Nothing happenig as such :)

Well since my last blog....not a lot going on lol....though that depends on peoples perspective of course.
Home life has settled back into a routine even with someone else living with us again lol. I think when we got this house we some how knew that even with Kim being disabled our lives will never be our own .....and we wouldnt change that....well most of the time :)
Kim since leaving working for the NHS jumped into so many things since then

Breeding and showing rabbits
playing genetics with 3 new breeds of rabbits
Started a stud of guinea pigs up with her mum
goes to rabbit shows
goes to guinea pig shows
goes to craft fairs
started card crafting
started stamp crafting
made candles
made soap
does craft work shops at home
bakes sour dough bread each day
about to start 4 workshops a week

then on top of that she wants to do material craft workshops and sour dough baking workshops.

How does that effect me....i'm loosing space every where lol....first the garage became hers, then my gardening shed and today i lost my gym. I do have a space in the garage (its called a work bench) and my fishing shed is also the garden shed lol.

Les is back with us again as he has a major operation coming up to correct the work done to his back. His not a problem as he sits upstairs a lot of the time...its when his working on both his cars or going out to work at 6:30 that you know his about lol. Once his operation is done he will stay with us then he will be sorting a place to stay permently.

Chris and Gemma come over most weekends so that we can see Skye as well....well she is maturing in leaps and bounds such an intelligent little girl :) she has certainly changed the lives of her mum and dad lol (definetly for the better).

Michael i think i mentioned has a job now, working for a new Suzuki car dealership and he has a new car (i have yet to see it though) but at least he is working...even if he is still trying to think of money making projects....(selling medical equipement??)

Karley is lovely as ever (cough**) she certainly brings a grin to our faces...even if she does dissapear off with Kim most of the time lol. Her and her mum Julie have been coming over every other friday doing card craft workshops with Kim, Gemma and Laura which has certainly been nice.

Animal wise we have had a few ups and downs :( we lost our last hive of bee's so am waiting for 2 new queens and workers next month so fingers crossed we will be back into honey production for next year :)
Both dogs caused us a few worries especially Megan who developed a mass on her mammery gland had to have it all removed especially as we thought it was cancer :( luckily touch wood results came back negative. As for Hamish he ended up with a skin complaint which meant he ended up on steroids. Cleared up his skin problem lovely....the only problem is we have noticed his bark has got a lot deeper.....
Guinea pigs have taken over two sheds both at kims and her mums lol, some interesting colours and lots of people asking for stock which is nice.
The rabbits have carried on progressing nicely....the Siberians in both lilac and brown, the Hulstlanders we have decided to let go for more room and we even have another 2 breeds lol
If you want to read all about our rabbitry follow the link as it explains all :) http://taraxstud.blogspot.co.uk/2013/03/welcome.html

Anyway thats it for now at least until next month :)

Short and Sweet...

Well the blogs are going to be shorter but hopefully a little more frequent as i have another blog up and running just for Tarax Stud :) I need to check with Kim if she has a blog for her cavies other wise that's going to have to be on here.
I will carry on with home stuff, work, family etc. you know....all the boring stuff lol but we will see what direction this is going to take me....i have some ideas but need the time to keep doing it lol
Anyway a very ubber quick run down of the last month...
Les eldest son has to have another op on his spine looks as though all metal work etc. needs to be taken out and to start all over again...
Chris, Gemma & Skye doing fine...Skye moving forward in leaps and bounds but that's understandable with having parents such as Chris and gem :)
Karley doing ok at topman and her netball :)
Michael's got a new job works for Suzuki auto and has bought himself a new car...(not seen it yet lol)
Kim's getting on with her business although has diverted slightly in to scrap booking with some good ideas in where she wants to take that side of the business (details at a later date)
As for me....work is so so...funding has dried up so may not have a job from July though just heard this week we are putting in a bid for Canvey schools from july :)
I'm off work at the moment as I'm doing jury service....well hopefully spent 2 days last week at the courts only to be sent home....but i still have to go back next week to find out if i am going to be picked for an actual case....fingers crossed :)
 I'm reading a new book on my kindle....not something i would of picked but so far its interesting....as soon as i read it i will comment :)
Music wise i joined Napster and last fm on facebook and downloaded the new Justin timberlake album...again when i have listened to it i will make my comments :)

That's it quick short and sweet which gives me the incentive and direction to take this blog a different route....so lets see what i do next....tc people

Teach me not to back up!!!!

