Moving has so many complications and selling a home more so.
For my family, as I suspect for most, keeping the house pristine and ready to be shown to perspective buyers is one of the greatest challenges. When a family also has pets in the house the work of perfection is amplified by the dirt and hair that are associated with animals. What you many not … Continue reading the story "Choosing to Advocate for Skunks"
Post Archives from the ‘Critters’ Category
Let’s Get Moving
To start I need to apologize for my absence. For a lot of involved reasons I have not shared our progress in over two years. It's not that I haven't sat down to write, but anxiety has gotten the better of me. That means I have a lot of catching up to do.
Firstly, our family will be moving out of Texas. My husband is an … Continue reading the story "Let’s Get Moving"
The mysteries of incubation
I have been attempting to get to the point where my chickens would produce their own offspring so I might stop buying fryers for the last three years. To that end, I have both encouraged the few hens I have that have gone broody and chose to sit eggs and I purchased an incubator to hatch some of my eggs myself. Sadly, I have not … Continue reading the story "The mysteries of incubation"
Now it’s for real
Unexpectedly, my husband lost his job last week. This causes all the usual panic and monetary considerations, and we certainly are no different. Fortunately, we started looking around and realized that we were not too badly off.
In January we chose to slaughter all of our pigs due to the nuisance they had become; the freezer still contains many, many pounds of pork. We have eggs … Continue reading the story "Now it’s for real"
A Sad Happening
As often happens with folks who were not raised on farms, we find ourselves learning new things on a daily basis. This lesson revolves around our rabbits. While I had a number of different pets as a child, rabbits were not welcome in our household, so I have little knowledge and now just a year of experience with them. Compared to my knowledge of dogs, … Continue reading the story "A Sad Happening"
Spring Expectations
Some may remember that I was very interested, last spring, in incubating eggs and having my chicks arrive not through the mail but from our own hens. I bought an incubator (after failing to build one) and made several attempts to hatch my own. My success rate was never more than 30%.
Thankfully, one of my hens did a much better job, sat 9 eggs (not … Continue reading the story "Spring Expectations"
Back in the Groove
So, its been far too long since I sat down to write. A lot has happened since last summer... Sadly, not all of it was good and 2014 was a very personally challenging year for my family, my husband, and myself. Happily, we are moving forward.
While I try to get back in the habit of posting, I thought a short update was in order.
Too much … Continue reading the story "Back in the Groove"
Spring critters
Things are greening, I've been planting, the windows are open, and there are more animal calls to be heard-it is definitively Spring.
My hatchling and the new additions
I could not let my one surviving chick from my first attempt at incubation grow up alone, so my youngest and I drove over to … Continue reading the story "Spring critters"
Preparing for Rabbits
I am not the only one with Spring Fever.
Living in a small town has some unexpected features, one of which is the importance of the 4H fair. The kids were actually released early from school recently, so everyone could attend the county fair judging the kids crafts and livestock. Of course my school age girls are now very interested in 4H-especially my 7 year old … Continue reading the story "Preparing for Rabbits"
Incubation
I feel an update is necessary on this issue; my first attempt at incubation did not go well.
We started the incubator with 21 eggs arbitrarily chosen (mostly by my almost 4 year old) from all of my hens. I had purchased a Styrofoam incubator from my local Tractor Supply, because the "plans" for the homemade model began to get complicated and were not getting implemented. … Continue reading the story "Incubation"