My Heart's on Fire for Elvira

[Ilovemyrabbit]

I'm so sorry you had such a bad day. And I'm terribly sorry for the loss of your hen. Its always bad to lose one of our animals. And especially in such a tragic way. I really hope tomorrow will be better for you. Get a good day of rest and hopefully you'll feel better soon.

 

[whitelop]

Yes, it was my mama hen. My poor big girl, she didn't deserve to go out like that.
I did just spend like 20 minutes in the pouring rain, getting all the other chickens put into the coop. Hopefully it goes well, because all the roosters are going in with Big Boy now. They've never been together and they don't have a pecking order set up; so it should be interesting to say the least. They were not happy about being picked up and put up. I feel bad for the poor little blue hen, alone in there with all the roosters. I really hope that people start coming for them, I've put an ad up on backyardchickens.com and I hope that people want them.
But I will say the rain did feel nice. Its the coolest its been in days.

I just had to yell at AJ for jumping in the bed, I think he might break his crib tonight. That would just be the icing on the cake for today being a horrible no good day.
You know how sometimes when you cry, you feel better? Well haven't gotten there yet.

 

[whitelop]

I feel better today. I think I slept pretty good, so I think that made a difference. I feel a bit of headache coming on right now though, so I'm trying to chug some coffee to keep it at bay. I made my coffee WAY too strong this morning. I don't know what I was doing when I was scooping out the grounds, but I added a lot more that I should have. So my coffee kind of tastes like crap. haha. I was in my own world when I was making it.

I just cleaned Ellie's nasty enclosure. I was going to do it yesterday, but you know the day just took a crap on me; so I didn't get to it. I cleaned it this morning though and just took the gate down so she's just in the kitchen. I've started to notice a lot of stuff that she's been nibbling on. Like my shoe, my husbands suitcase, anything and everything. ahha.
I clipped her front nails this morning too. I put her on the washing machine on a towel and wrapped the towel over her back. I pulled her front feets out and cut the nails. She did really well! I tried to cover her head to get her back nails, but that didn't work. She was starting to get a little antsy, so I think I'll try for the backs tomorrow. I need to look up to see the best way to get them.
AND I wanted to talk about how freaking fat she is. I haven't picked her up in a while, so I haven't felt her. I'm going to go out on a limb and say she's like 4 lbs now! When I picked her up, her tummy felt kind of tight but I think its because I was picking her up. When she relaxed some on the towel, I felt her tummy again and it was softer. What should her stomach feel like? Jenny? haha. Also, I can't feel any of her ribs or her spine or hipbones. Like at all. Her body goes ribs straight to tummy to back legs. haha. I've got to cut her back on pellets. But she gives me the face! This sad, please mom I'm starving little evil adorable rabbit face. With her half white nose and her little white spot. It just makes me what to...feed her. hahha. So she plays me a lot! A 1/4 cup seems like so little. LOL I need to get her some different hays, so she has more of a variety and that way I'll feel better about it.
I haven't really been feeding her that many greens either and I don't know why. Just some romaine here and there. I know, its terrible. I need to start getting her more cilantro and greens when I go to the store. That way it won't seem like she's starving with only pellets and hay and a few romaine leaves.

So last night I was watching Sarah's English Spot video and it was pretty awesome. I'm like in love with English Spots now, I didn't know they had a specific spot pattern. Anyway, after the video it gave me suggestions for other rabbit related videos, one was a rabbit agility contest. I was watching it and laughing because the guy who was commentating it was British and hilarious. My husband sat down and watched it with me, we were laughing so hard at this one rabbit named Smudge. Finally the Smudge bunny jumped over the jump and my husband yelled "GOOD JOB SMUDGE, YOU ADORABLE LITTLE LUMP!" It was hilarious! He got into the rabbit agility, he thought it was pretty funny. Then there was a Belgian Hare, who pretty much walked over all the jumps and he was like "oh thats not fair! They should have raised the jumps another foot for that thing!" haha. He thought the Belgian Hare was pretty awesome though. There were two dutch, a choco and a black and I swear, they too were obese and they went over the jumps the wrong way and refused to go the right way. haha.

Happy Thursday!

