So very sad

I came home from church on Sunday to find my white rooster missing and about fifty white feathers all over.  It was obvious what ever got him was big.  The neighbor's dog had been here that morning and she had questioned me once if he had ever gone near the chickens but without proof I couldn't be sure it was him so I kept my mouth shut.  Biggest mistake of my life.

I got home from volunteering at our church's after school program on Wednesday to find him standing in my driveway with one of my chickens in his mouth.  I went crazy.  I gunned it up the driveway, slammed the truck in park and went after him.  Four carcasses.  I was livid and the stupid dog wouldn't leave.  

I had TL go out and stay with him while I drove up to the neighbors.  I told him (calmly) that the dog was at my house and killed a bunch of my chickens but wouldn't leave.  As he was putting his shoes on, he told me that the dog was acting strangely and had attacked another neighbor's dog this past weekend.  What?  You've got a potentially dangerous dog and its not locked up?

So he drives over to pick up the dog and never once apologizes.  He doesn't ask any questions just picks up the dog and leaves.

TL and I then go to assess the damage.  I'm positive the rest of the chickens are safe in the coop.  I open the door and it is empty.  They would have gone in there to hide.  The dog must have gone in there through their door.  I count four dead birds.  We search the property and find one rooster and one hen.  The rest are gone.  Twenty hens and two roosters are what I had.  I was so upset.

We went in to eat.  I wanted to call Kevin and tell him what was going on and we figured out that one of the birds was still alive so I sent TL out to shoot it.  A few minutes later I hear the gun go off again closer to the house.  He comes in madder than a hornet because the dog was back at our house!

I flew down the street and this is where my NY attitude kicked in.  I told him that if I found that dog hurting my chickens, dog, or kids I was shooting it.  Thankfully the dog was on his way home when I left.  

Per conversation with Kevin, I called the sheriff.  The sheriff told me I was within my rights to shoot it.  Now, I'm mad, but I really don't want to shoot a dog in front of my kids.  He took pics of the chickens and then went down to the neighbors.  He wouldn't open the door, apparently he'd gone to bed although it was only 7:30.  The sheriff left a message to call him.

His wife came home at nine to the sheriff's message and her husband's note.  She came down to apologize asking how much they owed.  At this point, three more birds had come back.  I told her that I didn't know because I didn't know how many were gone.  We spoke and she told me that the dog wasn't secured because they had nothing to tie him with and that he gets out of the barn.  Then put him in your house.  She wanted to get a chain to tie him up the next night and then work on a shock collar with him during the summer so that when he leaves the yard someone will push the button.  Well, that only works as long as someone is there pushing the button.  

I've had two roosters and ten hens return.  Ten more are missing or dead.  I worked up feed and cost of eggs and replacement....its over $400.  I'm not sure if they will pay it or not.  We'll see I guess.  They haven't bothered to come over and see how many chickens came back.  I was going to take the bill to them but Kevin said not to.  I will give it to the sheriff on Wednesday when he returns from time off.  

My roosters are now like Rambo on speed.  I cannot get near the hens or they go crazy.  I'm trying to talk slowly and move slowly to ease their fear.  I know that they are trying to protect their hens.  We'll see what happens with time.  I also have a hen that is literally shell shocked and just stands there.  We may have to put her out of her misery too.  I'll give it some time to see and hopefully she will improve.

I'm off for now.  Please pray that this situation gets resolved and quickly.  I live in fear that this dog will return and attack my dog or my kids.  They have done nothing to reassure me that the situation's been taken care of.  I'm not impressed with how they are handling this at  all.  I don't know, maybe I'm just overreacting?

Reading lists for the coming year

I have been working on a preliminary list for next year's literature work.  I may end up tweaking it more, but this is what it looks like so far:

TL-11th grade

To Kill a Mockingbird
Last of the Mohicans
Animal Farm
Lord of the Flies
Fahrenheit 451
Prince and the Pauper
Cricket on the Hearth
Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
All Quiet on the Western Front
Study and Watch three Shakespeare plays: Hamlet, Richard, Taming of the Shrew
Poetry study


Princess-7th Grade

Phantom Tollbooth
The Long Winter
Bridge to Terabithia
Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMPH
The Magician's Nephew
The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Cricket in Times Square
Poetry study



Bug-a-bug-6th grade

By the Shores of Silver Lake
Nim's Island
Best Christmas Pagaent Ever
Pollyanna
From the Mixed up Files of Mrs. Basil E.  Frankweiler
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Twenty-one Balloons

The crazy life

I have many pics from Easter that I need to post sometime this week.  My inlaws and the kids' cousins came up from IA to spend the day with us.  It was fantastic.  We had a blast.

We're finally getting warmer and staying warmer.  Its a struggle with all the rain to try to get any work done outside but we're trying.  Its supposed to get a little cool again this week but the temps are moving up and that's what we like to see!

The kids and I have very busy schedules the next few weeks.  I just need to make it through May and the planting of the garden.  I think I can, I think I can, I think I can.....

My college is going well.  This week I'm working on completing two assignments that aren't due for several weeks.  I'm hoping that this will free up some of my time for the larger two papers due in eight weeks.  I can't believe I'm halfway through already.  Wow.  This has been a learning experience trying to juggle the house, school, and homeschooling but its going.  I hope to get more on top of the homeschooling this summer so I will be ready to go for the year before fall hits.  I'm not sure how we're going to do scheduling this year.  My mother comes the last week of August to visit and hubby will be home for two weeks sometime in Sept.  I'm not sure if I'm happy about starting school in October or late Sept.  We'll have to see what happens.  Maybe we can start early August and just do four days a week with only math and English or something like that.

