ErkkilaDotOrg

I haven’t blogged in awhile. Just haven’t felt like it. :P

• I have ordered a bag that bites after seeing one on Jenna’s blog.
• Cupcake had a liver enzyme reading that was a little too high before she had her last lump removal/dental…but after taking her off her l-thyroxine (she’s hypothyroid) and cutting the ground beef out of her meals, it’s coming back down. *Sigh*. 3 small dogs over 10 and the big one going on 8. It will be expensive for awhile I think.
• Candy mania. I ordered Easter chocolate from See’s (can’t resist the various filled chocolate eggs) and more Japanese candy from J-List/Jbox. A little every day, that’s the key.
• We might go to Dublin (Ireland) later this year as that’s where the next IETF is being held. Whoot! (assuming Icky is not sick, in which case Paul will go but I won’t)
• Our future neighbor (lives in San Diego currently) called and rather sheepishly asked if his friend the mason had ever come by to build a chicken coop last year…nope, and we still have windows purchased for the project in our barn. But he himself is coming to town in April and is lining up work, and asked if we would like it built! So maybe we’ll be picking up a few more Ameraucanas after all! Maybe some Jersey Giants, too. /me crosses fingers for more green eggs in the fall.
• Squeak is out of the house and living with the silkies in the barn in a little swimming pool pen. Everyone’s happy not being picked on in the big coop. Hopefully in the new coop we can subdivide into pens for this sort of issue. Thank God. Squeak is cute and all but she’s terribly loud and smells horrible.
• Speaking of ’smells horrible’, the RIR hen caged in our kitchen better get her feathers back soon. OMG. She has gotten so friendly, though.

Oops, dinner.

Bobie Botts every-flavored butts

I have the start of a decent sunburn, and about 100 welts from black fly bites; normally not the best start of a weekend. However Sobe ran herself out yesterday in short order, and sat out on the lawn with us (first time ever)  for a mighty fine few hours of yard work and fowl watching so I’m oddly content.

It doesn’t hurt that the lawn is mostly mowed ;).

It’s definitely Providence (a Rhode Island Red) laying eggs. The other day we kicked Squeak off the nest and Provy ran right in to sit there. Squeak chased her back off and she stood around with her legs crossed (figuratively) til we set her up in the other dog kennel. Sure enough, later there was another brown egg (even darker this time). Squeak’s currently sitting in a bucket in our kitchen (screened) to break her off her empty nest. Paul’s got a sign on it that says ‘Bucket of Chicken–do not eat,’ which Sobe can’t seem to read.
In other news, Cupcake was diagnosed as hypothyroid–which means, maybe after being on a pill for awhile, she may start losing weight! I hope someday she can run as fast as Icky and be able to jump up and down as easily as he can.

And, finally, my mom and I went out to the outlet mall and replaced all the chipped lids for my Corningware–I had only one left that was OK.

Looks as if Sobe’s famous…she’s now the example American Foxhound picture on Wikipedia (was on the requests page).

There is nothing like snow to bring on the holidays. Enjoy winter pictures from our Eastern Property, house, Western Property, Center Property, and Sobe galleries.