Cool stuff!

Woohoo! New aquisitions!

I just got - for a cool $100 - a whole load of rabbit cages.

I know you're thinking: "Uhm, Blue, you don't keep rabbits." (right after: "$100?! What happened to Ms I'm-so-thrifty-I-dig-through-dumpsters?")

Well, Smartypants, I got SIX cages: 3 singles, 2 - 10 foot triple cages, PLUS a 16 foot six partition cage. That's - technically - fifteen cages that are made of mechanic's wire (totally predator-proof) WITH feeders and waterers, all up on stout legs so that I don't have to stoop.

Ahhh, bliss.

Seriously, I need the cages for chickens, see? Or pigeons. Or chicks/poults/keets (I get my baby Guineas soon!)

Also, if I decide I don't need 'em all, I can sell just the single cages at $30-$40 a pop, easy. the mechanics wire alone on these things would cost me over $100 if I tried to make them myself.

I'll post pics soon. I'll try to get them all set up this week so you can see Blue's House O' Poultry.

Hee, hee!

Blogging fool, me!

Don't ask me where all this energy came from. Perhaps low blood sugar will do that for you, LOL. (We just watched The Devil Wears Prada where Emily discusses her diet: "I don't eat anything, then, when I am about to pass out, I eat a cube of cheese." I am so starting this diet tomorrow.)


I went dump diving today and got some fab stuff! Here's Bulk with some of our finds (he's guarding "MY tuk!"):


Better pics of the wooden box, which is an old silver chest, on my Farm Blog (and another good pic of Bulk).

Boy made an ecstatic accomplishment today. He climbed a tree all by himself:


He was SO thrilled and his sisters were really jealous.

Aaaaand an obligatory Fiver pic - all crumpled up asleep:


Awww!

The store blog has also been updated in case you're interested. (Sorry, let me drop some links here for the search engines:) We have what you need for fans of Cthulhu, comic geeks, teachers, and those in need of snarky maternity tees and baby gear!

And, yes, the only blog I didn't post to was Blue's Blog. But don't worry, faithful fans of the rude and off-colour ... I have some good, vitriolic posts in mind.

*wink*

Nose to the grindstone

It's refreshing and exhausting to be back out in the barnyard.

Since I've been pretty much pregnant and/or breastfeeding an infant for the last five years (plus!), my Evil Genius Husband has been doing the lion's share of the farming.

I've never been too far from the action, but understandably limited.

Since the birth of my last baby I've been back in the barnyard; piddling about, cleaning up, adjusting things. My immediate goal: making a profit. This is a farm, not a hobby, and it's been set on cruise control for too long, LOL!

I've been eyeing the flock for culls and I've ordered more chicks from the hatchery (got my second batch of Bourbon Red turkeys just Thursday!) I also plan to set up the incubators.

In other news, I've been dump diving with a vengance and have acquired some brilliant finds; tonnes of wire to make chicken cages and repair pens, scraps of wood, a lovely dip net (for catching fowl), and endless odds and ends some of which will make their way to the junk sale.

Just today I got a small wheelbarrow, a lovely bit of garden sculpture (formerly a concrete mailbox in the shape of a cottage), several planters, and non-farm; what appears to be a venerable silver chest (or silver safe):

I already have my grandmother's cherry sideboard, which has a silver drawer, so i plan to use this nice peice as a catch-all on the dresser for Evil Genius Husaband's doo-dads.

My littlest diving buddy (my middle son, the Incredible Bulk):

In other news, if you live in or love the Southeastern part of the United States or just adore the rural life (especially if you have goats or sheep!), please check out our new sections in our online stores. Check back often as I am putting up loads of new stuff all the time!

Related Tags: dumpster diving, trash picking, thrifty, southern, south, south carolina, goats, sheep, farming, t-shirts, tees, shirts, tshirts

*Phhbbbtt!* (Oh, 'scuse me!)

I've absolutely nothing to say. Having a blogfart!

I'm going to my post partum appointment today (finally! It was cancelled last week.) with a long list of nagging ills (continuing discharge, thrush STILL, cramping, swelling, blah, blah, blah) and NOT looking forward to sitting in the front waiting room (preggos get to go back and sit in the OB waiting room). In the front waiting room you get the subspecies of woman who has never had kids (either newly preggers or just GYN patients) and the stringy old broads (who have never had kids?), both of whom gawp, glare, and whisper when I show up with my Brood.

