Master of change

Resolve to be a master of change rather than a victim of change.
       - Brian Tracy

Much of my life I was a victim of change. The first change that I can put my finger on was

Heat and the joys of home ownership

It has been so hot lately. I have not wanted to do anything!. Today I have to get out and fix fence. I am afraid that I have neglected a vital part of electric fencing, keeping the weeds off of it. The horses went through the fence last night. It is too hot to deal with this!

Speaking of heat, my A/C is not working properly. Actually it is, the vents are not working right. The drain hose got stopped up and I did not realize it until I found water on my laundry room floor. I thought that my washer quit on me again but it was not so. Now I have to cut out the insulation and replace it. I had to poke a hole in the what ever it is called that carried the air to the registers in the floor, to drain water. That's right water. After dipping out about 100 gallons I gave up and crawled under the house and poked a hole in the bottom. I also poked holes in the water barrier to allow water to drain out of the insulation. There was a LOT of water. The water had pulled the whatever down off the unit and was blowing nice cool air underneath the house! NOT what needed cooling! With the weight of the water out it is not blowing as much out and the house is cooling off again. Tomorrow I will be cutting out the insulation to see how I can repair the damage. Oh the joys of home ownership. Hopefully I can get by without replacing the floor!

Comment Luv

Today I am trying something new. I installed Comment Luv on my site. I have seen it on other blogs and I really liked it. It took a bit to do because after all it is new. LOL. I did not lose any of my old comments (and there were 11786 of them). I did have to join 2 sites to do it and install 2 different plug-ins but I am hoping it is worth it. Let me know how it does.

The other day when Pat came home from work he came running in telling me that a chicken was hollaring. I knew what that meant, an animal was after my chickens. He went for the gun and I grabbed the light. 1 baby was in the driveway with it's mama. I knew right then that bad news faced us. I flashed the light around looking for eyeballs but saw none. I could smell the sweet, pungent scent of a skunk in the air. We get to the back of a car that is sitting in the yard(yes, it is non-running and in weeds so that makes me a redneck) and I see a baby chick on the ground. I bend over to catch it and it tries to get away. I catch it and notice right away that its feathers have been plucked from its neck to tail on its belly side. I also noticed that the baby's legs were not moving much. I placed that action to being petrified but I was wrong. One leg is not working at all. The other leg moves but cannot support the baby. I have it in the house it is eating and drinking. It pulls itself around the cage with its wings and beak. It is alert and peeps but its legs all laying lifeless. I really do not know if it is cruel to keep it alive but I cannot bring myself to kill it when it is trying to live. I am hopeful that 1 leg will recover. It does grip my finger when I place my finger against the bottom of its foot. I had a one legged chicken before. If neither leg gets any better it could end up in the stewpot. Okay that may be TMI for some people. Ignore it, my heart may not allow that to happen either. We found the other baby the next day with 2 bites out of its soft belly. Pat buried that one.

Not a good week for chickens. Today I lost one of my Americana chickens. Abby, Johnny's dog came down and decided to kill one. Our neighbor caught her carrying it off down the driveway and chased her away. She also injured the leg on one of my baby Rhode Island Red roosters. He is walking but favoring one leg. Made me a bit upset because I have raised them up from little chicks. They are pullet size now. Should be laying in a month or so. So that means I am down to 10 chickens(not counting the ones that run around the yard), 8 pullets and 2 roosters. One of the Americanas may be a rooster even though I paid for pullets.

I celebrate my pool is ready to swim in!

Spring has sprung

Spring is here to stay I hope. I know the animals think so. Rabbits ate my newly planted broccoli and brussels, not the whole plant, just the leaves.

Good news, we got the tractor running again. Bad news, now the lawnmower is not working. When it rains it pours.

I have baby chicks in my living room again. That gives me about 2-4 weeks to get a home ready for them. I have Rhode Island Reds, which lay a nice large brown egg. I also have Americana, also known as The Easter Egg chicken. They are supposed to lay blue eggs. I believe I have the Silver kind.

My peach trees bloomed again this year. maybe we will actually get peaches! I have a pear tree to plant. It is about a 2-3 year old tree. At 5 years old they start putting out fruit. I suppose this means I will have to start liking pears. LOL.

Chip and Peaches are busy making a nest. There are 3 eggs in it (maybe 4. there was a lot of noise in the nest just a few minutes ago). I really need to find a home for the other birds. I guess I need to post on the board or on Craig's list.

I guess that is all for now. Have a good day.