ROOSTER WRANGLER!

  Boy do we have eggs!  The girls have been busy and Charlie has been nastier than ever.  The other day Max went out with me to the Chicken Yard with his wooden stick (yeah, it looks like a Trident) ready to beat on Charlie, if need be. Charlie attacked Max his previous visit and nailed him on the hand (and drew blood!), so this time Max was prepared, complete with gloves.

Charlie only tried to attack once---preferring to seek safety under the raised red roof. He usually waits until you walk away, with your back to him, and then he scrambles out and tries to spur you.  (Once, I went into the shed to get the eggs and when I turned around, there he was, perched on the entrance, glaring at me.  I had to charge at him to get him to move.)

Well, our trip was successful this time---no one was injured.  The girls just watched all this and kept their distance from us and Charlie.  Inside, one girl was laying while another waited her turn.  They probably wonder what is going on…

Have a fun Easter and eat lots of nutritious eggs! 

Bees are here!

  Steve (Hubby) received his first colony of bees in the mail (yes, you read that right) this week.  So, now he has to feed them (sugar water) until it gets warm enough for them to go out on their own.  It’s been down below 40 for a few days, so they would rather hang around the hive than venture out too far.

The other day we both donned our bee “outfits” and went to try to locate the queen that was sent in a cute little plastic tube.  First, Steve had to smoke them some to hopefully calm them. It seems to subdue them enough to get close without any trouble. Well, we found the empty tube---so the queen was probably somewhere in the midst of all those bees. She was marked in white, but we still didn’t see her there and we didn’t want to go probing too much into the swarm. Mad bees are no fun.

Actually the hive is supposed to be undisturbed for about a week to give the bees time to settle in with the queen.  They go through an enormous amount of sugar water in a day.  When they can begin to produce honey, then we can quit with the sugar water until winter (or fall?).  After this colony is going strong, Steve may transfer it to a more distant location (an empty field) where the bees can fulfill their jobs without a big commute.  We’ve found that as long as you avoid their “beeline,” they basically don’t bother you.  One just has to remain calm and move slowly when around them---no swatting or flailing allowed.

So bee it.  

Flood over---at least we hope so.

Well, according to the paper here, the flood alert for our lake (Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake in CA) is over.   This lake hasn’t flooded for more than 10 years!   Usually it takes a few days after the rains to settle down and start receding. When we were up in Lakeport last weekend for the concert, during the height of the flooding, I took some pictures.  Normally, this park is an ideal place to visit and enjoy the lake--- but as you can see, the water crashed into the beach area and flooded out the picnic and kiddie playground places as well. Then, I came upon this sign situated beside the restaurant by the lake (and almost IN the lake) and had to chuckle.  

But things are finally drying out here and Max could actually mow the lawn yesterday without getting bogged down.  The “girls” are still laying like crazy and Charlie is as nasty as ever.  Steve put a loop on the end of a long stick and uses it to lasso Charlie and get him up and away when we’re in there to feed them or collect the eggs.  Charlie has learned to avoid the loop!  Spot is as sweet as ever, coming up first thing when I go out.

Gypsy Girl and the cats have been going strong. Kit-Kit still wants nothing to do with Gypsy, but Caruso continues to be friendly and play/fight with her.  Crazy boy!  Gypsy loves our big acre and is a true rocket-dog outside as she streaks around the yard.

Spring is definitely here!

A day in San Francisco

Just the other day, Steve (Hubby) and I had to go into San Francisco to the Veterans health center.  Well, since it was a bright and sunny day (it’s been mostly rain here lately), we drove around and ended up at Land’s End (see photo above) which has a great view of the Golden Gate Bridge and surrounding waters.  Of course it was windy, but not so cold.  We had time, before his appointment, to have lunch, so we picked a this place: and had a nice, but filling, lunch.  Afterwards, a walk was in order (to settle all that lunch), so we headed up the street. 

We had to laugh at this small collection of restaurants all in a row:  talk about diversity:  Italian, Japanese, and American Hamburgers all together!  SF is famous for that!  I always love all the neat and mixed architecture on the streets of SF---especially the Queen Anne and Victorian fancy stuff. 

All in all, it was a nice change to be in the city and experience some great food!  

Learning to get along together…

Yes, Gypsy Girl and Caruso are learning to get along better!  Gypsy is still struggling with holding back her biting and Caruso has got to still learn not to get himself cornered.  Occasionally, Caruso makes it onto Gypsy’s back and digging in with all four feet, tries to bite her in the neck, but can’t get through all that fur, so doesn’t even faze her.  This morning Gypsy managed to roll out of his back grasp and made Caruso growl.  But they’ve learned to be content together too:     Kit-Kit watches from above on her perch on the end of the piano, but stays still and quite invisible and looks down on them with disgust. 

It was pouring yesterday when I ventured out to the chicken yard.  All the girls and Charlie were under the outside enclosure out of the wet, Charlie crowing and making all kinds of noise (probably swearing at the weather).  As I approached the metal shed, Spot came running out to the shed to see me!  I was stunned that she was brave enough to face the heavy rain, but her desire to see me and get a pet, won out.  As I was leaving the yard, Charlie strutted out and came for me.  Luckily, I had the stick (Charlie beater) in my hand and was able to fend him off enough to escape the yard.  Sometimes I think he’s jealous of Spot’s attention to me!  I have trouble believing that, what with his tiny itty-bitty brain!

QUIT DOGGIN’ THAT CAT!

