Category Archives: Backyard Chickens

And I Never Even Took a Magic Class!

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Remember the 4 cute little baby chickens I got almost 3 months ago?  I bought pullets, meaning (in secret chicken people language) that they were future egg laying hens.

IMG_20140308_154200Well, not so much. The cute little yellow fuzz ball started crowing when it was about 2 months old.  Guess what’s against my HOA rules?  I  mean besides all the other stupid stuff.  Roosters.  And as much as we liked Nugget, we couldn’t argue that the crowing was obnoxious so we gave him to someone who’s daughter wanted a pet rooster.  I know, weird.

So the next day….

The very morning after Nugget was gone (and the hens cried all night, for real) the little mini chicken, Baby, started crowing.  Apparently he was intimidated by the huge rooster and didn’t show his true colors until Nugget was gone.  So he had to go.  We gave him to a family that had 6 bantam (little) hens. They were very nice and even offered to send me pictures of him in his new home since I had said they could only have him if he wasn’t going to be a meat chicken or raised in a tiny box or something.

So here is what I ended up with out of my 4 believed to be hens:

TrioBut wait, that isn’t a chicken!  Because fate says I obviously don’t have enough animals the guy who took Nugget, the 1st rooster, offered me a cute little 9 week old bunny in trade even though I already said I was just giving him the rooster.  Who would say no to that?

Of course since I hadn’t actually planned on getting a bunny we had to run out that night and pick up food and hay and such necessities.  Oh yeah, and since we didn’t have a rabbit hutch just laying around (s)he is living in my bathroom.   Ya, it’s kind of unconventional but it’s litter box trained and runs around my room when I’m in it for exercise.  Someday my chicken coop will be finished and I’ll build a hutch.  It WILL happen.  All that’s left on the coop is a ceiling and door, the only reason it’s not done is I can’t fit those supplies in my Prius so I have to wait for my dad’s truck to be available to make the Home Depot run.

I managed to turn 4 baby chicks into 2 hens and a bunny, and I didn’t even need a magic hat!    On the plus side I’m down to only 9 pets now…

I’m pretty sure that since my 9 are divided between hens, a bunny, dogs, and rats I can’t be considered an animal hoarder.  I’m pretty sure hoarders pick an animal and stick to it.  Right???  I am, however,  definitely at the point where even a goldfish would cross the line into too much!

How about you, what kinds of pets do you have?  Did you get any of them spur of the moment? I’m not the only one who couldn’t turn down a baby bunny, right?

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So Here’s the Thing.

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I like running.  I do!  Not every run, but for the most part. I also like writing, or I never would have started writing here. So why haven’t I been writing much lately? Because somewhere along the line I must have subconsciously decided that I could only write about running here.

And, I have a slight problem with an odd cross between the squirrel syndrome and being obsessive. That combination can be better than it sounds, except for when it’s worst than it sounds.

Last year my squirrel was gardening.  One minute I was thinking about how my mom used to grow lettuce in the side yard, the next thing I know I had bought 2 raised gardens and was finding out more than I needed to know about what a too-rainy season in Florida could do to a garden.  Also, I now know what an assassin bug is.  Just as cool yet not at all cool as they sound.   I even started a new blog with my niece to keep track of the garden.  Here is where I started, take a look if you are feeling bad about how your yard looks and would like to realize just how great it really is.

Then everything died except the basil plant, then my dogs ate the basil plant, then gardening season was over.  On to the next adventure.

Until a few weeks ago when I was feeling a bit overwhelmed reading about all of the GMO veggies in the local grocers and remembered I already had a fence up, why not start another garden?  So I bought a bunch of non-gmo seeds from SeedsNow.com and Clear Creek Seeds. And of course since nothing other than radishes, a few cucumbers and the basil lived last year I decided to start bigger.

20140216_144944The 2 square shaped beds are the ones I bought at Sam’s club last year, and I built the L shaped bed in the back a few weeks ago using these directions.

Of course I had to fill the beds and I originally intended to partly use dirt from the yard mixed with other stuff.  Then came the next squirrel. The dirt in my yard was full of disgusting things that I found (thanks Google) out are slugs.  They live under ground and eat roots and kill all your plants.  Even vegetable plants.  And did I mention they’re gross?  It was a little bit like finding out evil little aliens lived out there.

So I spent the better part of the day Googling how to get rid of them.  Guess what?  Basically the entire internet laughed and said too bad, all you can do is HAND PICK THEM and drop them in soapy water.  Now I swear I’m not a total wimp but no.

As I continued to (desperately) read I found a single ray of hope.  My new squirrel.  Yep, and I’ll tell you all about them later. That’s right slugs, take THAT!

IMG_20140308_154200

How about you, do you ever take an idea and start running with it before you know exactly where it is you’re running too?  If not I have to say, I highly recommend it.  🙂