Goodness

Things have been going well around here. I am pretty sure the house is a wreck, but at least I am accomplishing things (just not cleaning things :)

I have three loads of laundry on the couch that need put away, and another two loads in progress in the laundry room and I am not seeming to get too excited about any of it. But on the bright side I did get 13 quarts of tomatoes canned and 20 pounds of blueberries frozen in the last 24 hours. And I assembled the most atrocious wagon on the planet (assembly wise) and went for a walk, and took a nice two hour nap, and revamped the bunny hutch.

The hutch has this nice run that attaches to the front. There is a design flaw in some way, that I discovered in about 48 hours, when bunny decided to hatch an escape plan. The started to dig under the run. It was then that I realized that although the thing had a wire roof, it kinda needs a wire floor. Nice for the grass to grow through, but prevents burrowing out. I filled the hole and in 24 hours he had dug it back and twice the size and was so near escaping that I decided I needed to do something. I locked him inside the hutch for the rest of the day and tonight at 11pm the kids and I took the run off the front and looked at it closer. It seems that it wasn't assembled correctly, and I don't know if this was to suit their tastes or by accident, so we started to put it together slightly differently. I used the roof as the bottom and left the top open, and had some adjustments to do to the hasps/hook and eyes that attach it to the hutch front, which I did, and I also had to flip the back bottom around and reattach it. It could use one brace across the top center now but I am thinking this might work better. I will need to be sure that bunny is locked up at night to keep him safe from predators getting into the topless run, but otherwise I think it's better than burrowing out the bottom of the run.

This is the exact hutch that we have, and our run is the smaller of the two that isn't quite as wide as the house (the one shown in the picture is the exact width of the hutch.) I was fortunate to see it in a friend's yard and inquire if it would be for sale. I obtained it for $50, so it was highly affordable :) I decided to send the manufacturer an email and see if they can get me directions, because I might see about ordering a replacement top and attaching it to the "top" that is now open. Depends on the cost.

Right now Boyd is pretty good at standing watch. If the chickens get into their coop at dusk and I don't get the door shut till midnight, they are safe with Boyd around. Tonight while we were out in the yard in the dark the neighbor cat kept trying to sneak inside the fence. I shooed it off once and then Boyd took off after it the next time it got inside the fence. His doghouse is right next to the chicken coop and near the bunny hutch, and when it's nice outside he likes to sleep UNDER the chicken coop in the dirt or on the cement patio stones. If anything ever happens to him (whic is likely, after all he IS 14) I don't know what I will do. It will take a while to teach a new dog to not EAT the animals we dwell with :)

In other news, I am hoping to do some bento lunches this year. I got a new book with all kinds of photos and recipes, and I think it would be fun. Let's see if I actually get it done. Last year I did make lots of shaped eggs because I got the hard boiled egg molds, but never got as far as rice balls or shaped foods. Maybe this is my year :)

Well, kids went to bed at midnight, and although I have only had 29 minutes of quiet time today, I think I need to go to sleep soon. I am tired tonight and I hope this means that I won't toss and turn and think for two hours in bed before I can sleep.