Take care everyone!!   Enjoy your spring weather!

Zoo project

I designed a new project for the two oldest girls.  They enjoy doing these projects and they learn alot.

Zoo Project

1. Make a detailed map of the zoo.  Include vendors, stores, and animal displays.  Have at least 12 different animals in your zoo.  You can include a petting zoo, garden, pond, etc.

2. Make a zookeepers notebook.  A page for each animal with the following information:

• animal name (include family, species, etc.)
• habitat information
• types of food to feed them
• photo or drawing of the animal

3. Design a poster to display at the zoo:

• an ad for one of the stores or restaurants
• an ad for feeding time
• an ad for a show (sea lions, bird show, etc)

The girls have one month to complete this.  Bug-a-bug has already gotten started on hers.  Next year, we may do an aquarium one.......

Burnout

Its finally happened.  After years of planning, working with my kids, and getting excited about curriculum, I'm experiencing a little burnout.

I just can't seem to get excited about these last few weeks of school.  I used to sit and plan and get excited about all we can do and now its all I can do to just get the daily stuff done.

I need to recharge my batteries.  I'm going to plan a field trip and a game/movie day.  

I need to plan the field trip on a day that will be warm so we can go on a nature walk somewhere.  Its supposed to be nice today, but cold and rainy this weekend and next week so that may have to hold off for a while.  

Tomorrow is co-op day in the afternoon.  We will spend the morning playing games and enjoying instead of doing other workbooks and math problems.  It will be a good day.

And I need to plan another fun project for the girls.  They get so excited and involved.  It will be a great idea for them.

Hopefully then, mom can get out of her slump!! 

Have a wonderful day!!  God bless!

Survival Saturday

I'm excited.  Tomorrow I am going to a Preppers convention.  I hope to find out some information about living off the grid and water purification.  

This week the trees arrive.  I'm a little disappointed with the company because they are supposed to hold them until the zone is ready for planting.  We still have snow and with a 7 foot frost depth, I'm pretty sure I shouldn't be planting yet.

This week I got 1/2 beef and 1/2 pig:

It is so nice to have a stocked freezer.  Now I can concentrate on stocking up my pantry for the next few months.  I'm excited to have all this meat....grilling season is upon us!

I've narrowed down the seeds that I need so I'm getting those together and ready to start.  I'm going to work on an herb garden this year also, which I'm very excited about. I'm trying to decide if I should do planters and then move them in in the winter, or just stick to a garden and dry some for the winter.

Praying that you have a wonderful week!

Ready to plan the next year.

I have been so busy the last few weeks and none of it involves spring cleaning.  I probably won't be able to touch that until June after the garden is put in.  I do have the garden all planned out and I'm super excited.  I am more than doubling the size of our raised beds and I pray that it will provide quarts of canned goods to line my shelves with.

TL had a taekwondo tournament this Saturday.  It was a small tournament so there was only one person in his age group, in his belt range to spare.  It was a girl.  She was fiesty, but he was about five inches taller than she was and the poor girl didn't have a chance.  

This is week five of full time Master's classes.  Wow.  That's all I can say about that.  Sleep is highly overrated.

I've been looking into our year next year.  I think I have things planned out.

TL-11th grade
Apologia Chemistry
Apologia Health
Computers
High School Writing Intensive
Bible Quest Promises
Teaching Textbooks Algebra II
Literature-to include Anne Frank, To Kill A Mockingbird, Animal Farm, Lord of the Flies, Fahrenheit 451, Prince and the Pauper, Cricket on the Hearth, three Shakespeare plays, and a poetry study.  

Princess-8th Grade
Teaching Textbooks
Vocabulary connections
All About Spelling
Easy Grammar
Essentials in Writing
Elemental Science-Chemisty
Trail Guide to bible Geography
Bible Discovery-Words of Wisdom
Typing

Bug-a-bug-6th grade
Teaching Textbooks
Vocabulary connections
All about Spelling
Easy Grammar
Essentials in Writing
Elemental-Science-Chemistry
Trail Guide to Bible Geography
Bible Discovery-Words of Wisdom
Typing

Trouble-2nd Grade
Finish Sing, Spell, Read, and Write
Saxon Math 2
How to teach art to children
Essentials in Writing
Elemental Science-Biology
Handwriting
Explode the code

Monkey-Kindergarten
BJUP Math
Handwriting
Sing, Spell, Read, and Write

I was able to pick up TL's Chemistry and Health on ebay very cheap.  I'm excited about that.  I plan on starting to plan in June and get all the lessons into Homeschool Tracker for the year.  I also plan on printing out all the science and geography pages and putting them together before school starts which will save a ton of time during the year.

My biggest change will be history.  I absolutely love Tapestry of Grace.  Unfortunately, we just can't afford to buy all those books and the curriculum.  Its just not in the budget.  So, I'm back to designing my own curriculum again for history.  It takes a ton of work, but I enjoy it.  I am after all, a history major.  I look forward to using books that are inexpensive and able to be used for many weeks on end to lower the costs.  I have several lapbooks/notebooking pages for the girls that I can also use.  I may as well use them if I have them right?  We'll be studying 1900-present.  

Have a wonderful and blessed week!