Whoops I did it again...

Yeah, yeah, laugh it up!

I spent three hours at the breeder's place yesterday and came home with two new girls... a little 2-month old dark brahma whom I named Paloma, she comes from show stock and will grow very big and should produce lots of lovely brown eggs by spring... Will post pics of her later when she has more feathers.

And then this beauty, Miss Coco Chanel:

Coco is a six-month old White Sultan, quite a rare breed and even more rare to see one of this caliber. She wasn't for sale but at the end of my visit, the breeder offered her to me as he could see how crazy passionate I am about chickens and knew she would be in a very good home. Egg production is slow and small so really, she's just for fun :-)

*pauses to stare outside at the wet slushy snow*

Yep, it's winter... was planning to take out the xmas lights to string around the house today but it's too cold, wet and miserable and besides, the stupid headache is nailing me to the couch so I'll stick to the bare minimum.

Cooking, baking, being a drugged-up house mom.

When's the proper time to decorate for the holidays, anyways? I'm thinking we should get our tree in the next ten days or so - is that too early?

Bah for protocols. I'll do it when I feel like it.

Ah yeah, the visit to my dad's is confirmed for Thursday - wooo! Exciting little adventure, I haven't been away on my own anywhere since, well, I don't remember. A bit reluctant to leave all these pets in Vegas' care as he's got work up the wazoo... He asked me to make a detailed "to do" list so he wouldn't forget anything - ha ha! That's like asking a pastry chef to please bake a cake :-D

Speaking of cakes, I'm off to make a batch of cranberry-blueberry bran muffins.

After another cup of coffee, of course.

Screw this weather!

/end of Flock Of 22 And Counting post/

Love blossoms

Yep, little Blossom the silkie hen is determined to hatch those eggs so hopefully chicks are starting to develop in there... I'll candle the eggs in a few days to see if it's a go.

So exciting!

Yesterday the family got together at my brother's place for brunch to celebrate his son's 2nd birthday - I swear I'm not biased, this kid is just gorgeous and so personable, always happy and smiling and chatting away... He stole my heart :)

Being an auntie's fun, being an auntie with a camera is even more fun!

I loves this little boy :-)

Am going to see another chicken breeder this afternoon (don't laugh!!), this one looks promising as in not a shyster but someone who really cares, shows his quality stock and wins prizes... He sounds like a fanatic on the phone, said to just come over armed with paper and pen to take down notes and learn before buying anything. So yeah, crossing fingers he's a good'un.... I can't bring any new girls home as there is currently no free space but I may trade my pair of baby silkies in a couple of weeks as he is looking for new quality stock to add to his breeding program. Yey!

Big week ahead...

I need to start painting this place, uggh - did I mention I hate painting? Yep. But it's a key point in the grand scheme of things so yeah, must dig in at some point... Also have to print the flyers I made up for my photo business and start distributing those around.

No marketing = no clients and that's just crap.

Oh and I'll probably go spend a few days with my dad later this week, need to firm up the plans today and then it's just me and the bus and getting to spend some time in Ontario.

Vegas volunteered to take care of the homestead and all its creatures, how sweet is my husband? He did the chicken routine with me this morning and didn't even complain, LOL! Brave man. That coop is a foot shorter than he is so he has to stoop to walk around in there, so unpleasant.

Next coop will be a palace.

You might not know how big a deal it is for me to leave home for a few days.... I have to fight off panic attacks when surrounded by people and far from my own comforts, I never sleep well and get horrible digestion problems.

So yeah, mind and heart over matter: my dad's not getting any younger and if I don't do this I will kick myself forever.

I can do it, I can do it!

Time to go check on the flooded paddocks, do some laundry and all that yadi-yada - might as well employ myself as a maid, eh?

/end of Happy Sundaying, Peeps! post/

When it rains...

...it sure feels like the end of autumn!

What a mess out there, near freezing and it's been pissing heavy rain all day, brrrr. Messy. Poor flock resented being locked up in the coop all day but they have the luxury of a heat lamp, christmas lights and classical music, not to mention loads of food and treats... I think they'll forgive me ;-)

(Cuz when you open your front door and find this on the steps, they're not just chickens anymore... They're the neighborhood mafia and you better watch it!)

Seriously, I love my awesome girls - never a dull moment with them!

