The Zoo

Lights Out

{ 08:30, Friday 4 May 2007 } { 0 comments } { Link }

We spent 4 days in the dark last week. A storm took down 250 power poles in our area and cut power to 3000 people. We did OK, since I plan well for emergencies. We ran the generator every few hours to keep the fridge and freezer cold. We used candles, crank flashlights and lanterns for light and had to use our stored water since the well doesn't work without power. The kids ran around playing with their hand crank flashlights. We kept getting news that the power would be off longer and longer, but it ended up getting turned on earlier than expected. The kids kept busy playing board games. I was actually sad to see the power come one, yes I prefer the power on, but watching the kids play games and dealing well with the situation, was kinda fun.

We piled everyone in the living room to sleep and used the propane fireplace for heat. The stove still worked since it is propane we cooked only one night though. I could have cooked more if it weren't for one little problem. We had eggs in the incubator when the power went out. The only way I could think of to keep the incubator warm was to use the oven. I sat the incubator on top of the stove, turned on the oven, and directed the hot air from the oven vent into and over the incubator. It was really hard keeping a constant temperature in the incubator. Those eggs saw temps between 79 and 108 degrees. I stayed up almost all night every night keeping an eye on them.

Well I figured we lost all the eggs after all that, but we got a surprise. I'll blog about that soon

A few things I realized we need to do to prepare for the next emergency are:

We need a battery powered weather radio (tornado warning happened the first afternoon and we didn't know because the weather radio we have doesn't alert without power)
We need a battery powered carbon monoxide detector (I couldn't sleep the first two nights using the propane fireplace, I was terrified of CO2 without the detectors on)
We need battery operated smoke detectors (ours are hard wired into the house electricity)
We need to store more toilet flushing water. (we had plenty to drink but not enough to flush with. We melted snow the first two days but there was no more snow the last two days. Hubby brought jugs of water home from work but realistically we can't rely on being able to leave home for such things)
We need to store more gas for the generator on the property (Hubby had to bring gas home each night and that may not be an option next time)
We need to keep the propane tank full at all times (we had plenty of propane to last but I was still obsessively checking it because we were running the oven 24/7 and the fireplace at night. If it had been colder and had to run the fireplace all day we would have had a problem)
Need candle holders (I have a zillion candles but not enough holders, I didn't think that one through. We used canning jars for candle holders and that worked well but I'd rather not mess up my jars)
Need more games and things to do. (the kids play games all the time so they were not interested in them. We ran to town the 3rd day and bought new games and they played them non stop)
Maybe a second, small generator. (the big generator was great, but if we'd have had a small generator we could have run it 24/7 for important items like the incubator. It would use less gas only powering one item. The big generator uses too much gas to have run it all the time)

Day 12 in the incubator

{ 10:05, Friday 20 April 2007 } { 0 comments } { Link }

It's day 12. Most of the eggs show major changes. One didn't look like it was progressing so we put a question mark on it and set it back in the incubator. Looks like the other 9 are doing well. We added 6 new eggs the other day too.

Day 8 in the incubator

{ 02:34, Monday 16 April 2007 } { 0 comments } { Link }

I can't tell you how incredibly difficult it is to take pictures of a candled egg. Oh well, this is the best we could do ... day 8, we tossed 2 of the 12 eggs because they aren't fertile. Things seem to be progressing with the other ones. I have a webcam now so we should be able to live cam the hatch.

I actually took a look around eggbid.com and considered buying some hatching eggs so we'll have other breeds to hatch, please slap me.

13 days to go.

Eggs in the bator

{ 12:15, Monday 9 April 2007 } { 0 comments } { Link }

We finally got the incubator up to the right temperature and humidity and added the eggs yesterday. The kids want to check the thermometer/hydrometer every 10 minutes. I hope they are still this interested for the rest of the three week wait. We're working on a hatching box for the last 3 days so we can see them hatch. I hope to have a live web cam set up in time.

New incubator

{ 10:16, Wednesday 28 March 2007 } { 5 comments } { Link }

I picked up an egg incubator yesterday. We've decided to hatch our own eggs from now on. I need to order a candler today then we'll start gathering eggs. I thought I'd turn this into a homeschool project too. I'm looking into setting up a live cam to internet broadcast the hatch.

Has anyone here hatched their own eggs? Do you have any hints or suggestions? I've done a lot of research but I'm sure everyone learns something in the process they wished they'd known before their hatch. If you have I'd love to hear about it!

