This and that

Last week I was sick. I started the week feeling that a chest cold was coming on. On Wednesday - over a week ago now - I was able to get in and get a massage to try and relax the elastic band that was around my chest, shoulders and back. The massage did help to ease the very tight muscles, but I think it also helped to bring on the cold even more.

Thursday I was bad, Friday even worse. Saturday was the worst I have felt in a very long time. Poor Hubby had come to bed around 3 or 4 and shortly thereafter went to sleep elsewhere because I was coughing so much.

I even took cold medication on Saturday to try and help ease the sinus pressure and pain. That is a big step for me - I hate taking medication.

After a while the sinus pressure began to ease and I was able to open my eyes without feeling faint. In the afternoon, I was even able to go out and watch Hubby and the A-man dismantle the tree fort in the back yard. (More about plans for that in a minute.)

I guess the worst of it was on Saturday because I started to feel better on Sunday. Now I'm just trying to clear my lungs of the icky stuff. I'm also happy to say that my engergy levels have come back to normal and I'm not spending all night, every night, laying on the couch and feeling like a log. I loathe being sick.

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Saturday is the A-man's 16th birthday! Wow - legal driving age. Such a scary idea for the parent of an ADHD child. Now I will admit, the idea of S driving a car scares me far more than the idea of the A-man driving does. He has calmed quite a bit, and matured so much that I don't think his ADHD should even have a factor in to things. I'm going to look in to the cost of driving classes and talk to Hubby about giving that to the A-man for a gift.

I've invited a number of people over for dinner on Saturday night, and I've not mentioned it to the A-man. People are just going to start arriving and wishing him a Happy Birthday. I'm planning on making all of his favourites for dinner, and then the 'kids' will get the run of the downstairs while the adults chat upstairs. It should be nice. I know he will like the fuss and attention, even if he won't get the whole element of "Surprise" being yelled at him when he enters a room.

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Okay, now on to the most exciting adventure our house has ever tried. The A-man and Hubby were dismantling the tree house because we are going to 'renovate' the shell of the tree fort and turn it in to a chicken coop!

Yup - sometime around April 22, we are going to be receiving 3 week old Black Sex Link chickens! 20 of them. :o)
At first they will look like this but then when they are fully grown, the girls will look more like this:

Pretty little things, aren't they?

Then, a few weeks later - the first Tuesday in May - we will be getting a dozen day old ring-neck pheasants. They will be wee tiny, and will require the whole brooding process. I'm quite nervous about because it's quite a task caring for little baby birdies!

At a day old the chicks will look something like this

and when they are fully grown will look more like this:


And, why, exactly are we doing this? Who knows?
It will be an interesting adventure for us, and it will be kind of fun to learn about what's involved in raising them. By September we should be starting to get eggs! Until I'd started reading about how to raise them, I didn't realize that chicken's lay eggs every 26 hours or so.

Then, in the late Fall, we will start to fill the freezer, I guess. I will not be involved in that process - that will be all Hubby's doing. (He was raised on a farm and this is something very common for him!)

I've told the boys that they will have to help with the chores involved in raising the birds, but I don't know how involved they will be. S is very excited about getting the babies, but I don't think he realizes how much care they will require.

It'll be an adventure that I'm looking forward to talking about on here!