Ooooo guess what:

I broke my clothes shopping dry spell today and despite severe misgivings, shelled out money I don't have for items of clothing I desperately needed.

Six months is a long time to not buy a single thing to wear besides rubber boots and wool socks!

Oh and I was good, too - put back two sweaters on the shelf cuz I couldn't afford them despite the sale, besides how many does a girl need, anyways? In the end I got three awesome sweaters, plus a couple über-warm hoodies and a bunch of long t-shirts - I'm happy! Yey for CK and Guess outlet stores!

No, there is no "Black Friday" shopping here since our Thanksgiving was a month ago - in any case I make sure to only shop during quiet times because frankly, I hate people.

Except for the people I love, of course.

I wonder if the banana bread that's in the bread machine will turn out ok? So far it just looks like a messy slop... Kinda suspicious. I had to try it though since I can't bake a nana bread to save my life in the oven, they ALWAYS burn on top and stay raw in the middle no matter what oven or pan or settings or recipe I use. I figured this possibly couldn't turn out worse.

Am curious, do you have a recipe nemesis, a foe you can't conquer?

Kay, enjoy your weekend everyone, we're off doing family stuff tomorrow and then it's all up in the air - it better not snow, dammit.

/end of My Husband Is A Ninja And I Watch Him Play post/

Holy matrimony

I love being married.
It's so great to find that one special person
you want to annoy for the rest of your life.
~Rita Rudner

As predicted...

...Blossom abandoned the six eggs she had been sitting once daylight hit and found out she wasn't in her preferred nesting space.

Stubborn hen!

She now won't budge from the nesting boxes the girls use, I put her outside a dozen times today and all she does is march right back up there and anchor herself in, even if she isn't sitting on any eggs.

So what the hey... My big gorgeous glossy girl Pepper decided to lay an egg around 3pm today and Blossom was more than happy to tuck it under her chest so I'm letting her keep it. Marked it with a big "X" so I know which egg is which and we'll see what happens in 3 weeks, if anything.

Yep, dramah in the hen house keeps me busy...

*rolls eyes*

Insert rant:

My stupid Dell laptop broke two mice last night, so I now have to use the crappy touchpad thingie until I can buy a new mouse tomorrow. Pain in the ass. This stupid PC has been nothing but SHIT since the first day I got it - never again am I buying anything Dell, they suck!

/end rant

I'll spare you a boring post on all the housework I've done today in an attempt to ward off the big scary money problem voices and just wish you a lovely Thanksgiving weekend - enjoy your loved ones and be kind to the turkeys.

And always eat dessert first :-D

/end of Chicken Surprise post/

Neener neener neener!

At least that's what I heard my flock saying to the dogs this afternoon.

See for yourself (it's really worth the look, LOL):

I love my babies :)

So I promised you a Life Update but I'm not quite ready to talk about it yet, still need to wait a day or two more... There's a LOT going on at the moment and I feel a bit disorganized - not my style.

We're blessed with a super mild and sunny autumn though, I'm enjoying as much time as possible outside while trying to balance it out with "work" and life's demands, not quite achieving what I want but I can only do so much. I feel time ticking like a bomb though, it's always a pressure that has to be dealt with and yeah, I'm not managing those deadlines like I should be.

Hmmmm.

On a different note, am kinda nervous about tomorrow morning since I'll then know if we get baby chicks or not...

Blossom, my white powder-puff silkie hen, has gone broody since Sunday afternoon and after much debate, we decided to let her sit on six eggs today.

WOOHOOO!

Silkies are notorious for being very broody (meaning they like to sit on eggs for 21 days until they hatch and then they make excellent mothers) but I never expected for it to happen to our girl, specially not so early! She only started laying 3 weeks ago, LOL!

First problem is, we can't leave her to sit on eggs in the nesting box since all the other hens crowd in there to lay every morning, we can't mix "food eggs" with "future chick eggs". Plus you need a quiet and safe area for chicks to be born so the other chickens don't kill the babies the minute they're hatched (yes, it's a big problem).

So I had to wait until dark and move her (and the eggs) to a sectioned-off part of the coop just now.

