Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Chickens!

So, I'm sure someone is wondering why I chose the title that I did.  Frizzle has kinda been an alias of mine for a few years now, and I freakin LOVE chickens.  They are probably my favorite animals.  At home, I have quite a few chickens, though 6 of which are roosters that are going to be butchered maybe this week.  Here is a list of my chickens.  Name, sex, breed, age, egg color.  Picture if I have one.

Butterball, female, Buff Orphinton, 3 yrs, brown/pink

Baldina, female, Black Australorp, 3 yrs, brown/pink

Speckles, female, Buff Orphinton X Silver Laced Wyandotte, 2 1/2 yrs, pink

Moonshine, male, Easter Egger X (Speckles), 1/2 yr

  • Puff, male, Easter Egger X Ancona, 2 1/2 yrs
  • Ash, female, Easter Egger X Black Star, 2 1/2 yrs, green
  • Selena, female, Ancona X Silver Laced Wyandotte, 2 1/2 yrs, white
  • Cassidy, female, (Puff) X Black Minorca, 1/2 yr, white/crème
Baldina and Speckles are extremely special to me because they are such good brooders.  Baldina is probably the best, this summer while I was away at camp, she got a hold of 13ish eggs, each layed on a different day.  This meant that when it came to hatching the eggs, it was staggered, and took an additional 10+ days since the first chick hatched out.  Often, hens will give up if the hatching process takes too long.  Speckles and Baldina hatched out a total of 15 chicks this summer, though only 6 made it through the summer because of my dog, and there was one fatality due to a Kestrel.  Yeah, that sucked.  What sucked worse was that of the 6 that survived, only ONE was a female.  fml.  Moonshine was a very pretty rooster that hatched out, so all is not lost.  The other four are on the list for the chopping block.

When I have a house of my own someday, I fully intend to raise chickens as well.  My long-term goals with my chickens (besides just enjoying them) is that I want a fairly uniform duel purpose flock that is well suited for the cold (fluffy, with small combs) as well as being colors that blend fairly well with the landscape.  I would like some Frizzled chickens because I like that feather type, and maybe some rare and unusual breeds that I could show.  But for that, I will have to wait until I am older.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

The roomate...

Speaking of deer jaw bones soaking in water...  I'm trying to make sure my current roommate moves elsewhere next semester.  Its not that she is a bad person, its just that she is a space whore.  As in, she claimed way more of the room then was rightfully hers.  Now, the normal, average person would probably kindly point out this fact, but not me. I really suck at potentially confrontational situations.  So I merely gritted my teeth, fixing other little problems in our relationship.  Like how I wanted no part of the enormous chair she brought and stuck in the middle of our room.  Thankfully, she rearranged her furniture, or should I say, she made her parents do it.

Otherwise, the only real complaint I have is that she leaves her used ear swabs all over the floor of our closet.  There must be something wrong with her ears, because her swabs are always really yellow and gunky...  I may be an eclectic, messy person, but I am a clean one.  I believe in regular showering, making the garbage can, and not leaving food scattered all over the floor.  My roommate, does not.

So I am passive aggressive.  She has clearly expressed that she does not like dead animal bits or gore in the slightest, so I brought all the animal furs, antlers, and feathers I could from home when I realized this wasn't going to work out.  You, the reader, is probably asking why I didn't move out and let her be someone else’s problem, and the reason is that I really want this room.  Its slightly bigger than the other dorm rooms, and with the right person, it has the potential to be kickass.

Hopefully, it will work out with the next person I have lined up, as we all are in the same friend group.  Which is great, because if she wants alone time with her boyfriend in the room, I can just get the keys to his room and play Fable all day, or co-op on Halo with his roommate.  Oh yeah, that is the type of ppl I hang out with.  Speaking of nerdyness, I also like to play Magic the Gathering.  I view it as being akin to chess, in that you have to have strategy when not only playing, but when building decks.

Now, while this may have given the impression that I am socially inept, an atrophied shut in, it is not the case.  I'm attending college for Environmental Ed, and typically work at camps during the summer.  I enjoy hunting deer, this weekend I am going to (hopefully) get certified to drive motor boat, and next semester I am going to take a scuba diving class. 

If a similar image is shown on the news in the next year or so, know it was me.

Monday, November 29, 2010

It begins

So, while munching on a deer heart, I have decided to start a blog of my own.  Between college, work, real life, etc...  I will try to do the regular updates and what not that everyone else does.  An intro to myself; I live in the Upper Midwest, grew up on a farm, and was a bit on the crazy side as a kid. Think unmedicated ADD until the 9th grade.  Now a days, it is a contained crazy, which any of my friends and family could tell you.

Why did I create a blog?  In part, I just wanted to experience what it is like to right one.  I knew what it is, but I feel a little like Jethro Gibbs from NCIS when faced with technology.  Growing up, our house didn't have a computer that I could use freely until I was in the 5th gradeish?  So although I'm not crippled when I have to use the computer, it not ingrained in my cerebral cortex how everything works.

Edit:  Found the fish.  They are my new favorite toy.  I have fish in real life, although they are not nearly as fun to feed.  A giant goldfish a friend didn't want anymore, I can't remember it's name, a male guppy named Roy, as G. and Biv both died, and an albino Cory that I refuse to love named Cory.

If you are wondering what I am doing, RIGHT NOW, it involves soaking the jaw bones of deer in warm water.  I have an assignment due this week in which the professor said, "do it on whatever you want."  So I'm going to make a demonstration for children on how to tell the approximate age of a deer based on the wear and tooth structure in its mouth.  I am probably going to base it off of this website http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/publications/pwdpubs/media/pwd_bk_w7000_0755.pdf  as it is right and easy to follow.

And while I'm posting websites, check out this one: http://snowdays.popularfront.com/  It is a better waste of time then facebook, I swear.