Water Everywhere, Yet Not A Drop To Drink....

Well, that is a bit of an exaggeration. :) We have been under a boil order for several days now. We are lucky enough to still have running water...people to the south of us have no running water at all. We are to conserve what we do have though, which we have been. Today they were getting the water main break fixed...and then there was the report that yet another main broke! May be be a loooong waterless weekend. :)

Makes one think though. We are fortunate that we have a well at the bottom of our driveway. I planted a few more tomato plants today and watered them in with water from that well since we need to conserve the tower water. Put put up a 16ft pool over Memorial Day weekend...filled it with well water. Last year we only watered the garden with well water. If we loose water all together we'll still be able to flush the toilet easily. That thing comes in handy!

I have been boiling a big pot of tap water in the morning and then using it in the evening to wash dishes. Honestly, it is a little exciting, this water situation- finding alternate ways to do things. Hubby has been coming home from work and going for a swim instead of a shower. One thing though, tea made with bottled water is not nearly as good as tea made with tap water!

Our anniversary is Monday...we are thinking of escaping from the kids and taking a weekend trip in alone. Hubby's birthday is Monday as well. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONEY!! I LOVE YOU MORE THAN ANYTHING AND I AM HAPPY TO BE YOUR WIFE!! THANK YOU FOR ALL THAT YOU ARE AND ALL THAT YOU DO. YOU ARE THE BEST! :)

We moved the 9 Guinea babies (3 weeks old now) to the little coop today. So far so good. I have about 34 eggs in the incubator. Wow. We may have Keets coming out of our ears!

Really, things are just very content around here right now. :)

Guinea Update....We have babies!!!

I am happy to report that 10 out of the 15 eggs hatched! One did die, so we have 9 keets. They are a week old now and growing like weeds! Our other hen is sitting on a nest of 30 eggs! We just got home from a weekend of camping, so I think I might move them to the incubator. I hate to take the eggs away from the momma...she is doing so well with them....but I think they will have a better shot if we take them.

Anyway, super busy here! Bet it is at your place too. Whatcha up to?? :)

Guinea Egg Incubating Update....

Thanks you so much to all of you who chimed in with advice!! :)

I candled tonight and I am happy to report that all 15 babies are developing, alive, and wiggling around in there! All air sacks are present and accounted for, blood vessels look good and healthy! WOO HOO!! :)

I still am not sure on their hatch date. They have been in the incubator for 17 days now. One of them I labeled in crayon with a number 1...he looked bigger or further along than the others. The rest all looked about the same.

I am sad to report that we are missing 5 ducks! Gone without a trace. The creek had gone up due to rain and flooding, so I am hoping they got swept down stream and are living happily ever after. Maybe they'll come back! I am not getting my hopes up, but it still doesn't hurt to hope!

School is just about over for the summer, my middle child will be a teenager as of next weekend, we are car shopping for my oldest, my new carpet gets here next Thursday, and yes, the Guineas will be hatching! The garden is in, save for the melons, squash, and green beans. Kittens are 3 weeks old tomorrow and are beginning to act like toddlers, starting to walk around the house already! Life is good. :) How's it going in your neck of the woods?

Guinea Fiasco: Part Deaux....

Well, we never did catch that mama Guinea. Not even with the help of a net duct taped to the end of a long pole tree pruner! That was Hubby's idea. I kid you not, we are the King and Queen of "Good in Theory". :) So, we are now the proud owners of this....


An incubator. Just a basic no frills incubator.

Last night made the 6th day they had been in there. I made a candler using a round oatmeal box and a lamp. I candled and 15 looked good, 2 were iffy, and 4 looked clear and infertile. So I returned the 15 to the incubator and went about cracking open the infertile and the two iffy ones. The two iffy ones were in fact viable embryos! Whoops. :( I have since read (and now know first hand) that if you are iffy about any eggs, to leave them be and check again in a week or so. 3 out of the 4 infertile were in fact infertile. The fourth had an embryo, but it did not look like the two iffy ones...so it was either at an earlier stage or it was what is known as a "quitter" - one that started development and then stopped. Sorry I didn't get pictures. It was a super busy weekend and I did this last night right before bed and I was beat!

So, the only issue I am having at this point is trying to figure out when their hatch date is. This is important to know because you have to turn the eggs several times per day UNTIL the last three days when you do not turn them because, well, it can kill them. Since they are Guineas, they take 28 days to hatch. Chickens take 21 days. So even though I checked this site that contains embryo pictures and our babies (the iffy ones I opened) look like a 6 day chicken embryo, I have yet to figure out what that means in Guinea terms! Do I start the day that we put them in the incubator? Do we count the days that Mama sat on them? And even then, we don't know for sure how long that was so that won't be accurate either. Pardon the pun, but it looks like we'll be winging it. IF YOU HAVE ANY ADVICE, PLEASE GIVE IT!! I have been researching and know some signs to look and listen for when the time gets closer, but I can use all the help I can get. If we go by the date we put them in the incubator, they are due May 24th. I have been hanging out on the Backyard Chickens message boards trying to glean all the info I can!