The title says it all!  Gypsy’s learning not to “herd” the cat too much. Caruso is such a sweetheart and wants to be friends with her, but he will only take so much before the claws come out and the low growl starts.  Will Gypsy Girl ever learn?   I have my doubts.  Our other cat, Ninja Kit-Kit has been as invisible as possible, thinking if she doesn’t move the dog won’t find her.  That works great at night when it’s dark, but not so well when she’s curled up on our light beige bedspread. She is especially fast and, in the blink of an eye, she’s gone---down under somewhere. 

Charlie, our watch-rooster, is as nasty as ever.  The other day I went in to check for eggs and feed the girls, he came at me and I knocked him off his feet THREE times with a plastic pole that I carry for just that job.  And STILL he came at me again.  At least the girls are well protected when we’re not there…that’s the only thing that saves him at this point. 

The great news is that I finally got my new refrigerator!  YEAH!  If you all remember my refrigerator blues last fall (or earlier?), we hauled in one of the refrigerators that the previous owners of this place had left in the garage.  It’s been adequate until just lately, when the freezer will go from below 0 to 40 at the drop of a hat.  Strange thermostat problems, I suppose.  At any rate, Sears had a sale, so I got this one for under $400---brand new with a warranty.  So far, so good.

Enjoy your week!

Been a While…

Wow, it’s been a couple of weeks since my last blog.  Time flies when one is busy.  Not much has changed around here lately---you know what they say, “No news is good news!”

Our snow has turned to steady rain (which we have needed) and everything has turned to mud, including our dog.  Gypsy has a tendency to run herding patterns around the chicken yard when we go there to check the chicks and her little figure-8 track has become one big mud pit.  Then, every night before she can come inside, she has to have a bath.  So, we keep a big pot of water on our woodstove that is always hot, just for her bath. 

The “girls” are doing well and still laying from 4 to 6 eggs a day.  I wished I’d had my camera handy the other day when Hubby went out to collect eggs and found all the hens lined up (like a production line) on the top rail in the hen house, waiting their turns to go into the laying cubbies.  There are 8 cubbies but the hens only use the same two…all the time!  They refuse to even get in the other ones.  Talk about creatures of habit!  Unfortunately I didn’t get a pic of that as he told me after the fact.  But it must have been quite a site. 

Charlie is completely healed and as nasty as ever.  I don’t think he learned a thing even with the boot to the leg!  But, if he’s that way with us, he’s also that way with predators that visit the hen yard, thus protecting the girls.  So, as long as he is doing his job so well, he gets to live. 

Gypsy Girl has been doing better, but has developed a nasty sneeze/wheeze, as if there’s something stuck in her nose.  It even wakes her up when she’s napping or at night.  I’m afraid we may have to take her to the vet to have this checked out.  She may have grass or fox-tails stuck up there.

Work has been good, but gas prices have rocketed---$3.95 at last look.  Afraid to look today.  So, I raised my tuning price up another $10 to cover the travel costs.  People seem to understand and don’t complain too much. 

Hopefully Max will have his first tennis match with his school team, this week on Thursday.  Since it is out of town, I’ve volunteered to drive.  Hope the weather cooperates. 

It can stop snowing now…

Yes, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…  It actually started snowing here on Thursday late afternoon when Steve and I had to drive up to a town about 1/2 hour from here for an appointment with Max’s orthodontist.  We ran into a blizzard half way up the major hill near the beginning of our journey.  But by the time we were almost to our destination, it had turned to rain and wasn’t so stressful. 

Well, it continued to snow that night and I woke up early to find this:  These chairs are a perfect way to document the snow accumulation as they have full access to the elements.  Then came the call that school was cancelled due to the weather.  About 10 in the morning our power went out and it continued to snow.  I went out to see the chickens:     One of the girls was still in the metal shed, laying away, while the rest of them were under the small roof to the right of the shed, scared to venture out in that “white stuff.”    Steve and I went out to check out the side yard along with Gypsy Girl.     She loved the snow and did her impression of an ostrich!     Our ditch was nearly frozen over   and still it snowed more !  Max came out and tried to coax Gypsy Girl up onto the trampoline, with no luck.  Meanwhile, Kit-Kit enjoyed looking out from INside!     That evening Max caught up on his homework by candlelight:  .  School was cancelled for another day and when power was out to most of our end of the county.  The snow dwindled with the 40+ temps but with more rain and freezing temps that night, things became crunchy underfoot.  Max made a discovery while digging through the ice:  It took a lot of jabbing and spearing to get the thing loose, but he finally dislodged his treasure:     Now the snow has diminished and the ground peeks through---by tomorrow it will be mostly gone.  It’s probably headed your way now!!!  Stay in and stay warm! 

SPRING IN FEBRUARY?

Yes, really.   I took these pics TODAY of our new daffodils out front.  So, there IS hope that spring will eventually come to everyone.  I know it’s hard to believe it with all the snow and below 0 temps most of the country is experiencing, but here in CA our trees are budding and flowers popping. 

In the last few days, our new dog, Gypsy Girl, has managed to decimate three new toys, which are said to be TOUGH.  She usually has anything with stuffing, ripped and gutted in under 10 minutes. So, no more soft, batting-filled cutesy toys for her.  Nope, got a good old-fashioned cotton braided rope for tug-of-war today.  So far, it has held up and she loves to chew, chew, chew it.  She definitely is still in that puppy stage. 

Much to our relief, Gypsy Girl has settled in to our routine and managed NOT to eat the cats…yet.  But she really is a knucklehead at times (I hear you about that sterling quality, Rocketman!) and tends to get too carried away with biting.  She has to be able to control that before we can feel safe with our cats around her. Hopefully that will come with maturity (and spaying).  She’s getting her shots this coming weekend at a clinic and is getting fixed two weeks from now.    So far, she seems to be in perfect health and VERY strong.  I think she is a keeper!