 

[Chrisdoc]

Morgan, so sorry to hear about mama hen, I know you loved that little girl so you cry all you need until it´s all out. It´s awful losing her like that.

There are some days when everything seems to go wrong, I´ve had quite a few days like that when you just feel like yelling at everyone and crying your eyes out. Just do it, you will feel better.

Little Miss Ellie, not so little now. She never looks big or overweight on her photos, she´s a gorgeous little bundly of mischief, reminds me of some other bunnies I know. I seem to have spent the last few days yelling at all three to stop chewing, I swear they know they shouldn´t but do it anyway just to annoy me.

I love watching rabbit agility. I´m sure both Houdini and Bandy would be great at it. Bandy jumps so high, he´s been doing it tonight racing across the living room. Bought loads of stuff Tuesday at the market; basil, cilantro, parsley and free leaves as well so they´ve got loads of stuff to keep them going.

 

[JBun]

I've been noticing all of these new bunny nibbles too! And here I thought they were being such good little bunnies.

Zeus tenses all of his muscles up too, when I pick him up, so his stomach feels tight, but once he relaxes it feels normal again. It should just feel soft and a bit squishy, kind of like our bellies feel.

I think Ellie pretty much has you wrapped around that tiny little paw of hers, haha

 

[whitelop]

Okay, then her tummy feels right. haha.

So she's been really bad this morning and getting into everything. I gave her a huge box to dig in and she's been having to fight the cats over it. Because if you guys didn't know, if you put a box down the cats will come. We call it the cat trap, because all the cats love boxes. haha. Anyway, the old cat finally got out of the box and Ellie was able to dig in it. She's going back and forth between digging in the box and destroying everything else in the kitchen. I can hear her doing something right now, which is tearing up old linoleum that I can't get up. So I just called her name from the couch and looked into the kitchen and all I saw were ears standing straight up over a little tub of craft supplies. haha. She knew she wasn't supposed to be pulling up the linoleum, but she is anyway.
She's been trying to get behind my stove this morning. I just moved the butchers block out from the wall a little bit, so she can run behind it. She's been trying to wedge herself back there and I think she wants to run around it. So now she can make her own little track.

Also, she just peed in the floor right in front of me. Its her favorite place to potty in the floor and I don't have a litter box there. I had to throw one of them away because she ate the side off of it. So I have to get the other one out of the barn. But that involves actually walking out to the barn where the mosquitoes and the spiders are. Maybe I can find a box, so I don't have to go out there.

So yesterday my kitchen turned into a test kitchen. I made these Morning Glory muffins. They're made with sweet potato, carrots, nuts, coconut and flour. I didn't have any raisins to put in and didn't think to put in apples. BUT the next time I make them, I will so they're less nutty and more moist. They're pretty good though. They're supposed to be good for you too and a good way to start your day.
And then yesterday I made these pancakes with soy milk and yogurt and flour. They're a little funky! haha. They're not fluffy like buttermilk pancakes but they're a little dense and chewy. They have a nice flavor and AJ likes them. But they're strange and they hold heat for a LONG time. They also took like 6 minutes on each side to cook, which is like 3 more minutes than a normal pancake. So it took forever to make the batch. But I like that I can pop them in the microwave for AJ and he eats them right up and they're sort of sweet so they don't need syrup!
I'm trying to eat more healthy and sometimes I swear healthy food is so weird! LOL I did get some low-fat vanilla soy milk and its great with cereal! And AJ loves the soy milk, its got a lot of good stuff in it too!

Ellie is destroying this cardboard box. That should be fun to clean up! haha.