We do have some happy delivery news...Kitty meow had her babies! Three little cuties...here they are 9 days old. Photos courtesy of my 6 year old...

They have just started opening their eyes! :) And the momma has become a whole new cat...she's nice and lovey now! And has no problem at all with us messing with her littles. And believe me...my youngest wallers and hugs and kisses and loves on them constantly! :)

So that is that for now. I'll keep you updated on the Guinea eggs and please, if you have advice, let me know!! :)

Guinea Nest Moving Fiasco: Part One....

Oh. My. Some things are just way better in theory than they are in real life! The plan...I'll distract her, hubby will grab her from behind, I'll grab the eggs, and they'll immediately be reunited in the nice safe coop where life goes on safely. Simple, right? Keep in mind we have never done anything like this before.

We managed to somehow drop the ball on grabbing her off the nest. While Hubs chased her, I had no doubt in my mind that we'd catch her. Yes, that is the La La Land that I live in, where things go fine even when they don't go fine. Darn that optimism! So I went ahead and gathered the eggs and moved them. Only we didn't catch her! Between the roof, and the trees, and then it got dark...we didn't catch her. Crap! Plan B! Plan B! Oh hell! There was no plan B! And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is where we failed.

Hindsight being 20/20 and all, plan A SHOULD have been to secure the hen, THEN gather the eggs and move them all happily. Plan B SHOULD have been: if she could not be secured, then leave it alone and try again. That way she would have gone back to sitting on the nest, thus easier to catch (If there is such a thing as easier. Have you ever tried to catch a Guinea?!?!?!) and her eggs would not be too disturbed. Instead she ended up in the tree for the night. Once the eggs had been moved, and it was dark and chilly, and no hen to sit on them...this is what happened....

I didn't know what else to do! She had been sitting on them so wouldn't getting cold overnight kill them? I dunno. I dunno! I dunno!!! So I brought them in the house, kicking myself the whole time, and sprinkled water on the grass and put a heat pad on top to maintain 99ish degrees - with the intention of catching her sometime today and hopefully, HOPEFULLY getting them in the coop together where she'll happily shed a tear over the reunification with her littles-to-be and commence sitting until they hatch, which they will do, because I so ingeniously kept them warm in her absence. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh!

Crap. Crap! Crap!!! I feel horrible. Maybe it will all work out? Please, God, let it all work out!

So, tip of the day....When attempting to move a Guinea Hen and her nest to safety, secure the bird BEFORE going any further! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Brain Dead...

Dinner brain dead that is. Last week's menu was Pizza, Tacos, Spaghetti, Meatloaf. May as well have been Dull, Mundane, Boring, and Not Again!

Truly, I have been so out of ideas. I had been "Ad Shopping", as in, when the weekly ad came out, I made a menu around what was on sale. That got me by for a little while.

So I am a huge Dave Ramsey fan...we used his plan to get out of debt. E-Mealz is advertised on his show and I had thought about signing up. But what spurred me on was talking to a co-worker and hearing she is signed up for a similar menu service and loving it. So I signed up for E-Mealz and we are loving it! For a buck and a quarter a week, the menu is planned and the grocery list made. It is two pages...page 1 is the weekly menu with the recipes right there, and page 2 is the grocery list. All the meals have been good and the amount of prep and time to make pretty easy. Maybe eventually I'll get my dinner mojo back, but for now this has been a life saver!

In other news, the Guineas have started a nest! It is not in the coop...it is between the duck house and creek in a bramble of fallen tree branch. Our plan is to keep an eye on it and when she has a full clutch and starts sitting...move her and the nest to a confined area. Last count she had 13 eggs. And she is not sitting on it yet, so it is not time. Hopefully this will go according to plan and we'll have Guinea Keets someday!

Oh, and we have a pregnant cat. She's not a very friendly cat so all kinds of questions come to mind...like will she be a good mom? Will her babies be friendly? WILL SHE LET ME PLAY WITH HER NEWBORNS?!?!?! I hope so! :) We are getting her spayed after this litter, which is her first litter.

Garden is well under way. Onions are growing, Potatoes should be sprouting any time now, and the first succession of Carrots, Spinach, Chard, and Lettuce seeds are in. My Tomato, Pepper, Ground Cherry, and Broccoli plants are in the process of hardening off. It is a pain in the rear to drag them in at night and out of the house in the morning, but I keep telling myself it won't be long now! We have had an amazingly mild and warm spring. I am getting ready to start Melons, Pumpkins, and Squash seeds. I will start them outdoors in flats - they'll stay outside during the day and come in at night. A lot of people around here are planting warmer season stuff already....I am still leery so I am sticking with my original timing schedule.

That is about it for now! How's it going in your neck of the woods?

How To Know Spring Is Here....

Some people look for the usual signs of Spring... like Tulips coming up, grass greening, trees budding, birds singing, baby chicks hatching, and baby animals being born.

Not me.

Here's how I know if it is Spring....

Is my baby in mud? Check!

And is she lacking pants and shoes? Check!

And there you have it. Now I know Spring is here. Thanks Baby! :)