I see a coop!

Folks, we have the beginnings of a chicken coop...
Day 1:





Day 2:



Hoping to have the ladies all moved in on Saturday...yippee!!

Here is a preview of the types we're probably getting:
Silkies!! They are a small variety of chicken, that make great pets because they are friendly and docile. They also love to sit on eggs ("go broody") and are often used to sit on eggs that still need to hatch, even duck eggs or other chickens' eggs.




Tori Spelling has a pet Silkie, Coco:




I think I found our Halloween costume for next year....




This is a young Brahma hen, they grow to about 9 pounds, while the Silkies above only weigh around 3 pounds. Both have feathered feet.



In other non-chicken news, I could finally upgrade to a new phone and joined the iPhone generation. The Mister joined the smartphone generation ( I think he has had the same flip phone since I've known him), too.



On Thursday our crazy hound dog, Tanner, began limping...no surprise since his favorite past time is tearing around the yard at about 45 mph to bark at any passers by. When he still wouldn't use his foot the next day, I took him to the vet (we pretty much go to the vet once every couple weeks with somebody around here). An x-ray revealed a broken toe. So, he's on a timeout from yard racing for several weeks. Poor guy!

Here he is being brave and standing on it:




Okay, one more Silkie photo because they are so ridiculous!

I Wish

Here is my list of a few things that I think would make the world a much better place:

1. A special horn or other noise- making device that could be used to "yell" at drivers who do not use their turn signal. I find the regular car horn to be too ambiguous, as the other driver may not understand why exactly you are honking. The special horn would be reserved exclusively for informing someone that they failed to use their blinker.

2. On the flip side, a different horn should also be available for telling people their signal is STILL on...or, perhaps turn signals should have an auto turn off function.

3. Gyms should be free. Do some countries do this, I wonder? I realize not everyone would use them, and I go to my gym partly because I am paying for it- but I really think if gyms were available for no cost and in more rural areas, our obesity crisis would improve. I think too many people are never exposed to physical fitness...and you can watch TV and work out at the gym.

4. There should be mannequins outside courtrooms that showcase appropriate ways to dress for court, job interviews and other 'fancy' occasions. There should be some "what not to wear" mannequins, too. I find that the majority of individuals who don't know what is appropriate to wear in formal or business settings also are frequently in court, so it would be a great way to catch their attention. Of course, the bonus is that they could use their new dressing skills in the courtroom. Thrift shops could set up trunk shows to get folks their new duds, too.

Some examples of some shirts I've seen in court being sported by the type of person mentioned above:

- T- shirt that read: "Don't piss me off, I'm running out of places to hide the bodies". On a side note, this same gent, had a jury trial in which he started off the day with yelling out randomly his displeasure with his attorney, then slept through the afternoon of his trial, and failed to come at all the second day, being found guilty in absentia.

- Seen this week in court: Wanna Lick?

- An airbrushed T- shirt that read: Gangstas Only. This stylish young lass was a witness in a trial I had in which my client and Gangstas Only had a disagreement that involved pulling over on the side of the road and scratching one another's cars with a hammer and a screwdriver, respectively. I also used the term 'baby daddy' in earnest during this particular trial.


If anyone is looking for some ideas for making the world a better place (or just some free entertainment), I recommend stopping by your local courtroom.

See our garden grow

It is finally all done! Our garden is filled with dirt, plants, and dog proof fencing.



Can you see the elusive Coonhound in this shot?




Farmer Jon hard at work.










We even have a teeny, tiny baby cherry tomato already!



Can you see it?!






This is Jack's Happy Tomato dance!




This is the future site of the Coop...breaking ground next week- woo hoo!

Here are some shots of Trip and Jack practicing being good chicken shepherds.









Okay, Jack is probably actually planning how to eat all the veggies from the garden.

Fostering = lives saved...literally

Recently, Jon and I were talking about the number of paws...and soon to be claws...in the family. We both agree that 6 indoor pets is our limit. We also agree that when our dogs pass away, that we want to foster instead of adopting. I realize this may be easier said than done, but I feel VERY strongly that fostering is the most important link of the rescue chain.

Fostering a pet is so vital because it basically is an extension of a shelter...it is one more life that can be spared, as long as we live in a society in which animals are euthanized for space at shelters. It also provides valuable insight into what that pet will be like in a home, since the way a dog or cat behaves in a shelter isn't always their "real self". Also, often a dog or cat will need individual attention to learn to trust people or recover from an injury. I could go on and on, but just trust me - fostering rocks!


We've done our share of fostering...our sweet Tanner was our first foster. He arrived with a broken spirit, zero self confidence, and afraid of anything related to humans. He wouldn't even eat for the first 48 hours he was here. It took many months, but he slowly learned to trust us and how to be a dog. Sadly, his life had just been about survival before he came to us. I remember thinking that I would just be happy if he ever wagged his tail. Just look at him now!



This photo wouldn't be possible without foster homes...Marvin also was rescued by a foster home with his mama and sisters. Maybe that is why these 2 are such buds- they both had rough starts in rural Appalachia. Marvin was actually licking Tanner's ear moments before this photo, but coonhound ears are pretty irresistible, so who can really blame him.

