Chickens like Puffs

I've discovered that chickens like baby veggie puffs. I originally got the puffs for Evan. They are Sweet Corn flavored and he absolutely hates them. Something about corn is a total turnoff for him. I've gotten babyfood with corn as one of the ingredients, like "squash and corn" or "sweet potato and corn"--anything with corn he absolutely will not eat. So, I had this entire can of corn veggie puffs, so I figured "what the heck" and tossed a few to the chickens. They acted like it was Crack Cocaine. It was wild. I'm planning on buying some more just for them.

They are starting to venture into the yard. So far, they've only felt comfortable testing out the Hummingbird Garden, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time until they realize they have a great, huge new place all for the taking. I love my chickens.

loss of vocabulary

I am losing my vocabulary at a swift pace. Case in point, my "re-occuring dreams". Jeni commented on them using the appropriate terminology. Recurring. Yes, that would be the correct word. Makes perfect sense.

Yesterday, I couldn't say "chicken coop". "Use it or lose it", remember that.

Are you smarter than a 5th grader? I'm thinking I am not.

Chickens

This past weekend we finally realized a long- standing goal of mine. Scott and I brought home 5 new members of the household. Please join me in welcoming my beautiful new CHICKENS.

We've been in the process of converting my greenhouse into a chicken coop off and on for the last couple of months. We finished on Saturday and picked up my sweeties on Sunday. They are the softest and most gentle little things. They are a few months old, as I didn't want to jump right into the chick raising process. I do have 2 roosters, though, so we may end up with some chicks soon enough. They were all raised together by a woman who treats her chickens like members of her family so they all get along beautifully.

Oh, kind of a new thing for me, I am picking little pieces of dried up, previously chewed veggie puffs out of my hair right now. Evan is learning to eat the puffs and he spits out about half of them. Sometimes he's covered in sticky, deflated puffs, it's very cute. Anyway, I guess some mashed up puffs made it from his hands to my hair and I must have slept in puffs.

Lovely.

dreams

I need a book about dreams.

I have several reoccuring dreams. When I say reoccuring, I mean it. I have the same dreams, well, slightly different in setting and content but pretty much the same, very often.

I have a dream that I am back in school--sometimes college, sometimes high school. I realize that I haven't been attending classes and I have finals coming up. Ican't even remember the days, times, or location of the classes. It's very frustrating.

Another dream involves my mom and/or my former stepfather, Bob. In my dream, they are remarried, something I cannot understand b/c the divorce was bad, I mean really ugly. I have so much anger toward my mom and my stepfather. I am upset b/c they do something menacing or outright unjust against me in the dream.

I'm sure it's very clear to someone what these dreams mean. Maybe it's just a lot of pent up frustration or anxiety.

I would just like to know if these are common dreams.

Blue box mystery solved

I talked to my stepmother and father last night. Turns out my stepmom purchased 2 pairs of earrings. One pair for her and one pair for me. She mistakenly put her empty box in the mail. Hmmm...

Scott got me some great gifts. I got a pasta maker, a ravioli maker & a pasta cooking lesson! I love it.

He also got me 2 cakes. One was a flourless chocolate--decadent, and the other a whole wheat flour cake. Both were from Whole Foods. I love their cakes!

We opened a bottle of Caymus, 2003 Cabernet and had a great time with Evan celebrating my birthday.

Got a photo of one of the painted buntings and golden-fronted woodpeckers today. I was excited. I've been trying for a while but everytime I get the camera out, they fly away.

Pretty blue box

I got a birthday present from my step-mother and father in the mail yesterday. At least, I'm assuming it was a birthday present considering the timing of its arrival. There was a pretty blue box inside the mailing package which had their return address on it but no card or anything inside the package saying it was from them. I opened the pretty blue box and found a pretty little blue velvet sack. Inside the pretty little sack I found nothing. That's right, it was empty. I haven't called them yet to let them know I got the pretty blue box and sack. I will follow up after I do. Odd.

