My Heart's on Fire for Elvira

[PaGal]

I guess we are getting ready to get the weather you have been having. It is supposed to rain every day for the next four days. Blah! And then my grass will be long again or should I say my weeds! Ha.

We have well water too and it tastes so good. I think for one thing it tastes better because it's colder. Hubby and I both swear the best tasting water in our house is from the bathroom faucet. Weird but I swear it true.

The only problem was when we first bought the home. They had to treat the well with bleach. It's the norm for when selling a home with a well. I think they put too much. Now mind you I was cleaning before we moved in and everything and I mean everything was cleaned with bleach. Once a smell even a drop of bleach that is all I will smell all day hence why I use it so little. Well all week I was here during the day cleaning. Finally my hubby points out that the water coming out of the faucets smells like bleach. I had no idea since that's all I smelled from cleaning with it. Usually you just have to run water for a time and it clears the bleach out. Not in our case and I had been using that water all week to make coffee. So I guess you could say I have been through a cleanse! Ha.

 

[whitelop]

This is probably going to be long!
Lyndy, my husband filled in Ellie's hole so he could cut the grass. But yes, she did dig down like 4 more inches, it was the beginnings of a tunnel. I think that I'll put her in the same place when I put her back out. haha.
After my cleanse, I'll just continue to eat healthy. Like 5-7 small meals a day, healthy snacks not crap food. No soda, no fast food, healthy sweets. I'll share some recipes for some healthy brownies. I'm not going to cut out everything, because you still have to indulge sometimes to keep yourself sane.
I'll be honest, I haven't really been exercising, for the last week or so I've been really weak and my body was totally not used to that kind of diet. Like days 1-4 were really hard, I was really tired and weak. But after I got some meat and better food options, I felt much better and actually got a lot of stuff done on Saturday and Sunday. So this week, with regular food is when I'll REALLY start to exercise. Last week, I did some stuff, I mostly did outside stuff because it was 'easier' than actually trying to do a 45 minute video; but after I came in from hauling dirt or doing whatever I was totally wiped out.
This week will be much easier.

So yesterday, I cleaned my whole house. Since I was weak last week, I did the bare minimum in the house because it was pretty exhausting; plus it was raining most of the week. haha. So yesterday, was my big burst of cleaning energy! haha. I did such a good job, the only thing I didn't do was wash the dishes which is usually where I start, but I started in the living room instead and went from there. We FINALLY put the new mattress upstairs! With my new sheet set and new comforter I SLEPT SO GOOD! That bed is super comfortable! But after putting the new comforter on the bed and having such a wonderful new mattress, it really made me realize how our pillows are lacking! haha. We need new pillows, and the comforter set came with euro pillow shams, and euro pillows are square and seem pretty fluffy and awesome. So we need euro pillows and extra pillows to put in the regular shams, because by god, I will have a beautiful bed! haha.

Well Ellie stayed in the pen last night. By the time it was bed time, I was exhausted and I didn't feel like breaking that stupid thing down to put her in her cage. So she stayed in there. My husband said that she wasn't in her pen this morning when he came down. haha. Oh and she's nesting again. OMG. She's got a box in her pen and she's got a haystache going on and she's putting stuff in the box. LOL She's such a nut! God, I have to get her spayed! Soon, like hopefully in the next few weeks. haha.

You guys probably have better behaved husbands than I do, but do your husbands undo almost everything that you've cleaned? Like I did the living room floors and he tracked a bunch of stuff in...again. Then after I got all the 'recyclable' stuff from behind the trash can, and then he put more stuff back there like a jerk. haha. OMG. Oh and then he spilled a half a gallon of green tea on the kitchen floor and sort of cleaned it up and then yelled from downstairs "please put the rabbit up later and I spilled half a gallon of tea in the floor, I cleaned it. Bye!" and tried to run out the door, but I think he forgot something and had to come back. haha. So I caught him. lmao. He's totally ridiculous.

OHHH YEAH! I lost 10 lbs on my cleanse. haha.
Happy Monday!

 

[whitelop]

I guess we are getting ready to get the weather you have been having. It is supposed to rain every day for the next four days. Blah! And then my grass will be long again or should I say my weeds! Ha.

We have well water too and it tastes so good. I think for one thing it tastes better because it's colder. Hubby and I both swear the best tasting water in our house is from the bathroom faucet. Weird but I swear it true.