Don't you just hate that....spent an hour doing my blog only to LOOSE IT and have to START AGAIN ARGGHH!

sorry lol its worse when you cant remember everything you wrote as well!! well i did think of closing the blog down as i don't write on it much but i need to keep things sane sometimes...and let off steam as well lol so will keep plugging away at it (save) Anyway lets start and try and catch up :) i did think what with the time gap from the last blog that i would have a short novel in the pipe line...but looking at my list i don't think so (phew i hear you all say) but lets see what flows from the pen as they say :) (save)
December
Well December was a good month...very busy but a nice busy...(depending on how you looked at it lol) Kim had officially retired from work to work from home and to make sure she had enough time to make and bake stuff for the Xmas hampers we give out to the family :) well that was the idea but we didn't quite get everything made. Christmas cakes, Christmas puds, short bread, truffles and mincemeat parmias (which were bloody lovely by the way)

she made candles and soaps as well but didn't get time to do the fudges (so looking forward to the sea salt fudge lol). I did my bit and made ginger bread vodka which went down very well (literally) :)
Christmas day had the family come round which we do every 2 years. Gemma, Chris & Skye popped in which was lovely then Kim's mum and dad and the rest of the children came round for dinner. We even ended up with another guest as Kim found out that 1 of Les's house mates had no where to go for Xmas so was was promptly picked up and whisked over. A lovely day.

Turkey was so succulent the bones pulled out as we tried to turn it over lol

 

Table all set :)

 

January





well Christmas was out the way and gave us time to relax a bit, the bees obviously very quiet :) though i did manage to speak to the Maldon beekeepers president to sort out a replacement nucleus for us unfortunately we wont get this until June which means our honey production is going to be slow this year....the plus side is that the chickens are laying like mad lol, easily 8 plus eggs a day....just have to sell them :)
The rabbits have been fine with Kim's lops producing lots of choc tort babies at the moment

Which we are fine with as its the chocolate and lilac varieties we wont in the shed mainly (as well as the black otters lol) but i finally got some Siberians in my part of the shed having 2 lilacs born this month :) hopefully i have another doe ready to give birth later in February so may have a couple more :)

The only others we have are of some F1's which are to help with our Glavcots :)

February
This month was a mixture of good and sad :( a very special lady, my gran Mae Mae as everyone called her passed away...she was 96 which was a fantastic age. Having died in Ireland means the funeral tends to be done rather quickly usually a couple of days so it was a mad rush to sort out getting over there. My son Michael came with me and i met my brother over there; the funeral went really well with a wake after to celebrate her life :) and i got to chat and meet old family members which made it even more special. When i got back, unfortunately i came back to not great news with family members on Kim's side being ill which needs to be monitored over the rest of the the year :( i also find out I'm doing jury service in march and then get a call the same evening i have to go to court as a witness to do with the burglary next door lol.
The other main thing for February was Kim's cavy shed finally being finished and what a great job Bill has done for her :)

If you visit this link you can see the shed being made from start to finish https://sites.google.com/site/kaimykcavies/kims-shed
The only other things to mention is we got ourselves some new toys....Kim's kindle has played up a little so when i saw my brothers kindle fire i mentioned to Kim how good it was so she got us both one (its brilliant by the way) Chris ended up with Kim's old one and i gave mine to Kim's dad. Well worth while getting one as i can read my books, listen to music on my headphones and check face book at the same time on the same device lol. Lastly where Kim's business is at the moment we had to go to the Guild of Essex Craftsmen to a meal and to pick up a certificate for Kim :) the next day we sorted out the garage....which as you can see will not fit a car in...

and Kim's craft room to allow even more room for even more stock...lovely lol

Though i cant complain really as it does help her immensely :). Anyway that's it for now...we have some rabbit shows in March to go to, some news of another new rabbit in the shed (and even more guinea pigs...) but i will save that all for later lol so until then guys...l8rs