Saturday Updates!

This past week, we got new collars for Lilac, Nola and Liam. I took pictures with The Girl's camera phone as my camera is still refusing to talk to the computer...let's see how those pics turned out...

Liam got a blue collar

Lilac has a violet collar, though it looks red here

Nola got pink!

This morning when I was out feeding, I heard an unfamiliar noise. A tiny little *peep-peep*.. I was feeding the *annex* hens, so I looked next door at the regular coop and saw a tiny chick dash up to the fence...and immediately get pounced by one of the hens. As in, "I am about to shred and eat you" pounce!

By the time I got in the coop, the wee chick had been shredded and devoured by several hens.
So, I fixed up a cardboard box with straw and scooped up all the eggs and the brooding mamas and put them on the front porch. One mama (Beatrice) decided she did NOT want to hatch eggs on the front porch and abandoned the nest and her eggs quickly.
The other broody mama, Ugly Betty, happily accepted all of Beatrice's eggs and is comfortably nesting.
Pender is definitely over his illness and is being very attentive to his little harem.

Pender and girls checking out an old feed sack.

His attentions have paid off...I have gathered 14 eggs so far today!

Eggs in nesting box

Maybe it was the heavy duty scrub down of the nesting boxes and coop, or the fresh straw or the liberal dusting with DM earth that I gave the coop, but no more chickens have gotten sick. I am very happy about that!
Also...camera phone pics suck. I can see that. I just gotta get the camera/computer thing straightened out!
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Bad news for today...we had to have the car worked on this month...and it sucked our budget DRY!
We have a  debt owed to us...we loaned money to someone back in late October. They were supposed to pay it back by Dec. 20th. Then they were supposed to pay it all back when their taxes came in. Then they were supposed to start paying it back every two weeks...
You see how that's going. Not one damn penny has been paid back.
This was a substantial  amount of money for us to loan out. Fortunately, we had them sign a contract and if no monies are paid back next week on the 15th, I intend to take them to court. I told the wife that I will have a lien put on their vehicles, their household items, even their dogs if I have to, but they WILL pay us back.
I told the Darlin' Man the loan was a bad idea and when he decided to go ahead and make the loan, I told him an amount I thought reasonable. He tripled it. The couple told him it was part of their medical expenses, etc and they needed that amount or they couldn't pay rent or utilities or get groceries. AFTER he loaned the money out, we found out the *medical expenses* were for their DOGS. They have two pit bulls and one attacked the other and shredded her. The wife in the couple was pregnant at the time...and apparently thought paying out $1,000.+  was a good use of their rent/utility/grocery funds.
I am so angry I could just pitch a fit.
So, the car breaking down and having to be repaired really threw a monkey wrench into the works here. The car is an absolute necessity and so are brakes on the darn thing.  And tires that aren't totally threadbare.
(I was wondering what that *shimmy* was...and why it took me a football field length too stop...)
So, car repairs are *mostly* done. Still need a couple of tires, but we can tough it out until June.
But, all that cut into our budget. The rent and all the utilities are paid first, so we don't have to worry about that.
Groceries...well...darn good thing we have food storage! We will have a lot of *Food Storage Meals* this month, supplemented by our eggs, milk, cheese and other goodies we get from our chickens and goats.
Lesson learned here?
Never loan more than you are willing to just give away.