Rob has gotten his first of two COVID shots! We’re starting to be hopeful although not sure how long before I can get a vaccination. Texas got a slow start.
Waiting to see what plants survive this terrible winter. Our baby fruit trees had already started to bud before the storm, so that may not be so good. Our redbud tree has started budding, but all the live oaks which are the most populous in the yard, look dismal and have dropped most of their leaves (although they typically do lose some leaves this time of year). Where a few branches had fallen, Rob cut them up, and after we reviewed the local guidelines, he trimmed the tree at the break and sealed it so that beetles won’t go in and spread oak wilt which, once introduced to a tree, can then spread to other trees via roots. Basically, a disaster.
The dogs got ahold of my prescription sunglasses and wrecked them. Which is terrible. However, I’ve had them a long time and never really liked them as they didn’t fit well weirdly I couldn’t see well with them on. So anyway, I experimented and ordered sunglasses that simply fit OVER your glasses. You’d think that’d be terrible but remember my head is teeny and my glasses are also teeny. So I ordered X-Small and Voilà! They work awesome, and are so cheap as no prescription needed, and they came with a cord so I can easily have them on or off. I’m really pumped about that.
Chickens back to regular but they do seem like they don’t lay many eggs. Possibly one or two of them no longer lay eggs? Or they have a secret stash? But the flowerbeds, normally their area for stashes, has been ravaged and so that’s not happening. The chickens spend a lot of time, though, underneath the deck surrounding the pool. I keep wondering if they have a stash under there. So finally, one day, I put on long sleeve shirt, pants, gloves and my headlamp and went “spelunking” under the deck! The maneuvering space is shallow so it required shuffling along with my body flat on the ground. At first, it was spooky and I was wary of insects, spiders, snakes, whatever, but anyway I managed to scramble all the way around…and all I saw was dirt, feathers, and chicken poop. No sign of a secret stash.
Pups are OK but same issues with them hyper together, Woody peeing anytime he’s excited, etc. So I went for it and searched on amazon.com for “dog chill pills” and yep, there they were! So now I give them each 3 of them per day and supposedly over a few weeks it will help with all those difficult behaviors. Why not try it!? We literally are strategizing all the time on how to minimize bitey-face between them, and how to prevent Woody from peeing all over due to…anything exciting or new or scary or whatever. See gallery below of pics showing an example of pee on the floor.
Dogs probably need baths but we’re ignoring that. They also probably need toenail trims. Woody’s paws we refer to as talons because they are wicked sharp. Even after they get toenail trims, Woody’s are ALWAYS sharp as knives! So anyway, Rob has dog nail clippers and has surreptitiously cut a couple of their nails when they were laying sleepily on his lap!! It’s a start!
Rob recently put another layer of stain on the deck, which looks awesome, and the funny thing is that I noticed one of the hash browns has stain on her back! Haha, as I said, they spend a lot of time under the deck so it makes sense.
We’ve been brainstorming ideas for a couple of homemade clocks in the house. For the music room, which has a mid-century modern feel, we came up with several design concepts but anyway, I think we have one picked out which Rob can build himself. Then in the great room, while we have one clock, we could use one more. So we talked about different chicken-themed clocks. Starting with the obvious, but of course I want to go radical so after considering hands that turn behind the face of the clock and you can just see them through gaps, or cuckoo-clock style, then we talked about a clock that doesn’t involve a clock face at all. So it would involve representations of the chickens and also representations of the places they hangout (chicken run, roost, under the deck, flowerbed, yard). The chickens in real life have patterns to where they spend their time each day. Overnight, all are in roosts (we lock them in). And first thing in morning, and before bed, they are in the run. Usually throughout the afternoon, any or all of them may spend time in the roost laying an egg or pretending to lay an egg. So basically, the clock would reflect the chicken daily rhythms so that you can then deduce what time it is!
A few pics below.