Oh one last thing, does anyone know how to get rid of gnats? I swear, I had one bad apple in a bag and then one potato in the cabinet go bad and my whole house if filled with gnats! I hate it. I've gotten most of them, but yesterday was terrible, because it was when I found the potato. Clearly, I haven't been cooking potatoes that much! Anyway, they were flying around and I was almost like screw it, we're moving and leaving the gnats here! I think there are only a few left. I put the new apples in the fridge, I've put everything else away. I did put a little bit of red wine vinegar and a bit of banana in a little plastic cup to attract them. I got a few, but not all. Then I started swatting. Yesterday, I put a trash bag in a big black trash bag and sprayed the inside of the bag with vinegar and that attracted a lot of them. I waited a minute for them to get into the bag and then snapped it closed and threw it outside real quick! LOL It was nuts. My husband came home and my hair was standing on end and my bun was askew and he was like "...hey? Are you alright?" I growled at from the corner of the kitchen as I swatted a dish towel into the air. He backed away slowly.
But I swear, that is the grossest thing ever! To have gnats everywhere. It only takes one bad apple or a bad potato. But what does it say about me? That we don't eat enough fruit and that I don't cook enough potatoes! haha. I'm changing all the though.

This was crazy long. Sorry guys.
Have a good day!

 

[whitelop]

Someone tell me why I have chickens? I swear, they are more trouble than their worth! I love them, don't get me wrong, but they're all so dang difficult. I just looked out the window and saw one of the whites in a corner of the coop. I went out and its Demon in the corner, completely filthy and terrified looking. I fed the rest of the beasts and was squatting down looking at Demon, when I noticed he had dried blood on his comb. I cussed to myself and the other chickens and made eye-contact with Big Boy and told him he was an SOB, he could have just left him alone. I had to get Demon out of there. So I'm trying not to make a huge scene with the chickens, so as to not get Big Boy riled up. I picked up Demon, who thankfully didn't put up too much of a fight. But he did squawk. So I'm trying to get out of the door and I see Big Boy coming at me with wings opened, so I screamed and that caused Demon to panic. I pretty much threw him away and tried to get out of the coop. Big Boy got out with us! I freaking ran through the barn yard and shut the gate behind me! Screaming obscenities the whole time! I actually hit BB with the coop gate when I was trying to get out, so it took him until I got out of the barnyard to right himself. He went back into the coop with the others to finish eating and I ran in and slammed the coop gate shut!
So now, Demon is out in the yard by himself. He went to the pond and started drinking like he hadn't had any water in days! I don't think they've let him eat or drink. I didn't go out there yesterday, as they had all the food and water they needed. So I didn't check them. I hadn't heard anything. I thought they were okay. The rest of them are fine, they don't look bad. Big Boy is still filthy, but he was in the mud for a long time. I have to patch Demon up, but I think he should recover well.

At least now we know that Big Boy is fine. He came back pretty good. He's not so attack-y now, but he still scared the living sh*t out of me. I screamed like a little girl! As I was running with a freaking chicken in my arms!
The mosquitoes are so bad out there too. Well just outside in general. I think I need to break out the listerine and see if that helps because I'm pretty sure that I can't handle deet poisoning again! LOL

 

[PaGal]

Morgan...no resal time right now for talking as I'm in panic mode taking care of Thump but I think rubbing yourself with basil is supposed to keep mosquitos away. maybe look that up. Also you could try making a mosquito trap from a 2liter bottle. look that up as well. Hope it helps.

 

[whitelop]

I think today was one of those days, where I wanted to see how many times I could post on my own blog! haha.
I actually just wanted to give an update on my Demon rooster. Hes not doing great. I'm going to take some pictures tomorrow and post them on the chicken forum. But he's missing a point off his comb, there is a split between two points, and a big cut in his comb. He also had some blood coming from his ear and is favoring his right leg. Needless to say, Big Boy messed him up.
He's separated now, of course. After I gave him the once over today and tried to clean him off. I put him back into the shade and he walked into the water and stood there for 4 hours. I don't know if it helped to cool him down or if it made him feel better. Then at about 8, I saw him out of the water and like pecking around. I went out and fed him and he ate a little bit, which is good. He then went a laid next to my little herb planter and thats where he bedded down for the night.

Tomorrow when my husband and child leave, I'm going to bring him in and give him a bath in the tub with the sprayer and warm water. I have to get all the blood off of him and make sure he's really okay.
I just learned on the chicken forum, that they can get depressed from being excluded from their flock and can die from it. So I guess I'm going to be his flock from now on, until hopefully someone can take him and make him a top rooster. I just hope he makes it through this ordeal.

