All the fun stuff seems to happen on the weekend. I'm blaming it on Kevin as the catalyst. The fun stuff seems to happen when he's around.

I was looking out the window the other morning when I saw the post man pull up into my driveway.  "Now this is different." I said to myself.  So I went outside to meet the man.  He had a very special delivery for me.  He said that the folks at the post office handed it to him talking about the stench emanating from the small box.  He decided to deliver it first before he started his usual run - and I had to agree that it was a good idea.  You see, the worms I ordered were in that shipment.  


I've bought worms before, but it was from someone local and I picked them up myself.  There was no smell.  I housed them in my dining room where it was convenient to feed them regularly.  Even with food in with them, there was no odor. 

In addition to the worms I got for making compost of my kitchen scraps, I also ordered some mealworms.  I have now become the chicken's best friend.  But I didn't want to use them all up on day one, so I decided to read up on them and find out how to raise them myself - since I raise the other worms why not.  


It doesn't take much!  Some ground meal - oats, bran - and a half a potato for moisture.  They will change from the mealworms they are today to a pupa stage and from there to the darkling beetle.  From there I'm hoping they have hot and steamy sex and give lots of eggs so I can start feeding the chickens again.


Thank you Wikipedia for the following information:

Eggs to larva takes 10 - 12 days
Larva to pupa takes 120 - 540 days
Pupa to beetle takes 20 days
Life span of beetle 80 days
Number of eggs per female beetle - about 80 each


Also on a link about darkling beetles, I find that warmer temperatures speed up the beetles lifecycle.

Kevin and I were sitting on the floor playing with Max and Toby with Bo looking on... Max is gentle with Toby yet chases all of the stray cats that hang around.  Toby seems to like the attention that Max gives - at least for a little while.

We're not in Kansas anymore.  Just after the cat got up we heard a noise outside in the back yard.  Our 10 X 10 shade had gotten picked up by the wind.  It was in the air turning around in circles, catycorner, upside down - it was going crazy.  Oh My God! I yelled.  Then it went over the neighbor's yard still on it's frantic, and fantastic flight.  I'm thinking broken windows, their kids getting crushed. Oh My God! I yelled again.  Then back over to our yard and CRASH!  Thankfully in our own yard and not someone else's.  Oh My God! I said again.  And we rushed outside.  Are there dead chickens, ducks or rabbits under that thing?  Will it fly again I wondered?  What the heck?!!!  It was surreal.  Aunty Em, Aunty Em.  There's no place like home, there's no place like home.  This flight lasted for maybe 10 - 15 seconds.  I got 3 Oh My God's out of it - literally.  The thoughts of crushed kids, animals, windows and The Wizard of Oz really did go through  my mind during that long couple of seconds.  But luckily, no one and nothing was hurt or damaged... except for the shade.  It was a goner. It landed on top of the umbrella and it's stand (which thankfully stayed still on the ground where it belongs).

and we did.  It has those push buttons that lock it all into place and some were really hard to get pushed in so that we could pull the pieces apart.  Kevin had the hammer, I had the end of a pocket knife that I used to push the buttons into the holes.  Then Kevin would hammer on the metal to get the pieces to pull apart. They were tight, rusted, twisted... so at one point I'm pushing, Kevin is hammering and I was stupid enough to say, "Don't miss."  Two swings of the hammer later and BANG! You guessed it, he missed.  Well, he missed the metal but he did hit my thumb, so I guess it wasn't a total miss.  I said it last post and I'll say it again, "Hard work is dangerous to your health."  


This week I have 3 band-aids on my fingers and thumb, in addition to the hammered thumb.  Kevin has 3 cuts on one leg.  But we're happy.  And we laugh about it all.  Especially about my latest cut that happened tonight.  I'm in the kitchen cleaning a piece of equipment for my business and I've come across some particularly stuck on goo.  I first used a screw driver that was near by to scrape stuff off, but then I ended up in a corner.  So I see a steak knife and figure that would work better and used that for awhile.  Then I think about it and decide that a steak knife probably isn't the best kitchen tool to use because of safety and so decided to switch to a butter knife.  As Kevin is watching TV he hears me scream a sharp sound of surprise.  Then I tell him I need another band-aid.  He comes in to the kitchen to see my latest war wound and to help stop the blood. Before he gets to the band-aids he asks me how I cut myself this time.  I tell him by butter knife and he laughs so hard he's doubled over and tears come to his eyes.  

