Relaxing Vacation? That's for wimps

Vacation, day two.

It's Sunday and the requisite guns went off in the afternoon. Very near, from the sound of them. This is, after all, Texas.

Today's stuff: We finished the 'inside-the-inside" chicken coop, captured and relocated the barred rocks (that lay and are NOT for eating.) They seem happy, spreading their wings and turning over on the concrete blocks that Mike put underneath the heat lamp (so it doesn't burn the barn down).

I cleaned out the little chicken coop - which means rolling up the feedbags that rest on top of the hardware cloth. By the time it needs to be cleaned, the smell is overpowering. If this was summer and we were raising chicks, the hardware cloth would be all that was on the bottom and the poop and stuff would just go to the ground. But it's coolish outside and we got these chicks on the 5th of November ("remember, remember, the 5th of November...") and it's cold outside. So I use empty feed bags to line the bottom of their cage. This works quite well and is easy to roll up.

Everyone says that chicks have to be at a certain temperature before they have all their feathers, but that's just plain poppycock. We have a heat lamp in this little coop and open the small door, and guess what? The chicks don't opt for heat, they opt for freedom (the chicken coop is about three feet off the ground, has a ramp and opens into a five by seven or so yard just for them).

While I was cleaning out the chicken coop, I left the door to the main coop open and Mike was yelling - Did I want the goats in the chicken coop and did I want the chickens to come out? - He was being facetious and angry - but you know, it's not like it's life-threatening. I screamed at the goats to get out and only two chickens escaped -- both which came back or were captured during the day and brought back.

I also gathered a bunch of leaves from the backyard and dumped them in the middle of the chicken yard. Chickens love to scratch around in the dirt.

Finished digging up and re-potting the three Thompson seedless I thought were pretty dead, but one of them has a leaf - a GREEN leaf on it that's coming out (the weather has been quite mild in Texas this winter - so far). I think another one of them is still alive, but we'll see. I repotted it (and put the new container in a container of rainwater, only to lift it out and have the water pouring out the bottom of the pot - right onto my jeans.

Mike has begun to prep for painting the garage - which means moving heavy equipment around so that the walls are bared. He cleaned out the garage and cleaned off the workbench. With all his shiny new equipment, it's kind of cool to watch him transform our garage into a workshop.

We also let the goats in the front yard for the first time in a long while -- and had to sit with them so that they do not destroy the fruit trees by getting on their hind legs and leaning on the branches.

We saw a tiny bird today - not familiar with it, but Mike saw it hopping around the trees a bit. So he put out a thistle feeder and I had already refilled the bird feeders today.

I also cleaned out the pond filter - and Mike noticed that we now have three frogs living there - or I should say three MORE frogs, because he swears that these are not any of the ones we got out of the pond when I cleaned it a few weeks ago and drained it.

Last night I didn't sleep so well (a combination of hot chocolate, caffeine and over-tiredness). And now I just want to snooze like there's no tomorrow.

Signing off.