Oh my aching back!

And my legs, and my arms and my.... You get the picture. I went into the chicken coop and did way too much work! And now I'm paying for it.

At the last second Val and her friends volunteered to drive Michelle to work! So I took the little ones outside to enjoy the beautiful day. It's days like that that I wish I homeschooled. It just didn't seem right to send them...but I did, they've already missed way too much.

The sad thing is that Sean and Danielle aren't very comfortable outside right now thanks to the chickens. I can't get them to see that they're in the fence and won't bother them. They're like an animal at the watering hole....constantly on the lookout for predators. Hopefully they'll start relaxing again soon. At least they feel semi safe up on the trampoline. That's where they spend most of their time outside. They are starting to feel better up in the front yard so they use their ride ons there.

When the school kids got off the bus I asked them to babysit so I could do some work in the chicken coop. Poor Sean was on the trampoline, crying because he thought the chickens were going to get me. Luckily he eventually realized I was ok and went back to playing. It took a while though. And there were times when he wasn't so sure I was ok and would start getting upset again. STOOPID ROOSTERS!

I worked for over 2.5hrs and ended up carting out 15 huge rubbermaid totes of muck out of the coop. I thought I wouldn't be able to get one tote out much less 15 but then I remembered the hand dolly and we were in business! I think I shocked Tom when he got home. At least it's one thing off his list (and mine). Now I'm a bit more gungho to be out there collecting the eggs. It was so bad that I hated to go out there before.

I think the last month we kind of messed the chickens up. Trying to deal with the loss of Billy and everyday life....the chickens were a bit neglected. Their egg production dropped drastically. Ontop of that I think they they've started eating the eggs. So now I have to work on that.

My next line of thought outside is the pool! I haven't checked but it looks like the ice is gone (might be some floating in the middle under water) So now I can hook up the filter and turn on the hose. Can this year be the pool saga free year? Will I get it sparkling clean before the end of May? I guess we'll see. The thing that stinks though is that I won't be able to get out there and work on it for a while. The one really nice day was really one nice day. It's set to get back to cold with snow mentioned a few days even. I hope it gets here and leaves before spring break starts!

Well, time to wake the kids for school. (my least favorite part of this job)