Barn Swallows and Feral Pigs

The feral pigs have come through the property again. This makes 4 times, that I know of, this year. Usually, they just come through once or twice. They are destructive little beasts! They come through during the night plowing up the ground looking for grubs and things. They are really strong. Our soil is very rocky and after they're done with it the ground looks like someone on a tractor came through and tilled the soil. It's wild.

The first image is a pig footprint. It's pretty big. Then, the second is Nina standing in one of the areas that they dug up. That was green grass the day before.

Also, I checked the Barn Swallows' nest and there were no Cowbird eggs--yay!

I've decided 9 month-old Evan is more like a lizard than a baby. He crawls so fast it's not funny. He darts around, pauses for a moment and takes in the lay of the land, then darts off again--just like a little lizard. It's very cute.

He's also cruising a lot more. That's when he stands up holding onto something like a chair and walks along grabbing onto other pieces of furniture or baby fences and makes his way around. I bought him a little walking toy. He stands up and pushes it, walking along with it -- amazing.

His baby teeth are growing in. He got his 2 lower teeth at the same time and they peek out when he smiles. Overall, he seems to be doing extremely well, but boy, does he have a personality. He's starting to throw little fits when he doesn't get his way. Not so cute...

Not too much else to report. I've got to write quickly b/c Evan does not like it when I'm on the computer. He prefers my attention be focused on him. Eventually, he'll learn the cruel truth that the world does not revolve around him but I won't let him in on that ugly secret yet.

We took him to Dallas for a wedding. One of Scott's cousins got married and they had the ceremony and the reception at her parents' house. It was very family oriented, everybody brought their kids, so it was nice. It was Evan's first trip to Dallas. The wedding was on Saturday and Sunday was Mother's Day. We decided to stay overnight and went to a Mother's Day brunch at Del Frisco's, one of Scott's favorite restaurants in Dallas. This, of course, was my first mother's day where I got to be on the receiving end. Very cool.

fussy

Well, I'm taking a moment.
Something is up with my child. It could be teething, or a growth spurt, maybe a food allergy, I don't know but he's been cranky all morning. It's one of those times where nothing pleases him. He whines and tries to climb up my leg, I pick him up, he whines and squirms to get down. None of his toys are good enough. Electrical cords are GREAT but mommy and daddy keep taking them away from him. More crying.
He's also decided he doesn't like his bottle anymore, which would be fine except that he won't use his sippy cup either. If he were my dog, I'd just fill a syringe and squeeze a little liquid down his throat. However, I think that might constitute child abuse if I were to try it on a human being. He's napping right now, so I'm trying to get my mood up. I'm pretty sure getting fussy like the baby is not helpful.

Cowbirds

I had a dilemma yesterday. I found a cowbird egg in my Eastern Phoebe nest. You can see the cowbird's egg sitting with the phoebe's smaller white eggs in the nest. Cowbirds are brood parasites, laying their eggs in other birds' nests. They tend to hatch before the other eggs so they get a head start on being taken care of by the host bird and sometimes the other chicks end up starving as a result.

We have lots of cowbirds and they are crowding out the other birds at the feeders. So, I found this cowbird egg yesterday. What do I do? Do I leave it or get rid of it? We have some great birds here. Everything from Painted Buntings, Golden fronted Woodpeckers, Ladder-backed Woodpeckers, various Finches, Wrens, Barn Swallows, Cardinals, hummingbirds, mourning doves, turkey, etc. So far, I only know the location of the Phoebe nest, the Barn Swallow nest and the Carolina Wren's nest. There are no eggs in the Barn Swallow's and Wren's nests. I'll keep checking on that.

Well, I did do something about the egg. I have mixed feelings about it but I removed the cowbird egg. I want the phoebes to make it and I don't want anymore cowbirds but I feel guilty about ending the life of the baby cowbird. I don't know how far along the egg was, but hopefully, not too far.

The feral hogs struck again 2 nights ago. They are destructive animals. They usually pass through just once a year but they've come through twice in the past 2 months. They dig up the land looking for grubs and such. They tore up a big chunk of the back pasture last time.

I've gotta change a diaper. Bye.