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Well, I started back to work this week. It isn't a full time thing, just my job at school for a couple of hours a day. I originally planned on not going back this year, but we decided that every penny counts now. It's always an adjustment on my scheduling of errands and household stuff. It's been 2 days and the laundry is already piled up. I think these 2 moves in 2 months (once to my parents and the second one here) really did me in. For those of you that don't know, when we sold our house in August, we moved in with my parents until we could find something else. We needed cash in hand in this market in order to have someone consider our offer. So, it was load up the trailer, take it to my parent's house, and go get another. I did most of the first move by myself when Chris was at work. The second move he was able to help with. Thank goodness! The funny thing is I didn't realize how tired I was physically and mentally until we finally got to just stop moving for a moment. We are so incredibly happy at our new house that we were finally able to just stop and take a mental break...not to mention I no longer had to sleep on my daughter's mattress on the floor in spider hollow downstairs at my parent's house. Ahh, to sleep in my nice comfy KING sized mattress again! It's funny, the longer we're here the less I notice things that when we first saw the house we said, ah, that's gotta go! I could really care less about my wood paneling in the dining area. I embrace the crystal 70's bathroom lighting. I chuckle at our french fry heat lamps in the bathroom. I just don't care! We watch less tv and spend more time outside with our kids now. Chris and Evan go out front and play soccer on the front "field". Tonight we were trying to finish up some roofing on the chicken coop with Grandpa. He's been working on that so it can be water tight before it rains. It's these little things that keep us focusing on the important things...Being together. The kids caught the baby chicks while roosting so I could clip their wings tonight. If you would have told me 6 months ago that I would have 11 chickens and my kids wouldn't be afraid to hold them while I cut their feathers I'd have told you to go fly something. I think I'm still dreaming. Pinch me! Oh, btw, today when we were working on the coop, a hawk flew right in and tried to get a baby. That momma hen squawked and they all went running for the barn. It was amazing that it tried with 2 humans there making a bunch of noise. That momma was all puffed up and trying to protect her young. I was so proud of her!!! She is such a tough little momma. I ran to where the hawk was in the tree in the corner of the coop and had to shoo it away. What a bold hawk! Damn it! Now I've got that to worry about in the daytime! I'm stressing out for my babies! I guess I'm going to have to go get some shade screen and cover up the coop. It's a big area to cover but hopefully it will be a deterrent. Where was I? In these scary economic times ahead I hope everyone can find the simple things to create their own happiness with their families. It's kind of a scary time. I know we've adjusted what we do and how much we spend on things. It's really taught me what is important and what we've gotten spoiled with. I no longer splurge on lattes and lunches out. I make coffee at home and eat what's leftover in the fridge. I think we'll all be going back to coffee at a friend's house with great conversation over heading to the Starbucks and sitting in the hustle and bustle. Sounds kind of nice! If you're in the area stop by! You can check out my 70's throwback house. I'll warn you to wear your nice socks though. This baby has brand new wall to wall carpet in LIGHT tan. What was that woman thinking??? I now have a shoes off policy until we get some hardwood in here(Which will probably be a long way off!). Sorry! I can't post pictures until I have better connection rate. I have some from this weekend with the kids painting the coop and will have some of our new addition I picked up today. More about that later. I have to post some about all of the things the kids have been up to as well. Man I've gotten behind! I'll stop rambling now.

Here Kitty Kitty

Here I went out to the hen house Saturday night, off to lock up my girls and Rodney. I make it into the hen yard and notice eyes gleaming back at me and the chickens all staring down at the fuzzy creature looking in the boxes for eggs. Ahhh!!!! Run!!!! There was a SKUNK in my hen house! I ran out of the gate and then got ticked. If that thing eats my babies I'm gonna be mad! I yelled at Chris in the house that there was a skunk in my hen house. Out he came with Evan's BB gun and his headlamp. Those of you that know Chris's other skunk story will appreciate his knowledge in "skunk relations". The skunk proceeded to sniff around where the babies were in the box, trying not to move. I was hoping it wasn't going to eat one of them. I think it was looking for eggs. All I know is it wasn't leaving until it wanted to. Then it took off out the back and disappeared. I found it's hole along the fence. I'm glad it didn't spray inside the hen house. Yuck! Then the chickens would never start to lay eggs. I guess I'm going to have to do some rockwork along the fence tomorrow. Damn skunk.

Playa

Rodney is now really confused. The first 2 days he chased our 4 new girls and fought with them. Now he only chases them when Momma is around. When she's inside with her babies he pals around with them. I think he likes these big gals. I think Rodney is a playa. Rodney! You should be ashamed! Although I gotta love a guy that likes the big white gals...(picture the chest bump peace out sign coming from me to him~Hopefully we'll get eggs soon. They are still young and very docile. I am growing quite attached to my chickens. Now I won't feel the need to get another bird in the house. I have 11 outside! Picture a big sigh of relief from Chris. Oh yeah, we named him Rodney for Rod Stewart since they have similar punked out fuzzy hair.

Hanging in the coop

Our place came with a coop ready to go! A little more fencing around the bottom and some fresh shavings and we're ready for some chicks!

Don't you just love this little barn?
Meet Rodney. Our real estate agent, Holly, stopped by with a housewarming gift before she left for her vacation to Alaska. Rodney is the biggest dork. He cracks me up daily. He has a nob on the front of his head that doesn't allow for the best vision looking straight. When he's in pursuit of some lady to show who's boss he kind of runs sideways a little and struts. His little wings are too small to fly well. He's our little goober that takes his job very seriously. He's kind of pretty too. I bet he doesn't like it when I call him a pretty boy...
Here's momma and her crew. She is a little Bantee hen and has 5 babies in tow. Now you know who Rodney is so busy keeping track of.

Home pictures

Here is one of our outbuildings. I like to call it "Chris's S*#@t shack. Those of you that have seen our old garage know why. He isn't the neatest guy on the block. The garage at this place is MINE. The people left us all kinds of things like shelving, wiring for the chicken coop, hoses, sprinklers, planters, a clothesline...what else...stuff that we didn't mind them leaving!!!


Look! Once Chris's treadmill is in it's permanent resting place in our room I'll have it all cleaned out. My car even fits in here!!! We got a Prius after we sold our other house. Now that the kids are older we are always on the go and the truck guzzled too much gas. It is parked and waiting for our next camping trip or dump run. It's an ugly little car but gets 45 miles to the gallon. Shyeah!
This is the view from my kitchen window. There is a big dog run that Sophie won't ever stay in...even though Chris mentioned it. She wouldn't even go out to go potty in the morning for the first week until it was light out. She'd look at me and look outside as if to say, "Yeah, um there are "things" out there so forget it!"

We're finally home!!!

We're finally in our new home. It's not the only new thing that's new. I had to create a new blog site. Apparantly after 2 months of not logging on to post anything, they didn't like me trying to change my email. My old account is now frozen and I can't add anything to it. I've tried to contact them but they send me mass generated responses about reserving the right to freeze my account yada yada yada...I am going to try to update our blog once a week if I can. I have to go to my inlaw's house since they have DSL. We can't get that at our new house. So, here's a few pictures of our new house. It's 3.37 acres and the house is 1860 square feet. It's kind of stuck in the 70's but was very well kept. We bought it from the original owner. I'll tell more about that story later. It's pretty cool. Anyway, on to the pictures! Here is a picture of our house coming up the drive. Our house is located in the middle of the property, which we like. Lets see what other pictures I can find...