Second problem is, Blossom hates to be separated from the flock so as soon as daylight hits tomorrow morning, she will realize she's been moved and abandon the eggs in a frantic attempt to rejoin the others. I know her and can guarantee the scenario :(

But I had to try, who knows if a miracle happens but I'm not counting on it. If she fails the motherhood test I'll have to feed those six eggs to the dogs and count it as a learning experience... Blossom will still try to sit on eggs (and in empty nesting boxes since I collect the eggs every morning!) for days on end but eventually she will return to normal, until the next broody cycle begins.

Wow, do I ever ramble.

Just pouring out concerns, thanks for reading if you got this far.

Gotta make dinner (pork schnitzels n'stuff), mmmm!

/end of Why Isn't Life One Straight Line post/

On squirting

When life gives you lemons, please,
just don't squirt them in other people's eyes.
~J. Andrew Helt

A bunch o'stuff

Busy weekend!

Friday I launched my photography website, to me it was a huuuuge accomplishment and I was just so proud of myself - it looks good and it was a lot of work! But not many people noticed, there were no celebrations and no fireworks.

I guess I should have prepared all of that, too.

Oh well.

Send me a gmail if you want the link (sparkleberrygirl@gmail.com) and please send clients my way if you can, I need to earn a living with this thing now, LOL!

Yesterday I noticed that little Violet's left eye was watery and swollen - I think she might have gotten pecked but it could be an infection - so I brought both her and Kiwi into the house for warmth and antibiotics... Sigh. Will it ever end? Four stinky sick hens in the main-floor bathroom! And I paid a lot of money for these girls! GAAAH!

That'll teach me to go to the wrong breeders... The path to knowledge is a long hard road fraught with sharp stones, but I have to remember that these girls ended up with me for a reason and it's my duty to love and heal them.

Mantra: everything will be OK.

All this interspersed with a lovely albeit short visit from my mom, who just left after spending the night. She brought stuff to make a tasty appetizer (tomato pesto crustinis with goat cheese, French beer, organic dark chocolate for dessert) - who thinks of stuff like that!

I love my mom :)

Now, for the deep and meaningful stuff... nah, that'll wait until the next post.

I promise it will be worth it...

*takes a deep and excited breath*

We're crossing a sort of milestone today, making something official. Taking a big step in a new direction. That's all I'll say for now. Woo!

/end of Life Is A Choo Choo Train post/

Our private havens

All men whilst they are awake are in one common world:
but each of them, when he is asleep, is in a world of his own.
~Plutarch

Need your input, please!

Boring business part:

My photography website is about to go live (WOO!), just tidying up the meta tags to optimize web search engines and would love your input in order to really hit the nail on the head.

My question to you:

If you were googling for a local photographer for your pets or your kids or whatever your needs are, what key words would you use?

*crossing fingers to get lots of responses!*

Fun chicken part:

The two little sick Easter Eggers are doing better! So happy! They'll be in the house for a little while longer to make sure they have a fighting chance but I think they're on the mend. I'll eventually post pics but for now they still look like holocaust victims so I'll spare you.

However, the two other girls are doing fine despite being a bit ragged and naked around the neck, they got their very first taste of fresh air and sunshine today and just soaked it UP!

Imagine spending 14 weeks of your life in a dark barn with recycled air :( But they're home now and as spoiled as the rest of the flock.

This is Kiwi, a blue cochin:

This is Violet, a lavender cochin:

Cochins are typically pretty large and fluffy birds
so it'll be interesting to see them grow up :)

In other news, I'm in a cooking slump.

Like, totally.

Can't think of anything to cook, don't feel like eating anything in particular and the fridge/cupboards are as inspiring as watching paint dry. I haven't really been grocery shopping except for staples but one can only survive on cheese toast and cereal for so long before going crazy.

OK fine, I'll go shopping tomorrow with a plan.

Recipe suggestions welcomed!

I'd sure stick my face into a nice fat poutine right now though.

/end of I Need Me A Chef post/

On hope

You've gotta have hope.
Without hope life is meaningless.
Without hope life is meaning less and less.
~Author Unknown

Oh bugger it

I've been tossing and turning in bed for an hour now, might as well get up, have a bowl of Alpha Bits, spell out "help meh" and eat it.

