Snake in the Coop

Well hey ya'll! It has been so long since I've written a post that I seriously had to click around a little bit on the ol' blogger home page to remind myself how to actually begin a post.  Apparently blogger has been updated in the last year.

I had such a great day today.  At one point during my day I had an lol moment, to myself, (imagine that) and I thought ohhh you should make a blog post tonight.  So, tada!!  My Spring break kicks off tomorrow, so it's the perfect time to unwind and tell a story.

Ahhhh...a break. I so need one.  I came home at the end of the day and just plopped down on the bed for 2.5 seconds before I had to get up again.  

We finally found land.  Eeek!!  Accidentally, stumbled upon this little gem.  It is considerably less acreage than what we originally set out to buy.  We looked at a tract on the same road twice in one day, and on the second trip we decided that we didn't like that one..

So after leaving that property I saw a for sale sign on the way out, and made Kyle turn around to go back and check it out.  I looked through my stack of listing print outs in my hand, but it wasn't in my search.  We parked outside the gate and walked up the long, winding driveway.  I stood at the top of the hill..looked around..couldn't believe my eyeballs..opened my mouth and said "this is it".  

I may have said that a few times while standing there.  I was so excited.  I had only said "this is it" one other time.  This spot is less than a mile from my other "this is it" place, so in a way I secretly had my heart set on that general area anyway.

(I got this shiny new gate for Christmas)

Kyle was ready to call our agent right then.  I was like wellll let's wait a minute. Let's look it up in my system at work and make sure it's legit.  So, we did..it was about 2 acres less than our minimum.  We were looking at tracts 5-50 acres..this one turned out to be 3.5.  So, I wanted to sleep on it..or stay up all night thinking about it..however you want to call it.  Think about it was basically all I did.  It was the only thing I could think about. 

I looked into it further, drove out there a few more times...I was so wishy washy because I was afraid I would regret not holding out for more land.  One weekend I printed 57 listings for of all of the areas we love, and decided that after we look at them, we will drive back out to this place and if we love it over all the other places, then we will make an offer.  

We left early in the morning.  Drove around to three different counties and even into another state, but none of them made my little heart skip a beat.  So, we went back out to the last one, one more time....and called the agent before we left.  

The next morning we signed the paperwork to make our offer official.  Eeeeek!!  And then it was rejected.  Three times.  We decided to give up...we had a set limit that we were not willing to go over so that was it. I wasn't going to get my little dream piece of land in the middle of the forest.

  A week or so later it was eating me up inside.  I couldn't stand it.  Having worked in the real estate field for over 20 years I already knew our last offer was more than it should have been..this guy must have thought a lot of his property because he was asking entirely too much for it. 

Somehow I convinced myself.. and then my husband to make one more..just one more offer - and that will really be the last offer.  And if he rejects it again, well then whatever..he's an idiot.  I justified our last offer because all of the utilities were already on site..which is rare for vacant land and it would be money we wouldn't have to worry about spending later on down the road...well, that plus I reallly wanted it.

I'm basically stubborn...if I really want something I don't give up that easily. 

So, another call to our agent.  I wasn't holding my breath.  The next day he called me at work.  Our offer was accepted!!  Yassss!!  My mouth dropped open. I couldn't believe it. Our agent couldn't believe it.  It is prefect you guys..and even though it's less acreage than I intended to buy we still have plenty of room to be able to do all of the things we planned to do with it from the start of our search.  It's wonderful, I love it, and it's mine.

We took our Great Dane out over the weekend and he loved it as much as we do.  

Moving on to my story....  Oh my gosh ya'll...so at the end of Summer last year Trey went to gather eggs...a few minutes later he ran inside and said "snake in the coop"!!  

Snake in the what??!!

This is my snake in the coop, face.  In case you were wondering.

He wasn't kidding.  He went back outside..with my phone and selfie stick (haha) and then came in to show me this.  All this meant for me was 1.  My egg collecting days are over, unless it's Winter. I'm not kidding.  and 2.  I died.  

There was a snake in my coop.  A big snake.  A big, HUGE snake that got in my coop from we still don't know where..or when...or how.  

Current situation is I'm making the same face pictured above, you just can't see me.

Trey is the snake wrangler.  I'm semi-proud/sometimes concerned that he's an adrenaline junky and is not afraid of anything, but do I wish he wouldn't man handle snakes in front of me.  

I basically died again.

  Ya'll..our nesting boxes are so high that little ol' 5'5" me has to stand on the bottom ledge of the fence to even see inside the nesting boxes...so ok..when the snake finally decided to exit the box...his head was already touching the ground and slithering away before his tail was even out of the box.  

I'm still making the face and I may have just died again.  I seriously can't even.

