Well we finally got my new "birthday coop" done and it's awesome.  It was a family project.  My dad spent days prepping and sanding it.  My mom painted the red part of the coop and I painted the trim.  My dad also put linoleum in and shingled the roof. 

I've found my new Love - It's a Pressure Washer

14 parrots, means a lot of parrot cages to clean it's never bothered me before but as I get older, I've have had parrots now for 10 years, my hands have a harder time cleaning everything.  My dad bought a gas powered pressure washer.  The weather was finally nice enough to try it out and I literally hugged him after the first couple cages.  It takes minutes now to do what it was taking me an hour (per cage) to do.  Between the two of us we can now take cages up one flight of stairs and out the door.  We even blasted off the parrot perches in minutes the best purchase ever!  Such a relief this was something that was taking so much time and I didn't feel I was doing a good job.  If you have a lot of parrots = lots of parrot cages well worth the investment.  Now I can get back to getting fun time with them.

Just Another Friday Night on the E-I-E-I-O Farm

The weather is still being temperamental so I've always got my eye on the thermometer on my phone, on my computer in my bedroom which actually beams the temperature on the ceiling why you ask because I worry about the critters outside (the chickens).  If it's heading below 28 degrees F the heat lamps go on.  So tonight thinking it was going to be warmer in the 30's I was surprised to see the temperature plummeting.  I had shut the lights off and I was heading outside to turn them back on when who do I find in our backyard but Spirit the Pony awfully proud of himself prancing around all excited that he was in the yard IN THE YARD!  I snagged my dad to help me and Duke the border collie herding puppy came out and between the three of us we got him back into the pasture with Duke running behind him and giving him one good lap in the pasture to remind him where he belonged :0).  Still scratching my head to how this had happened Dad realized when he'd taken the trailer out earlier he hadn't shut the big gate to the pasture.  Luckily it was just into our yard he pranced and the goats hadn't realized they could get in THAT WOULD BE HILARIOUS.  I have to say at 9:00 in the evening there's nothing like a good laugh outside it was hilarious watching him run around kicking his feet up all proud of himself.

Two Newbies!

Well I'm at it again, I was on KSL a local free on line classified section and I found two hens that caught my eye a standard size black cochin and a dark brahma looking for homes, they were a set.  My mom and dad took a drive down to Bountiful to get them for me and so far everyone is being very nice to them.  Of course the rooster of the section was thrilled to welcome in more women.  I'll get pictures on soon of them.  The one above is from the ad on KSL.  Cuties!

Getting to know my life off - line

I've been working on linking my website to Facebook with my hosting company.  Customers will soon be able to purchase items from my site on Facebook, it will be SSL secured it will just be a portal to my site.  I explained as we were talking how everything they're seeing on my site is just little old me doing it and how many pets I have.  I don't really freely announce how many I have on line I don't want anyone to come and take me away to a "funny farm" but I think I'm close to 89 pets most of them chickens, but 14 parrots, 2 dogs, a bunny, 4 goats and a shetland pony.  He told me I needed to blog to my customers about what goes on behind the scenes and I decided it was a good idea.  I tried blogging once before but couldn't quite get my brain around it so I'm using my same blog I had started which has information about rescue groups on it and I will continue to update that as well.


Today is Saturday, the 28th of January and last weekend I didn't get any of my normal chores done because my dad suggested we move all of the parrots into one location downstairs where my office was with 2 parrots.  So last Saturday my dad, mom and I went to work and I'm now upstairs where the parrots used to be and everyone is downstairs on tile.  We're trying to simplify the huge task of cleaning cages by having them off carpet and closer to outside doors.  As soon as I'm through typing this I will be heading downstairs (I'll have my phone near me for customer calls) to begin the huge task of cleaning cages.  There's 12 in all and they're all big cages.  We've actually purchased a pressure washer but it's been too cold to use it as it will ice up the pavement outside.  I'm anxiously awaiting warmer weather.

As I clean cages I sing to the birds, I dance I've always told anyone if you looked in the window of my house when I'm cleaning you'd think I'd lost my mind.  The parrots love it and get involved playing games with me and learning new words.  There's many words they all know like "I love you", "I feel good", "What are you doing" so sometimes we're just all saying those things in unison.  My mom dances now too it's been one of the best gifts to her to live with this group they really bring smiles to all of our faces. 

Tomorrow when it's warmer (keep your fingers crossed) I'll be cleaning chicken coops.  I never stop if I'm not caring for animals I'm working on the site or packing and shipping but I couldn't be happier and I feel so lucky that customers continue to be excited to visit and are so willing to head me in the right direction.

Have a fantastic weekend.