The fact that my children are still and quiet doesn't impress these groups, they are offended by the mere proximity of more than one toddler/baby.

I once had some cow - approximately my age and terribly well dressed - actually murmur "Oh, my gawd" when I herded my (then 3) youngsters in. Hmm. Bad form, honey. If you feel snarky, don't roll your eyes and sigh in front of me (especially since my kids are behaving), go home and blog about it. That's what I do.

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"Oi! Can we get some service over here?"

Speaking of kids, Fiver is doing just fab. Eating like a horse, sleeping well (usually only wakes once a night, though - UGH - last night was an exception.) They weighed him at 4 weeks and he was 11 lbs 10 oz and I have him in size 2 nappies (I use disposables on my newborns and when we go out - in case any of you Cloth Diapering mommas were wondering if I'd jumped ship, lol).

I think I've managed to give the thrush back to him, but it's not showing and certainly hasn't slowed him down. I'm going to get some diflucan today if I can and get rid of this crap once and for all.

"Jeez, I hope mom gets over all this crud!"

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Aside from all my wee gripes, Bulk is my current 'problem'. He's barrelling toward two with a vengeance and is taking the opportunity of my being busy with Fiver to exhibit some badness. His latest thing is pushing people. And he waits until I'm sat down nursing Fiver to do it.

Now, Bulk weighs as much as his next oldest sister, Bitty, (who is a year older) and not much less than his scrawny oldest sister. When he pushes you, you fall the heck down. I've seen him shove Boy - who weighs a respectable 42lbs - and have him stagger back.

He's big into "No!" and walking around saying "Momma, momma, momma!" in anguish, but then refuses to help me understand what's wrong. He won't let me try to explain stuff to him - everything is a personal affront and causes him to have a crying fit - and heaven help you if you actually punish him! He will fall on the floor or drape himself dramatically over a nearby bit of furniture and howl to the gods in outrage.

It's pretty funny.

Funny ... and irritating.

Pic of the bad boy in question:

On a related note: Boy has been acting a bit needy. I think that he is at the point where his brain is like a black hole, consuming knowledge at an alarming rate and, because of Fiver and Bulk, I've not had as many minutes to respond to his ceaseless chatter and questions. I've tried to carve out special time for him and, of course, school in the fall will help dramatically.

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My shop images have all been restored - YAY! - and I've been working in them feverishly. I need to start updating my store blog. Poor thing is like my farm blog, I tend to just dump everything in here. Lazy arse, me!

I have (finally!) been ordering the goodies I promised everyone so long ago. Some are sent. Anna, and Danielle, your stuff just arrived and will go out by Wednesday! Mrs Chili, your stuff's on order.

Anyone else fancy anything? Last chance! C'mon, peeps. I loves ya. Let me send you a button or something!

Ugh, ugh, ugh

What a depressing week!

It seems like the bad news never ends.

First the website that does fulfilment for my t-shirt and gift shop suffered a server failure and lost a number of my images. It happened to everyone and they're rushing to correct it but it sucks all the same. Folks go to my shops and encounter empty sections. All I can do is wait.

Then my FIL falls and breaks his hip. Double ugh. He's older (about ten years older than my own dad - which is ironic because I'm ten years older than Evil Genius Husband - his dad got started late, mine got started way early) but that's not it. He's not exactly a doddering old fart, he just tripped and fell on his concrete drive. But it blows just the same. Fortunately he'll not need a hip replacement: they're just going to insert a pin.

Then EGH discovers that he is required to complete several courses/workshops/etc to renew his teaching licence and he was totally unaware that he HAD to. Now he's upset and scrambling to find out what the heck is going on. Turns out he was supposed to have an advisor ... but he has no idea who that person is or what is required. Now he has to do all the leg-work to straighten things out. Triple ugh.

THEN i find out i made a grievous error in some important official paperwork (no, not our taxes, lol, but good guess) and I've had to backpedal and apologise for being a spaz and try to get things straightened out. Let's just say it involves insurance. Quadruple ugh.