Flea market and garage sale season

{ 09:23, Tuesday 27 March 2007 } { 1 comments } { Link }

Since the weather is starting to change it's getting closer to flea market and garage sale season. We love shopping the flea market and garage sales. I have a list of things we need to find this year. I always look for Tupperware, I can't ever have too much of that LOL. We need to find some fencing and more large animal carriers. I'd like to find some old Mah Jongg sets so I can make some jewelry with the tiles. I'm hoping some people have sets laying around that they don't use, since hardly anyone plays the game anymore. I'd also like to find a scanner (radio), at least one ham radio, and we need an antenna for the one we have. I've yet to see a ham radio at the flea market or a garage sale, all the years we've been looking for one. I find that rather odd. Maybe we'll get lucky this year.

I've decided that we are going to get some stuff together and set up at the flea market soon. I have a ton of kids clothes and books we need to sell. They aren't selling online so I need to go to the flea market if I want to make any money off of them. If we can get it together fast and the weather is good we'll try to go this weekend. It's the weekend after payday so sales should be pretty good.

I'll go again to the flea market next month. I want to get a whole bunch of stuff made to sell for that though. I have a ton of new items to make, I just need to find the time to make them. If they sell well we'll try to go to the flea market at least every other weekend this summer. I can't stand being out there in the sun all day, but I can't pass up an opportunity to make some money.

Spring Showers .. and lightning

{ 09:10, Tuesday 27 March 2007 } { 0 comments } { Link }

About midnight I noticed my room light up. Half asleep, it took me a minute to realize it was lightning. I'm surprised to see lightning and rain so early this year. We had such a bad winter I was expecting to see rain held off for a month or so.

So I lay there a minute and all of a sudden I panic thinking "oh no my computer is on and my embroidery machine is plugged in!" I jumped up quick and shut everything down and unplugged them. Last year we had a very close lightning strike and lost 2 computers, a wireless router, and several other electronic items. My computer was lost and it was on 2 surge protectors, that's how close and strong the strike was. I'll be darned if I'm gonna lose my new monster computer and embroidery machine.

My oldest son has a new computer too, even better than mine, so I woke him to have him unplug his stuff too.

We got a little rain last night, it was mostly a light show. We had a really warm weekend so the rain was nice and welcome.

We're going to make the most of the weather when it happens. I need to get the other storage shed emptied because I want to hatch some new chicks and I think we'll get some turkeys this year. I'm also strongly considering getting a goat soon.

How to post pix and other hints while the blog site is being difficult

{ 11:16, Thursday 22 March 2007 } { 3 comments } { Link }

I've seen lots of complaints about the blog problems here. While we patiently wait for them to fix things, here are some hints to get stuff posted.

I'm using Fire Fox, so if it doesn't work on Internet Explorer let me know and I'll figure out the tricks on IE. First, don't bother to choose your font color and type styles until you are done writing everything. After you finish typing, right click and highlight all your words then choose your font properties.

Next, for pasting just use ctrl+v to paste items into your text box.

And finally for posting pictures. Upload your pictures to your photo account at photobucket or wherever you host them. Choose the HTML code for the picture location (hold on if you don't know HTML I'll tell you in a second) and copy it. Now look above your text box and you'll see a button that says "source" click it and you'll see the HTML source code for what you are typing. Now just paste your image HTML into the text box where you want it. If you have the URL for the location of your image but not the HTML use

< img src="theimageurlhere" >

and that will post your picture. (remove the spaces I put after the < and before the >)

Click the source button again and your post will show in the text box so you can check it.

Let me know if you have any questions

Spring cleaning / Passover preparations

{ 10:34, Tuesday 20 March 2007 } { 1 comments } { Link }

Spring cleaning has a little different meaning around here. It's also probably the reason that spring cleaning began.

In a Jewish home we clean the house, especially the kitchen, in preparation of Passover. Passover is a Jewish holiday remembering the flight of the slaves from Egypt, as told in the book of Exodus. The eight day observance of Passover is marked by not eating any leavened foods. The slaves left Egypt so quickly that they had no time to allow their bread to rise. So the house must be purged of these foods and their crumbs. The whole house cleaning is followed by a hunt for chametz (leavened bread) by candle light, and using a feather, a wooden spoon and a bag to collect any chametz found. It is customary to hide 10 pieces of bread to be found during the search so that everyone is looking everywhere. Any chametz remnants found are destroyed and chametz food in the house is sold to a non-Jew. We are permitted to buy the chametz back after the holiday if selling it permanently will cause a hardship to the home.

Eggs again, finally!

{ 09:35, Tuesday 20 March 2007 } { 2 comments } { Link }

I was starting to panic (ok I had already been panicking) about the chickens not laying for the past 5 months.

We increased their calcium and placed plastic Easter eggs in the nesting boxes a few days ago. (filled with sand and taped shut)

Well it worked, we got 2 green eggs on St. Patrick's day, one egg Sunday and 3 eggs yesterday. I hope this means we'll be getting back into a good supply of eggs again. I really had hoped to be incubating eggs by now. I was starting to worry we'd have a freezer full of chickens instead of eggs.

