The Aviary

It has been a few weeks since my last blog. Unfortunately I do need to prioritize things in my life, with Uni, the animals, my lovely husband, the property, general administration and the things life throws at you, and general house keeping. If I have the time and I am not completely exhausted, I may have time to write in this blog.

 I am in week 4 at Uni and my mid semester exams are fast approaching, so obviously I spend a lot of time studying. I probably should be spending more time studying to be completely honest.

Over the past few weeks however, my Jimmy and I have been building a huge aviary in the yard for the guinea fowl and it is finally starting to take its form, and I must say, I am rather happy with what we have done.

We have attached an old van to the aviary and are in the process of stripping it and converting it into a coop for the birds. We have around 40 birds - chickens, ducks, geese and our beautiful little guinea fowl that I am very fond of.

 Here are a few progression photos of the aviary and our trials and errors along the way:

This is the beginning of the project and it was a bit of a flop. We soon found out that the piping was not strong enough to hold up the shade cloth and chicken wire. So we changed our plans a bit and used wood.

As you can see it is slowly getting there. I think it will be ready for us to put the guinea fowl in next weekend if I can manage to get enough study done throughout the week.

Looking at the structure, I have come to the realization that when it is not used for guinea fowl, it can also be used as a sort of greenhouse. The shade cloth will protect the plants from the elements and the fact that it will be fully enclosed would mean that the chickens and all our other naughty birds will not be able to get in and eat them all.

I have also realized that I can use it as a place to herd the alpacas into, if I need to catch them for any reason. Such as to shear them, or to just give them a general health check. I also want to halter train them, so this structure will make that task much more manageable.

So once we have finally built the aviary it will be a wonderful multipurpose enclosure for all of our furry/feathery friends and for our gardening needs.

It is very exciting for my Jimmy and me. This is the biggest thing we have built so far and I am so very excited for our guinea fowl to have a bigger enclosure. They will not be staying in the aviary forever. It is just for a 6 month period, so that they can make our home their home. That way they will stick around and I can start breeding them next spring. :D

The beginning

I love my Jimmy, he is the best thing that has ever happened to me. If he hadn't come into my life I would probably be living in a city with a job I hate, inhabiting a tiny apartment with noisy neighbors and a suicide note by my bed.

I can say to you all, without a doubt in my mind, that Jimmy saved me from myself. I was an absolute wreck before he intruded into my life. I was depressed, filled with anxiety, always drunk, my friends had turned their backs on me, my family were three days drive away, and my shitty job made it all one hundred times worse.

I was alone, miserable, and very self destructive. This is a point in my life where I can honestly say I hit rock bottom. There are details in this bad time in my life where I just cannot discuss with you all. I am ashamed, saddened, and disgusted in both myself and the so called friends that should have helped me through these days.

And then Jimmy came along.

In the beginning I didn't care for him at all. Well how could I? I didn't even care about myself. I spent a lot of my time trying to think up things that I could do, to try and get him to bugger off. When we ate dinner I would burp, fart and try and do several disgusting things to repulse him. I would be obnoxious, rude and volatile. Jimmy became my punching bag; a way for me to lash out at something because I was so screwed up.

And yet, he still stuck around..........

He tells me today, that he could tell that I was in a bad place and he could see that I needed help. On the occasion he said the nice side of me would come out and that's what kept him coming back.

Today, I am very ashamed of how I treated him. I was an epic bitch. So I have vowed to spend the rest of my life to make him happy and treat him just as good (if not better) as he has treated me in the past.

I am incredibly lucky to have my Jimmy in my life. He is the best person I know and I love him so very much.

So, here I am living on 5 acres with the man of my dreams and I could not be happier.

However, it just so happens that the man of my dreams is a prepper and a hoarder........ I'm not going to say it is necessarily a bad thing, it just makes life that little bit more........ interesting........

