DianeS - Listeria spreading, culling the rabbits

[DianeS]

I've never actually seen a dead opossum before - only ones that were playing dead. So when I saw this one in my chicken run this morning, I gave it a wide berth but continued doing my chores. I expected it to get up and run away! When it didn't, I got the pitchfork and poked it, and it seemed to be rather... stiff. Picked it up with said pitchfork, and learned it was most decidedly dead. Weird. No apparant cause either. So I buried it in the compost heap.

I knew this opossum came around sometimes, but he'd never bothered the chickens, and they are safely locked up away from him at night, so I wasn't bothered by him. Guess old age got him, there's certainly lots of food around this time of year. Or an illness of some kind. I think I buried him deep enough the stray cats won't dig him out.

 

[DianeS]

I really like my current lifestyle. The way I have it set up right now, I don't really have to do anything I don't want to do! (Isn't that nice?) But I've gotten complacent. Too comfortable. And honestly, sometimes bored.

So - I have challenged myself. For the next 10 weeks, I am going to do three things each week that I do not want to do. It is time for me to grow more as a person - as a wife - as a homemaker - as a child of God - as a person on this earth. For this challenge I can pick anything for any week, as long as it is something that I would not willingly choose to do if given the choice. I don't know how this challenge will end! Will I be in better shape? Will I be better at keeping the house clean? Will I have learned a new skill? The uncertainty of the outcome is as interesting to me as the challenge itself!

How this came about:

Three nights ago, my husband and I talked about his upcoming academic quarter at the university. He is a second-year graduate student, and he was talking about having to get back into books, and classes, and schedules after a summer of getting to do research. I had laughed a little, because in my new non-rectangular life, I pretty much get to do what I want to do when I want to do it. It doesn't matter if I clean the rabbit cages in the morning or afternoon. As long as I feed the chickens, it doesn't matter if they get crumbles or pellets, in a bowl or on the ground. I want to potty-train the cats to get rid of the kitty litter expense, but it doesn't matter if I start that this week or next. My visible results are the only thing close to a grade or a review that I get, and my husband and I are the only ones who care. It's an extremely nice life. I'm comfortable in it. Very comfortable.

Maybe too comfortable.

That night I went to sleep thinking about what had been said. And despite being comfortable in my life, I was suddenly almost uncomfortable about that level of comfort. Is "comfort" really what I am striving for in my life? As a Christian I certainly want to do what God tells me to do. It was pretty wild over the summer to be told to go with my husband to the Philippines to help hubby in his research. That's the kind of instruction from God that we all like to receive. But I can not remember when the last time was that I asked God "is what I'm doing now the best that you have for me?" I was absorbed in the idea that maybe it wasn't. Was I still growing, or had I stagnated? What direction should any new growth go?

The next day was Sunday, and I opted not to go to church. God and I needed to have some deep conversation. And we did, for hours. By that afternoon I had realized that God has something in mind for me. I am supposed to do something more than I have been doing. Perhaps I am supposed to be something more than I have been. But what... I am not yet sure. And how far... I don't know that either. From that conversation with God I also drew the conclusion that movement toward doing... and being... more than I currently am is not something I should wait for passively, but it is something toward which I must take active steps.

And so was born my 10 week challenge to myself.

For the next 10 weeks (mirroring my husband's academic quarter), I will do three things each week that I do not want to do. There is not a focus on any particular area of my life - it can be anything. Anything that I would not willingly choose to do when given the choice. Maybe I'll give the bathroom a deep clean (I truly hate that chore, and would rather earn the money to pay someone else to do it). Maybe I'll mow the yard the way my husband likes it instead of the way I like it (but I'm the one who is always outside!). Maybe I'll get up early and do one of my husband's chores (oh how I hate getting up early). Maybe I'll eat an apple instead of a brownie (nooooooo!).

I have no rules for this challenge other than things I don't want to do. Three of them. Each week. By midnight Monday night, so I can report it in a blog post I write each Tuesday. (Public accountability - urk!)

Sticking with things is not my strong point. I prefer to work hard enough and fast enough to finish quickly, rather than spread things over time. I'd rather do 30 things this week. But no - three things each week for ten weeks is the challenge. I hope you'll call me out on it if you think I'm slacking, or counting things that I shouldn't count. It may be a personal issue I'm working with and it should count - or you might be right and I'm trying to fill space because I slacked off that week.

I've started already. I cleaned the bathroom last night. REALLY cleaned it. Even scrubbed the toilet. My husband was impressed, I don't think I've cleaned it that well since we've been married. And the only reason I did it was because of this challenge - this impetus - to do better than I have before.

So I'm off and running. Ten weeks to a ... something. Perhaps ten weeks to a better ME. Ack! You're going to encourage me on this, right?

 

[Denim Deb]

We'll be right behind you, making sure you stay motivated.