The only problem was when we first bought the home. They had to treat the well with bleach. It's the norm for when selling a home with a well. I think they put too much. Now mind you I was cleaning before we moved in and everything and I mean everything was cleaned with bleach. Once a smell even a drop of bleach that is all I will smell all day hence why I use it so little. Well all week I was here during the day cleaning. Finally my hubby points out that the water coming out of the faucets smells like bleach. I had no idea since that's all I smelled from cleaning with it. Usually you just have to run water for a time and it clears the bleach out. Not in our case and I had been using that water all week to make coffee. So I guess you could say I have been through a cleanse! Ha.

The water from the bathroom faucet is the BEST water in the house! hahaha. Its always the coldest and sometimes at night if I don't want to go into the kitchen, I'll just drink straight from the faucet. LOL

I can't believe your water was that bleachy for that long! I also clean with bleach a lot, my husband hates it but its a necessary thing sometimes. I just got a 3-pack of bleach for $8, they're the almost gallon bottles, they're 3 quarts. But I use most of the bleach for the chickens. And the towels and sheets. That stuff HAS to be bleached! haha.

Our well water is the only water that I've been able to just drink out of the faucet. I fill up gallon jugs with our water and put them in the fridge so I have ice cold water to drink all day long. Its so good! But our water doesn't have the weird mineral taste or metallic smell like my in-laws and like some wells do.

 

[Ilovemyrabbit]

Denise, we have a book on how you can plant so many fruit trees on a small plot. We have 2 acres and we are fitting a lot of trees so far.

We have to cut our grass with a hand mower. Our property isn't really flat so it would be to hard to use a real lawn mower. But the hand mower works suprisingly well. It isn't that much work to mow with it and it cuts the grass pretty well.

Morgan, we want to order as many trees as we can. We do want to start an orchard. Once we lived in Alabama and we had a pecan tree and it produced so many nuts we could get like wagonfuls of nuts it was pretty cool. There are also three HUGE chestnut trees just maybe half an hour away and they produce so many chesnuts. There is a guy living near them and he calls himself the gatekeeper of the chestnut trees . He says that a lot of people who come by and pick up chestnuts. We got a lot of chestnuts and roasted them. They were actually pretty good. They kind of tasted like potatoes. We would like to grow our own chestnut trees and a lot of other nut trees. We lived in Missouri once and there were a lot of black walnut trees but yes they were hard to crack, we used to use a hammer to open them up but sometimes they had worms in them. There is a trick I read about somewhere where you put the whole nut in its shell in a bowl of water and if they floated they had worms in them. We also have wild blackberrry and wild raspberry plants. We got a thornless blackberry plant and it was getting pretty big so some of the branches rooted into the ground and created new plants it was cool. And about the persimmons, we wen t to a place in Virginia there is a guy who sells all kinds of fruit trees and every year or so he lets people come for free to taste his fruits. He had some persimmons and they tasted pretty good. So we decided to buy our own trees, even if we don't like them we heard that you can just leave them on the tree until winter and they will drie up and they will look like christmas ornaments on your tree. Also you can eat them when they are dries I heard they taste like candy. I don't know I guess we'll see. I'm definitely interested in tasting them when they are dried.

I'm glad you are going to post some of the healthy recipes. I might be interested in those. And I'm sure a lot of other people following this blog will too.

I went to Slovakia once. That's were my father is from. And they had these really nice pillows. They had feathers on the inside and they were so comfortable. You should get one. They are so nice.

Haha, I can't believe Ellie is building another nest. She's insane!!! lol.

LOL, well I don't have a husband. But we have a shed and the stuff in it is pretty disorganized. And my mother started to organize it but than my dad came and ruined everything. So yeah. Its not just your husband.

 

[whitelop]

So here are recipes for some stuff made with zucchini.

CHEESY ZUCCHINI RICE
-Mix shredded zucchini(2 medium) and 1 cup shredded part skim cheddar cheese into just cooked brown rice. The heat will steam the squash and melt the cheese.

ZUCCHINI OVEN FRIES
-Slice zucchini into 3in x 1/2 in sticks. Dip into beaten egg then into seasoned breadcrumbs. Place on baking sheet, spritz with cooking spray and bake at 425* for 30 minute, turning the zucchini at the 15 minute mark.

MAC & CHEESE ZUCCHINI
-Mix shredded zucchini(2 medium) and 1 cup of cooked green peas into your best low fat mac and cheese recipe.

And last but not least, what I think most people will be excited for!

