More Chicks

I didn't have a very good hatch from the eggs in the incubators. So I've been looking for more chicks of the same breeds. I found some on Craigslist and went to pick them up yesterday. I bought some more Jubilee Orpingtons so now I have 12 Jubilee Orpington chicks. Hopefully I will end up with at least 6 hens. I have them all in a box in the bathroom at the moment but Steve is going to build me a pen for them this weekend.

I bought some Cream Legbar chicks as well :) The Cream Legbars are auto-sexed chickens, meaning that you can tell the females from the males when they hatch by their coloring. I bought 7 females and 2 males so if they all make it I will have just what I want :) The hens have a top notch of feathers on their head. This is what they will look like.

Play Dough and Handstands

I watched Catrina's boys today and while they were here her oldest boy amazed us with his skills! He can do a perfect cartwheel and can almost do a handstand without leaning on a wall. Pretty impressive for a 5 year old! Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough to get his free handstand - just his handstand against the wall.

And of course they played with play dough as well. I love these boys!

Happy Birthday to You!

Today was Marsha's birthday so we surprised her by having dinner at Lanna's. They told her they were going to the temple so she was all dressed up :) We had grilled chicken, twice baked potatoes, corn on the cob, and salad. And then we had chocolate Oreo cake and ice cream. It was great food and great company!

To the Dump, To the Dump, To the Dump, Dump, Dump

Steve and Braxton cleaned up the area behind our building a few day ago so today Braxton and I took the load to the dump. You have to wear a safety vest for visibility so Braxton modeled it for us before we left :)

Baby Chicks

The chicks hatched today from the eggs I had in the incubator. The hatch wasn't as successful as I hoped but I did end up with 4 Jubilee Orpingtons and 5 Black Copper Marans. I'll probably buy some more chicks to raise with them so I have enough to breed.

And Even More Kitties!

Our third momma kitty - the Siamese one that Steve calls Dr Evil - had kittens tonight. She formed her own nest in the hay in one of the stalls which was good. She had 6 kittens too - 2 black ones, 1 black and white one, and 3 white ones that will be Siamese. Now we have 15 kittens!! (One didn't make it.) Anyone want a kitty??

Texas Twist Flag Quilt

I took a quilting class to learn how to use the twist ruler and I ended up being the only one in the class! Kind of nice to have a private lesson :) First I sewed the squares together and then I cut them back apart using the twist ruler and sewed them back together again. I'm not finished yet, but this is a smaller sample version the teacher brought. Looks complicated, but it's not.

They had this poster hanging in the shop - I loved it!

Dallin's New Ride

Dallin sold his Mazda 6 and bought a Mazda 3 Speed. (I'm excited because it isn't another motorcycle!!)

Getting Pretty

Alisa and I had a girls day out today. My friend Amber owed me a cut and color and since I don't really care whether my hair is colored or not, I had her do Alisa's hair instead. Then I had Amber just cut my hair. It was perfect weather, about 70 degrees, so Amber did our hair outside on the deck :)

Tree Frog in the House

Tonight I glanced up above the pantry door and noticed a tree frog that had snuck into the house :) It's been raining quite a bit and the frogs are out everywhere. Braxton caught it for me so we could put it back outside with his friends.

Fords in the Family

Braxton took their car in earlier this week to get checked out by his mechanic. It was having problems when it was cold going in reverse. Apparently the transmission was going out and it would cost $4000 to fix! Time for a new car. So after a few days of searching the internet they settled on getting a Ford Edge.

Yesterday they took the Jetta in to Texas Direct Auto to see how much they could get for it. Even after Braxton told them about the problem going in reverse, they bought it from them for $2000 :) Goodbye to the Jetta.

So this morning they drove to the Dallas area to buy a Ford Edge they found. After test driving it and settling on a price, they found out it didn't have a cleared title yet! They left and went to Braums for some ice cream and did some more searching. They found another car in Palestine and went to look at it. It turned out to be just what they were looking for so they bought it :) Alisa is super excited!!

Our Anniversary

Steve and I have been married for 28 years and life is great! Steve brought me roses :) 

Then we went out to dinner at Chili's. We took Braxton and Alisa with us to celebrate since it was their anniversary on the 12th. Alisa ordered a giant burger!!