There you have it.  I died a thousand deaths..in one day.  And then again just now 3 more times.   I was thinking of this story today and it made me laugh.  1.  Because I'm moving to the woods..where snakes live.  How many times can one person die?  and 2.  Well, isn't number 1 enough? 

A friend at school was telling me that he saw a snake over the weekend, so obviously it's on my mind..

Every time I go in the coop or the run I cringe thinking a snake is watching me and is going to jump out and eat me alive...then I would die..again. But for real this time.

  

I just want my girls to be happy and safe and not have to worry about sharing their space with intruders.  My girls are proud of their eggs...just ask my neighbors..because they announce it to the world every time they lay one..and they definitely don't want to share them with sneaky slitheries.  Is that even a word?

Thanks for stopping by to read my ramblings.  I hope your weekend is as cool as you are!!

xo,

Carrie

Who Needs a Tan Anyway..

Hey ya'll!!  It's been a while.  

I didn't realize since end of April, while, but you know...here I am now to pick up where I left off.  It's hard to believe that summer is almost over.

Blah blah.

I've been cranky the last few days, and I'd like to say it's because school is almost back in session, but in reality I'm seriously annoyed that I don't get to be a stay at home dog Mom forever.  Like for the rest of my life forever.

It's sad, right?!

Recently, I had some surgery and was out of commission for a few weeks.  Prior to surgery, in between freaking out because I was going to be put to sleep, which is odd considering sleeping is one of my favorite things to do..Never mind that I had a giant tumor, and would wake up minus an organ and who knows what else, but instead I was terrified about being put into a deep sleep with a tube down my throat.  Anyway, I was like woohoo I get an entire week off!!  A whole week off of cooking, cleaning, working, everaaything..I wouldn't have to lift a finger unless I wanted to...I'll get to organize my financial statements, pack a few boxes to declutter before we list the house, do a few blogs!  Yassss!!

Ummm. No.

I could barely keep my eyes open for the first week thanks to heavy narcotics that I was taking every four hours on the dot.  Then I tried to go back to work early the next Monday because I felt like they needed me there, and was quickly sent home and told not to return until the next Monday..Don't have to tell me twice.  It's all fun and games until someone loses an organ.  So, now that I am about 90% back to myself I am severely spoiled, and seriously depressed that my stay at home dog Mom days are over. Why?!  Why does it have to end!!  I have tears people, real tears!!  Even Brodie wants to know why!

I keep throwing out random suggestions to my Husband of fabulous ideas that he could be doing to supplement my income so I can stay home.  I can tell some of my genius ideas make his wheels spin, and then poof...it's gone in a flash.  A girl can dream..


The sisters have started laying eggs just in the last few weeks.  We have gathered well over two dozen by now.  It's like Christmas morning every time someone finds an egg.

Hazel is the smallest hen and lays the biggest eggs. She will run with her sisters, but she likes to explore on her own..I guess she is like her mama and marches to the beat of her own drum.  Nothing wrong with that, or talking to trees.  I don't think she gets that from me though..  ;-)  She likes to eat the bugs climbing the trees.

Stella is the only other sister that is laying at the moment.  Her eggs are small right now, but she is proud of them and so are we.  We think they're wonderful! Stella loves to sing the egg song and announce to the whole world and even into outer space that she just layed an egg.  Lord have mercy.  That girl has a set of lungs!!  

My favorite girl, Cora, hasn't started laying yet.  From what I've read, her breed is sometimes a few weeks behind other breeds, so we are just waiting to see what her eggs will look like.  It shouldn't be too much longer now.  Meanwhile, she steals all my kisses!!

We can't leave out Agnes.  She would probably get her feelings hurt if we didn't mention her.

Especially since she likes to be all up in everyone's business.  If something is going on somewhere you better believe she will be right in the middle of it, and if she's not yet, watch out because she will knock you out of the way to put herself right in the middle..usually by charging her way through head first.  She's a hot mess, and the comedian of the bunch.  She gets all of our laughs!

Kyle finished the coop.  All in all we figured it cost us around $500 to build the coop.  We used a lot of recycled materials which made a huge difference in our pockets.  It turned out better than either of us ever imagined, and without having an actual plan or blueprint he really did an outstanding job.

You couldn't buy anything better than this for under $1,500.  Trust me, we looked!  Now that I know what he is capable of I have a list of future projects.  Mostly for our new house.