ZUCCHINI BROWNIES!
-1/2 cup applesauce
-2 small or medium bananas, mashed
-1.5 cup sugar
-2 tsp vanilla
-1/2 cup cocoa powder
-1.5 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp salt
-2 cups finely shredded zucchini
-2 cups all purpose flour
-1/2 cup walnut pieces
1. Preheat oven to 350*. Grease 13 x 9 pan.
2. In large bowl, mix together applesauce, mashed bananas, and sugar. Add vanilla and cocoa and mix together. Then add baking soda, salt and zucchini and mix together. Add flour and walnuts and mix together. Spread evenly in pan.
3. Bake for 25 minutes until brownies spring back when gently touched.
Nutri-facts: serving 1 brownie. 122 calories per serving. 2g fat. 25g carbs. 2g protein. Makes 24 brownies.

I think I might try the brownies this week sometimes, if I do, I'll let you guys know how they are!

 

[TuckerandGusGus]

OMG I love you for those recipes, more for the fries & cheesy rice! I think I might stop at the store today for some zuchini so I can make some tonight for dinnerrr.. MMM!!! Good idea!!

 

[Ilovemyrabbit]

Yum, those recipes look good! I'll have to try one. Thanks for sharing them!

 

[whitelop]

I'm about to make this. Its an avocado and tomato salad.

-2 avocados
-2 tomatoes
-cilantro
-2 tbsp lime juice
-salt and pepper to taste.
Cut the avocados and tomatoes into chunks and finely chop up the cilantro, add the lime juice and salt and pepper to taste. Mix it all up and enjoy!

I think its going to go well with my steak tonight! Avocados are one of my most favorite things to eat! They're a super-food!

 

[TuckerandGusGus]

Morgan, I made some zuchini fries tonight to go with my corn on the cob and steak tips. DELISH. I loved it.. so easy too!!

 

[JBun]

Add a little black beans, spanish rice, lime chicken(or grilled steak strips), top with tortilla strips and creamy tomatillo cilantro dressing, and it sounds perfect! Okay, that's making me hungry now

I'm going to have to save some of those zucchini recipes for later this summer when everyone around here has zucchini coming out their ears, and is secretly dumping it on other neighbors porches just to get rid of it

So Dakota was doing the funniest thing today. I peaked in the rabbit room in the middle of the day, when they are all usually sleeping, and Dakota is digging on the cement floor, which is something she does sometimes. But I had given her an apple branch this morning, which she promptly chewed the bark off of. So here she is digging on the cement floor, but she's digging at this little leftover apple twig. She would dig at it pulling it backwards, then she would pick it up with her mouth, hop forward and drop it, and start digging pulling it backwards again. She just kept repeating this over and over. It was so funny to watch. Of course when I opened the door a crack to try and video it, she stopped. It was just so bizarre to watch. Wish I had caught it.

 

[lyndym]

Wow, ten pounds?? That's amazing! All in a week, and it took me several months to lose ten pounds.

Your recipes sounds super good, I've always been curious about those zucchini fries. And I looove avocado, I've made avocado salads like that before, usually with quinoa so it's more of a meal. As a snack, sometimes I'll just smoosh up half an avocado and put it on some toast with salt and pepper and red onion. And hot sauce! I made these quinoa/egg muffin things to reheat as a second breakfast/post work out snack, they're really good! Something like.. 2 cups cooked quinoa, 2 eggs, 2 egg whites, veggies, cheese, scoop into muffin tin and bake 30 mins at 375*. Don't quote me on the oven temp and time, I might be forgetting those details. But they're delicious! I've made mushroom/onion/spinach ones and mushroom/onion/broccoli.

Did Ellie reconstruct her hole yet? Bahaha, I laughed when you said your husband filled it in and then you're just gonna put her back there anyway.

 

[Minerva]

I've perused this (epicly long!) thread over the past week or so and I have to say, Ellie is a hysterical little nut! I've enjoyed reading about her antics immensely. Have you set a date for her spay? I don't know that I'd have the patience for all those hormones.

Out of curiosity, do you know how much she weighs now? The difference in size between the little fluffball you brought home and the moody teen bunny is amazing. And speaking of differences in size, congrats on losing 10 pounds! That's quite an achievement, especially in a week!

 

[PaGal]

Yay! On losing ten pounds.

I swear we drink straight from the bathroom faucet every night. We both wind up thirsty right before bed. It's probably tasting that delicious water while rinsing after brushing. My ex mother-in-law had mineral tasting well water. Yuck!

