~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~ - Page 133

~La la la la la lalalala la!~  I'm ignoring you!  <*fingers in ears*>

Now, let's not even try to picture that, because we aren't HEARING anything, and I need my fingers for typing this post. 

My silkies are stupid.  I don't know what else to say. 

Yesterday I moved the 3 silkie chicks (about 8, maybe more, weeks old - HHandbasket would know) from their under-deck "kit" coop, which is basically two cubes stuck together, one has solid walls and the other is all hardware cloth.  They now have a chicken coop house with an attached pen.  A short one; this is one of the first coop kits I put together.  The portion of the pen at the end opposite the coop has solid walls; a door into the pen from the outside is also in that "solid" section.

Why do I describe this to y'all?  Well, because - as I am sure many have already figured out - the silkies are sleeping in the pen, at the covered end, and not in the coop with all the nice pine shavings.  No, right there on the bare ground. Next to their feeder and waterer. 

Boy, I can hardly wait until I retire.  Obviously I didn't realize I had a Silkie Training Course to develop and administer, as well as to monitor, evaluate and remediate.

Well, there hasn't been a lot going on here.  At work, the entire month of April is slated for our Annual Inventory.  All over the state, in all our offices, "tagged" assets are reconciled.  Our warehouse holds over 40,000 tagged assets in amongst the stacked rows on either side of the aisles.  Ceiling high.  Warehouse ceiling high.

I'm allowed to do less strenuous activities involved in the Inventory, such as data entry, or applying tags to assets, bar-coding and recording them, or sliding tagged assets to someone else in a sort of assembly line fashion as we open boxes, check for tags record the tags, repackage and re-load the huge bins of the same items.

I was absolutely beat when I got home Thursday night, so I was out sick today with a fibro reaction.  Because I have this coming Monday off as my every-other Monday off, I also took Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday off.  But today's absence "ate" up next Thursday's vacation day.  So I return to the Warehouse next Thursday.

I locked my 46 Easter Hatch eggs down last night.  Didn't candle, none look or smell bad, so I just locked them all down. 

Got 8 turkey eggs from thebirdguy and have six more ordered from Lotsapaints to set as soon as I have free incubator space.  Should set them on Easter Sunday for the First Annual Cinco de Mayo Turkey Hatch.  I'm kind of excited about hatching turkeys!  Must remember to select some of my own flock's eggs a week later so the new chicks hatch with the turkey poults. 

I'm expecting John to come over tomorrow to start cleaning up stuff for a good-sized dump run, and also to start on the Project to Repair/Replace the wonky steps at one end of the porch. 

Startled my supervisor and co-workers about a week and a half ago by submitting my memo of intention to retire effective May 1st. 

Yup, May 1st, 2012.  Less than a month away.  I will be completing the retirement papers over the next few days.  The retirement system "needs" 90 days to process retirement paperwork.  (Personnel Services in my agency have what they need already - it's the separate agency which manages State Employee retirement that needs time.)  So that means I'll be hanging out a while before the actual pension checks are directly deposited into my bank account.  I'll get my last paycheck on my last day, and I have some funds available for the "swing" or "lag" time without income.

My last day of work is Monday, April 30th. 

There are two very definitely broody Cayuga hens on nests.  I mean, the whole shebang:  eggs laid and covered in a depression surrounded by duck-gathered shavings or yard stuff into a bowl.  Lots of downy chest feathers tucked in with the nest material.  Two chicken hens broody in nest boxes. 

Here's a photo of Little Bit and her daughter Monica.  They're the two hens next to each other in the bottom of the photo.  Little Bit is a bantam dark Brahma and Monica has the exact same pattern in her brown feathers.

Oh, and those are the wonky steps which John is going to repair, renovate, or replace.  He's going to make a concrete pad between the steps and the edge of the raised yard area, then make a new step down to the driveway level.  He's also going to re-orient the opening in the porch railing on that end of the porch so it's more centered.  After that's done, he'll install a Chicken Railing and follow that up by screening off the porch. 

I'll change the title of this thread on May 1st.  Just couldn't hold the excitement inside any longer! 

And, Kansaseq,  I'm gonna look for the little Flip Camera that takes videos, see if I can manage to utilize it properly.  I may have to find something more suited to get GOOD "movies" to post.