In the front yard there is an area where he puts a lot of the random things he finds. These include old fridges that don't work, several toilets, old fences, corrugated iron sheets, pipes, random scrap pieces of wood, etc, etc, etc.

It looks like a dump, but he is very pleased with it........ *sigh*........... What makes him even happier is that he got 99% of it for free...... He loves 'Gumtree' (to readers outside of Australia, Gumtree is an online 'garage/yard sale' and there is a section in it where people give things away).

The dump in the front yard is for his collections that he doesn't mind being exposed to the weather. We also have a shipping container on the property for things that need protection from the weather, that is full to the brim of his collections and the garage is also packed to the rafters.

It makes him so happy collecting all of these things, and I must admit, he is slowly pulling me into his world of madness.

I now spend a lot of my time trying to think of uses for the things he collects. For instance, we have an old run down van that has been sitting on the property for a few months now and we have decided to make it into a chicken coop. I am lucky I have a creative flair, because I believe that with all the things he collects we can find a use for it. We just need to find the time.

Time is the killer.
Jimmy works 5 days a week and I have Uni.

Well, on that note, I should probably dash. Jimmy is out the back in the heat, working on the van/coop and I am being very lazy typing away on the computer.

An introduction to the mad house

I have just recently turned 30, Jimmy and I finally tied the knot in January of this year and University has just started up for another year.

As I look out my window onto my beautiful property, with a blob of ducks sleeping all together in the shade next to the old rusty wheel barrow, I look back onto my life and retrace all the steps that lead me to this specific point in time in this specific place. 

The journey has been interesting to say the least; and I can say without a doubt in my mind, I have not wasted my 30 years on this planet. I have done so many things in my life already to date, and if I were to die tomorrow, I seriously do not think I would have any regrets. 

Yes, I have done some stupid things and I have made a hundred and one mistakes, but as I look out my window, I know all the good and the bad has lead me here. 

My Jimmy and I have been living on our 5 acre property for almost a year now. And one hell of a year it has been! 

Moving from a 4 bedroom suburban home with 2 dogs, 3 cats and 6 hens into a 5 acre property sounds like an easy and exciting time in a woman's life. However moving house with a prepper is a totally different story! 

It was mid semester of first year Veterinary Technicians course and I was stressing my tits off. It had been forever since I left high school and to be honest I never thought I was smart enough to even be considered into University. 

But I had made it in and I was bloody well determined to do well and somehow get through it all.

Mid semester we moved house and all I asked of my Jimmy was to have a study set up as soon as possible........ Well......... That didn't really happen.

We were moving into a SMALL 3 bedroom house from a 4 bedroom house, and I have learned the hard way that being a prepper meant that you were a hoarder as well.

Three of the bedrooms in the suburban house was FULL of my Jimmy's preps and the garage was full to the brim of things that I like to call "random crap." 

........ Well that was all to come with us........ A garage sale was out of the question....... *sigh*

Moving house sucks for 'normal' people; moving house with my Jimmy is hell on earth. The new house was full to the brim of boxes and random crap that had no place in a house. And this is after we filled up the two car garage!

"All I want is to have the study set up as soon as possible".................... *sigh*

Throughout the year up until only a few months ago, I have been trying to make the house 'livable'. That is, have a kitchen, lounge room, bed room and bathroom accessible and clean - Liveable, you know? 

Well it has been an uphill battle of patience, love and A LOT of compromise. 

Looking back at the year, my Jimmy and I have been tested time and time again, and we got through it with flying colours. Our relationship is still as loving and beautiful as ever, and I think after this year we are stronger than ever....... And understand each other a lot better than ever before. 

Through-out my blogs I will be illustrating to you all all of the projects we have done, the successes and the all important failures we have been through. I will talk to you about all about our beautiful animals that my Jimmy and I love to bits and our plans for the future in regards to self sufficiency, prepping, animal welfare, land regeneration, etc, etc, etc......

I will also add in a little preppers romance to spice it all up a bit. ;)

Have a great day. 

xoxoxox