My leukemia's back.

[Ol Grey Mare]

Good morning everyone!

It's supposed to get up to 50* here today, looking forward to that

Wow - that's a heatwave, enjoy every minute of it!

I'm ON it! I'll bring chislic! Cardiologist be hanged, this calls for SALT! LOTS of salt!!

I'll be sharing shots of Ash ringing that "last chemo day" bell, you can bet! This one is what Jenna posted yesterday.

What a fabulous picture - can't wait to see her ringing that bell!!!!

Okay Blooie, I'm tearing up reading about Ashley's last chemo. bless her little heart, what a journey. I'll hear that bell ringing all the way here!


OGM--congrats on the gainful employment. Oh, and on the coop and chicks, of course! I'm with you on the empty house--it's great to see them come, but kinda nice to see them go, also. I like my alone time.

I didn't have time to get the chicken done today. I'm reading it's best to partially cook it, not just raw pack. I'm never sure how to do that--it says cook 2/3 of the way done? Huh? I'll give it a try hopefully tomorrow. It also says freshly butchered, but let it chill 8ish hours. Mine will have been chilled 2 days at that point

. Maybe I'll just cook the ones I've already butchered and start over next week with the other boys that need to go. And definitely pluck!

Thank you, plenty of excitement (maybe too much at one time for us hermits, lol).
Wow - nothing confusing about all those instructions, eh??

Always seems blissful yet a little bittersweet when the house is suddenly empty again, doesn't it? We DO need photos, you know, of the build and the chicks....and congrats on the job! You've told us your first impressions of them - do they know what a jewel they are getting?

Use a butter bell, DD... I use mine all the time and I don't have to get a lot of butter out of the freezer at one time. Keeps it fresh, nice and spreadably soft, AND since it's soft then you know it's not going to clog your arteries like the rock hard stuff!

Doggone it - my quote thingy missed one! LG, I've never canned chicken. To tell you the truth, I've never even helped Ken butcher and skin one. My job is to clean them when he brings them in. Don't ask me how I managed it from our first pheasant hunt together (was that really 46 years ago?) but I have him convinced that I'm stuck doing the yucky part! teehee Evil me!!

On a different note, Little Miss Ashley had her last lumbar puncture today! Yippeeee! 29 more days until she rings that "last day of chemo" bell. Then it'll be recover and repair. All through this journey, the family never lost their faith....and she never lost her smile!

Ken is scheduled for shoulder surgery on the 29th, with a 10 - 15 week recovery time. Grrrrrrr

Thank you for the congrats. There will be photos, I promise - I have tons but with the whole process having taken so long I keep thinking I'll just wait until its actually done to post. I hear tell the metal for the roof might be show up on my doorstep today (if DH can get 5 minutes of spare time to load and run it over) and there just might be two whole days of "limited precipitation" in the next week where actual work can be done.

X2 on the butter bell - had never seen/heard of such a thing until I stayed with my sister/mom this past summer -- handy little contraption!

Will be thinking of Ken (and you) with his upcoming surgery.....hopefully you both come through that 10-15 weeks with some shred of sanity left.

OlGreyMare, I am excited for you - new job, new coop in the making, chick days coming up fast -

...and we expect to have frequent updates and photos.

Thanks -- yes, photos are a must.

OGM, congratulations on the job! I hope it goes very well for you.

Good deal on all that work on the coop too!

Thank you!

Yes, Kerrygold - do you like it ?

I do - especially when I get it on sale because I'm a cheapskate, lol.

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Good morning everyone!

It's supposed to get up to 50* here today, looking forward to that 

I wish..... We were -15 yesterday morning.... I'm not site how cold it got last night but I'm sure it dropped below zero....

 

[LittleLakePhil]

I just picked up this van for $500... Like new inside and out..... Needs only a little work. Brakes and a battery.

 

[Blooie]

I just picked up this van for $500... Like new inside and out..... Needs only a little work. Brakes and a battery.

Why don't I ever find bargains like that? The best I ever do is get excited when I see "6 for $3.00 and for a limited time if you buy 12 your cost is only $6.00!" Plus shipping. Plus handling. And if you return them you pay shipping back to us and there's a $20.00 restocking fee.

