The White House

The White House

Monday, July 16, 2012

Cool Enough For The Furnace :(

Started the day with animal chores with my coffee which I spilled several times so I should probably just drink the coffee then go outside.
I love this age of chick. They run around playing games and race up to me like they are happy to see me.
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Can you see Daisy in the chicken pen. She squeezes herself through that door. Goofy sheep. She’s in the chicken pen while her grass/barley hopefully grows.
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This is Jessie, Emily’s rabbit. I think she must have once been litter box trained because she only goes in one corner of the pen. She’s just filthy from digging holes. Emily put a chair in the pen so she could sit and hold her. Now the bunny spends all her time sitting on it.
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After the animals I watered the pen. Tonight it is raining on it. A good thing, I guess, but it’s just so cold. Down to low 40’s each night has made this seem like such an awful summer even when it is 70* during the day. The heat is nice, but quickly leaves in the afternoon with the winds and the rest of the day is usually shot.
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My vegetable gardens are doing horrible this year. My husband said he talked to some others who are having the same problem. I think my deal is that I didn’t mulch with straw this year. I did last year and everything grew huge. Even though it clouds up the rain seems to miss my house so my beds sometimes dry out. I’m mulching from now on out. (I will get nothing from these beds before it freezes).
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It took a long time to water the above and below beds, but they wouldn’t have lasted until tonight drizzle.
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This is a big trailer of gravel my husband brought me as well as pallets for under the wood pile. I unloaded the pallets, but did not stack the wood like my list said. Instead I shoveled all this gravel and put the bigger rocks around the pool.
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I raked it around this area and did a ton of clean up. I’d like to plant that grass in the next few days if possible.
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Emily brushed Millie today, but she could still use a lot more. She was really panting from running around the yard.
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My kids are good at find lots of ways to entertain themselves.
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Homer hauled another 16 loads of fill today which brings us to about 650 yards. Not quite half way yet. He cut down the last tree in the way of filling the hole.
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I packed 12 rocks to the pool, then Elijah packed another ten so this side is almost filled in. (I need to trim the liner). As soon as this side is done I’ll plant the grass.
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See how the rocks from the gravel go? In the cracks.
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Put quite a few on this side as well. You can see that is was raining on me when I took these photos. If I could just get the boys to each do ten rocks a day we’d have it all done this week.
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This is what I got out of Nick. Six rocks and then he went to bed. At about 8pm. It’s rough being 19 and staying out all night. I know, I was 19 once, too, but I was always willing to give my folks a hand. My boys just hold their hands open! LOL I don’t know if you can tell, but these rocks are pretty big and take a handcart to move.
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Olivia has been begging for a bird, but cages are entirely too much money. Well, the other day my husband found this very large, very expensive cage at the dumpsters and brought it home. Naturally, we filled it. Olivia picked out the green bird and wanted no part in her brother putting a bird in her cage, but I convinced her the bird would be happier with a friend. Lucas got the blue one.
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As luck would have it Olivia’s bird is vicious. Lucas’ bird is a lot more mellow and has the potential to be friendly. She is heart-broken and even cried. This was her thing. I promised I would do everything I could to try and get her bird to allow her to hold it. (We totally failed with Emily’s. I’ve had several cockatiels in the past and this is my first mean one. And it’s really, really mean). I don’t know their names yet, but wish me luck being a parakeet whisperer.
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Wondering when I blog? Well, it is currently 12:55am. That’s when. :)
The stepping stones didn’t harden. We should have mixed up the whole bag not just part of it. We’ll try again.
The gravel took the place of wood stacking (and a lot more as it took all day!) I never even gave pickles a thought. I moved more rocks than I intended so that took the place of weeding. I mixed fertilizer in a 45 gallon barrel, but haven’t watered with it yet. I did get my three loads of laundry done though.
The forecast says scattered showers. If it is icky out we’ll spend the day inside alternating between playing board games and cleaning house. And, no, I am not going to show you photos of my house. It’s that bad.
Tentative to-do list:
√ pickles of some sort
bake something sweet for treats
water with fertilizer
stack some of the wood
trim pool liner
mow the ditch if it isn’t too wet
bleach/rinse some of the starter plant pots (that have been stacked waiting for 1.5 months)
Hope the sun is shining in your world.

6 comments:

Nancy J said...

Gayle, no sun here, and you are getting so cold at night. Apologies, on my Alaska Post, I put a decimal point in the wrong place, the record snow was meant to be 24.75metres, I have altered it.Maybe anyone/everyone was too polite to comment about my mistake.The rocks look great, Homer is a dab hand with that digger and the trees and fill.Your chicks are so like ones I had as a child.Cheers from Jean

Kim@Snug Harbor said...

I've had several parakeets and I can tell you this... It probably isn't a mean one, it's just scared. It will need about a week or so to calm down. Tell Olivia to sit by the cage and talk to it, but don't try to hold it or put her hand into the cage except to feed it for a few days.

After a week she can put her hand in the cage and just let it sit there so the bird gets used to that. It should start to calm down and come to her if she holds a treat or some seed in her hand. Tell her to be patient and the bird should come around, it will just take a little time.

B said...

The sun is not shining in my world today either. We had some extreme heat and then rain but to be honest my garden and newly planted perrenials needed the moisture.

I would love to have me some chickens but I have such bad memories of having to go in the coop and get the eggs out and then butchering time. But at least I would know what kind of chicken I am eating if I raised my own.

Mama Bean said...

Thank you for your kind comment on my blog - I will return to writing soon :) All rabbits have a designated pooping area that is away from their food source. My bunny did it, too, and books I read said they all will - it makes it easier to clean if you know which corner is the messy one :) Mulching is the secret to everything! But I think your gardens look great, regardless :)

Corey~living and loving said...

I think the reason bunnies can be litter box trained so easily is because they do like to go in one spot. Our tend to go in one spot in their cages, as well.

Janie said...

You have quite a menagerie around your place. That's so great for the kids, but a lot of trouble to take care of all of them.