Back from my Break

Sorry about the long break I took, but there were a lot of things I had to take care of.
You know when you clean your desk, or your room or whatever and get rid of ALL the clutter. You sit back and think "Wow! Got all that done! My space looks so clean and neat, I'll NEVER let it get all cluttered again!" Yeah....but slowly and surely, that clean, neat space gets cluttered again until one day you realize you can't see your desk or floor or whatever anymore.
Well, life can be like that, too. Just when you think you have everything neatly boxed up and can see a clear path to your next goal, BLAMMO!, your life is suddenly cluttered and filled with more tasks and things that need your attention.
That has basically been my life for the last month.
It's a bit better now.
But not everything has gone smoothly...

The new turkeys?
That big bourbon turned out to be pure e-v-i-l . He stomped and pecked to death Trixie and Timothy.
We have sold him to a friend, but they are leaving him here until Christmas. He is now in his own cage...solitary confinement, so to speak.
I also put the Royal Palm tom in his own private pen. Better safe than sorry.

The puppies?
I have one left. I found good homes for the three that have left. Someone is coming to check out the last pup this afternoon. (The black female we call "Lady".) I wanted to keep the runt of the litter, the little brown one. We ended up naming her "Cuddles" because of her habit of hopping on the couch and cuddling up to whomever was there. But....last night a family arrived to look at the biggest pup in the litter, Colossus, our last remaining male. Mom, Dad and their little girl who was around 4 years old. The three puppies we had left at that point all ran outside and Cuddles and that little girl looked at each other...and it was a done deal. Cuddles ran up to her, the little girl bent done...and Cuddles jumped into her arms. And the look on the little girls face...yeah, couldn't argue with that! Colossus left about an hour later, when a family with a little boy showed up and he and Colossus had their "love at first sight" moment.
Baby, our mama-dog, has dealt with the puppies leaving quite well. No fussing. In fact, she seems to be happy about it. She is getting more attention from us and that is just fine with her!

The Darlin' Man did an *end run* around me and acquired a second peacock for our flock of peafowl. I actually didn't know about it until I went out the next morning to feed!  Thought I was seeing double for a second as he and Pericles were sharing a roost.

I need a new rooster. We are currently *roosterless* and it is having a bad effect on our hens. They are NOT happy. Unhappy hens = fewer eggs. NOT good! A few of our older hens died, but I think that was due to age more than anything else. Priscilla, our oldest hen was one of them. Made me sad as she was such a lovely hen and a good layer. The climate here, with the severe heat in summer and the extremely low humidity, is not conducive to chickens having a long life.
So, I am haunting Craigslist looking for a rooster. I looked down at the feedstore, but they raised their price from 10 bucks for a rooster to 30 bucks!!! RIDICULOUS! Now that cold weather is here, maybe they will drop their price, but I won't hold my breath!

The bunnies are doing fine. We sold the baby bunnies to the feedstore and they sold out of them within 24 hours! We took store credit as it was a better deal and were able to get feed for the chickens and peafowl and turkeys, plus a bag of doggie treats.

I am gearing up for the holidays and doing a lot of baking, so that is taking up some of my time. Also doing some quilting and that is taking a LOT of my time. I need to get to the fabric store to grab some fabric and maybe the thrift store to get some old blankets for quilt filler. Batting is SOOOO expensive, so I usually just use old blankets that I wash and mend before using them in a quilt. For the *reverse* side of my quilts, I usually just use a sheet in a color/pattern that complements the quilt.

That's what I have been doing and it just eats up my time. Also, getting the livestock pens ready for winter. Raking them out, putting down fresh bedding, etc.

Hope everyone out there is getting ready for winter...