 

[FarmerChick]

I think that is a great challenge! I will borrow Deb's whip and give ya a whack

does the challenge go beyond the house? tackle some volunteer work and things like that?

 

[Wannabefree]

I am, to a degree, right there with you. There have been some changes in my life lately that are making me question whether or not the things I am doing are really where He wants me and what He wants me doing. Sometimes it is hard to know. Hopefully this retreat(that I really didn't want to go on ) will help me regain my focus, and learn what it is He wants me to do from here. I'm challenged already in a lot of different ways, but somehow sometimes, it still doesn't feel "right" or "enough." I hope you have great success in your endeavor to find your calling! I will be praying for you I agree with FC too that volunteer work would be a great idea. I have found with that kind of work, you can test out different things to see if you like them, and if you feel that is where you are being called or not without obligation to make it a full time habit. Recently, one place I have volunteered for over a year has become somewhat of a thorn in my side for multiple reasons, and I'm not sure if I should trudge through the hard times or not This retreat will give me time to clear my head, with no distractions, and pray about it, and maybe even get some ideas of where to go next. I have simply asked the Lord to guide each footstep along the way to lead me to where He wants me, even if I don't necessarily want me there Just keep in mind growth can be painful, be willing to trudge through. I have never had growing pains that didn't end up being a major blessing.

 

[DianeS]

"Growing pains" - that is an excellent analogy! Thank you! As adults we sometimes have to self-inflict them to ensure we keep growing. I'm glad I'm not alone in this internal debate over where I am supposed to be in life. I appreciate hearing similar stories from others. I'll encourage you, too, Wannabefree.

I already do several volunteer things, but if something about those needs to change I'm up for that. I volunteer in the church nursery, in a local food pantry, and a bunch of extra stuff for my church as it comes up, like cleaning up after a yardsale last month. This challenge could definitely take me outside the home, I think that is perfectly fair game.

 

[Beekissed]

 

[DianeS]

A friend of mine recently said that reading my blog makes her tired because of all the things I do. So recently I typed out everything I do throughout the day and posted it as "A day in my life" on my blog. I joked that I was giving her a good reason to go to bed early! I know most of you have many more things you do, especially since I don't have as many animals as most of you. I debated posting this because this is also the day that had the opossum issue that I posted about already. But who cares, right? Here we go!

Here is what last Saturday was like in my life...

When I got up in the morning, my dear husband had already fed the pets - the dog and three cats that live indoors with us. Supremely sweet of him, and it left only the outdoor livestock for me to handle. So I dressed in shorts and a t-shirt, slipped on my grubby chore shoes, and went outside. Filled up the feed container for the chickens, and turned on the hose.

First up was to open up the chicken coop for the day, so the chickens can use their run. I enter the run and immediately see something weird. I don't know what *it* is, but *it* is near the far side of the run, so I go look. Great (with sarcasm), it's the opossum. Haven't seen him in a couple months. He's small, I don't think he's a danger to my chickens when they're awake, and he's locked out of their coop at night. But he's playing dead (or maybe really dead?), and I'm not going to let my chickens loose on purpose when he's around, so I leave the chicken run to handle the rabbits instead, hoping that's far enough away that he'll get up and leave while I'm gone.

I check on all the rabbits, and everyone is fine. So I fill up water dishes, remove spider webs, and water the grass around the hutches. I don't mind spiders near the rabbits, but I do object to the dry and hollow flies and other pests they drop around when they're finished with them - just don't think having hundreds of those in the hutches is a good idea. So the spiders need to make their webs elsewhere. I water the grass around the hutches because green grass keeps the area cool, and dry baked ground does not. I finish all that and go back to the chicken run.

The opossum is still laying there. OK, according to Wikipedia, if it is "playing possum" the eyes will be closed at least partially - but they're not. It also says that if it is "playing possum" it will be drooling/foaming at the mouth - but it isn't. No smell either, and they usually excrete a smell when playing possum that makes a would-be predator think they're already in the process of decaying. Hmmm. I think it's an ACTUALLY dead opossum! So I use a pitchfork to pick it up (it's stiff, but that is no indication of truly dead vs playing possum) and take it to the compost heap. Threw some compost over top of it to keep any smell away from the neighborhood stray cats. If it's dead, it'll stay there. If it's not there tonight then I was taken in by a REALLY good player of "playing possum"!

Back to the chickens. Open up their coop, throw their food around the ground of the run to encourage scratching and pecking behaviors. Check coop for eggs (none). Clean out and fill their water bowl. Seriously, can my chickens EVER avoid pooping in their water bowl? I'm guessing not because mine always have done that.

Water the garden. See that there are a lot of blackberries ripe today, so I go get a container from the kitchen, turning off the water along the way, and bringing the feed containers back into the garage. (Slipping out of and then back into my chore shoes since those do not ever get worn past the back hall.) Pick the blackberries, and go back inside.