 

[N F C]

Why don't I ever find bargains like that? The best I ever do is get excited when I see "6 for $3.00 and for a limited time if you buy 12 your cost is only $6.00!" Plus shipping. Plus handling. And if you return them you pay shipping back to us and there's a $20.00 restocking fee.

Maybe Phil should do your car buying for you. He could do what works necessary then drive it to WY.

I'm sure he'd go for that

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Of course I would for a slight restocking fee....

 

[LittleLakePhil]

Blooie I watched a specail on hummingbirds on PBS the other day.... I thought of you. It was pretty cool.

 

[drumstick diva]

My sister loves hummingbirds too. She has(had) several feeders out for them but they have become scarce over the past couple of years. Everyone out there(NM) is feeding them and apparently giving them stuff they like a lot better. Ungrateful little drones!

 

[donrae]

I got baby chicks

.

It was quite the adventure at the feed store. They were having a sale--buy a 40 or 50 lb bag of feed, get 5 free pullets. Cool, right? So, I bought 3 bags of chick starter and a bale of shavings. Supposed to get 15 free chicks. Charged $77, that seemed like a lot but I don't buy starter by the bag, so wasn't sure. Looked at the receipt while waiting for the chicks. She charged me for 3, 25lb bags of chick scratch, the shavings and 15 chicks, that's why it was so much. Went to customer service, they gave me a ticket to take back to a cashier, I went to a different one this time. Of course the place is packed, cause free chicks, right? So, stand in line again. Cashier rings up the ticket they gave me....and says I owe them another $33. Uh,,, no. And, it only took off 2 bags of the scratch. Well, they can't help me. Back to customer service. They "fix" my ticket. Back to the first cashier, who rang it up wrong. Now it takes off the 3 bags of scratch, but still insists I owe another $33. Okay, I may be chemo brain, but I can do math with rough estimates still. A bag of starter is $17, three bags is under 60, plus the bale of shavings at ten bucks, that's only 70 and I already paid 77. I'm trying to explain to the cashier that, since she rang me up for 25lb bags of feed, the chicks got charged, not taken off as free under the sale, and that's the issue. But, the second cashier I went to starts trying to get involved from her register, yelling across about the starter being more expensive than the scratch and that's why I owe more money. I tried to explain to her, but she wouldn't listen. I told her she needed to not be involved, I would clear it up with the manager who was on her way. Should have been fine then, right? Would have been, except she started talking about me to the customer she was currently helping, telling that customer why I didn't understand how much I owed. Well, that kind of set me off.....how incredibly rude

. Little bit of a meltdown in the store, with Rachel yelling across the counter at the cashier. I can only blame the prednisone, and the idiot. Anyway, the manager was nice, and understood the issue, and fixed it. Could have comped me a bag of feed or something, right? but I'm just glad they're not going to lock the doors next time I show up

.

Anyway, 10 barred Rock and 5 Red pullets in the garage.

then, Honey got chick fever and wanted to hit another store and buy more. Everyone was sold out, but one store had buff Orpington pullets that were half price cause they are a week old. I don't get that....my birds get more expensive the older they get. But whatever, 8 golden ladies joined the blacks and reds.

Spring at my little homestead! I got to watch the guys clean stalls today. The weather was wonderful, in the mid-high 60s I think. Just beautiful. We got the livestock trailer set up so the goats can access it but not the horses, so the goat has a place to kid later this month. I'll start collecting eggs to set in the in incubator next week. Praying for continued nice weather!


Oh, and I gave up on canning those cockerels. They're simmering on the stove top now. I'll just pull the meat and use it for casseroles or something.

 

[drumstick diva]

donrae - well you really had an adventure.

Sounds like stuff that happens to me. I am not on prednisone. Unfortunately I talk louder than anyone needs to. I also can't pass on a good argument .

I got into an interesting conversation( HA!) with another woman in K-mart years ago. We both raced to the only open checker and I beat her by seconds. She made some nasty remarks, I added some colorful ones of my own. They called security on us. We both finished checkout and left quietly. Which was good because she was twice my size and a lot younger.
She could have beaten the stuffing out of me.