And then there's Virginia Tech.

This horrible incident (I can't bring myself to say the 'M' word) has upset me to the core. First off as a mother - i cannot fathom the pain these families are going through. You send your baby off to university and something like this happens. I just cannot cope with what these mothers (and dads!) must be feeling right now.

Secondly, because that school means so much to me.

For those of you who do not know, my dad graduated from Virginia Tech. I'm a dyed-in-the-wool Hokie (right after being a Gamecock). i graduated from Blacksburg high school! I lived there for several of the very best years of my life.

It just hurts my heart.

This school is isolated and rural (it's a cow college) and the town is tiny and serene. I used to walk into downtown as a teenage girl. I used to ride my horse onto the campus. i went unescorted to late night showings of Rocky Horror Picture Show and played Ms PacMan and DigDug shoulder to shoulder with college students at local pizza places.

I learned to drive there. I got my first job there.

That a madman would crop up there is almost unthinkable.

I guess folks can go insane anywhere. Anytime.

It makes me want to keep my babies at home with me forever. I guess that's not gonna happen, eh?

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While I'm venting let me say this: I'm effing sick to death of the media identifying this psycho as Korean. Who freakin' cares? His race is immaterial. He was raised here. He went mad and killed a load of people. Crazy knows no sex or colour or social stratus. He was mentally ill. A nutbag Homo Sapien.

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Blimey. Tomorrow has to be a better day. I have my post partum doctor's appointemnt tomorrow (with much gripings: still having a discharge, still battling thrush). Perhaps I'll be able to regale you with idiots-in-the-waiting room mundane reports.

One can only hope.

Mindboggling

I just wanted to say how stunned and sad and angry I am about this.

I lived within walking distance of Virginia Tech for years and graduated from Blacksburg High school.

My heart goes out to the families of the victims.

Is it just me or is the world filling up with crazy people?

Just when I got the floor clean ...

So ... our guest cancelled at the last minute (not saying it was all her - she sent an email to Evil Genius Husband but he never checks his work email). So I'm a bit relieved and a bit miffed (since I spent the entire week feverishly cleaning).

The upside* is that the babies have been ill - Boy started vomiting on Wednesday, the Human Crash Test Dummy followed suit yesterday morning and Bitty chimed in by noon. Subsequently I'm v. happy that we didn't inadvertently expose anyone to the crud.

And my house is cleaner!

(That's Abe - remember our two house cats? - attempting to nap. Poor things put up with a lot of irritation from the babies, so they're super laid back cats, and I was taking advantage and amusing myself whilst sorting socks by lobbing each sockball at his head. As you can see, he was terribly stressed by the whole thing, lol.)

Back on the subject of this illness; it's weird. It's struck one child at a time, they begin yarking without warning, then a half a day later seem to feel fine. Bizarre.

I've been desperately trying to keep Fiver from getting it (obviously) and I had hoped Bulk had missed it, but I'm pretty sure he was feeling puny last night.

I hate it when the babies are ill. :(

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The stock sale is today and I'm toying with taking the camera. NOT specifically to get snaps of people, but just to show a bit of atmosphere for those on the internets who've never been.

Hmmm ... still thinking about it.

And now a random, gratuitous baby pic to make you go: "Awwww!" Fiver has begun social smiling:



Is it just me or does it seem like all he needs is a pointy felt hat and he'd look like a garden gnome?

*by 'upside' I mean that I'm glad it showed itself so that I could cancel, not that yarking partially masticated carrots is good in any scenario.

The most boring blog post evar

So, I promised to post pics of the zebra cake.

And I've been trapped in this house, working on my stores, cleaning, and dieting all week so absolutely nothing interesting has happened to me. Nothing blog-worthy. So this is all ya get!

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The Human Crash Test Dummy wanted a zebra cake. I let her pick out what flavour of cake and icing - she chose a dark chocolate cake and white icing:






Then, whilst everyone napped I baked it, iced it, and outlined zebra stripes with chocolate chips:




I thought the look was interesting with just the outlines, but I had planned to fill in with icing, coloured sugar, or something. Well, while at the Piggly Wiggly I found a product called a 'Jimmy'. They're those wee coloured candy sprinkles. I never knew they had a real name.
They had a chocolate colour that exactly matched a chocolate chip. Sold! But then, while attempting to actually apply said sprinkles to the cake i discovered, to my horror, a basic truth:

Jimmies are EVIL.

