You've got mail!

I've come to the conclusion that I will never take the mail service for granted ever again!

Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan of them delivering my mail 15 miles from here (happened - more than once), but the concept of mail coming directly to my house? I'm kinda liking that.

Let's go back to the beginning.
When we moved into this house, this is what we had for a mailbox:

It wasn't beautiful, barely functional, but it was free and it was low on the priority list of things to upgrade. You know, after a while it kinda grew on me in the "I live in the kountry" sorta way.

Don't you just love the "shotgun blast distressing" look?

And then something tramatic happened!

DOH!

It really sucks to have that happen in the middle of winter. Especially this past winter as there was rarely a moment all year that there wasn't snow on the ground, then when there wasn't, it was so soaking wet you sank up to your ankles in mud just walking across the road.

Option B:
Drive to town to pick up mail.

Doing the math, over 2 months, 4 trips a week approximately, 17 miles round trip, works out to 544 miles!! I estimate that's 27 gallons of gas, and at $2.60 a gallon... Well, that's $70.20 just to pick up my bills.

It's quite anticlimatic and frustrating to go pick up junk mail!

Anyway, warmer weather started to poke around, and so Tanner and I did some mailbox shopping. I finally decided on a simple number from Walmart made by Rubbermaid. Not because I loved it, but because it was cheapest.

Mailboxes are expensive!

I get it home, and start to put it together. Long story short, it won't even assemble correctly, it's a piece of junk!! Not to mention, I'm having moments of feeling like I'm selling out. Like I moved into an HOA... which I would NEVER EVER DO. I'd live in a house made of pallets first.

(No offense to those that live in HOA's, I'm sure you are lovely people and have lovely homes. I'm just too non-conformist. You don't want my type as a neighbor. ;)

I give up, and take the stupid mailbox back to the store and then put Tanner on a mission. It's his job to build the post to put a metal mailbox on.

He did a good job, we did have to end up making the post longer and had to recut it. I will say that there were more arguements over this stupid mailbox than there has been over that whole entire chicken coop yet! I was never so glad that the STUPID mailbox got up already.

Can you tell I'm still riled up?

I think the only thing that can lower my BP over it at this point, is to walk 50 feet in my jammies (at 3 p.m.) to go get my mail.

At my own house.

And I don't even have to put on eyeliner.

Life is good.

I think someone is mad at me...

It's orange and white, huge whiskers, pretty cute, and has a big butt...

He's kinda taken to Tanner when he's here, and hasn't been bugging me as much in the evening. Maybe he decided he doesn't like getting squirted by the water bottle when he scratched the carpet.

*indignant look*

So lately, he's been sleeping with Tanner. Even up there on that top bunk.

Good lord, I dodged another bullet!

A chicken love story

So here's how the story goes...

Over the past couple years, I've given my husband a hard time about the different types of animals I want out here as a pet. They've ranged from horses, to cows, to bunnies, to goats, to chickens, to ducks.

Most of all.... ducks.

For the record, I really, really want a duck.

Tanner and I are forever walking around saying "Oh, we're getting a duck!" For some odd reason, this doesn't amuse Gene nearly as much as it does Tanner and me.

He's totally not sold on the duck concept.
Yet.

So Tanner has really gotten into the idea of having chickens, and even designed a chicken coop in some CAD program that he found online. He also said the other day "I read in this chicken forum....."
Wha?

So I had a conversation with Gene, that he might be disinterested, and I'm somewhat luke warm, but Tanner is excited so let's just do it. I mean, worse case scenerio, we end up with a big storage shed and a dog run?

Saturday, we just happen to stop in at Orscheln's to gawk at chickens and kiss all the ducks. (Ok that was just me), and I notice that because it's the day before Easter, every chicken and duck is on sale 1/2 price!

I have 18 chickens in my living room in a giant tub right now.

And no coop, no run, no nesting boxes, no roost, no NOTHING. But I have chickens! I got 12 Plymoth Barred Rock and 6 Rhode Island Reds. 2 of those reds might be a rooster. That's what the chicken whisperer, Jason, said anyway.

And Tanner seems excited and hangs out by the temporary coop, which they have already gotten bigger in the 2 days we've had them. There's a monster chick in there that looks like he's eating all the other chickens she's so fat (might be a he).


Jingles on the other hand:

He is not amused.



So we had to hit the ground running on building this coop. I mean, chickens seem to be like teenage boys when it comes to the growth spurt thing, they eat a lot, and they grow fast. That 2'x3' tub is only going to last a week tops.


We have an old cement pad, where a garage used to set long before we moved here. There was a fire and the garage was lost. It's in crappy condition if you can imagine, and right now it's just been a place to put our construction waste.

The choice seemed obvious, so it will be the location of our coop, with the run going out into the back into the grass. Gene is convinced that we will soon be letting them run free range. I however, am kinda iffy living on a busy road where some ppl might think running over a stupid chicken would be 'cool'.

Anyway, so saturday the plan was to dig the holes for the posts for the run, put up one side (which will be a regular fence - so ppl don't have to look at my chicken coop, and they'll be out of the wind), and then go pick up a load of lumber for the coop.

Gene has a co-worker that has a TON of 2x6's (long story), that he has been hoarding, and he said we could have what we wanted. Srsly, there's enough to build a huge 14 car garage.

Mmmm... garage.
Screw chocolate or a paris vacation. My ultimate dream fantasy is a garage.

He goes to pick up the lumber and his co-worker says "screw it! We'll build it right here!". And they did! All the framing is done, and we just have to assemble, put on the roof, windows, doors, sheathing, paint. - so.... a LOT.

Tanner and I tag teamed post holes while Gene was gone, and without the posts (he had them we didn't accomplish much else.

Tanner doesn't like digging holes.

I don't either.

We also discovered that if we want to dig a well, we could, by hand. And it would only need to be about 6 feet deep. Dude it's wet out here!

Soon Gene pulls up with the nearly fully assembled sides, and we all heaved them onto the cement pad.

Then we all laid down and panted and said "stupid chickens" and they said *peeepeeepeeepeeepeeep* for the next 96 hours.





I will keep you updated on the chicken coop progress. I have to, I have no real life to report anyway! :p

Scuse me, I need to go, my living room stinks and I need to clean some chicken poo.

And so it begins.

*peepeepeepeepeepeepeep*

Nothing good can come of this!
x 18!

(details to come)

HAPPY EASTER!

Resistance is futile (and so is whining)

So remember last fall when I found out that a deer had been rubbing my brand new trees out in front of my house?

Well, on my early spring "tree inspection rounds" I discovered more damage.

I'm kind of annoyed.
Actually, I'm really annoyed.

I guess all my trees will have to have tubing put around them for protection. It'll look like I'm trying to grow my own Borg.

(it's a Star Trek reference kids, keep up).

That, and I'm thinking I should get a dog. An annoying one, that barks at critters and loves to eat voles, because the voles had their share of the new trees too! Apparently, they like to eat in the wintertime and have left a nice little ring devoid of bark around the base of every sapling I own.

Which is all of them.

Living in the country, it's not as much upkeep as it it is defending your homestead.


"I am Locutus, you will assimilate"
"Resistance is futile."


(you know, *I* think it's funny, that's all that matters right?)