It's official. I am a country girl.

A few months ago I was buying a few new chicks when the owner of the farm noticed a tote bag I had made from empty Capri Sun juice pouches. She said - in all seriousness - "You should enter that into the Fair." I can honestly say that thought never once crossed my mind before, but after a good bit of thinking and researching competition categories I took the plunge. I made a Capri Sun shopping bag, a Capri Sun lined Tote Bag, a greeting card and a soap display.

There was not a specific category for soap (surprise, surprise) so I am competing against miscellaneous decorative items to include wood and metal.

Here's the group of items:

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The greeting card closeup. Inside it reads, "He loves me!" I originally made this one for a cousin's bridal shower. It was so much fun to make that I had to make it again.

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Here's a closer look at the soaps I sent in. I feel sorry for my soapy creations still on the shelf that didn't make the cut . Had I finished before 2:00 am I would have asked you for layout ideas. I may enter these into the Boone County Fair in a few weeks, so if you DO have suggestions they will still be helpful!

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I hope I did everyone proud... The judging is tonight. I should find out on Wednesday how I fared against all of the other 'decorative items'. If there was a "Best Smelling" category I think I'd be a lock. Am I weird for feeling a little excited about this?

*** Update***
The results of the judging .... Drumroll please....
Soap Display: First.
Card: First.
Red lined bag: Second
Unlined bag: Third.
Not a bad way to end up! Now to improve on this for next year!
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Shannon

Ack! Linnie is a Lennie!!!

I knew it was a 50/50 possibility that the rescue chicken, AKA Linnie, could be a Roo. I have been in denial a LONG time (well 6 weeks or so at least). A week or so ago I heard an odd sound from the barn. It was a cross between a rusty door hinge and a turkey gobble. Having neither in the area, the suspect became Linnie.

As time wore on I started hearing the odd sound more often. Still hoping, and researching madly about hens crowing, I kept faith the Linnie is a good little hen. Then came the first 'attack'. Ming Ming has been separated from her chicken for a few weeks now. I let them all loose in the barn together so Teagan and a friend could play with the birds. Mingy made a bee line to her chicken for a little birdie hug. Linnie fluffed up big as a turkey and bit chunks of feather from Mingy's neck.

Out came the broom to break up the mele. Poor Mingy was still in need of a little Linnie love and went right back over for a hug. Again, beaks full of neck feathers.

DAMN, DAMN, DAMN I have a ROO!!!! An ATTACK ROO at that!

There must be a bright side somewhere. Will LEnnie protect his harem while free-ranging? I have yet to try this out. Will LEnnie be able to hold his own with the cats and dogs? Methinks yes. Oh yes he will. Can I post a "Beware of Rooster" sign? That should scare the crap out of anyone who thinks they'll trespass. You should see how people run from him now!

Now I am fearful that the other birds are also roo's. What will I do with 5 Roos? You can't exactly collect eggs from Roos! I need to reload with GIRLS soon. I don't know if I want to wait until next spring to hatch out new birds again taking the 50/50 odds. The county fairs are coming. Maybe we'll take a few hand-raised hens home that have already proven gender by producing actual EGGS!

To be continued...

Fetus Soap

A few people got me inspired to whip up a few batches of soap yesterday. One of which was a new facial formula I'd not tried out yet. I try to add some color to keep things interesting, this time using a funnel to swirl the colors in the mold. Look what I saw on the top of the loaf when I unwrapped it. Does that not look like a baby ultrasound image? This is a little unsettling considering my DH was commenting about how he'd like to have another...

The cut slices look pretty nice. I can't bear to cut the fetus section though.



Don't forget to remember me

Like Ducks and Watermelon

Did you know that ducks and chickens go nuts for watermelon? Me neither! Linnie, Tuck and Ming Ming dove into the watermelon like they had been starved for such deliciousness their entire short lives.

I ended up tossing the entire melon to them. Imagine my surprise later that night when I found Ming Ming covered in dark red. It looked like duck carnage. After a quick dip into the pool the watermelon guts washed off leaving my pretty girl all yellow/white again. Can I tell you how much I've grown to love these little ducks. They turn their little duck heads to listen to my every word. Think they're just waiting for watermelon?

Wow. What a hole.

Last weekend the Yang to my Yin announced that he planned to rent the digger so we could start our water garden/pond. Exciting news! Well, today we got it at the crack of dawn and proceeded to pull out the stump from an old flowering crab to try the thing out. After more than an hour of digging and cursing the stump finally gave way and let itself be extracted.


That's Gracie the Wonder Lab next to it. She's about 80 lbs, so it's a good size stump.

Now for the fun stuff. Let's dig a really big hole. We did out duty and phoned JULIE and were reasonably sure that the area we chose was free and clear to dig. Famous last words. Let's just say that the first 15 minutes are critical to a project. The first 15 minutes unearthed a high voltage power line that JULIE did not mark. Oookkkaaayyy. Now what. ComEd said it wasn't their problem. JULIE said they weren't responsible since it was not installed by ComED. Mr. Electrician man showed up a few hours later and after a quote of about $2000 +/- we knew we were in trouble.

