Guinea Nest Moving Fiasco: Part One....

Oh. My. Some things are just way better in theory than they are in real life! The plan...I'll distract her, hubby will grab her from behind, I'll grab the eggs, and they'll immediately be reunited in the nice safe coop where life goes on safely. Simple, right? Keep in mind we have never done anything like this before.

We managed to somehow drop the ball on grabbing her off the nest. While Hubs chased her, I had no doubt in my mind that we'd catch her. Yes, that is the La La Land that I live in, where things go fine even when they don't go fine. Darn that optimism! So I went ahead and gathered the eggs and moved them. Only we didn't catch her! Between the roof, and the trees, and then it got dark...we didn't catch her. Crap! Plan B! Plan B! Oh hell! There was no plan B! And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, is where we failed.

Hindsight being 20/20 and all, plan A SHOULD have been to secure the hen, THEN gather the eggs and move them all happily. Plan B SHOULD have been: if she could not be secured, then leave it alone and try again. That way she would have gone back to sitting on the nest, thus easier to catch (If there is such a thing as easier. Have you ever tried to catch a Guinea?!?!?!) and her eggs would not be too disturbed. Instead she ended up in the tree for the night. Once the eggs had been moved, and it was dark and chilly, and no hen to sit on them...this is what happened....

I didn't know what else to do! She had been sitting on them so wouldn't getting cold overnight kill them? I dunno. I dunno! I dunno!!! So I brought them in the house, kicking myself the whole time, and sprinkled water on the grass and put a heat pad on top to maintain 99ish degrees - with the intention of catching her sometime today and hopefully, HOPEFULLY getting them in the coop together where she'll happily shed a tear over the reunification with her littles-to-be and commence sitting until they hatch, which they will do, because I so ingeniously kept them warm in her absence. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh!

Crap. Crap! Crap!!! I feel horrible. Maybe it will all work out? Please, God, let it all work out!

So, tip of the day....When attempting to move a Guinea Hen and her nest to safety, secure the bird BEFORE going any further! I'll let you know how it turns out.

Brain Dead...

Dinner brain dead that is. Last week's menu was Pizza, Tacos, Spaghetti, Meatloaf. May as well have been Dull, Mundane, Boring, and Not Again!

Truly, I have been so out of ideas. I had been "Ad Shopping", as in, when the weekly ad came out, I made a menu around what was on sale. That got me by for a little while.

So I am a huge Dave Ramsey fan...we used his plan to get out of debt. E-Mealz is advertised on his show and I had thought about signing up. But what spurred me on was talking to a co-worker and hearing she is signed up for a similar menu service and loving it. So I signed up for E-Mealz and we are loving it! For a buck and a quarter a week, the menu is planned and the grocery list made. It is two pages...page 1 is the weekly menu with the recipes right there, and page 2 is the grocery list. All the meals have been good and the amount of prep and time to make pretty easy. Maybe eventually I'll get my dinner mojo back, but for now this has been a life saver!

In other news, the Guineas have started a nest! It is not in the coop...it is between the duck house and creek in a bramble of fallen tree branch. Our plan is to keep an eye on it and when she has a full clutch and starts sitting...move her and the nest to a confined area. Last count she had 13 eggs. And she is not sitting on it yet, so it is not time. Hopefully this will go according to plan and we'll have Guinea Keets someday!

Oh, and we have a pregnant cat. She's not a very friendly cat so all kinds of questions come to mind...like will she be a good mom? Will her babies be friendly? WILL SHE LET ME PLAY WITH HER NEWBORNS?!?!?! I hope so! :) We are getting her spayed after this litter, which is her first litter.

Garden is well under way. Onions are growing, Potatoes should be sprouting any time now, and the first succession of Carrots, Spinach, Chard, and Lettuce seeds are in. My Tomato, Pepper, Ground Cherry, and Broccoli plants are in the process of hardening off. It is a pain in the rear to drag them in at night and out of the house in the morning, but I keep telling myself it won't be long now! We have had an amazingly mild and warm spring. I am getting ready to start Melons, Pumpkins, and Squash seeds. I will start them outdoors in flats - they'll stay outside during the day and come in at night. A lot of people around here are planting warmer season stuff already....I am still leery so I am sticking with my original timing schedule.

That is about it for now! How's it going in your neck of the woods?