Too busy to blog!

I have officially not blogged in over a month... pretty pitiful! Tons have been going on, I have just been busy, enjoying outside more than inside (i.e. posting on the blog), and have been travelling a bunch. Seriously I think I have been gone 3-4 days out of the week for the past several weeks. Combine that with the sun going down at 8:30, we typically don't come in until sunset. This results is late nights and short weeks. I am looking forward to spending time with friends and weekends at home. That being said, there has been lots to keep me busy lately.

Some of the highlights of the past month have included:

1. My sweet and smart sister graduated from Texas A&M. Whoop! I am so proud of her.

2. We have found 4, yes FOUR, snakes outside of our house. My resident snake expert (my cousin Jason) says they are harmless water snakes but I am not a fan of ANY kind of snake. They have all been disposed of property. They have all been about the size of an unused pencil and their tail is red on the underside. The scary thing is I have not seen one of these snakes until Joe has pointed them out and they all all is areas that I regularly walk around (outside the front door, my flower bed, under my old red metal chair and just inside the garage). I am working on improving my attention to detail. Joe is looking for a outside cat we could have to keep these nasty critters away.

3. Joe built me 2 big shelves in my laundry room. I needed more pantry/kitchen storage space so Joe added some big shelves above my washer/dryer for kitchen electronics, big platters, and canned goods (to accommodate my couponing habit). This fulfills that need nicely and I am loving the additional space that I have in my regular cabinets.

One shelf down, (err, up), one to go!

4. I have tried canning. My incredibly generous aunt Marilyn is a great gardener and on one of my trips to Brenham, she gave me a giant box filled with tomatoes and a cooler filled with other fresh veggies from her garden. In order to keep these from spoiling, I canned fresh tomatoes and homemade salsa. The tomatoes were relatively easy but a bit more watery than I expected. The salsa tasted great but after working on it for about 3-4 hours, I only got 4.5 cans of salsa. It was definitely not a good investment in terms of time but totally worth it for the experience. I would eventually like to can pasta sauce with some of my fresh basil but that will have to wait. Also, my Aunt Gay Nell said should would have me over to can pickles. I am pretty excited about it.

Box full of tomatoes awaiting their fate

Canned tomatoes

5. Joe and I have been talking a lot about creating an outdoor living area. We have spent a lot of time planning/brainstorming where things could go and what would look best. Will update you with how this progresses over the months to come.

The outdoor area will be at the back of the house around the covered porch

6. I got a Cricut! I am super excited about it even thought i haven't really used it yet... but I will!

7. One of my chickens mysteriously died. In preparation for Aprilfest this year we started building a big bonfire with tree and shrub branches. Due to the burn ban, the bonfire hasn't happened yet. Meanwhile, we noticed that the dogs moved the branches around to make a tunnel going through the pile. During the day the dogs lay in here, their dog house, or in their kiddie pool. When the dogs aren't in their tunnel the chickens take it over. When I got home this past weekend Joe said something must have died in the pile because it was stinking. I jokingly said it was a chicken. Sadly, I found I was correct when I went to count my chickens and found one missing. We shortly spotted the chicken in the pile and got it out. When examining it, it was obvious it had been dead for a couple days but it showed no outward signs of injury. Not sure what happened but maybe a snake bit it? Any ideas?

RIP (the chicken, not the dog)

The bonfire now has tunnels through it and is the (literally) cool hang out spot for my dogs and chickens. This is where we found the dead chicken.

7. We (mainly Joe) have completely re-done our rabbit area. Due to the heat, we have expanded the covering over the rabbit area, installed fans and a misting system in an attempt to keep the rabbits cooler. This seems to be working but it was a LONG processes.

When its in writing it really does not seem like much but it really has been. My sister is getting married in July and that should cut done on some of my traveling (I've been in Brenham a bunch for her showers bachelorette party). I am hoping things will slow down, but honestly, who knows.

Bunnies? Check!

Last week I got some new additions - some really cute bunnies. About two months ago, I told Mr. Doug Maurer, my sister in law Jamie's dad and rabbit extraordinaire, that I wanted to get some rabbits to raise at the house. Doug told me he would breed a momma rabbit for me and give me the the little bunnies. Sure enough, a couple weeks ago Doug let me know the rabbit had 7 (yes you read that right, seven) bunnies that would be ready to go to their new home in three weeks.

Mothers Day weekend I showed up at at the Maurers and left with my 7 bunnies and their big - pregnant - momma.
There were a couple escape attempts by these little guys the first day of having them. Somehow some of them squished their little selves through the holes in chicken wire. Thankfully their cages is inside a larger fenced in area that the chickens stay in so they couldn't get too far. After a few frenzied minutes of searching I found 2 that were introducing themselves to the hens, 1 that was hiding in the holes of a cinder block, and still another that I truly believe was a ninja its previous life. This amazing ninja bunny crawled out of its cage (which is off the ground) and into another rabbits cage. This second rabbits cage is both off the ground and about 3-4 inches away from the cage the bunnies stay in. How it managed to sneak its way into the other cage without the gift of opposable thumbs I will never know.

The ninja bunnie.

Needless to say, after rounding up all the escapees, welded wire with smaller holes was installed around the cage. A week after getting the bunnies everyone appears to be in tip top shape and growing everyday.

Many thanks to Doug Maurer for the bunnies. If you are in the market for rabbits - especially for fair- he is definitely the person to contact.