Coldest night it's been so far this autumn... -6C (21F) right now, a thick blanket of frost covering the ground and abject items. My poor chickens. Four new babies in the coop tonight, one of them a tiny, mostly-bald "rescue" that I pray will survive. She looks like she was plucked alive :(

Why I drive 3 hours to pay so much for birds in this condition, I'll never know.

Oh yes: I'm mad.

It's the only explanation.

With a bit of luck and a lot of TLC, they will grow into beautiful healthy hens that produce cool eggs next spring but it's always a crap shoot. Right now they need me and I'm there for them, no turning back.

I'm so tired.

Stupid aching muscles and racing mind.

What a week... One turmoil after another, one project ends and another begins, they collide and produce offspring that require strong teeth to chew on. I don't mean to be so mysterious, just some stuff going on right now that we're keeping quiet for now. And no, I'm not pregnant LOL! That's one nightmare I will luckily never have to deal with!

Does garlic keep people awake? We went out for Lebanese food tonight and I swear, the houseplants are wilting. I love the food, I just don't like tasting it for 12 hours you know?

Bah. I'll try again, count sheep or sumtin.

G'nite world.

/end of Is This What Darkness Looks Like? post/

Put your bed on the floor!

Fear makes the wolf bigger than he is.
~German Proverb

Monday, really quick

It's a beautiful, sunny day packed with "things to do".

Dogs to feed, play with and clean up after, hens to tend to, chicken coop to finish setting up for tomorrow's new girls, laundry to fold, bills to pay and a house to clean.

All interspersed with a website to translate into French before launching to the world.

I wouldn't want it any other way :-)

My stomach's still all wobbly after ingesting god knows what, I bought milk that tasted really strange - almost chemical - so I poured that down the drain and let's see if I can keep any food down... Makes you wonder sometimes about how we are so not in control of anything we buy.

I have no idea how any of the living creatures I eat were treated, fed, slaughtered and processed. I don't know where most of my fruits and vegetables come from, if not clearly indicated on the label. Nor what they were sprayed with, fertilized with, how they were handled and packed. What goes in that loaf of bread, who mixed and baked and packaged it? Did anyone sneeze the dough? Did that batch of milk or cheese get overlooked during inspection?

Lots to think and worry about... I guess I'd rather not know or I'd become paralyzed and paranoid and eat nothing but the eggs that come from my hens, LOL!

I leave you with a photo from Saturday's shoot, it's not perfect but it just speaks to me:

When you are a mother, you are never really alone in your thoughts.
A mother always has to think twice, once for herself and once for her child.
~Sophia Loren, Women and Beauty

Floppy

I didn't have cake nor pizza last night, however a hot chocolate followed by a hot bubble bath knocked me the hell out.

Was in bed by 9:30pm.

On a Saturday night.

Remind me again how exciting, glamorous and worldly I am?

LOL!

w00t!!

I'm so pleased!

Our contractor finally came by this morning to rig up a few essentials in the chicken coop that will hold us until April - been waiting all week for this, now the flock is much more comfortable with added ventilation and a proper sleeping space!

Best thing is, I'm also all set up to get six new "easter egg" girls on Tuesday and since we had all the materials already, it only cost me two hours of labor!

*happy dance*

I also squeezed in a photo session with a friend and her super gorgeous son despite the pouring rain, we went to a nearby park and it was haaaard...

We were confined to a small open covered structure with a cigarette-butt studded concrete floor and a row of sad picnic tables, there was no light to work with and since I don't have a proper flash it was quite frustrating to miss beautiful smiling moments because my damn camera wouldn't focus or took blurry shots!

Oh well... Took 227 pics, whittled them down to about 50 and working on those to get a few good ones. I hope she likes them because I'm not satisfied with the quality at all... I can do so much better, given some cooperation from Mom Nature.

In any case we will reschedule for a sunny day and THEN we're cooking with gas!

If my friend gives me permission, I'll post a photo here tomorrow or so :-)

** pauses to listen to the rain soaking the life out of everything **

I feel so content, like I'm making a difference somehow... I can't even call this photography thing a goal, but rather a purpose. I need to do this, I crave it, I love it - does that make sense? It's a challenge and it's not easy but life's not made for weenies, is it!

Anyhoo. Time to make dinner, feed the doggies and then settle down for a movie with hubby Vegas. Maybe sneak in a hot bubble bath, oooooh that sounds divine...

