Our two farmhands started today, a young couple just moved to Whidbey and trying to get set up here. They are hoping to get full time positions, but in the meanwhile, they are working odd jobs to pay for the residential motel where they staying. They did a nice job, a bit slow, but that's normal for learning the ropes. The animals like them and that's a good recommendation.

I checked on Ebony, our black Silkie broody hen. Still no chicks. She has three eggs and I've very hopeful we'll get chicks soon. I also opened up the blue shed coop to give the young Ameraucanas, Cochins and EEs an opportunity to come out if they want to. I doubt they will, they are, if you'll forgive the pun - chicken. LOL Shady had 6 hours to play in her outdoor pen yesterday, she's pooped today and happy to be in her cage in the foyer.

I'm still a bit sore from my couple of hours working outside yesterday, so I'm sticking to inside chores. I'm so crazy fond of my Method handsoap bottles, so I've been re-purposing them for shampoo, lotion, etc. bottles. Even took a scouring sponge to one to give it a texture. Spent about a half hour re-organizing my bathroom cupboards. A needful thing. Doodle, the love Buggy, kept me company just in case anything edible was revealed. Ever the hopeful Basset. I need to make up a batch of Shy Rose Toner. I've a few other projects I need to get back to. Ta-ta.

Martha Grahamcracker is now bouncing around the Rainbow Bridge, no doubt disapproving of it all, nibbling on everything and bossing everyone around. I would expect nothing else of our fierce little force of Nature.



Josh buried her under the Rowan tree. I expect next year's berries will be especially tart.

Its a slow weekend here at the house. Yesterday, Josh yanked everything out from under the sink and put down vinyl shelf paper, doing the same for the glass cupboards. He's going to do the baking cupboard, possibly during the week. Then he'll do the dishes and cooking cupboard.

Deanna came over last night to learn to make the Neely Family fried chicken recipe. We ended up on an incense making spree, which was great - she made Bast incense. I'm still screwing around with a Samhain recipe for the site. Not particularly fond of most of the recipes I'm finding, which seem to be fumitory in nature. *shudder* I have found one that's nice, but it needs tweaking, which I'm currently working on.

Woke up with a fever. I take this as a good thing, as my immune system is finally taking on this stupid sinus thing head on. I'm sneezing like crazy and still feverish. Hoping this means the end of the cold is near.

Meanwhile, Martha is hanging on. Her digestive system is working again. This is a good sign, though she's still not moving much. We're feeding and watering her by hand. We'll see how she's doing tomorrow, see what the vet says, etc.

I was re-organizing the Western section yesterday, removing some tired and worn out paperbacks and replacing them with newer ones. While I was alphabetizing the authors, much to my surprise, I found a non-Western title among them. Or so I thought.

T: "Hey, Ginger, here's one that needs to be re-shelved in general fiction."
G: "How do you know its not a Western?"
T: "There's a mermaid on the cover!"
G: "No mermaids in the Old West?"
T: (considers this) "Not that I've ever read about and I've read a metric ton of Zane Greys. There's no genre crossing of Mermaids and Westerns."
G: "Leave it there, give the old duffers who buy Westerns a thrill"
T: "Now that I think about it, there really should be some mermaids in the old West. Between all the booze, dehydration, sunstroke and lonely cowboys."
G: "You've already put some bodice rippers in there, haven't you?"
T: "A few 'A hard man is good to find, yes' just to fill out the section, qualified by actual Western content. No actual bodice rippers, a true cowboy tosses your skirts."

These conversations, my dear, is how we spend our afternoons when there are no customers around.

I picked up Kevin from the airport shuttle at 1:30am, even brought Doodle along for the ride through the pea soup fog and suicidal deer. By the time I got home, sometime around 3am, I fell into bed and slept through to almost noon.

The boys are out riding, while I'm essentially going through the motions of the morning hours. Flash is still moping at me, having howled (according to Josh) for an hour after Doodle and I left to pick up Kevin. He really is the *most* spoiled Basset. Speaking of, my mother sent him a double Basset Hound roll pillow for Josh's birthday, it arrived today (several weeks early). Its rather cute, a velvet back with hooked yarn. The company thoughtfully sent us the catalog so we know precisely how much it cost. *eye roll*

Marc came by and picked up his rooster, thankfully, we've been cocksitting for so long, we've forgotten how long. We'd agreed that if he didn't pick the roo up by Monday we'd take him to the livestock auction, but it wasn't a threat or anything. Marc said he just needed an incentive to make a decision either way.

I'm going to try for pictures today, as the sun has shown up!

Wendy, our Ever-Ready Mama, has another set of eggs ready to hatch in the next week (or so). I've popped her in the freshly cleaned Rustic Roost. She has 6 eggs, which is a very small clutch for her.

Meanwhile, I've popped a handful of quail eggs and unfertilized Silkie eggs in with one of the Silkie hens in hopes she'll brood them. I'll gradually remove the Silkie eggs and pop in more quail eggs if she does. I'll likely have to remove the chicks once they hatch, from the accounts I'm seeing online, there's a possibility the super-activity of baby quail can spook Silkie mammas, so they may need to be brooder raised. We'll see how this goes.