I thought they'd stick to the icing. Uhm ... NO. The simply rolled everywhere. Everywhere they weren't supposed to be. In desperation - nap time was almost done - I ended up chasing down each errant Jimmy, by hand, with an artery forcep.

Eeeeeeeeeevil Jimmy being properly restrained:



The results were satisfying, if exhausting. This is the cake with the stripes about 75% filled. looking a bit more zebra-ish!



Aaaaand here's the happy end result:

Why doesn't panic burn more calories?

Just a quickie today! I'm seriously overwhelmed this week. How'd my life get so busy, lol?

I have been rebuilding websites (got Evil Genius Husband's site up but not nearly complete), working on my stores (check out my Earth Day/conservation designs - just two, but I have a bunch more yet to get done), trying to work on my NEW stores in the other venue (sorry no link, not even close to done), PLUS I'm going insane trying to clean my house. A co-worker of EGH's is coming to visit this week with her kids and my house and my barnyard are a mess (VENT on this visit later).

Oh, and I have my post-partum check up this week and the stock sale is Saturday and I have NO cages made. None. And now it's freakin' freezing outside.

Did I mention that my diet is at a standstill? Did I say that already? Have I vented about how, supposedly, it'd take 2500+ calories a day to maintain my ginormous weight but I'm eating between 1000-1200 calories a day and haven't lost an ounce in 3 days? Did I mention that? And I'm breastfeeding too?

Oh and before anyone kindly suggests (talkin' to you aerodog): "well, you just need to get out and get some exercise!" please remember that I don't get out to check my post during the day right now. I can't leave the children, of course, during the day, and when EGH gets home we barely have time to speak to each other before he's out doing the chores and I'm feeding the babes and cooking supper. Then it's dark.


ANYway ...


Today shall be a good day because it's The Human Crash Test Dummy's birthday. She's been keenly anticipating this; getting anxious for her own day after Boy's birthday in February, and downright disgruntled after her little sister's birthday in March. They still love each other, though:





I do have to make a cake ("I wanna zebra cake, momma!"), but that shouldn't take too long. I'll snap a pic of it for you - it won't be fancy, I warn you.

OK, gotta run. Making muffins for breakfast. (That I can't eat. You know it really sucks to have to make food for other people when you can't eat it yourself. I should only serve chocolate. I hate chocolate.)


My birthday girl, four years old today:

(That's a flower she's holding, not a can of whoopass as her expression suggests)

Great sheep supply company

I just had to post a quick brag about this new company I found for sheep supplies!

They're called Sheepman's Supply out of Maryland and I found them through Google. I had to do some comparison shopping but I decided that they had the best price on what I was looking for (a tall crook for Evil Genius Husband and a leg hook).

Wow!

Not only were their prices good, but their shipping was lightening fast. I placed my order on Monday and received it yesterday. Super fast!

They sent me a paper catalogue at my request so expect even more enthused purchases soon.*

I'll try to get you a pic of the new crook in action. It's getting time to do some culling and I'll be taking sheep and goats to the sale soon.


*can you tell we've gotten out tax returns back?

Six years!

So today is my sixth wedding anniversary.

Yep, I was married on April Fools Day.

It's sort of fitting if you know me. Heh.

Anyway, meeting and marrying my Evil Genius Husband was - by far - the v. best thing that has ever happened to me. The most wonderful things in my life - including some things that I thought were only unreachable dreams - have happened as a direct result.

No better choice for a mate could have been made, not even if there was a deity moving us all about like Risk pieces. Seriously, this bloke is perfect for me. We are opposites where we need to be (*ahem* personality) and just alike where it's perfect to be. We are alike enough to be able to talk about and enjoy a large number of things together, but different enough to entertain ourselves without being right on top of one another all the time.

So Happy Anniversary my Evil Genius. I love you!

EGH's personal blog (if you are a teacher, you will SO identify), his Evil Genius gear at the Original Evil Genius Comics T-shirts & Gifts online store, and his v. v. cool comic book blog where he talks comics and reviews comic books and films. Check it!