Sunday, July 1, 2012

I'm DOING it but I'm not DIGGING it

Unemployed
  • Uninsured
    • Unmedicated
      • Unmotivated
      • Unhappy
Just wanted to say, "Thanks!" to Laurie for the nice comments on my last post; I really needed them!

I'm glad that I'm coming across as happy; the truth is that most of the time, I'm not.  But I try to see the good stuff and try not to whine; although it's getting harder and harder every damn day.  Maybe I'll address that some other day.

On the bright side, we do have more feathered friends in our little wanna-be farm: we have about 15 Buff Orpington chicklets out in the container shed, along with five little ducklets.  Jim made ingenius use of a truck bed box that was not being used to house them in until they are big enough to go outside.  Luka has been very good and very protective of them; when I go out there and pick one up and they start peeping away, she runs in to see what's wrong.  Here are a few pictures of her with them:


We just got three teen-ager ducks (which means they are about 8 weeks old) for free yesterday from some nice people on Craig's List.  Jim was bummed because he ordered some baby turkeys (turklets?) and some silkie chicklets but discovered that his checking account is over-drawn and couldn't afford to pick them up.  Fortunately, when he called the store they said that they wouldn't be in for about two more weeks, just in time for Jim to get his SS $ again.  Jim is going to have to build more coops and fences as we are about to be over-run with chickens and ducks!

Oh, and I just HAD to post these next pictures; when Jim went and got the very first chickens and brought them home, Brusier and Luka had been hanging out in my room.  One of my windows looks out directly upon the area across the driveway where the pens are, and Brusier was beside himself trying to get a look out the window.  Finally he jumped up on my desk chair to get a better look:

Luka thought that was a capital idea, and decided to do it to!  I am so glad I got a picture of it, because no one believed me without it!


Sis and Les have been down south for the past week and a half.  Les is staying with his brother in Vancouver, and Sis caught the crud from Sal and was sicker than a dog.  She was so sick that she could not come home last week, so they all just stayed down there again.  It's been quiet here without everyone!  Sis had a dream last night that Brusier wouldn't come to her because he didn't recognize her anymore.  So sad.

Since they've been gone, Mrs. Weenie and Snoopy sleep in Jim's room with him (since they are his dogs), and Brusier, GiGi and Sam sleep with me.  Actually, I should say that they allow me to sleep in the bed with them.  It's like sleeping with three toddlers in the bed - they all sleep sideways, diagonally, and every which way they can to keep me on the outside 3-1/2" of the bed without pillows.  If Sammie gets in the bed before me, I'm screwed.  Trying to shift him is like trying to shift a 500lb bag of wet cement.  But, he and I are now super snuggle buddies, and he follows me all around the house.  Where ever I am, there he is; at my feet, on my lap, or in a bed or on the floor nearby. 

This sleeping arrangement started mostly because GiGi was in heat and Sam was not neutered.  Oh, how fun those three weeks were.  Not.  Not even a little bit fun.  Seriously.  Sis had planned to get GiGi spayed right after we got her, but for some weird reason was thinking she might be pregnant.  I kept telling her that she wasn't, but Sis wanted to "wait to be sure", and then the money kept getting spent on stupid things like gas for the car, food, etc.  Then one day I noticed that after GiGi came in my room to wake me up, there were little spots of blood on my blankets.  I looked at her rear end and thought, "Ohhhh poop on a cracker.  She's in heat."  Cue my sister wigging out.  It took Sam a good week to finally notice her, and then it was like white on rice.  We could not keep that dog away from her.  Sis and I cut holes in some diapers we had left over from Monty and put those on GiGi, but it would take her all of 0.0012454785 seconds to pull, rub or chew them off.  We then used an ingenius onesie-type device that Sis made to keep Monty in his diapers, and it worked somewhat moderately not well at all.  Needless to say, I spent three weeks of keeping GiGi in her diapers and Sam out of GiGi.  If you get my drift.  One of the pluses of this was that Sam became attached to GiGi, and she thought he was pretty cute as well, so she didn't mind his attention.  It's a good thing, too, because his attentions went from, "Dang girl!  You are so dang irrisistable for some reason!  I will follow you around and stick my nose in embarrassing orifices every chance I get!" to "Dang girl!  You are so fine that no other living mammal may look in your direction without my permission lest they feel the full extent of my wrath!" to "OH GOD HELP ME!  I MUST BE TOUCHING SOME PART OF YOUR BODY WITH SOME PART OF MY BODY 24/7!!"  I managed to snap the picture below of Sam "sharing" GiGi's bed.  The word sharing is in quotes because basically she had no choice, and if he would just lie next to her instead of on top of her, then she was willing to let him do it.  Note the look on Sam's face.
When Sis is home, Brusier sleeps with her.  Luka used to sleep with me but since we got all the birds, she likes to stay outside and keep the coyotes, etc. at bay.  The other four dogs just slept in the living room because Les sleeps out there in the recliner.  But, when Sis is gone, Brusier sleeps with me.  And since Les could not be counted upon to keep Sam from getting to GiGi during the night, we decided that Sam would sleep with me too.  That lasted one night.  Sam would not stay in my bed, and just stood with his nose pressed against the door, whining and pining away for GiGi, certain that Snoopy was having his way with her.  So the next night I had GiGi come in the room with us.  That was better, but I still had a hard time keeping Sam off of her.  The next night I put a leash on Sam and that was great.  He wasn't as happy as the rest of us were, but GiGi was finally able to get some sleep, I could let Sam be close enough to her to allow him to rest his head on her side, and I could sleep for more than 2.785 minutes at a time.  We just kept this arrangement until Sam finally got snipped.  I believe that GiGi went out of heat approximately 3.5 days later, but Sam and GiGi are still good friends.  Oh, and they both still sleep with me in my room. 

But something changed for Sam; I was honestly terrified that he wouldn't want any more to do with me since I was, of course, the one to take him to the vet.  But I was gratified to see that he ran straight to me, tail high and wagging hard when Sis and I went to pick him up the next day.  He is much less aggressive, and now wants to snuggle and play with the other dogs more.  Here is a snap of Sam and Brusier sharing a bed a few days ago:
He seems to be much more relaxed and happy, which makes us more relaxed and happy.  The dogs think he as been replaced by a pod person.

6/22 was Sis and Les's 10th wedding anniversary.  Unfortunately, they spent it apart down south with Les at his brother's house, and Sis staying at Mom's trying to surpass the world record for coughing up phlem.  I wish I could have done something, anything, for them, but being completely broke makes that difficult.  So I dug out what few craft supplies I have here at the house and made them a card.  Here is the front: 
It is a 6" square gate card.  As you can see, the brown backdrop piece only shows on the left half; this is because the other half is tucked underneath the right side, and the right top edge of the sentiment panel is tucked under the bottom wings of the butterfly, keeping the card closed.  This is what it looks like when it's open:

That picture was taken on their wedding day back in 2002; I used Photoshop Elements 6.0 to age it, then framed it with a vinyl sticker.  The sticker is copper; it's hard to tell from this picture.  I think it turned out pretty nice.

Well, I'm going to try to wrap this up.  So much for blogging more often with shorter posts.  Oh well.  I'll post more pictures and stuff soon.

TTFN.

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