Often, foster homes must be found very quickly, as shelters only have a couple days sometimes before they are forced to euthanize for space. This is Matilda:



She was slated to be euthanized at our local county shelter because she had some skin issues that they determined meant she was unadoptable. But, the rescue group I work with here (Brother Wolf Animal Rescue), would take her in and treat her skin issues- if a foster home could be found, because their shelter was full. Well, I reached out to lots of folks and my mom stepped up and said she would take in Matilda temporarily! All of this occurred in one day- I drove to the county shelter myself and sprung this lucky girl! She was safe! She is thriving now, her skin allergies have been addressed and she is an awesome, happy gal...house trained, sweet, great with all animals and people. The photo above was taken the day she got out of the shelter and was visiting the vet. She only stayed with my mom a couple of weeks until a spot opened up at the rescue's shelter, so often just a temporary foster home can make all the difference; it sure did for Matilda.

Many people hesitate to foster because of the fear that it will be difficult to say goodbye. That is true, but it also allows the foster to continue to foster, and therefore continue to save lives. All foster families seem to eventually adopt that one special...or 2...animal, but there always seems to be another amazing home out there who can love your foster as much as you do. Here are some of our foster puppies from last year:



This is Sylva. She and her 2 sisters found themselves in a shelter in Virginia. We fostered all 3 of them for Coonhound Rescue. Puppies are really fun to foster! Sylva now lives in South Carolina.



Here is Sylva's sister, Wilma. She is now a Texas girl!



This is Vada, she came from a shelter in eastern North Carolina. She was one of my favorite foster pups! She became very ill on her first day here and scared me to death, but luckily pulled through, and I think that created more of a connection between us. We logged several hours snuggling on the couch as she recovered. She was quickly adopted to a family in the DC area.

Puppies are actually easier in many ways to foster...even in groups.

Buddy is a dog that currently lives at Brother Wolf's shelter.



He is a timid guy who needs time to learn to trust people and learn that being in a house is a safe, fun place to be. He came over to hang out with me while I was hanging around the house...he felt safe inside his crate, where he could go to when he began to feel nervous.

Like I said earlier, I could go on and on about the joys and necessities of fostering, but here are a couple other perspectives, a cool blog all about fostering dogs and a short article explaining more about fostering.

If you've ever considered volunteering with an animal rescue group or local shelter, I highly recommend looking into fostering! It's a wild and wonderful experience. Just ask Tanner...and Marvin...and Matilda...and all the thousands of cats and dogs crashing for a bit in a kind soul's home, just waiting for their forever home to come along.

Outdoor Bonanza

I am too exhausted to provide much more detail than a photo collection of today...it began, for me, with a brick (a bike ride followed by a run) workout for my triathlon training. Thankfully, it wasn't too bad and I think may be able to pull off this triathlon in July! Next up: I need to register for it!




Then, my mom and I went to the awesome annual Herb Festival to pick up some plants- I am soooo excited to get my garden up and growing! Here are some of my finds: some heirloom varieties of tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, zucchini and a peppermint plant. My tomatoes are all gold or purple and one of the pepper plants is also a purple variety!






I also found this basket of cut and grow lettuce... since space is limited in the garden, this can just live on the deck and hopefully provide us with yummy salads all summer!



My poor husband is having some back pain, or A LOT of back pain, so he was unable to do his big bike race today- and trust me, he doesn't call in "sick" to anything. Despite his own injury, he went and bought mulch and we spread that in our front beds. Holy cow...do I have a newfound respect for people that make their living doing that sort of work! We are both hobbling around the house tonight! And this is only probably a third of what we want to mulch...eek!






Naturally, the only way to reward ourselves was with beer and pizza :).




Marvin, what do you think?

SuperTrip

I took this photo through our second story window and you can see Trip on top of our storage box. Immediately before this, he was standing on it, with his front leg n the deck railing, apparently trying to get as high as he could, and looking upward. He must have heard me moving around upstairs; he is our only dog who knows to look up and seems to understand when he hears us speak from a different location. Bless their hearts, but our other dogs just run around the yard looking for us. This same storage box used to be under the window to the laundry room, which houses the dogs' food and leashes; and sometimes when I was preparing food or getting leashes, I would look up to see Trip staring at me through the window- using the box as a stool. This dog has some major hyperawareness going on...I swear he also can "hear" when I am upstairs donning dog walking clothes and shoes, versus getting dressed to go to work or somewhere else, because when I come downstairs, there is Trippy all bouncy and ready to walk!



The first night we brought Tanner, then a basically feral foster dog, home, Tanner was extremely afraid and uncomfortable in our house. He just laid in a corner of the kitchen, ready to flee at any moment. But, sweet, intuitive Trip seemed to understand Tanner's fear and just calmly laid about 3 feet from him, facing him, as if to say "Its okay, buddy", and gave Tanner the space he needed. It was really cool to see Trip realize that his usual playful roughhousing wasn't appropriate at this time, and being calm and quiet was the way to go.

You've heard that one sense will become more acute if another is lost? Well, I'm not sure if that is true, but our dog with the missing leg sure seems to have an extra dose of heart..love you, SuperTrip!

The chicken definitely didn't come first...

At least not at our house. Turns out, before the actual, living and breathing chickens set claws in our yard, there are many VERY necessary accessories to acquire first, in order to be a successful chickener. Such as:

Chicken themed home decor (dish towels courtesy of my mama and her trip to Gatlinburg)!



Shoes. I've also already purchased (on eBay) my chicken boots, to wear while cleaning their coop and stomping around the yard and garden. This definitely was NOT an excuse for me to buy a pair of shoes, I swear.


Well, gotta run- time to go shop for matching chicken sweaters for Jon and me!