop up on the path around the Hoop House and re-locateing them to the Cold Frame.

The three new chicks we bought this winter are now pullet size and have since been banished to the garage, however we're still babying them so much too keep them in there little coop, and only let them out during warm, sunny days, with no wind. Though they are now almost fully feathered and over heat if it's too sunny or hot.

The biger chickens arn't very intrested in the new chicks, Ginny, secont in comand we think.dosnt seem to mind them at all and just wanders around looking for food, they on the other hand are terified of her, Mini Max, our Lil Buff Orpington, is more brave and i actuly saw her chalenge Ginny, and if you can beleive it, Ginny was the one backing down,
Madem Maxeim, the Leader of the flock is molting right now (Along with Minervia, who's tagging behind) and so she feels extra vonerable, and I don't think she would go into the little one's coop and try and show them whos boss right now, however she is brave enough to chalenge sunny, and even gives her a peck on the nose.
"Now who's leader of the Flock?! Eh?!"

Minervia is the lowest rank in the Flock right now, so she is being particularly agresive to the newist aditions to the flock, probobly because if she can hold her statuse among the little ones, she won't be the lowest rank after all.

Sibyll, who is presumably 2nd or 3rd ranking is very agresive, toward my shoes at least! and so we haven't had her in with the chicks much. Sibyll is very mean,I think, becouse she has a sharp and hard beak and likes to peck not only at my shoes, but at me, if I try to fend her off with a stick, guess what, she pecks the stick, if i try to fend her off with my boots, she just keeps pecking at my boots, and don't even go to fending her off with my hands! I'm convinced at the moment that Turkens (Sibyll's Breed) or at least just Sibyll are the Demon's Spawn Evil Chickens from Hell bent on destroying the world. I'm not sure if I'm right or not, but they're at least bent on pecking my boots or anything they come in contact with intill they bleed, even if they can't bleed, like a stick, or my boots or...

And sorry i haven't been blog posting latley! I'm too buisy playing online games! And, of course, fending off Sibyll AKA E.C.F.H.B.O.D.E. ( Evil Chicken From Hell Bent On Destroying Earth) Have fun everyone! Glad you enjoy reading my blog! :)

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Knitting and chickens

Yesterday, i finished my first scarf!

It's very soft and made out of 4 different types of funky yarns, it's very cool and I'm working on two more scarves: one made of the wispiest and thinnest yarn I have ever seen. I'll have to post some pictures of it when its done. And the other made out of alternating colors: pink, lavender, light-blue, and a brownish yellow.

Here's some pictures of the scarf I made and the ones I'm starting:

Here's harry with the scarf I made:









Here's the mixed color yarn:







This is the pretty, wispy one I'm working on:








We have 3 new chicks, two auracanas and a buff orpington. They were a week old when we got them, and it's been around a week or two since we got them so they are almost fully feathered. they are still pretty small, about the size of my hand with the fingers spread out wide.
They are still a little timid from being in the feed store for a week, but they are getting better.

Here's some pictures of the chicks: