Back and Forth Across the Pond

I knew my time would be pinched when I returned to school, but I had no idea how insane my schedule would become. I struggle every week just to stay on top of my reading and writing assignments. I barely manage to get the most basic of household chores accomplished (and those are with Steve's help), so just about everything else has fallen by the wayside. I have tons of photos of the chickens and their coop. They have an exterior run now and Steve is putting the finishing touches on the nest boxes. Onslo, the cockerel, is crowing now, and I expect to see eggs within the next couple of weeks. The chickens turns 4 months old on October 9th. Hopefully, I will be able to update the site before too long. But I can't guarantee anything. I haven't even seen any of my friends since school started.

After publishing the last blog, I realized I hadn't taken an exterior shot of the coop! So I ran out and took one: Of course, since I was out there, I figured I'd visit with the babies. But I had to cut the visit short. They kept crowding the door. Daisy kept trying to climb onto my shoulder and even Luna tried to climb up! So I had to end the visit. I wish I could say my babies loved me, but let's face it, they thought I had more treats for them.

After another busy weekend and an early day home from work for Steve on Monday, the chicken coop is done!!The chickens were relocated last night and they're quite happy with their new digs. I went out around 11 a.m. It was 98 degrees, but the coop interior was nice and cool. We have a fan set up in there to circulate air, and it really seems to be doing the trick. I was worried about the birds being in the heat after growing up in air conditioning. It's cloudy today, which helps. But I think the coop design is proving to be a winner. Steve started Saturday by giving some extra support to the two roosting perches. Because they're eight feet long, they wobbled a bit near the center. Whilst he did that, I installed the vents. Steve decided that construction work afforded him plenty of opportunities to get a work out. Steve gets to work - sort of - on the framing for the roof panels. Steve doing some work on the coop in such a manner that was in no way staged to show off his mu...

Because we'll be in Jacksonville for our primary later this month, Steve and I requested absentee ballots. We got them in yesterday's mail and I've spent the last hour or so doing research on the candidates I hadn't already learned about. One thing really annoys me: Lack of information. Isn't it the most basic of concepts that if you want a bunch of people to vote for you, you should at the very least make the people aware of you?! Apparently not around here. The number of candidates who offer no information about their histories, goals, experience, values, etc., is staggering. I was looking at the information the candidates supplied to the elections office. One woman had an impressive amount of donations already accrued, but she didn't provide any information. Unlike many of my fellow Americans, I don't vote based on what the media tells me or where my dart hits the board. I realize they're all politicians, and therefore are most-likely lying through th...

After weeks of rain and very little coop construction, we had a productive weekend. At long last, the coops is taking shape. The coop, itself, is now well passed the half-way point. I'm very optimistic that it will be finished and ready for its tenants by next weekend. Woohoo!! It took Steve hours to finish the framing on Saturday. We awoke to rain, which really put a damper on things (no pun intended), but Steve rallied during the few rainless hours of the day to get this much done. He decided to add extra support to the floor. His progress was greatly hampered by his drill battery dying. Steve bought thicker plywood for the floor, figuring we'd have at least 14 chickens weighing an average of eight pounds each jumping around on it. He got it laid in place, but the notching would have to wait. More rain came in and the rest of Saturday was lost to it. Sunday lived up to its name. It was sunny all afternoon. The morning was overcast, but devoid of rain, so we got a lot done on ...

I've not written lately, because there's just not a lot to write about. We're busy, don't get me wrong. But who wants to read about my daily expeditions into long-packed boxes, possession culling, and closet organization? We continue to get rain close to daily, so we still don't have the chicken coop finished. It has to be finished by August 25, because I start grad school then and I can't have chickens unattended in the house for three days a week! We currently have the ten big babies in the double kennel we used to use for Copen, and the Phoenix babies in the three-bin brooder. The Phoenix babies are so called, because they're named after members of Harry Potter's Order of the Phoenix/Dumbledore's Army. Anyway, having the big birds in a cage-type house rather than an enclosed brooder changes things a lot. Chickens are dirty! I have layers of dust in the dining room like you wouldn't believe and the downy feathers get everywhere! I vacuum twice...

Steve participated in his first race on July 4th, the Celebration 5K. Nearly 1100 runners (1078 to be exact) arrived bright and early for the race. A couple of our friends joined us there. Steve did very well. He finished 251st overall, and finished 29th out of the 63 men in his age group. He beat his personal best, averaging just under 8 minutes a mile. His final official time: 24 minutes, 45 seconds. Impressive. Especially when you consider Steve's been running for just two months. Here are some photos from the day: Steve's all rested and refreshed as we arrive. Don't let the calm exterior fool you. He was a live wire all morning. You can't really run without something to keep the sweat out of your eyes and some good uptempo running music. Here's Steve kitted out in his do-rag and headphones. He couldn't find his ear buds. Your runners for today's event: Steve, Melanie, and Melanie's devilish husband. The chaos right after the starting cannon. It took ...

Warning: I don't usually rant here, but I read a news article today that really ticked me off. If you don't like what I'm saying, sorry. Just a few days ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Washington D.C.'s gun ban is unconstitutional. By banning guns in the city and not allowing residents to own firearms, the law is in violation of our Second Amentment right to "keep and bear arms." Besides being a fan of the constitution, as a former neighbor to D.C., I'm glad the ban was lifted. The crime rate in that city is ridiculous, with gun crimes always increasing. Since shooting someone is illegal and people still do it, I've always found it beyond stupid to outlaw guns as a way to deter gun crimes. If you're willing to kill someone, you're not going to stop just because it's illegal to own a gun! I did a paper a couple of years ago about the ineffectiveness of gun bans. Britain has had a ban in place for many years now. It goes so far as to s...

I went to Gainesville today. I met up with Christa there. On the drive over, I noticed the marquee on Ace Hardware announcing: "Chicks are here." Interesting. So after hanging with Christa, I called Steve and told him about the sign and wondered if I should check it out. He said I should, so I did. The store had two types of chicks there: Three Anconas, which are a very pretty bird originally from Italy, and a slew of Black Sex Links. I shied away from the Anconas for two reasons. One, they're very active birds and I didn't know how well they'd take to being confined 24/7 (even with a very spacious coop/run combo). Two, I didn't know if they were pullets or cockerels. Black Sex Links (also called Black Stars, I believe) are a hybrid mix stemming from a Plymouth Rock hen and a Rhode Island Red rooster. They're good layers. More importantly, because they're a Sex Link, you can tell if they're boys or girls based on their down color. The chicks were ...

It's been very interesting here at Caer Myrddin. That's the name of our property. Steve dubbed it that when we first bought the land, but we never made a sign or anything. Now that we're branching out with livestock and veg, I figured it made sense to use the name. Anyway, nature has been providing a lot of new things out here so far this year. Twice on the way home from work, Steve's encountered deer on Bondarenko Road. We've frequently seen deer at the end of Trawick, near the paved road, but never back here. So that's exciting. Our quaking aspen is blooming for the first time. The flowers are green, so they don't look like much. But boy do the insects love them! The tree literally buzzes, because it is swarmed by yellow jackets, paper wasps, other small types of wasps, bumblebees, and honey bees! I'm particularly excited about the honey bees, because some kind of disease has decimated the wild population and I've not seen any for some time. I'...