I buy the bleach that is scented with febreeze. It helps with the smell. Like I said once I smell bleach I will smell it for the rest of the day. I could go outside and not come back in till bed time and I would still smell it. After a while the smell makes me nauseated.

My hubby is not bad when it comes to messing up since he was raised so strict but my ex was like that. It drove me nuts and of course he never lifted a finger in the house. What was the worst was I would go into the kitchen for something and he would wait till I came back out and then ask for something. That's why I prefer cleaning when no one is home so you at least have a clean house for a little while!

 

[whitelop]

Denise, I think the bleach burns the inside of your nose and sinus'. I am the same way, I can't smell anything other than bleach after I clean something with bleach. I can't remember what I was doing, but I had to clean a large amount of stuff with bleach and I couldn't smell anything other than that for 3 days, I thought that I had totally ruined my nose and sinus'. I was actually a little scared but then my sense of smell came back. haha.

My husband is the worst when it comes to messing stuff up after I've done it. I don't think he means to, its just like...he doesn't think about it or care that much? I don't know. He works all week and I stay home all week and take care of everything. But I got SO much stuff done this weekend and then he did a bunch of small stuff that added up to a big thing and then you add AJ into and his incessant need to bring all his toys from his room to the living room. I feel bad when I tell him to put his toys away, because its like he's still playing with them but sometimes I just can't take it. Its usually after I've stepped on a train or hotwheel for second time that I flip out and tell him to put his toys up, which he does.
My husband just does stupid stuff and like half *** cleans it up. His mom cleaned up everything for him when he was a kid, I blame it on her. LOL

Elizabeth, thanks for reading! Wow, I can't believe you read all of it! Its a lot of random rambling about meaningless things, haha, the story of my life!
I think Ellie weighs like 3 lbs now, she seems to have grown a little bit more in the last few weeks. Not to mention when she's in the cage, she just eats and eats and puts some weight on and then goes outside and runs it off.
Her spay, I haven't made an actual appointment yet. Dr Hierz does surgeries like every Monday and Friday or something like that, and usually he's pretty open for those days, so I'll make the appointment a week or two in advance. I'm going to my chicken auction on the 18th and I'm going to make some of the money to go towards helping my husband pay for her spay, thats what I'm waiting on. I've said it before, but it makes me feel better if I can help just a LITTLE bit with the cost of it, because it is my rabbit and she is difficult and she has ruined several things in my this house. So if I can take some of the financial responsibility off my hub, I'll do it. I think it makes sense! haha. So I'm thinking the end of this month or the beginning of June, depending on appointment availability.
The more I think about it, the more I get nervous and get this knot in my stomach. Ugh, as much as it needs to be done I don't really want to do it.

And no, she hasn't reconstructed her hole. I haven't been able to put her out because of the rain and nasty weather. But hopefully it will be nicer this week and I'll be able to put her back out, because I know she misses it. And I'll put her in the same place so she can maybe reopen her hole! haha. I want to see how deep she can get it or if she can make a serious tunnel! My husband was pretty impressed with her when he filled it in. LOL

 

[whitelop]

I have to tell you guys about Ellie last night. I thought I was going to ring her neck! haha.
I had her in the pen in the middle of the kitchen, but I had to take the pen down and put her back in her cage. She was NOT happy! haha. I took her new carrot food dish out because she was moving it around and slamming it into the water dish and making all kinds of racket; I actually did that the other day. But I replaced her bowl with a smaller plastic bowl. She can pick it up and play with it, thats fine. But I put feed in it last night and she dumped all of it into her fresh water! I was NOT happy by then. So she was standing up and scratching and making the door slam at the top, since her feed tin was holding the bottom corner closed so she couldn't push the door totally open. Gah, I need to get a latch of it! haha. Actually I just need to walk to the shed and get a latch out of there, since I know we have some! I just bought 2 new ones for my chicken coop, I'm so dumb!
Anyway, so I was going to take a shower, it was like 11. I could hear her from the shower slamming her damn door. I came out and cussed a blue streak at her for being so difficult so late at night! My husband came downstairs and was like what the hell is going on down here?! haha. I was done fighting with that stupid pen and she was out. Ellie had a haystache going on and with a mouthful of hay, she was pulling at the blanket on the floor under her pen. haha. It was hilarious. So we were standing there eating cereal and laughing at her. I told him this behavior is why she HAS to be spayed! haha.

So I went to pet her before going to bed, she was pretty happy with that. She got really low to the floor and when I stopped petting her, it stretched her front feets out and sort of stretched her back legs out, like kind of made herself into a hotdog. She was really loving being petted! haha. It was funny to see her. I mean I pet her, but sometimes she boxes me away and most of the time she's like *foot flick foot flick thump evil glare from across the pen* haha, so sometimes she's not okay with it. I pet her all leaned over the pen for like 10 minutes. And petting her like that made all the bad stuff and all the irritating things she did last night melt away. Seeing her little face melted into the floor made it all worthwhile.

Hahaha, but while my husband and I were staring at her laughing and talking about how bad she is. He was like, she's going to get a hole started in that blanket and we're going to come back to it shredded to ribbons. As she was pulling with all her might to get the blanket to go wherever, still with a haystache. ahah. I was like "well...I never said she was a GOOD rabbit!" haha.
Then she made a nest of cardboard in her litter box. At least she's not pulling fur, her other fur just grew back! haha.
She's being strangely quiet today and I keep checking on her like she's a little kid and she's doing something wrong. Its like when she's quiet she's plotting something! haha.

OHHH I wanted to let you all know that I'm eating fresh eggs from Hen. They're hard boiled and she just has the BEST eggs! They're the best when they're hard boiled. The white is firm and the yolk is very nice and hard to describe. Anyway, the whole time I was on the cleanse, I was collecting her eggs and staring at them in the basket in the fridge and I desperately wanted a hard boiled egg. I ate two yesterday and now two today and my god, they're just SO good!

Happy Tuesday!

 

[PaGal]

It's definitely your mother-in-laws fault he cleans only half way or doesn't even notice it. That's what my ex's mother did. So make sure you teach AJ to clean up after himself so he won't drive his future wife nuts! ha.

Ellie is crazy! I see how she played you and got you to forget in only ten minutes all the bad things she's done recently. She probably is plotting her next move when she's being quiet or just quietly enjoying her victory at fooling you into forgiving her.

We have been eating a lot of breakfast meals lately because we have so many eggs from the neighbor. I made scrambled eggs with homemade sausage cooked in it, put it in a burrito with cheddar cheese and a French toast casserole. Then the girls wanted just scrambled eggs cooked with the sausage in it for lunch over the weekend with some toast. We are not big on eating breakfast but do love having breakfast for other meals. Our one friend and my hubby's work buddy wants the recipe for the French toast casserole since he got to try it. Of course as soon as I did all that cooking they brought over 18 more eggs.

 

[whitelop]

Haha wow, thats a lot of eggs. I get one a day because only the adult hen is laying right now. The baby hens should start pretty soon, in the next few months. I can't wait to get like 5 or more eggs a day! I think it will be exciting. I might try to sell them, to try to recoup the cost of feed. They're eating me out of house and home. Its incredible. They're eating several pounds of feed a day, on top of all the kitchen scraps and whatever bugs they're finding in the run. I guess thats what happens when you have giant chickens, they have giant appetites. They're almost as big as the hen now, sometimes its hard for me to tell the difference between the hen and the black rooster, they're basically the same size now. haha.
I'll go out and take some pictures of them for you guys.

Oh and I think I have an egg eater in my flock! OMG! I don't know how to fix that! I don't know if the egg just got cracked open, like if it got stepped on or something, but once they start eating eggs its REALLY hard to reverse. So thats great, I hope they don't get a taste for eggs because then I don't know what I'll do! I just hope it wasn't the hen, because she'll crack them open as soon as she lays them and eat them. Maybe it was just a one time thing and its over now. I've never had an egg eaten in the house like that, so hopefully *fingers crossed* it was just the one egg!

 

[whitelop]

Here are some pictures of the chicks and a short video so you guys can see them moving around.

And the video.
View My Video

 

[HolyHandGrenade]

I'm amazed at how quickly chicks grow. I'm following another RO member on Instagram, and she hasn't been on here lately but she has some chicks and they're also getting huge fast. Chickens everywhere! I still say that when I "grow up and get a house and settle down" that I want a little black hen in my back yard to give me fresh eggs

 

[Ilovemyrabbit]

What beautiful chickens! You must get a lot of nice eggs from them. And wow, they are growing really fast. I can't believe how big they are. Chickens sure do grow fast! I agree with Missy, I'm definitely getting chickens some time in the future!