I wish I had cake and pizza though.

/end of Have A Great Weekend, Peeps! post/

Get up, dust off, keep going!

Sometimes even to live is an act of courage.
~Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Letters to Lucilius

What? Me worry?

If any of you read Mad Magazine (back in days when it actually was very clever and funny), you'll no doubt have pictured good ol'Alfred E. Neuman's toothy grin by now.

To wit:

Lordy. I can still smell and feel the pulp paper as I pored through each magazine at my grandparent's house, courtesy of my uncles collecting every issue. Then later when visiting my dad after The Divorce, he always had some laying around.

The folded back covers, the evil Spy Vs Spy, Snappy Answers To Stupid Questions, the side-margin comics... You sorta become friends with the writers, you know? I'm talking issues from the 70's and early 80's, the best ones.

I've been searching eBay to find vintage copies (from the 70's up to mid 80's, sold in lots) but have had no luck, I simply cannot afford such a folly in these tight times.

Oh well. I have my memories :)

Bulleted news:

• Still working on my photography website and it's coming along well - yey!
• My sick hen goes back to the coop tomorrow but today I noticed another girl that wasn't acting normal - oh lordy please let it just be a passing indigestion or something, I can't deal with more chickens in the house!
• The bank that gave us the house mortgage sent us a beautiful houseplant today, LOL.
  
• I had bananer pancakes with maple syrup for dinner :-D

I have five months to scrape enough money together for next spring's Big Demo Project. Yeah, it never stops and call me crazy but there are some things I just cannot deal with longer than necessary.

Vegas and I have decided to not sink any more funds into the existing crappy chicken coop as it's only bailing water out of a canoe ridden with holes. That thing should have been torn down decades ago, it's an eyesore and not suited for chickens in this cold humid climate.

Come spring, it gets torn down and hauled to the dump!

We also need to bulldoze the land to clear out all the junk we inherited with the property, it's OK in the summertime when all the foliage hides the crap but now? OMG!

Trailer trash and we aren't even near a trailer!

And then up goes a brand new coop with proper design, ventilation & construction, proper plumbing & electric wiring - no more of that scary rusty 1930's shit.

I'm going to have to book a lot of clients for photo sessions between now and then if I want to make this a reality... between the mortgage, taxes, debt repayment and living costs I can't even afford a haircut these days :-o

Ah well. Gotta keep on dreaming, right?

On that note: g'nite peeps!

/end of Don't Forget To Vote On The Poll post/

Industrial revolushon

Nobody has ever before asked the nuclear family
to live all by itself in a box the way we do.
With no relatives, no support,
we've put it in an impossible situation.
~Margaret Mead

Holy boy!

Hard to type with shaking hands, but I'll try!

I've spent the major part of the day outside because, well, the weather is just phenomenal! One super warm, dry and sunny day in the middle of a very heavy and depressing autumn is just bliss. Wish there were more but I'll take what I can get!

By the end of the week I should have finished winterizing the gardens, done a few odd jobs around the paddocks and stables and, best of all, the wretched old chicken coop should get a much-needed overhaul to house the new hens I'm getting next week - just need to get my contractor in for a couple of days and hope I can find enough free or recycled materials to pad the meager renovation budget.

Oh and my hands are shaking cuz I did demo work in the coop this afternoon, whack whack whack, also lugged bag after bag of heavy shit stuff from the car to the storage shed. Muscles = nonexistent, hence the shaaaakes.

Of course through all of this I'm setting up my photography website and scheduling a few photo shoots on top of being The Good Housewife :-D

Aaahhhhh... so nice to finally find ourselves alone and relaxed again.

It's been challenging but we pulled through and are none the more wiser for it. I'm even canceling the one-week February booking as I really can't deal with more than our three dogs at this point - I just heard Vegas heave a sigh of relief, LOL!

My mom said I was doing the right thing and is very positive about the photography (I loves her!), our girls visit is scheduled for the 1st weekend of December and I'm so looking forward to it! We'll be planning our xmas dinner menu, we'll go shop, relax in front of the fireplace and cook up a lovely dinner or two. Yey!

I feel great - amazing what a bunch of warm fresh sunny air can do to the moral, not to mention physical activity. OK so I need my asthma pump as I inhaled a shitload of moldy dust during the coop demo but what a small price to pay - gonna sleep well tonight, methinks...