I swear, when it rains it pours. My animals are freaking falling apart on me. My dog has itchy ears and I don't know whats going on with that. I have to keep an eye on that.

My in-laws are coming to get AJ tomorrow, so I'll have some peace and quiet! Yay!

 

[PaGal]

I know I'm not in a good frame of mind and not thinking well but I want to confuse Demon Roo with Big Boy as Big Boy acts like a Demon! I hope he pulls through the ordeal and you can find a good home for him when the time comes. Maybe your dog needs his ears cleaned.

Hoorah for peace and quiet!

Some days I feel I post a ridiculous amount on my blog but then I don't talk to anyone much so when I feel talkative I post. I know, pathetic! Or when something even the tiniest bit out of the ordinary for my boring life occurs then I post.

 

[whitelop]

I feel the same way, because I'm here with my kid and he doesn't care about anything but cars. My best friend is working like 5 nights in a row so she's like a zombie. hahaha.

I know, Big Boy is pretty evil. Its really bad. And my poor little baby rooster, he's not doing well at all. He's out under a tree with his head tucked under his wing. I have to go get my dog kennel from my mom when we drop AJ off with my dad this evening. That way I can put him in the kennel to keep him safe until he recovers better. I wish they didn't poop all over the place, I would put him in the house if I could litter train him. They just smell so bad, no matter how clean you keep them. The chickens themselves actually just stink! haha. So he won't be coming in the house. I just wish the summer had been dryer so there wouldn't be as many mosquitoes.

So I sat in the floor with Ellie a little bit last night. I was petting her and she was doing fine. Then I would take my hand away from her for a second and put it back towards her and she would grunt and lunge with ears back. Like, in the half a second I stopped petting her, she forgot that I was petting her and wanted to be grumpy and bite me. Then she was okay after I started petting her again. Then she was okay when I started petting her again. She didn't like when I scratched behind her ears though. But we had a nice bonding moment. She's a sweet girl.

I think in my peace and quiet I get today, I'll do the dishes and then lay on the couch and watch a movie. BY MYSELF. I got Perks of Being a Wallflower from the redbox last night. I loved the book when I was a teenager and I love Emma Watson. So hopefully I'll like the movie and I'll be able to enjoy it with a man sighing because its too girly or a child running through the living room yelling MOMMY RUNNNN! haha. Peace and quiet.
Oh and I have to give the rooster a bath, haha, then clean the bathroom after words.

Happy Saturday! I hope you guys have a good day!

 

[whitelop]

Well, I think I've totally lost my mind. Not only did I just give my rooster a bath, I then blew him dry afterwards. WITH A BLOW DRYER. LOL Good lord y'all. I just sat in the bathroom floor blow drying a rooster. He then sat in my lap while I put some neosporin on his comb and wattles.
BUT he did really really well! He barely put up a fight in the tub in the water. And he really loved the blow dryer. I think the heat and sound made him feel good, he went to sleep half way through. I got him mostly dry and then covered basically his whole head in neosporin and put him back outside. He didn't poop in the house at all! As soon as I put him down, I sprayed some listerine on him to keep the mosquitoes away and then he pooped! He was such a good boy. I don't know if its because he's hurt or if he's just a good boy, but I was super surprised.

Here he is in the bathtub.

Half way through his blow dry. I think you can see his dark eye.

Yes, he looks terrible. But hopefully he'll heal well.

Now to clean the bathroom and then I'll take some pictures of Ellie or something.

 

[PaGal]

I'm glad the bath went well and was uneventful. He seems to know how to enjoy a little papering. What we won't do for the animals in our lives.

 

[kmaben]

Morgan.....ewwwwww! I blow dry my bird when it's bath time. I dont want her to catch a chill from wet feathers. She also enjoys the blow dryer. Poor guy though. Wish I could take him and just let him wander around the backyard. Even though I'm not a chicken fan. But you pick them up and bathe them and everything!

 

[Chrisdoc]

You are such a good momma to all your animals. He looks as though he needed that TLC from you and really enjoyed it. It´s a shame you BB can´t be nice to the rest, not as thought they´re going to take his place but good that you got Demon in time before things got worse.