I guess God was looking out for us in a strange way. The line was no more than 1 foot in thr ground. It was plenty easy for me to have hit with a plain old shovel let along a piece of equipment. The former owner of this house worked for ComEd and apparently installed a hot line to our barn himself - off the grid. it is plenty legal in that it runs through the meter, but it's just not to spec how it was installed or buried. Live and learn. Nobody was hurt, but it was damned close.

Our pond looks like this right now. With a few slight modifications to route around the soon-to-be-spliced hot wires, it will look marvelous. I can already imagine sipping frozen marg's watching Tuck and Ming Ming swimming with the little shubunkins in their new pond. I have a vivid imagination...

A few days of hand digging will make this pit look like what's in my head - at least I hope so.

On a more happy note, my Irises are blooming for the first time since I moved here.
I'll have to research what variety they are. They're really pretty I think. Won't they look nice by the new pond?

Hey Noah! I too can build an ark!

As you knew would happen, we decided to keep Linnie, Tuck and Ming Ming. They worked their way into our hearts and earned a home here. Turn out they LOVE dandelions. Finally a use for those weeds. These guys will have a job for life picking them from the lawn. Now the problem... How to protect them...

Yesterday I was determined to give my 'free' ducks and chicken a safe place to roam. After researching site after endless site of chicken housing, the site named the City Chicken had the inspiration I needed to build a Chicken Tractor, often called a Chicken Ark. Basically it's a small containment area for the bird to enjoy 'grazing' without the worry of some predator picking them off. I have a food chain here that begins with cats and ends with wolves, so I needed something strong.

Here's the result of my day's work:

It's 4 feet by 8 feet of lawn space and about 40 or so inches tall. Once I figured out the angles it came together pretty quickly. Pythagorus, you rock. Your theorum worked like a charm to help me figure out that I needed 30 degree bottom angles to make the most of my 2x4x8 studs. It all cost in the ballpark of $60 plus the screws and hardware that I stole from my horse stalls. Don't worry, the horses won't be escaping any time soon. I had replaced the latches with safer ones years ago. I just never took the original ones off.

All that's left is to attach 2 wheels and 2 handles so I can drive this thing around like a wierd looking wheel barrow and give fresh grazing areas to my birds. The thing inside is a perch of sorts for Linnie the Chicken. It's left over from when I broke my leg last year. I figured I'd try it out for her before I dismantle it.

Note, this one does not have a shade area. This is just the first one. I plan to use this model to build a few with covered roosting areas at the top. My ultimate plan is to make these in slightly shorter versions so that I can attach several together to make a long run to fit wherever I need it to - like between the garden rows. I can post the methods I used to build this if you promise not to attack my novice builder mistakes...

I tried it out today. My birds were really happy. The dogs circled it like a buffet line, but could not break in. The cats didn't even bother. Sweet success. Teagan fits into it, but quickly left after the first poop episode. I need to work on that with her.

Now for a more permanent coop... I have something in mind. I'll keep you posted.

Reason #412 Why I Love Living in the Country

The other day I ventured out to the 'burbs to meet up with a couple of old friends for lunch. The company was nice. Lunch was a tasty Maggiano's salad. The conversation gravitated toward what was not happening in my old department, rather than anything new and exciting. It seemed like things took forever to go nowhere. I left lunch feeling a little sad and empty. How would things have been if I had stayed?

As I drove home, I felt lucky to have discovered how much more to life there is than the drama of who's doing (or not doing) what. I realized how my life had changed during the past 4 months since I chose to leave the corporate world and experience life with my family. I am able to DO things rather than have a meeting to plan the next meeting. Yet I still wondered what I was here for...

I rounded the last corner home instinctively looking at my elderly neighbor's gate on the drive past it. It looked like something was blocking it from the inside. I executed a perfect 3-point turn returning to see a large tree that fell completely blocking the way. The driveway is 1/4 mile long through the woods, so they may not have discovered it for days. Had there been an emergency they were truly stranded.

It took me 3 phone calls and 15 minutes to rally a team to clear the tree and related debris. My neighbors on either side quickly gathered tools and drove over. We completely cleared the mess in the next 20 minutes. Talk about TEAMWORK! No meetings. No posturing for leadership. Simple ACTION.

This got me to thinking... Had I not gone to a last minute lunch with my old team and taken that route home, how would Carlos and Maria have gotten out? I guess I was in the right place at the right time. All is right in the world. I again found confirmation that I made the right decision to live this life.

Now someone is likely to ask what the previous 411 reasons for loving the country life. Before you do, remember that I WILL list them. Are you sure you're ready for that?

Enjoy the life you chose. Make every moment count.