It was a fun evening with great company :)

Our Old Explorer

Now that we have a new Explorer it's time to say goodbye to the old one, but I still really like it! If only the air conditioning worked better :( Braxton washed it today and I took some photos of it so we can list it on Craigslist for sale. It looks great! I can't believe it's 12 years old!

More Baby Kittens!

Our second mama kitty had kittens today. She had them in the stall with the baby goats :) We moved them to the empty stall so they wouldn't get accidentally stepped on. She had 6  - 3 black ones and 3 black and white ones. Now there are 10 kittens!

Artist at Work

When we went to the store the other night, Alisa bought herself a giant coloring book :) She loves to color and it was only $1, so she indulged herself! This afternoon she relaxed before dinner by coloring a couple of pages. Here is one of her finished masterpieces.

Milking

Alex, Alisa's brother, wanted to try his hand at milking this morning. He did great! If you look close you can even see a small milk stream :)

A Goat with No Name

I finally named my baby boy goat! He's been nameless for far too long. After searching and trying to come up with a name I decided on . . .

 Tejas Tabasco - I'll call him Tabasco.

He wouldn't ever take a bottle from me. I had been trying to force feed him his bottle but it wasn't working very well. I finally tried letting him nurse one night on Nutmegg. (Her little boy died a week and a half ago. I found him in the stall dead when I went out in the morning to let them out. I couldn't see anything wrong with him - so sad. I guess he may have gotten smothered accidentally during the night by her laying on him. So she has only been nursing her little girl.) I put Nutmegg up on the milk stand and Tabasco jumped up there and started nursing on his own. I'm so glad he's finally getting some milk! Now I let him nurse every morning and every evening on her while I'm out there feeding the animals. He's gaining weight and doing great!

Braxton & Alisa are Home!!

Braxton and Alisa are done with school this semester and are going to live with us for awhile to earn some money. I am SO happy they are here!! Alex, Alisa's brother, came with them - he is on his way to LaFayette, Louisiana to work for the summer.

Their trip was a LONG haul! Braxton rode his motorcycle, Alisa drove their car, and Alex drove his car. They tried to do it in two days, but ended up taking three. I'm grateful they made it safely! They did have a radiator hose break this morning, but they were very blessed to have it happen at a gas station, only a mile or so away from an auto parts store where they could get the part they needed. It's going to be so much fun having them here!

New Garden Plants

Two and a half weeks ago, Vanessa and I drove about 45 minutes to a woman's house to buy some plants. She has multiple greenhouses and sells most of her seedlings for .35 each! What a great price! I ended up buying multiple kinds of peppers, tomatoes, and some herbs. It rained for a few days right after I got them and then my goat got sick - and boy has she consumed my time lately! But I finally got them planted today thanks to Steve helping me :)

Eggs in the Incubator

I've purchased hatching eggs online twice now and it just doesn't work. The first time they were packed extremely well but when you looked at them with an egg candler you could see that they were shaken and had lots of bubbles in them. Two hatched and only one lived. The second time I purchased eggs online they arrived in smashed box. Obviously none of them were any good. The seller reshipped my some replacement eggs for free but they didn't arrive much better. So I won't buy shipped eggs again!

I found some hatching eggs for sale on eBay that were near Houston and I messaged the sellers to see if they would let me pick them up locally rather than ship them. They agreed so today I drove north to Livingston about an hour and then south to Santa Fe about an hour. I bought 18 Black Copper Maran eggs and 12 Jubilee Orpington eggs. They are in the incubator now and should hatch on April 23rd :)

Notice how much darker the Black Copper Maran eggs are! They are more of a chocolate brown and the Jubilee Orpingtons are more of a light tan, a little lighter than the eggs I get now from my Black Australorps. I want a variety of chickens, about 5 or so, and I'm going to start selling chicks as soon as these chicks are old enough to lay in about 6 months.

The Jubilee Orpingtons are fat and fluffy and are a good layer. I love their spotted coloring :) They are a fairly new breed in the U.S. and chicks are very expensive. It was hard finding someone that would sell me hatching eggs since people make such good money selling the chicks. A year and a half ago I found this breed and the straight run chicks were selling for $80 each!! Now I have seen them for $20 each, but that is still a lot for an unsexed chick. Hopefully I'll make some money on them while enjoying them :) They will look like this:

The Black Copper Marans are much more common but it's hard to find ones with really dark eggs. I'm happy with the egg color I received - they are nice and dark. They will look like this:

My friend, Leila, calls them my designer chickens :)