Your muffins sound lovely, might have a go at them myself, I haven´t been baking much lately as it´s too warm with the oven on in the summer. I love soya milk to make home made shakes as the fruit takes that funny taste away from it. I used to drink it all the time but I do prefer normal milk.

Those pancakes sound weird but it´s great you´re eating healthier. I feel as though I should do it but I can´t be bothered right now. I´m in summer mode....tired, too hot and just eating the first thing at hand. I am doing a salad for dinner tonight so that´s something.

Ellie reminds me of someone I know. When you catch them doing something they shouldn´t, they look at you with that little face and you just have to laugh. Good that she´s looking for you to pet her, she is so cute that little girl that I just want to cuddle her.

 

[whitelop]

Kaley, I wish you could take him and make him a backyard bird too. I think he's going to be a good one.
Demon update- he's doing a little bit better. He's starting to accept that he's not part of the flock anymore and he's staying near the house more. He found my hydrangeas yesterday and set up camp there. He's also eating more, which is a good improvement. He still looks like crap and I can't get the blood off him. But eventually it will come off and he won't look so terrible. He's still acting like he's hurting though, he's got his head under his wing a lot and he's resting a lot more than usual. But overall, I think he's doing okay.

Ellie is freaking crazy. She's digging at my rug and being irritating this morning. I don't know why she won't just get in her box and dig in that.

My husband let me cut the grass yesterday! Yesterday, we went to this huge park/lake/athletic park for my husband to play a round of disc golf with his friends and I decided to take the dog and walk around the lake. I walked a mile. My dog is out of shape now, he's such a couch dog that he was slowing down towards the end of the mile. haha. Poor dog. I need to make sure he stays in shape and doesn't get all stiff, she we're going to start walking more.
So I told my husband that I wanted to keep up the healthy trend and cut the grass and get my sweat on. The lawn mower is self-propelled, but the front yard has so much stuff you can't hardly use the propel thing. I had to put it a lot. I got assaulted by my peach tree. I also got hollered at by a biker. LOL I cut the front yard, came in for a snack and some gatorade. Went back out to start on the backyard and the mower wouldn't start. Its a new one, so it doesn't have a primer, its got this little fuel thing in it. I think it needs a new one, but it was later and I didn't feel like replacing it, so I think I'll replace it today and cut the grass tomorrow. I tried to start it like 20 times and my shoulder is killing me! And my wrist hurts. We do have a riding mower that I thought about getting out, but that would be a cop out for trying to get my sweat on. I'd rather push it. Even though its self-propelled, at least I'm walking right!
My friend just got Nutra-System and I think its the biggest cop out for eating healthy. I just can't believe they spent $400 on freeze dried food, that she probably won't like or even eat. You can't get your money back and she should have just gone to the dang store and bought healthy food. Or stop eating fast food, that would be good too. I just don't agree with that whole system thing, I guess it works for some people. I don't know how healthy that stuff really is, but to me, its weight loss for lazy people who don't want to get up and do anything or actually eat good whole foods.
So done now. Sorry for my mini rant. I just think its dumb.

Happy Monday, I hope everyone has a good day! Today is banana nut bread day! I have like 20 bananas to make bread with.

 

[Chrisdoc]

Haha, the boys have just had a bit of my mom´s banana, it disappears so quickly. I love banana bread, it´s just too hot to put the oven on these days so no baking for me.

Poor little demon, I hope he gets back to normal soon but looks like he´s better today so that´s a good sign.

Cutting grass is hard work, hope you manage to get it finished.

I don´t like these cop out systems for losing weight. You can´t do it forever so eventually put it all back on. It´s like those where you replace meals with drinks or where you have to count every calorie. I agree Morgan, people should just eat healthily, lots of fruit and veg and cut our the fats and fast food. It´s a lifestyle change and it´s hard but things that are worth doing usually are. I need to lose a few pounds but it´s so hard here in the summer as ice cold beer is the best at this time of the year in the really hot weather but on go the pounds. I always remember you when I´m sitting out with my bottle of Desperado....I know you´d love it.