We took Spock, our new kitten, to the vet yesterday to be neutered. The conversation with the younger kids, about why he was there, was quite interesting LOL!

Getting out from under the mess

{ 11:09, Sunday 11 March 2007 } { 0 comments } { Link }

Sometimes I wonder... how is it people can walk past something on the floor for a week and not pick it up? I'm not a slave or a maid, I'm not going to pick it up for them. We have set chores in this house and although I do spend a lot of time picking up after everyone because they aren't doing it, I don't think I should have to do it all the time. Although anyone should pick up something they see, I don't understand how, when for example, it's XYZ's job to clean the bathroom, they can clean the whole bathroom but still leave the bandaid wrapper on the floor pretending they never saw it.

We cleaned this house spotless a few weeks ago, and it's back to about the same mess it was before.

I have way too much to do to be going behind everyone finishing the jobs they do half-way. I also don't have time to be an inspector, doing quality control.

It's a big problem with our large family. I don't have the time to be inspecting chores. By the time I see or hear that a job wasn't completed right I don't know who it was who didn't do it, and the next one won't do it, so I end up doing it. I need everyone to be responsible to do their job to the best of their ability so the next person doesn't have to do double duty. My children also seem to thrive on tattling on the last person who didn't do their job right. (yet they won't take responsibility when it was them who didn't do it right)

Stuff I made with my new toy

{ 02:29, Tuesday 6 March 2007 } { 2 comments } { Link }

I made this outfit for Sarah, including the headband. Applique shirt done on the embroidery machine. Decorative heart stitch from same machine for the top stitching (above pants ruffle)

Burp cloth

Headbands

Apron gift

Oven door dress gift (design is not crooked, just looks like it in the picture)

Some tactile blankets for my daughters

Because this machine is computerized, I can do designs myself, and send them to the machine. I can even embroider in Hebrew (like bottom blanket)

My new toy

{ 12:29, Tuesday 6 March 2007 } { 2 comments } { Link }

In December I bought myself a Chanukkah present. I got a new computerized embroidery machine. I've been having a great deal of fun with it. I have so many ideas for using the machine, my head is spinning.

I've made a few outfits for the kids and lots of headbands and baby blankets. I also made some personalized aprons and oven door dress towels.

Still no eggs

{ 12:25, Tuesday 6 March 2007 } { 3 comments } { Link }

Oh good I can finally log in!! Haven't been able to get here in a while.

We still have no eggs and it's starting to worry me. We haven't had any eggs since the big October storm. I know some of the eggs were getting eaten but that wouldn't explain why we haven't had eggs from 3 doz chickens in almost 5 months.

I really don't know what to do.

Catching up

{ 08:33, Friday 13 October 2006 } { 2 comments } { Link }

I haven't had 3 seconds left in my days to come catch up on my blog.

Orders are starting to come in for the holidays. I don't make much money but it sure keeps me busy. I'm only going to be able to sell online this season because I didn't have the money to pay any of my craft booth fees. I even lost the deposit on the big booth at one fair because I couldn't pay the remaining amount. It's going to put a crimp in our budget for gifts this year, if I can't make up for it with sales online. I'm a little more upset about losing spaces at fairs it took me many years on the waiting lists to get into, than I am about not having the money. It took me forever to get the big booth at that one fair. We did that one the last 3 years and we made more money at that fair than all the others combined. oh well...

Our Dominique roo went missing a few weeks ago. We have no idea what happened. There's no sign of foul play. The cage wasn't damaged, there's no feathers, no blood, just a missing roo.

I'm going to get back to making today's orders. I hope to post again soon.

Thursday 13

{ 09:10, Thursday 14 September 2006 } { 2 comments } { Link }

13 things that surprised me about moving to the country.

1. UGH! the flies
2. Lightning DOES strike in the same place twice.
3. How incredibly stupid people are about where their food comes from.
4. Neighbors waving as you come down the road.
5. How LOUD coyotes are at night.
6. How people will sit in traffic for hours to get to work or stores in town without complaint,      but they won't drive 40 minutes to the country to visit because it's too far and too long of a     drive.
7. That people really don't care if you don't have makeup on and have chicken poop on your    skirt when you pop into the general store for milk.
8. That most people don't know that chickens can lay green, blue and other color eggs (and    they don't know they are the same as white eggs inside)
9. I'm surprised at how many people DON'T want to live in the country.
10. That my mail takes forever to get here.
11. I'm shocked that I still get solicitors knocking at my door.
12. How many rabbits are out here.
13. That most of my kids are very happy about being here and wouldn't want it any other way. (the 15yr old has other opinions though)

By request, our coop

{ 09:43, Wednesday 13 September 2006 } { 5 comments } { Link }

I was getting ready to go take pix of the coop, and I saw that a neighbor's dogs were here on our property again. (two blue healers) I could hear the chickens going crazy from here. Guess they tried to get in the back window of the coop, but couldn't. Wish people would be more responsible for thier dogs.

