Another Egg-citing Surprise

The girls and I went outside yesterday afternoon to check for eggs. Finley checked the corner of the house where we found the eggs on Sunday and the stable. Nothing. Zivah and I checked the big chicken coop. Nothing. Then we went into the back yard to check the small chicken coop. I told Finley to let Z open up the little door. I expected her to exclaim excitedly, "An egg!" But she didn't. She just stood there, looking.


And when I looked inside and saw this...:I confess, I let out a small scream. Thankfully Chris was home, and he pulled the snake out of the coop:

Then he cut off its head with an axe. As you can see, it had just eaten an egg, and when the axe came down, egg yolk splatted dramatically up into the air.

Maybe I could handle that next time. We'll see.

After routing one chicken from laying in a flower pot, I've been trying to keep my eye out for other non-approved nesting spots. In the mean time, I've been finding less eggs in the approved locations. The chicken that was laying an egg in the stable stopped after I put some extra hay down to give it a more comfortable nest (where's the gratitude?), and I haven't been finding as many green and blue eggs in the nesting boxes. I don't know if they have decided to lay elsewhere or if they are just tired of this dry heat, but Finley did discover this cache in the new house today...

Joe is home sick today. On top of recovering from strep that I think all three kids caught, his nose started running yesterday, and then last night, he started coughing. So I didn't get much sleep.

A few weeks ago, we had trapped another possum on the porch, and when Chris went to release it 'back to the wild', he spotted a kitten that had been dumped on the side of the road. He brought ihim home, then the kids named him Max, so now we're stuck with him. He's been the typical kitten terror, running around and clawing his way all over the furniture, then calming down just long enough to sleep on your lap for the ten minutes it takes to convince you to forgive him for his antics.

We've been keeping him in our bathroom at night, but by morning, he is ready to tear through the house. And since I haven't been too fond of being woken up at 5 a.m. when Chris gets up for work, I banished him to the shop last night. When Chris left for work this morning, he heard some desperate meows and went to check on Max. Apparently, Max freaked out and wouldn't let Chris touch him, and when I went to see if I could retrieve him, could find no sign of the little nutcase. Although I made lots of loud noises, he refused to show himself or utter a meow to let me know he was okay. I don't think he could have gotten out, so I guess I'll just have to wait out his little tantrum.

And now I have put my foot down. No more kittens. As funny as I think that super bowl commercial was where the cowboys were herding cats, I don't want a farm full of cats.

Speaking of critters... Saturday, I walked out the front door of the trailer to see that elusive skunk poking its head out a pipe that sticks out from the foundation of the new house. (It is what we will run the sewer line through.) I called Finley and asked her to watch the pipe to make sure the skunk didn't run off while I tried to find something to catch it in. I managed to get Chris attention, and we decided to block the pipe with cinderblocks until we could borrow (again) the neighbor's live trap. I had to crawl under the house, praying that I wouldn't come face to face with the skunk in order to block the other side of the pipe. Trying not to get too close to the front of the pipe, I aimed my flashlight beam down the pipe and thought I saw a furry lump huddled inside. We borrowed the neighbor's trap, set it up on one end of the pipe, and waited.

The next morning, we hadn't caught a thing, so I crawled under the house again with a 2x4, hoping I could push the stubborn critter into the trap. I pulled the cinder block back, and peeked in, only to find... nothing. The skunk must have run out the back side of the house while we were blocking the front.

Two nights ago, I relocated the trap to another part of the crawl space. Yesterday morning, there was nothing in the trap, but today.... there is. We had covered the trap with a garbage bag so that if we caught the skunk, we hopefully wouldn't get sprayed by it. But now, I can't see if there really is a skunk in there, or if it just might be another possum. And I am afraid to look.

I had a feeling some of my chickens were laying eggs in some sneaky spots. I have one that lays next to the hay rack in the stable, and I had found some eggs shells under the chipper stored in the stable as well. Yesterday, I even crawled under the deck and checked the crawl space under the trailer but didn't find a thing. This morning, I went to water the plants on the deck and found THESE in the big ficus pot. And I thought that chicken was just coming up on deck looking for the peanut butter I had been leaving in the trap for the possum. I guess not.

Haircut!

I was tired of the frumpy way the straighter hair from the top-back of Z's hair came down and covered up Z's curls in back, so I decided it was time for a hair cut again. I cut the back up to the same relative length as her sides, then layered the straighter hair above her curls. Cute, cute! (If I do say so myself...)

Deals

Wandering around Lowe's last week, a shower unit caught our eyes. It was exactly the size we wanted and a one-piece: just what I was hoping for. We had installed a three-piece shower in Nashville, and I was forever cleaning orange slime out of its seams. And although custom tile would be neat, a one-piece will be a whole lot easier to clean. This one-piece even had a little bump out in the corner where I can sit to shave my legs. And the best part? It was a $378 shower on clearance for $150.

A few days later, Chris stopped into another Lowe's and found a tub and shower one-piece on clearance. Originally retailing for $378 as well, he got it for $104.

We found these at just the right time, too. If the windows and doors had been installed, we might not have been able to get any one-pieces into the house.

If that wasn't enough, yesterday I went to Tractor Supply to pick up some cat food. Browsing through the clothing department, I found some $40 Carhartt jeans on clearance for $15, and they actually had them... in my size!! I bought two pair.

Photogenic Eggs

I really can't help myself. Our different colored eggs are so pretty together, I had to photograph them. I am even contemplating finding a way to incorporate that color scheme inside the new house somewhere, although I'm not sure the paint guys at the hardware store would be able to use eggshells for color matching.

Then today, I found this egg with a feather stuck to it just so.

Today is the first day of school... Joe's first day of Kindergarten. No, he didn't cry. In fact, you'd think he's gone to school every day of his life. Makes it easier on Mom when your kid isn't clinging to you and bawling. Two years ago, you'd never know this kid could be so confident. I couldn't leave him in the three-year-old class at church without having to peel him off me first.

So I only have one child underfoot. Well, not literally, as she is in bed for naptime, and I am praying (pleading with God) that she will actually go to sleep. Can you imagine what I could do without ANY interruptions for two hours? Maybe pull the broken water pump off the tractor? Who knows...

Z is 3!

Z turned three a few weeks back, but if you ask her, she might tell you she's four. Or twenty.

When Finley picked out her birthday dress, Z enthusiastically agreed that she wanted one, too. But do you think I could get her to wear it? No. I tried not to let on how pleased I was that she was rejecting a dress... and that she was asking for an Iron Man shirt. I now have hope that at least one of my girls might be more of a tomboy like me. We took back her dress and since Iron Man wasn't available, she opted for a red Lightning McQueen shirt and red athletic shorts. Her other favorite clothes include a Titan's jersey, a black t-shirt that says "Dad is my superhero", her Funny Farm shirt, and any sort of comfy pants or shorts.

We are actually making progress in the potty department. She can keep her pants dry if I remember to ask her fairy often, and she sometimes even lets me know when she need to go. Number two is a different story, though.

Her favorite toy is her Schleich horse (named Horse) who is usually accompanied by Cow. It's all about animals for Z.

Z loves to be silly, she loves to laugh, her smile is bright and frequent. She is aggressively affectionate. She is my ornery little light.