 

[whitelop]

When I know that I'll be drinking a lot of beer, or just a few beers. I replace whatever meal I was going to have with a big salad instead. Because a meal with beer is like two meals! haha. Of course, I don't ALWAYS do that, but if I'm trying to be good; thats what I do. LOL
Like today, I had a huge salad for lunch, with bell peppers, vingarette dressing, and hot pepper and half an avocado. It was delicious! Thats healthy food, and so easy and good.
And yesterday, I had the best breakfast! I had an apple paired with half an english muffin with a egg/avocado salad with water. It was so good and it gave me energy to walk a mile and sweat up a storm! haha. The avocado egg salad is so good too, its just 2 hard cooked eggs with one avocado, mashed together with a pinch of salt and pepper and its so creamy and delicious.
Tonight is fajita night too, steak fajitas. LOL Thanks for listening to my food diary!

I just don't understand those diet things. I mean, you're literally buying freeze-dried food. How is that healthy when you have rehydrate the food? Plus its SO expensive. I spend $300 a month on groceries that last us, a family of 3, for one month; give or take. She spent $400 on food for like 4 weeks that comes in a box. I think its lazy and gross. My mom's friend did it once and spent like $500 on the food. He couldn't return it, so he gave it to my mom. She took it to her barber shop and she they tried a lot of it. She said it was terrible and they couldn't give that crap away. They put it on the sidewalk in front of the shop with a sign "free to good home" and no one took it! hahha. Thats pretty bad! So I have to wish my friend luck, but she definitely just wasted her money.

And now to clean my house. I have so much today but I've been trying to organize my life this morning. I think I got it down, I think I'm finally getting my junk together. Yay for me! LOL.

 

[Chrisdoc]

You look like you eat a really healthy diet. I love avocados, I´ll be going down to the market tomorrow so I´ll be buying lots of veg and I hope they´ve got strawberries and rasperries and melon. I´ll be buying the boys herbs as well. I got loads of basil last week really cheap so I´m hoping they´ll have it again.

I like a salad with tomatoes, avocado and mozzarella with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and freshly ground black pepper, we´ve had it twice already. It´s called Insalata Tricolore like the Italian flag. I also like warm vegetable salads with boiled new potatoes and cauliflower or asparagus or green beans with warm hard boiled eggs and some salad leaves. So there´s my food diary. And we love fajitas but with duck, it is just so good. I buy it at the supermarket with not skin or fat and just cut it into strips.

Those fad diets are a waste of time. If processed food isn´t good how can freeze dried be any good for you. it´s just a waste of money but like everything, there´s always someone who´ll spend on it.

 

[whitelop]

You know, sometimes I just want to string Ellie up. That sounds terrible, but shes acting terrible. She's getting into everything today, digging at weird things. The cat just tried hunting her and scared the crap out of her. She won't use her make-shift litter box. hahaha. I had to use a storage thing for a litter box, since my other small one is missing or just plain gone. I'll take a picture to show you guys, since there is no way I can explain it.
She's trying to get to my stove cord, so I've had to block that. She has sheets of cardboard in the floor to dig and eat, she will dig at them for a second then she's off doing bad things. Aren't they supposed to sleep during the middle of the day?
I guess I'll go sit with her when I put AJ down for a nap. I just moved my butchers block out from the wall, so she could run behind it. She likes doing that and maybe it will stop her from acting insane, if it gives her another route around the kitchen.

I think they're trying to drive me crazy today. The whole lot of them.
I just laid in the floor with Ellie and she nipped the crap out of my leg. haha. She was grooming my pants and nipped me! It hurt. But she was sniffing my back and it felt so nice, her little furry nose and whiskers. It tickled but in a nice way.

Pictures!
Make-shift litter box. haha. She's used it a little. She's got an uneaten cecal in there, which is gross. I think she's still getting too many pellets and thats why she's not eating all the cecals.

Her big flop behind my butchers block. Look at her tail! Its long.

Here's another flop.

And here is Smokey, grooming Ellie. She was grooming her ears and face, but I couldn't get a good picture. She was grooming her side right here. haha.

Here is Ellie grooming Smokey, after Smokey groomed her.

This is what she looks like when I pet her. She seems pretty comfy and look at her dewlap, its coming in nicely! haha.

Last one. Here's her body. haha. She's cute.