Whew! Morning chores complete, I now get breakfast. It's blackberries and peanuts in the shell, while drinking water (and a Coke) on the couch, while seeing if there is anything I need to know posted on the various websites I visit.

Then I decide it's time to work on an apron I'm making. I bought a super-cheap top at Goodwill that I think will make a really cute apron. It has a loose bodice and two inches of smocking at the top, just straps for sleeves, so it shouldn't take long. I get the whole thing taken apart and then realize I don't know where my sewing box is. I haven't seen it in a while and it isn't where it is SUPPOSED to be. So I can't sew the ties onto the back and finish it. Grrrrr. Hubby is studying so I can't interrupt him to ask if he knows where the sewing box is, so it'll just have to wait until tonight to be finished.

I baked a cake for a neighbor (on an earlier day) and it's now time to ice it. It's a lemon cake, so vanilla icing should work. I read an article a while ago that said most store-bought icings can be whipped with a mixer to add volume to them, making them easier to spread and reducing the calories in each piece (because the icing will now do two cakes instead of just one). I'm not going to lug out my machine mixer for such a small project, so I try the hand mixer I use for things like pancake mix. No go, the icing is too thick. So I put it in the microwave to warm it up a little, hoping that will help. Well, it's runnier, but now won't hold the air I'm whipping into it. Experiment FAIL. So I let the icing cool back into it's original state while I cut a cardboard box into a flat, thick sheet and cover it with aluminum foil. (I am giving the cake to a neighbor, but don't want to give away a plate with it.) Put the cake on the foil, and ice it. Looks good.

Walk down the street with the cake and ring the neighbor's doorbell. No answer. Knock on the door. Still no answer. Seriously? His favorite team is on TV right now and he's not home watching it??? Whatever, I now walk back home still carrying the cake and put it on the counter. Now I have to keep an eye on it to make sure none of the animals try to take a taste... I trade baked goods with my neighbor in exchange for him mowing my grass, so this cake is pretty valuable and I want it kept in one piece!

I know one of my doe rabbits was put in with the buck about a month ago, and should be put into a hutch alone to prepare for the (hopefully) impending kits. So I go out to rearrange everybody. (Opossum is still in the compost pile. Probably dead, right?) Put another doe in with a buck she's not been with before, and watch to be sure nobody is going to get hurt. Nah, they're just playing chase, so I go move the daddy buck to leave the momma-to-be doe in the cage alone. Then I go get the nestbox (and remove all the junk that has accumulated in it since the last time it was used... seriously, why does all this stuff not stay where it's put? It always grows legs and moves onto whatever it is that I want at the time!) Then I fill the nestbox with hay, scattering hay all over the garage floor in the process. (It's a new type of hay that's seriously cheaper, but not baled nearly as well. I'll have to keep track of how much is wasted to see if it really is cheaper or not. Better write that down or I'll forget...)

Go outside to put the nestbox full of hay in with the momma-to-be, and all the other rabbits race to the corner of their hutch that's closest. Seriously? It's hot and dry and you want HAY? Yep. So I go back to get the basket, fill it with hay, and bring it out to put some in each rabbit hutch. Momma is sitting in the nestbox on top of the hay, so hopefully she is bred. Most rabbits just sit beside the hay to eat it, not on top of it. Refill the water dish in the hutch of the new couple, in their game of chase they've knocked it over, but they're both tired and thirsty now. Check on the opossum, it's still in the compost. (Seriously, I am spending WAY too much time checking on this stupid animal that's probably dead!)

Get back in the house, and realize I haven't had lunch, and it's way late. So I eat some more peanuts while checking my websites again. Write a touching and sweet status on my FB page for my friends (which of course means I have an excuse to check it more often today, right?)

Then I realize the only meat in the house is frozen whole chickens in my chest freezer, and they're not going to be defrosted in time to cook one for dinner. Go outside to the freezer to get two of them anyway, reasoning that I can cook one for tomorrow instead. Realize that a rabbit I had to put down is still in that freezer. Whole. Uncovered because of the hurry with which I had to dispatch her before we left on our trip. I decide I don't have time to deal with that today, but I also don't want to simply throw the body away because it's an Angora with all that beautiful fur, so I at least wrap the body in a bag and put it back in the freezer before grabbing two frozen chickens and heading back into the house.

Scrub the sink, fill it with water, and put one chicken in it to defrost tonight so I can crock-pot it in the morning. Put the other in the fridge, after rearranging the whole so the chicken will fit.