Well, back to the shade that we eventually got taken apart.  There it was laying in pieces.  I wanted the corner braces for vining plants to have a support, but then we come up with the idea of a trellis.  Actually, I think it was Kevin who came up with the idea of how to make it work.  We were able to make 2 of them from the twisted wreck that caused so much drama.  I felt like my grandparents who saved everything.  Made something from nothing - and I was very proud of us.  These are held together by baling twine which I also had saved from the hay and straw.  Next year I will train the grapes to go on  this instead of the fence.

Each morning when I let the chickens out they run first into the garden.  Bugs, slugs and snails are the first item on the agenda for the day.  For dessert, there are the grapes.  Now that the chickens are bigger they can somewhat fly - at least as high as the grapevines.  They only eat the ripe grapes and leave the green ones behind.  They even take turns - dropping some to the waiting crowd below.  

Our birds put themselves to bed each night.  The chickens always returning to the coop the ducks to the back part of the run, just outside where the chickens roost.  Only little "Miss Pris" has a special perch all her own - in the branch of the slowly dying cherry tree that had the misfortune to be right inside their enclosure.  The others sit on various perches, or even on the home made nesting box enclosure. (still no eggs by the way)

Craigslist - it's great I'm telling you!  We have one rain barrel that I bought from Home Depot for just around $100.  Very expensive.  But our water bill is so high, and the temperature is so hot - we have to do something.  In a previous post I told you that we put in a hose that goes from the shower to the rain barrel - but the rains should be here in a couple of months and I want to be prepared to catch some of that.  Kevin read that one roof, roughly 1000 square feet will catch over 600 gallons of water with just one inch of rain.  That's a lot of water!  I want some of it for my garden.  We'll still need to buy rain gutters and install them - but we'll get there.  For now I found three 55 gallon drums on Craigslist for $12 each.  Much cheaper than Home Depot!  The tops come off and are held in place by a metal band that locks into place.  They originally held shampoo which has been washed out - but if any still remains, it won't hurt the plants and it may keep off some of the bugs.  We went and bought some faucets that we'll need to install in them - that can be next weekend's project... we've run out of time this weekend.  

Is it because of the chickens?  Is it because of the heat?  Is it because the water drys up so quickly in the heat?  We don't have any little seedlings popping up from the first batch of seeds we planted last week... I thought there would be some... maybe I'm just too impatient.


The chickens are in the planting beds from time to time.


We decided it's time to keep the chickens on the ground where they belong - and out of my planting beds.  To that end we bought some PVC pipe and some bird netting.  The pipe is up, but the netting will have to wait another day.  Time is a precious commodity and though I'm retired, I have very little of it.  It seems I'm busier than ever.

Old icky linoleum on top of other old icky linoleum... I took it all out this week and replaced it with new, clean linoleum tiles.  I also hung stuff up, (first aid kit, fire extinguisher, menu chalk board) and have been in the process of making it look like a real kitchen - and hopefully ready for inspection soon.

I'm still running off of an electrical cord - that's what you see in front of the door.  And the radio will probably be on the corner shelf above the air conditioning unit and not left on a chair..  My friend who was going to look at my electrical and advise me hasn't gotten back to me, so I think I may need to purchase a generator instead.  I will have to have electricity for the health inspection I'm sure.

We did a Smart & Final run for supplies - cups, lids, straws, stirrers, coffee, chocolate, caramel and strawberry topping for donuts, chips & sunflower seeds, sodas and water, sugar, creamer...  

We went to Home Depot and got various sizes of storage bins with lids to hold supplies and I transfered things like napkins, tea, hot chocolate into those.  I put cleaning supplies into their own container and I will go online to get the MSDS for them this upcoming week and place that into a thin binder.

I pulled out a 30 cup percolator that I had from the glory days of working for the beautiful and very special Miss Melanie. (we would have a 'tea party' once a month with the entire department invited)  I also had carafes.  (Now, how do you make coffee???  I forget.)  


One thing that still needs to be done is for the plumbing to be put back together.  Kevin took out the water tanks (clean and waste) as well as the water heater.  The hoses were gross to put it mildly.  We bought new ones today and Kevin will replace it all for me.  


One last thing I'll need to do is get a screen put up for the serving window.  I'll call a mobile screen installer tomorrow because this will have to be custom made.  After that - I think I'm ready for inspection.  Hopefully I can get my friend Fernando to come and do a pre-inspection for me first.

I received two suggestions from friends (Thank you Chris & Kathy).  They recommend that I use Amazon Associates for the books I recommend.  I'm in the process of doing that - but I don't have it all figured out yet.  Hopefully next update will include that.  Again, thank you for your suggestions, all are appreciated.

I have a busy week ahead of me and more adventures await - fitting the rain barrels with spigots, working further on the trailer, planting more seeds that will hopefully grow.


Until the next update - may you be safe, healthy and find joy in the small moments of every day life.