Rachel came today to do the farm chores. I helped her with the quail and she still managed to let one of the quail loose. *eye roll* She'd already let one of the Ameraucanas loose. Banner day. She'd forgotten to clean the hutches, so I reminded her about that. She'd also not cleaned the pens, so that's not done. *extreme eye rolling* I've been outside about two hours total, helping with the quail and moving the Silkies around. Its now about 73F or so, likely a bit hotter in the direct sun, so I'm hanging out indoors. I'm thinking our little loose quail will return to hang out near the quail cages, so I keep checking through the windows. *cross fingers*

I hammered out the opening of the TOL workshop on Sunday while doing farmchores. Yay for multi-tasking. I've only 20 minutes, so its really only an overview. :D

Still dealing with the issue of gnats and the fodder system. I need to figure out what is safe for the sprouts and the chickens. Wondering if a tiny bit of hydrogen peroxide or vinegar would do. Must do some more research on this, so far I'm completely stalling out on finding anything.

And now, I think I need a nap. *zzz*

More Flemie goodness: Obsidian, aka Sid, (formerly known as Bucky) with a Method soap bottle for scale, weighing in at 12 pounds! 29 inches, nose to tail. He's enjoying some sofa time in the AC right now. :D

Meet the new guy - our Flemish Giant rabbit (buck, aka male). On the way home from the livestock auction I called him Bucky, Josh doesn't seem to think the double entendre is as funny as I do. But until we figure out a better name, I'll likely continue to think of him as Big Bucky. More pics on FB, here.



I managed to cover his winning bid ($13) with the proceeds from a friend's two Barred Rock roosters and my three Silkie cockerels (all three returns from the straight run Silkie sales), with a bit left over. *whew!* Josh is thrilled, we're thinking he's around 15 or so pounds. We really need to get a scale soon for the poultry and bunnies.

We have Bucky set up in the middle pen of the West Wing, surrounded on both sides by Silkies. We'll likely have to re-enforce the exterior fencing soon, as he may decide its a lot of fun to unravel the chicken coop fencing. We have a tougher fencing we can quickly staple in over that, if need be.

Bucky is friendly and very happy to be out of cages and in a pen of his own, he's experimenting with the possibility of climbing up the hutch. Whether he gets up there or not, only time will tell. He's already water bottle trained, though we did give him a water bowl just in case. I've given him some nose rubbins, brought his scent back to Shady and she seems to approve. She has another 3-6 months at least until she's big enough to even consider introducing the two.

Later this week, we'll put Shady in her own exercise pen and they can stare across the aisle and make goo-goo nose twitches at each other. :D

I tripped again in the backyard. I shall wait for your curse words and statements of incredulity. *inert Jeopardy music here*

With my bifocals, I can't see the damn holes. So I put my foot in one and went down. Bam! But without yummy goodness afterward. This time, its my left ankle. Doesn't hurt really, but its swollen to hell and the ER pronounced its not broken. It just won't rotate left, as in can't. I tell it to and it sits there, awaiting instructions. Or my knee tries to take on the duty. So I have to see an orthopedist. *eye roll*

Meanwhile, I'm hobbling around with an ace bandage and one of those blow up splints. Again, it doesn't really hurt. But I'm trying to stay off of it and keep it elevated as much as I can. I'm already on "rest" for the dang enlarged spleen to propping up a leg isn't too much more trouble. *eye roll*

On that note: Please don't tell me to use crutches. I have no idea what it is about crutches but the minute I start using them I get severe vertigo, then I speed up when I walk because it seems to lessen it so I can get to a seat faster and that freaks everyone out. All I can figure is there's some nerve or blood vessel in my armpits, perhaps an inner ear thing. I just get woozy as all hell even just standing on them and BAM! I'm falling over. Very much not in the spirit of healing. Those who have hung around have seen the secondary injury action before. Maybe its related to the migraines. We don't know why, its just Trista speshulness.

In completely unrelated news: I have successfully networked for friends. Renee and Shelli had an apartment over their garage for rent. Lisa needed an apartment. They have been introduced and hit it off. So now, at some point in the future, Lisa will be moving in, with her infant son Liam, into the above the garage apartment. *grin*

There are times, as derpy as Doodle is, that he appears to understand English. You just can't explain it, but he synchs up and does precisely what he's supposed to as if he's fluent. Maybe he is and its all an act.

So today, Kevin is over helping Josh get a few things done on the To Do List (like shooting the microwave). Now, background: Doodle is in massive LURV with everyone, no matter how they personally may feel about him. Kevin's not really fond of Doodle, he's too exuberant for Kevin's tastes. But yanno, he's nice to Doodle. Doodle's just insanely fond of Kevin.

To tease Kevin, I told him that we've decided that since Boo has passed, we're going to give him Doodle to keep him company. Right at that VERY second, Doodle comes running through the kitchen, up to Kevin in the back foyer and jumps up putting his paws in Kevin's waiting hands. On cue! We couldn't have planned this, trained for this, set it up for a movie, etc. better if we'd TRIED. Kevin tossed his head back and laughed, a good healing laugh.

Glorious, Doodle Buggy, just glorious!