OK off to stick some taters in the oven for dinner and other fun stuff.

/end of Spin Ding Ding post/

Oh reeeeally! :-D

Men really prefer reasonably attractive women;
hey go after the sensational ones to impress other men.
~Mignon McLaughlin, The Second Neurotic's Notebook, 1966

TO ALL THE KIDS WHO SURVIVED the 1930’s 40’s, 50’s, 60’s and 70’s !!

Re-posting from an email I received a while ago from my dad, it's been around the internet block a few times so here is a refresher if you've read it before, if not then consider it my Sunday gift to you!

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, we were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention the risks we took hitchhiking.

As infants & children, we would ride in cars with no car seats, booster seats, seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a pick up on a warm day was always a special treat.

We drank water from the garden hose and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cupcakes, white bread and real butter and drank koolade made with sugar, but we weren’t overweight because WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING !

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day and we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem.

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo’s, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 150 channels on cable, no video movies or DVD’s, no surround-sound or CD’s, no cell phones, no personal computers, no Internet or chat rooms…….

WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them!

We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents.

We ate worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

We were given BB guns for our 10th birthdays, made up games with sticks and tennis balls and, although we were told it would happen, we did not put out very many eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend’s house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just walked in and talked to them!

Little League had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn’t had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

These generations have produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

If YOU are one of them . . . CONGRATULATIONS!

You might want to share this with others who have had the luck to grow up as
kids, before the lawyers and the government regulated so much of our lives for our own good

And while you are at it, forward it to your kids so they will know how brave (and lucky) their parents were.

Kind of makes you want to run through the house with scissors, doesn’t it?!

Imagination... use it!

I think the world really boils down to two types of people -
those who see shapes in cloud formations, and those who just see clouds.
~Danzae Pace

Turbulent skies

The weather went all-out a couple days ago, fierce sunshine blasting through thick rain sluicing down - it just called for the camera to capture the moment!

One of the lounge windows:

View of the back yard, from our deck:

The driveway:

View from the front porch, from left to right: chicken coop, barn, stables:

Funny how you can't really see the rain as I had my camera on fast shutter speed,
however I did catch one for reference:

After that I youtube'd "November Rain" - Guns n'Roses - cuz the moment was just so fetching.

Am feeling weird today, the headache came back in the middle of the night to wake me up a few times, I'm on meds and holding the migraine at bay but now my stomach's a mess. Blah!

Now that the grocery shopping is done, I can make a lovely bolognese spaghetti sauce this afternoon (by a Vegas request), take the four dogs for a walk on the mountain and finish the laundry. Ambitious? A bit, considering I still feel like wet dog crap.

*stifles yawn*

Antoinette, my sick hen that has been inside since Monday morning, seems to be slowly getting better - I doubled the concentration of antibiotics, added probiotics to her food and woo! Less sneezing and gurgling... She seems happy enough, getting plenty of sleep and warmth.

Crossing fingers she pulls out OK and doesn't get sick again...

OK more news later, right now am still soaking in the freedom and peace of mind that came with the decision to not continue the dog boarding on a big scale.

On to laundry!

/end of Happy Friday Everyone! post/

Follow your heart (a big decision)

Well. What a week it's been.

I get two nail-me-to-the-bed migraines twice per year, one in the spring and one in the fall. Both are hormone and stress induced - no idea why some are THAT worse than others but let's just say the nausea, dizziness, vomiting, fainting and stabbing pain that makes you wish you were dead are NOT pleasant.

Yesterday was the culmination of four days of pain, a crescendo of misery to put it mildly.

Thank you to my wonderful Vegas for staying home from work yesterday and doing my job of taking care of four rowdy dogs (and of me). Impossible to think of what I would have become if left alone.

So my big news:

Dog boarding has been quite the experience... unfortunately one we have decided is not for us.

It creates too much constant stress in our house and is a strain on our relationship: home should be a quiet place of rest and not a constant chaotic mess. We're both losing sleep, appetite and losing our joie de vivre in this adventure.

How do we know it's the right decision to halt this in its tracks?

When the phone rings for a dog boarding inquiry and our hearts sink, "oh no not another one". Yep. I have turned business away three times now as I just can't do it. And the calls keep coming.