BTW, yes, we're rednecks, so there's a ton of old cars and car parts in the background. (insert eye roll here) We also make use of anything we can find to build stuff. So for example, that's a part of an old bunk bed holding the chicken run fence up.

Our coop and DD waiting for me to take the pic so she can open the door. Our rooster cage is on the right. It can hold 8 roos, but right now we have the sections open so each of the 4 roos get 2 cage areas to be in. It's about 10 ft long.

You have to stand well out of the way when you open the door, because they all come flying out (on your head if you don't move) to play.

Inside left, pullet in nesting box. Guess they tore the insulation padding down again. sigh

Inside right, more nesting boxes. We have to replace the nesting material almost daily. They seem to like to all lay in only one or two boxes anyway. One will stand on the boards in front and wait till another is done in the box. That's a couple of Rubbermaid containers stacked up that we use to store the food.

Pictures of our chickens

{ 08:35, Wednesday 13 September 2006 } { 6 comments } { Link }

Boogers are Big Brother's Business

{ 11:16, Thursday 31 August 2006 } { 3 comments } { Link }

OK I know all about Pseudoephedrine and those idiots who make meth, but my kids have boogers and I need meds for them.

Yesterday I go searching for anti-booger medicine while we're in WalMart (yes, I shop at Wally world, shoot me) and there's none to be found. I ask the pharmacist, and there it is, infant cold medicine, behind the counter. Seems all of us with sick babies are also possible criminals, as we have to present ID and be entered into the computer system to buy cold medicine with Pseudoephedrine. I'd pick something without the blasted ingredient, but there aren't any other decongestants available.

I refused to hand over ID and I left without the medicine.

Oh I need to add to this, that you are also only allowed to buy one bottle of any cold med with this ingredient. I have 7 children and currently 4 of them are sick, so I would need no less than 3 bottles, one infant, one children's and one adult's. This should last me 2 days, and I'd have to go into town again for more because at 1-2 tsp each dose we'd run out quickly.

Well last night was difficult for Elijah (and me), I had to stay up all night to clean his nose with the bulb syringe every 20 minutes so he could breathe. At about the crack of dawn I decided I was losing the battle of the boogers and I would just suck it up (pun intended) and head to town to hand over my ID for a tiny bottle of infant cold medicine. I get to Walgreens (the first store with meds as we hit town) and the Pharmacist isn't there so the pharmacy isn't open yet (I can tell time, they obviously can't, because they were supposed to be open already). So we load back up and head for the next Walgreens a few miles away. Thier pharmacy was open but they were completely out of infant cold medicine...gee thanks. The Pharmacy tech walks me over to the cold medicine isle to help me find something else we can use. She picks up a bottle of children's generic cold medicine and tells me the dosage for my infant using this medication instead.. lo and behold this medicine also has that nasty Pseudoephedrine in it.. umm so why isn't this back in the lock-up? I didn't ask!! I took the bottle and paid.. without being asked for ID.

I still didn't get meds for the other kids, you know, that one bottle limit thing, they can blow their noses.

I'm also wondering just how many of those tiny bottles of infant meds would be needed to make meth with, sure seems to me it would be a rather obvious, large purchase of them don't you think?

That also reminds me, there will be no homemade soap for holiday gifts from me this year... I guess those drug labs also need lye to make thier wares, so that is also not available for sale anymore.

Monday Madness

{ 09:09, Monday 28 August 2006 } { 0 comments } { Link }

1. Do you do dishes by hand or do you use a dishwasher? Both. We use the dishwasher several times a day, but more fragile stuff, my knives and anything large is done by hand.
2. How many people have your cell phone number? Less than a dozen
3. Do you shower in the morning or at night?In the afternoon. Morning is too cold for me and not at night becauseI won't go to bed with wet hair. (I don't have a hairdryer, wouldn't use it if I did)
4. Do you ever have a song 'stuck' in your head? Once and a while.
5. Do you pay your bills when they arrive, or do you wait until closer to the due date to pay them? Unfortunately, usually at the very last moment on the due date.
6. Are you obsessive about anything in particular? Too much to list.
7. What one thing would you say you have a zero tolerance for? I won't tolerate drinking. I don't allow alcohol in my house and I won't let anyone drink when they are around me.

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About Me

Welcome to our zoo.
I'm a WAHM of 7. We live at the foot of the Rocky Mountains just east of Colorado Springs, Colorado. We homeschool our children and raise chickens and other animals on our 5 acre homestead.

Links

Backwoods Home magazine and forum
Our Homeschool Blog

Chabad.org -
Torah, Judaism and Jewish information on the web.Click here for Shabbat candle lighting times.