Been slacking

I know, I know... 3 days into my "gonna try to post everyday" proclamation, and I already broke it with no posting yesterday....... hence this random, useless posting today :) Just not feeling good, so other than canning up 7 quarts of tomatoes and making brownies yesterday, I was totally unproductive. Still feeling pretty cruddy today, so gonna keep being a slacker... (hubby's orders!!) Hoping tomorrow I can get back to doing fun stuff (gardening, cleaning, organizing, all the stuff other people consider work, but I consider fun!).

Poor duckie

It's true, men are pigs... regardless of whether they are human or duck. I have 3 ducks, one is a ginormous Pekin duck (male) and 2 are much smaller Indian Runner ducks (a male/female pair). This morning as I was filling the poultry waterers, I heard quacking and squawking like I've never heard before. I glanced over at the duckie pool and my poor female duckie was being assaulted! The big Pekin duck was holding her head under the water while his little Indian Runner friend was trying to have his way with her!!! And they look so innocent. Ha, should have known..... under all that cuteness, they are typical guys!

Making do with what we have.

Since I stopped working and hubby took a job that gives him a lot more hometime, we've had to be careful about finances. Of course, that does nothing to eliminate the "I wants".... today I wanted to edge out a small garden bed by the potting shed and I got to thinking........... Back in May we had a "probable" tornado go through our back yard and it took out a bunch of large trees and huge branches. Hubby cut them up with the chainsaw and made big stacks around the yard.




Now, we don't have a wood burner so here we are with multiple cords of wood...what to do with it all???? Hmmmm... I could go buy a woodstove, but no, that's not in the budget. Ok, we do use a firepit, but this is a LOT OF FREAKING WOOD! Hmmmm.... still thinking........ Ooooh, ooooh, I know!! Rustic garden bed edging!!!!!!


So after a day's work, and a lot of help from chickens...........


I like it! It's cute, rustic, was relatively easy and best of all.... FREE!! I still have to add some dirt and plant it up with some nice flowers, but I think it's working for me! (And Gertrude approves too, which really, is all that matters...)

Welcome to my blog!

So, I've decided to start a blog... yup.... gonna give it a try. I'm going to try to not have commitment issues and post to it every day... but I can't make promises that I know I won't keep! But I do promise to post to it frequently!

That picture over there to the right? That's Gertrude. She's our queen chicken, aka "dog chicken".... she follows us around the yard and loves attention! She has some other chicken buddies... 16 others to be exact.. including 3 mean roosters. (one of which also follows me around the yard giving me the hairy eyeball! Because of him, I never have a "rooster beater stick" far from me!)

We also have 3 ducks.... a Pekin (AFLAC!!) duck and 2 Fawn Indian Runner ducks. Other critters making up our "cast of critter characters" are 2 Merle Border Collies and 2 kitties. One day I hope to add some fainting goats to our menagerie, but for now I'm maxed out on time and money!

As for the people in our household... there's me, the Hubby, and the Daughter. The Daughter is 12 1/2 and is the baby of the family. The Boys have moved out (one graduates college winter 2011!!) so the people in our house are far outnumbered by critters! We're in trouble if they all get together and decide to revolt!

We live in a 200 year old farmhouse that was originally a log tavern back in the 1800's. We purchased it in the Summer of 2010 and it's been a labor of love (and sometimes frustration!) as we try to renovate and suit it to our needs. Our property is a little over 2 acres and is the reason we bought this primitive dwelling. It's my little piece of heaven and my sanctity.

Come join my adventure as I blog about my trials and tribulations with gardening, chicken farming and home renovation. There will be lots of pictures along the way!