So... It's not a failure, on the contrary: business is booming with very little publicity, clients are coming back and spreading the good word, the website is very active and if we wanted to make this business boom it would only take a little push.

Sometimes you just have to live your dreams to find out if they're really what you're meant to do - how else can you know?

I feel proud to have made this decision and feel stress slowly eeking from my system.

Sigh of relief.

I did it, it worked, but it's just not for me, not for us. I didn't lose anything and in fact gained a lot in the process. We have a huge dog park for our kids, a finished basement that we use and will re-purpose, we've met some really lovely people and will still occasionally board some cool dogs by friend referral only (we have a lovely guest for a week during the holidays, another one for a week in February and I'm sure others will return here and there).

So yeah.

*smiles*

The other side of this wave is that now I can fully devote myself to setting up my photography business. I know it will work (already have clients lined up) and I know I love it, am damn good at it and will only get better with experience.

One of the rooms in the basement will be my studio and I already have my office all set up. I will also travel to do location shoots, which gets me out of the house once in a while.

And what better way to meet people and influence their lives a little bit?

Ah, to feel useful AND creative: bingo!

Am super excited and again have Vegas' full support (team technovegas!), am brimming with ideas and projects and can't wait to get started! Today is devoted to catching up on stuff I've missed the past few days because of illness (laundry, cleaning, cooking, yadi-yada) and then watch me go - our little guest goes back home on Sunday and then here comes freedom.

Oh and another thing I've discovered by living the adventure: I have developed a passion for chickens and selling eggs.

Whodathunkit?

I am shopping around for a few new girls that lay unusual eggs (terracotta, blue, green...) and then will set about to selling those to friends and families so that the flock pays for its upkeep, that way it's a guilt-free hobby that brings me great joy and delight. Talk about a win-win situation :)

Thanks for letting me unload my thoughts, once again -

Happy Thursday peeps!

/end of Happy Life Decision Number X post/

Vanishing youth

The clock talked loud. I threw it away, it scared me what it talked.
~Tillie Olsen, Tell Me a Riddle

Just stuff

The past couple of evenings have given us some pretty lovely sunsets, I snapped this from our deck last night (I think it clicks bigger so you can see the birds!):

...however the days are mostly still grey and damp, go figure. That doesn't stop the dogs from playing like sumo gazelles on speed whether inside or out, though. Right now they're all snoring so I'm taking this chance to gather the wool in my head and spin a post for you.

I'm taking a much-needed break from routine in a couple of weeks and bussing it up to my mom's for a girl's weekend - Vegas is giving me the gift of freedom, LOL! He offered take care of the dogs and the chickens so I could go relax and catch up with my family, take some photos and bring back happy memories.

*joy joy*

As much as I love it here, am starting to have a bit of cabin fever after four months... Happy to drive our little guest back to the city on Sunday, we get to have brunch at our favorite place in our old neighborhood, see some friends and...

...GO BOOK SHOPPING!! Yey!

And then my dad is planning a visit for me not long after that, also going to bus it there for a weekend - I miss my family and realize that life is whooshing by, how would I feel if any of them passed away and I hadn't taken the opportunity to spend time with them? Besides buses are fun, you get to nap and listen to music and read and nap some more, let's not forget the snackies :-D

Wow this post is dull.

I'm so sorry :(

I always think of the best stories when I'm taking my shower before bed, of course everything evaporates as I sleep so that's pretty useless.

Am I the only one??

Anyways, time for lunch and then dog wrangling for the rest of the day... Never again taking on such young puppies, it's just too much work and stress. Plus I have a sick hen in the house but she's soooo sweet, it's relaxing to go see her in the bathroom aka Hen Hospital - good to see she's getting better so it's all worth it.

Life is in the details.

/end of You Are A Ham Sandwich post/

Lordy

Head hurts too much to blog, hard to focus on anything. It's been busy and stressful here (dogs, pees, sick hen, meds, no sleep, etc), never a dull moment on the farm.

It was so lovely today, I actually read my book in the park while the dogs played, sunshine on my face and not a breeze in sight to ruin it.

OK headache you can piss off now, I want my life back.

Thank you.

Growing puppy

Dante turned 5 months old last Monday, where does time fly?