We have always talked about eventually buying a farm.  Just in the last 6-8 months we have been serious in our search for our future forever farm.   We started out with the intent to buy the farm Kyle grew up on.  The house there was built in the 70's and is just beautiful.  It would only need minimal work to make it last another 30 something years.  While that would be the perfect place, right now we are in a situation where it's out of our hands while his family makes decisions and plans...since they are currently living there.  So. we continue to explore all of our options.  We have looked at so many houses and vacant land near our house and in surrounding counties.  We just haven't found the one.  If we found one that could be "the one" it was either pending or there was something about it that we couldn't overlook.  Like last week I absolutely fell in love with a house and some acreage.  It was everything we wanted on paper.  It was a newer home that was built with old charm, which is exactly what I like..it had just enough acreage and even barns and outbuildings...We went to look at it and the neighbors house was just a short walk across the lawn...way too close and totally disappointing..Not to mention the neighbor didn't look like they enjoyed cutting their grass...So, no biggie...Next!!  We are going to look at one this evening if the rain holds off.  Trey and I are really excited about this one.  We have both had warm fuzzies about it since we stumbled across it two days ago, so I hope it's not too good to be true, because it usually is.

Either way I have faith that we will find exactly what we are looking for one of these days..it's just not something we are willing to rush, or settle on. Even though I really would move tomorrow!!

I seriously can't wait to live in the middle of no where.  It is so exciting to think about and plan for!!

So, that's pretty much my exciting summer in a nut shell. I didn't do very much, and I don't have the tan to prove it.  :-)

xo

Carrie

Chickens and Selfies

Somehow we got into the habit of calling the girls "sister(s)"..It's pretty cute, especially when we start talking about the sisters in our chicken/dog voices, the dogs light up and practically wag their cute little tails off! They absolutely love their sisters..I cracked up the other day when just Winston and I were hanging out inside and I saw him catch a glimpse of himself in my floor length mirror, so I started pointing to the mirror like a lunatic saying "who's that baby, where's the baby!? Then I was like what the what when he was practically spinning in circles looking all over my room..I soon realized that I was talking in my sister/dog Mom voice and he must have thought one of the sisters was in my room.  It was hilarious!

The sisters are officially teenagers now - actually as of a few weeks ago.  Much easier to handle than the human teenagers.  Like, really!!  I am beginning to believe that I was destined to be a Mom to dog and chicken teenagers, rather than the human kind.

Agnes has the most beautiful green eyes.  When I'm holding her I always tell her how beautiful they are...hopefully she will continue to allow me to admire her beauty and she won't peck my face..because that hurts..like for real.  My girls have not pecked me yet, but I was talking a selfie with a chicken once (who takes selfies with chickens? < quietly raises hand in the back of the room > ) and it pecked my nose.  It hurt like a mother!  So, anytime I have my girls within pecking range of my face I instantly flash back to that mean chicken.  I can't make this stuff up.  This is really my life. 

  

  

The girls each have their own little personalities, which is pretty darn adorable.  Agnes and her sad face make me giggle to myself...she is actually my most photogenic sister, and bless her heart,she has the saddest little face.  Rest assured she is a very happy hen who thinks she is the boss!!

Quite often I would, one at a time, let the dogs sisters sniff out the sisters, and touch beaks while they were still little infant sisters in the brooder.  The day I finally decided to let them free range with the chickens was a big day.  

Scuba was the only one I was worried about because he would lick his chops like he couldn't wait to get his jaws clenched on some fresh, juicy chicken..To my surprise he loves his sisters!!  He is very protective of them and just likes to hang out near them.  The boys swear that he is afraid of them, but if some little beak came chasing after me to peck my paws, I would probably run too.  

Brodie is the same, he mingles well with the sisters and as long as we throw his ball he honestly pays them no attention.  I have noticed if we don't throw his ball for a while he will start playing with the sisters to get them riled up, which makes me totally nervous, so I panic until I can find his ball to toss it.  Well played, Brodie..well played.  ;-)  

Wintson, on the other hand...Oh Winston..what am I going to do with my almighty barker!  He still has to be on a leash when they are free ranging.  I don't yet trust him with them one bit.  He is the only one that doesn't listen to commands (from anyone) and will full force senior citizen dog run after them.  He makes me so nervous, so for now he is a work in progress.  As long as he is leashed he doesn't even try to go near them, but he won't take his eyes off them either..

  

My sweet Cora is probably my favorite.  She is the only one that will sit as quiet as a little house hen while I pet her.  She'll coo and cluck a little, but won't move a muscle. 

I think she likes me the best too.  And I swear she knows her name.  Ok, well I haven't decided yet if she really knows her name, but if she hears her name, or my voice she comes to me, or turns her head towards me.  Perhaps it's my fabulous sister/dog Mom voice!?   Either way, I just love that girl!!

It's certainly never a dull moment around this little homestead, and with these little sisters around things are especially bright and shiny!!

Thanks for reading!

xo

Carrie