Sit down to write this blog post, and realize I haven't done anything for dinner TONIGHT yet. So I get back up, and raid the freezer. I have a package of chicken strips, a package of breaded jalapeno cheese and pepper nuggets, and a package of hashbrowns. That's so not a healthy or balanced meal, but I've eaten nothing but peanuts and blackberries all day, and no way will hubby go out to eat when football is on tonight, and at least I buy the versions of things that are as little-processed as possible, so I say "what the heck, it's just one meal" and start the oven for the chicken strips. Thankfully I remembered how much heat the oven throws out, and moved the iced cake so the icing wouldn't melt.

Put chicken strips on the baking sheet, set timer for 10 minutes. Turn chicken, add pepper bits, set timer for 5 minutes. Turn pepper bits, set timer for 5 minutes. Hope everything turns out fine with the temperature on 425 since the chicken is supposed to cook at 400 and the pepper bites at 450. It usually works fine that way, but I've never tried these pepper bites before, I got them because they were a freebie. Cook hashbrowns on stovetop at the same time.

But, the hashbrowns aren't cooking. Gah! Instructions told me to heat oil to medium heat in a skillet, then sprinkle hashbrowns into the skillet until they are half an inch deep. Let cook without disturbing them until the edges brown, then turn the hashbrowns, and continue cooking until done. I couldn't do that - the sprinkling part, that is. The hashbrowns were frozen in a solid lump. So I microwaved them until they could be pulled apart with a fork, and added them by forkfuls to the skillet. Aparantly that isn't close enough to work, because although the edges turned brown, they were also stuck tight to the bottom of the skillet and could NOT be turned. The ones that weren't stuck were still uncooked. So, scrap the hashbrowns because the chicken and jalapeno bites were finished, so I just served them. (Note: I don't care for the jalapeno bites, but hubby liked them, so that's OK.) Hubby ate the chicken strips with ranch dressing, I ate mine with honey. Yum. It's nice to sit and eat dinner.

Time to clean up. Can't wash dishes yet because the chicken is still taking up half the sink. *Sigh*

So I go outside to do the animal chores for the evening before it gets dark. Put on chore shoes, and turn on the water hose. Opossum is still dead. That means it's really truly dead, right? Maybe I can stop thinking about it now. I collect eggs from the coop - three of them today, very typical for four chickens in their first year of laying. I have three Rhode Island Reds which lay light brown eggs, and an Americauna which lays a light greenish egg. Very cute in the egg cartons together. When I show my green eggs to people, the first thing they all say is "Green eggs and ham!" Especially funny because that happens to be the book featured on the September page of my Dr. Seuss calendar. Makes me smile every time I see it.

The rabbits are happy to see me. Each gets a filled water bowl, and a scoop of pellets. I would reduce the amount of pellets if they had eaten something like apples or greens, but I don't reduce it for hay. Gotta remember to count the rabbits in each hutch since I moved several around earlier, and I don't want to put the wrong amount of feed in any hutch. They appreciate the attention, coming to the hutch openings to say "hello". The friendliest ones get head scratches before they hop off to eat their dinners.

Dusk is almost here, so I decide to let the chickens have this last half-hour of the day loose in the yard. They love it loose, but I'm not sure of their potential to escape, so I always stay outside when they're loose. I take a book and sit on the deck while the chickens scratch the yard, finding lots of little treats to munch. I'm reading Janet Evanovich's "One for the Money" series - I just started book eight. Sitting with the chickens lets me get to page 34. When the chickens start making their way back to the run I put the failed hashbrowns and peanut shells in the run for them to pick at before they completely put themselves to bed in the coop. (Peanut shells are great for traction when the weather makes the ground in the chicken run slippery, which it does often in Oregon.) I'll go back out when it's full dark and lock the door to the coop, safely securing the chickens for the night.

I go back inside, and grate the soap I need to make detergent for a load of laundry. Not doing the laundry until tomorrow, but if I wait until tomorrow to grate the soap, you just know something will happen. Better to be prepared, so I grate the soap. The other ingredients are Borax and Washing Soda, which I have already, so no problem there.

The chicken has not vanished from the sink yet, so I go take it out of the sink, put it in a plastic bag, and store it in the fridge. It will make a good after-church lunch tomorrow. Yum!

And now I sit down at 8:30 to finish this post, and then tackle a computer game that I want to win. A very busy, but productive day. Hubby will do the dishes later, I don't have to worry about those.

So, friends, have I tired anyone out? I definately couldn't do this lifestyle if I had a 40 hour a week office job. But as busy as it is, I love this better. If any of you get to bed before I do, have a nice dream for me! Mine tend to have chickens and rabbits in them, lately.

(And if you've made it this far and are still interested, the post on my actual blog has lots of pictures. I couldn't get them to post here, sorry!) That freaking opossum has gotten FAR more attention since he died than he ever did in life! Sheesh!

 

[frustratedearthmother]

Busy, busy gal!

 

[Denim Deb]

Sounds like a nice, relaxing day! And I take it the possom never wandered off, so he was really dead.