We're back online!

We're back!  After the powerful storm hit us overnight on 29Jun12, we lost power and water.  5 days later the power was restored, 3 weeks and 3 days later the phone service and internet service was restored at our house. 

The power was restored on the 4th of July in the morning.  That gave us something to celebrate!  In the afternoon on the 4th the power trucks all came ambling down my dirt driveway.  I ran out and told them power was restored, all was good in the world again.  However, they informed me that our electricity had been routed over power lines that could not hold the load for long, that we had power lines down which serviced our property that had to be repaired.  They wanted to attempt to drive some dirt roads on our property to get to the scene of the downed lines.

I gave them permission to drive on our property and followed them about a mile down the road to the scene.

In no time they had numerous crews out there removing the trees and replacing the electric lines.  They worked until late in the day on the 4th of July in 100 degree temperatures.  No celebrating for them!  One of their trucks got stuck in the mud on our property and they found another way to get out to the scene without driving through our woods.   

In addition to those power lines that were down, the electric and phone cables that directly service just our house were down.  They ran through deep woods and often we lost electric and phones in the past when a branch fell in the woods.  Once the woods even caught on fire from downed power lines.  And so we got new telephone poles with all new power cable.  This time the poles ran beside our driveway, avoiding the deep woods.

previous power lines running thru deep woods

new telephone pole

The phone cable was previously strung up on those same old poles in the deep woods, and eventually, 3 weeks later, new phone cable was run on the new power poles beside the driveway.

My thanks to the dedicated men who work behind the scenes doing thankless jobs like recabling power and phone lines! 

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Both our house and the other house which we rent out sustained much damage from the storm.  Below is a photo of the driveway of the other house after the storm.

A huge tree hit the roof - you can see the roof is buckled and punctured.

Let the house repairs begin!

Ramblings at Razzberry Corner

Time has been flying, and I haven't been posting much here at Razzberry Corner!  I've been real busy with my day job, and it seems blogging has taken a backseat.  Today it's almost 90 degrees outside, and who wants to be in on the computer on a clear and sunny day like this?!  So this will be fast!!!  Not alot of formatting or pictures with this post...

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Lots has been going on...  Let's see, where do I even begin??

Ah ha, Muffin, the attack roo. I've learned to carry a broom.  He's afraid of an old straw broom.   I've asserted my dominance over the flock with the broom - I wasn't mean, but a few roosters got pushed to the side with the broom.  One of them was getting busy with a hen right in front of me - that's a no-no.  I read no rooster should never be allowed to do that in front of a dominant human like me.  So the hen action was stopped by a light tap with the broom to the rooster's back.  I think the hen was grateful.  Another rooster didn't like the shoes I was wearing, and he wanted to peck at them.  I just showed him the broom and how it swings quickly, I didn't hit him, but he took off running, honking, warning the others of my new friend, the broom monster.

Muffin and the other boys saw me being dominant, and they saw the broom monster.  Now Muffin watches me from afar, no attacks in the past week.  I've even been able to wear bright pink and red around him.  Without jackets covering my colors.  And no attacks.  I'm going to keep working with the chickens.  I just needed some guidance on how to raise roosters - it's not as easy as raising hens.  I've been picking up Muffin and the other roosters as often as I can, especially in the evenings in the coop.  I hug them and rub their necks and wattles, which they seem to enjoy.  I hold them for as much time as I can spend out in the coop, they stretch out their necks and try to sleep in my arms like them they used to do were little peepers.

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A few weeks ago I mentioned the death of a woodchuck in my backyard.  I decided it had to be a fox.  Well, I have not seen any foxes since then, and I've been keeping an eye out, especially in the mornings and evenings.  No sight of any fox.  I've looked for tracks around the woodchuck hole which I thought had been taken over by a fox.  No fox tracks or any tracks, actually.  But I have seen Mr. Who II.  He's a beautiful and large great horned owl.  I usually see him in the evenings or early mornings by our driveway/dirt road.  A couple days ago I saw him sitting in a tree right near the chicken coop.  When he saw me he flew away and was attacked by a few black crows on his way into the deep woods.  I have no idea why crows don't like owls, but they always seem to attack them.  I didn't think great horned owls would kill a woodchuck, but I just found a few sites online where it did say that could happen.  I never found the entire body of the dead woodchuck, just pieces, so maybe it was Mr. Who II. 

And what was Mr. Who II doing near my chickens?  

As a side note, Mr. Who II was named after Mr Who, who is a barred owl who lived by our previous house, which is now a rental property.  Mr. Who was always near our house, he wasn't afraid of us in the least bit.  I was able to take plenty of pictures of Mr. Who; he would always smile for the camera.  Mr. Who II, the great horned owl, on the other hand, is very camera shy.

   The original owl, Mr. Who

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We still have 2 very Broody hens - Bella and Charlotte.  Will they ever get out of the nest boxes.  The last broody girl, Zoner, got over it after a month.  Bella and Charlotte have been at it over a month now.  Soon it will be other hens, I guess they all need to go thru it.  Maybe we will start preparing for babies, and will let one of them sit on some eggs - that would be exciting.  Chicks are SO very cute! 

We'll have to think about it, determine if we're ready for chicks again... 

On the chicken front, we have so, so, so many eggs.  I've been selling them to friends, co-workers, neighbors.  I just sold 4 dozen yesterday, and I counted the eggs in my fridge this afternoon, and look - there's another 4 dozen in there!  And I haven't collected from the nest boxes yet today, they'll be at least 10 out there...  I'm going to start bringing them to church on Sundays, to friends houses on the weekends.  People will call me the crazy egg lady...

 

Did I just say in the previous paragraph I was considering more chickens??? 

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Here's a closing picture of Jack, the cat, lounging on this warm, lazy spring afternoon.