Do I keep my critters or do they keep me?

I went to bed last night with both dogs and the cat cuddled up and woke up to both dogs and the cat cuddled up :)

I have always been an animal person, as far back as I could remember I have been fascinated by four leggers (and two and no leggers sometimes as well), I think I probably relate to them better then I do most people.

The incomparable Miss Sadie and I

When I was really little I either wanted to be a marine biologist, a ballerina or a horse rider. In a misguided attempt to make me more enthusiastic about my math work, my Mom told me how marine biologist have to know lots and lots of math. So I discarded that dream and lost interest in Ballet (due to my complete lack of skillz), so really there is only one course of action for me. I also have an innate understanding of horses, I just get what they are doing and why.

Little Ruth and lamb

 We currently have two dogs and a cat inside, often a couple bunnies as well. I got asked once why I had indoor pets since they are always shedding and made messes. Some people just don't get it. Animals really enrich your life in so many ways and if I have to vacuum a little more often and put up with dog hair it is so worth it.

I finished painting the bedroom, it is now a soft lilac colour with light gold curtains, I am very pleased with how bright it is now even if I can't lift my arms above my head any more. I spent some time today shopping here for pictures to put up. I am thinking this one above the bed, the artist is Stephanie Pui-Mun Law, she has such beautiful work, After getting the Shadowscape tarot deck I have been longing to get some of prints to hang up, really having trouble figuring out which ones to get.

The bathroom looks sweet, the green has grown on me, especially after lightening up the ceiling slightly and adding some gold accents. I painted the metal fixtures and handles gold and made a window dressing type thing out of some fabric left over from my Green Fairy Costume. I will take pictures after my camera comes home.

Green Fairy costume at Melissa's Halloween wedding.

I am so ready for Joe to be home, I have been keeping busy but I miss him.

Going to trail ride this evening, it is finally less hot out and not miserable to ride in. I also need to change the chicken bedding again, smelly blighters. There is one chick that isn't growing, I call him midgy chick, he looks normal but is just tinytinytiny, it is very odd.

painted lady

I spent most of the day painting. The bathroom is now green and I am exhausted. This is the first time I have really painted much so I am making lots of mistakes learning as I go. It looks pretty good although now the floor looks like shit, didn't notice when the walls were an icky colour. Tried to do the crackle coat on the cabinet and i don't think it worked, good to know now i guess before I painted allllll the cabinets in the kitchen.

I can't take pictures however because my handsome man has my camera in Canada, likely taking pictures of fish.

Now I need drinkage.

oh, Hai?

It is sunny today but might only be nice for ten minutes, apparently I am using that ten minutes to update my bloggy. I was looking at my blog stats and I got 150 views last month, don't seem like a lot but I am pretty sure that there is more then just me reading this and that's cool, especially since I am interwebz challenged and am not entirely sure how to work this thing. Also apparently someone googled "slave duties" and found my blog, I think that is very very very funny, especially since I would make a bad slave since I chafe at authority and get bored easily.

I am horse and chicken sitting for a neighbor right now and it made me think a lot about set up, I have visited old farmsteads and historical sites and was always impressed with the amount of planning that went into where everything was. Even at more recent farms most will have an excellent and easy to use layout. That is super important especially when you have a limited amount of time and lots of things to do, you don't want to be fighting with distance and giving yourself extra work.

We have it pretty easy right now, bunnies food is next to cages and I always have a water bucket there to fill up water bottles, I store the food in big plastic bins to keep the coon out. Horses are mostly on pasture but I have their "grain" next to where I keep the supplements and buckets, so that just takes a minute, in the winter I had round bales stored in front of the barn so I could fix their "grain" and toss a section of hay into a wheelbarrow and just make one trip. Even if you are working with a less then optimum situation, you can still do things to save time such as having several buckets at proper locations so you don't have to wander around looking for one so you can fill the chicken's water or make two trips all the way across the farm with the horse's grain (can you tell what I did this morning?) as far as I can figure neighbor doesn't actually own any buckets, I think that is really weird, I have like ten of different sizes and colours.

I am setting up the chicken coop and am trying to figure out the easiest way to put it together, actually right now I am eating frozen berries, drinking coffee and fucking off on the internet but I am thinking about setting up a chicken coop, yup thats is how that works, thinking.

Any who, I bleached all the feeders yesterday and just need to set the lamp up. I also got some pelleted horse bedding which I basically use for everything because I love it's super absorbancy and happy pine scent. Equine Fresh makes a superior kitty litter (at a fraction of the cost of other pelleted litters!) a wonderful place for baby bunnies to poo and if I can figure out how to put it in the12 year old's room my house will smell even fresher!

I am kind of regretting getting chickens now that the coop is cleaned out, now it is clean I realize it would make an amazing bunny house! I don't know why I didn't realize before I ordered 87 chicks and now they are on their way I can't evict them, who would do that to innocent baby peepers? But it would have made a sweet bunny room. and I could have kept all my babies.....

babies

Yet another picture of Joy grazing, she does this a lot.

Today's exciting adventures include trimming bunny nails and painting sheds. Absolutely riding Joy, sorta want to ride to the river and I wish I could con more fun people into riding with me, I think I should try blackmail and/or paying someone to be my trail friend. I just found out that event I wanted Joy to debut at is on the same weekend as our big family and friends who are driving ten hours to see us day, I am actually really depressed about it since the next closest event is going to be like two hours away or the one I helped at last week with the monster big cross country course. I don't know what to do but maybe build a time machine or clone myself. I plan on still riding and conditioning Joy like I am going to it though because we both need the work.