Hello everyone! It's been a while since I've posted. I was going through a lot back then in regards to my life situation and things are much better now. I feel like a new person. I promise to keep the topics light-hearted from now on.
First of all I want to thank FarminMomma bunches and bunches for taking in our four refugee hens!!! Due to a wildly irresponsible roommate, we lost Salma the Welsummer to a raccoon just a couple days before we were able to rehome the flock. Yes, the same Salma we had just spent two harrowing weeks nursing back to health after a previous raccoon attack.But the other four hens are doing great and at least one of the Exchequers has been bred! I always wanted that! Yay!! Thanks again, FarminMomma! (If y'all haven't checked out her Facebook page you definitely should!).
So, my man is living with me now and we recently got engaged! I'm not even going to go into how insanely happy I am about that.I'm almost as happy to report that we have plans to rent our own place in Kitsap County sometime next year!!! In all the trauma and drama with the house and his ex, we lost access to our wonderful Formosan Mountain Dog mix and we're just now getting to the place where we want another one. We're so upset about it I'm not even going to go into it. And of course I miss having chickens terribly, the eggs and especially the FUN! That means we need a bit of land and Kitsap is the only place we can afford to do it and still commute to Seattle, for visiting friends and keeping up with high school basketball (a passion I don't go into much here for obvious reasons), but also so that I can still teach dance lessons a day or two a week. His parents on Capitol Hill have a detached guest room where we can stay with the dog anytime (I can stay there overnight when I'm working, plus they're out of town half the time anyway). With automatic coop door, feeders, and litter boxes, the two cats and the chickens could be home alone for up to a week if needed. I'm thinking six hens will be about right. The best part is our rent would probably be under $1K/mo (vs. $1300 we pay now for a small 2BR apt)! He does freelance editing and we're confident that by next year we can build him enough customer base so that we can easily make this work. Both of us working part-time, living in a pretty spot with a bunch of animals is a great way to start out our marriage, we think.
But it gets better!!!
We are going to build a sailboat! I'm not joking. My man has wanted to do this since he was a teenager and I'm all for it. It's going to be a fast and seaworthy one capable of hauling camping cargo on long excursions throughout Puget Sound and possibly as far up as Alaska someday. Picture something like this, only not quite as long, with the hulls a little wider apart, and instead of plywood the hulls will be strip-planked, which is stronger.
My man has the carpentry skills and he's smart as the dickens. He also knows a ton about sailing already because he's obsessed with Horatio Hornblower and has wanted to do this for so long. We're definitely going to make it happen just as soon as we can. And we're going to take our dog with us! Young Formosans are highly trainable. We had our last one on verbal command like it ain't no thing and he went on many backpack-camping trips with no problems. We're already saving up for a doggie wet suit and life jacket.
One day we just woke up and realized that there's not as much tying us to the city as there used to be and we need some SPACE to make our dreams come true. Our ideal would be eventually to commute back and forth to Seattle on our sailboat as much as possible! We're not sure yet if it's feasibly practical but if we can find a house in a spot that would make it so, we will. He even has some family friends with a waterfront place in Laurelhurst who would let us use their dock! The husband is a hardcore fisherman who really knows his stuff and would love to help us out and might even learn to use the boat himself occasionally, which would make me feel less guilty, haha. I know the ferry is easy enough but the sailboat would be FREE (once we build it) and environmentally friendly.
So, I may be around only intermittently for a while but I am definitely making a comeback. I honestly wasn't sure I'd EVER be able to have chickens again, so I'm just pretty giddy that my man and I have come up with some kind of life plan we're both passionate about.
I hope all y'all peeps are doing well! I haven't been reading the thread but I will try to read at least some from now on.
Hey UE,
Glad to see you back, I've wondered how you were doing. Glad things are going well.
My partner and I are headed out to JBs to adopt the last of her "nasty little dogs". lol! pics to follow.
Russ
