We used to have a lot of chickens, but now they are all getting old and their numbers are dwindling. We are down to 7 rather oldish hens, and I really wanted to get a few more to boost their numbers. It would also be nice to get more than 2 or 3 eggs per $20 bag of chicken feed..

Unfortunately it seems that point-of-lay chickens here are gold plated because they sell for $20 each. So our plan to get a few more chickens was put on hold.

But, on a whim (how unusual for me, right) I decided to go to the pet store and buy some babies, instead. It's not like we need adult chickens right now, we can wait.. and I have a $250 aviary sitting on the back verandah going to waste. So why not?

I bought 10 little babies and brought them home in a cardboard box. I kept them in a cage in my room, thinking I would keep them there for about a week and then transfer them to the aviary. Unfortunately I grossly underestimated the amount that tiny birds can A) eat and B) poop. I was having to feed them all the time, give them fresh water once an hour because they kept messing it up, and they also rapidly messed up the cage and made it smelly. So this morning I had to go and get the makings for the aviary.

Sadly one of them died overnight.. I think it may have eaten a sharp seed (I have starter mix, bran, and some mash but it had some seeds in it, I picked most of the big pieces out but perhaps it ate something too big) or maybe some bedding, I'm not sure. I feel really terrible, the poor little thing. The only thing that makes me feel a little better is the fact that it quite literally died in its sleep, curled up in the middle of all the others. So at least it was peaceful and I assume painless. Still, I feel bad and very guilty :(

The other 9 are going strong though. They seem to really enjoy their new aviary home with its straw bedding, lots of food, plenty of room, and a proper water dispenser that even the tiny little black chicks can reach into, but not fill with dirt and straw. They already think I'm their mommy, and I have to show them where the food and water is by pecking at it with my finger. I went and sat in the aviary for a while and they hopped onto me and pecked at my buttons and my freckles (freckles are not food). One of them is particularly happy to see me all the time and flies over to me with its silly stubby wings. I love them all. I'm going to try to spend as much time as I can with them so they get really used to me.

Tonight I had to "teach" them where bed was. I gave them a box with nice soft bedding, but instead they decided to sleep huddled under the water dispenser. This worried me because a) it wasn't very protected from the cold air, b) they might get damp and then cold, and c) as secure as I made it, I still hate to think of them sleeping under a big heavy object. So I went out there with the torch and sat on the straw, carefully extricating each chick and shoving it (lovingly) into the box. When all 9 were inside, I pushed extra straw into the entrance to dam it up and make a warm nest around them. I tucked the top flap down a bit to limit the amount any breeze that might blow in. They settled immediately into a group, nice and warm in a big fluffy chick pile. They just needed their mommy to show them where to sleep.

I'll go back out and check on them before bed to make sure they stayed in there - hopefully now they know the box is warm and safe, they'll use it all the time.

Just when you thought Mondays couldn't be more crappy...

... someone tries to steal your identity.

I had a message on my phone from my bank. Apparently someone used my credit card details to sign up for a Napster trial - there was a $1.00 charge on my card in the early hours of Friday morning. Many companies like Napster will send a small charge to your account (and refund it later) to check that you're using a legit card, before they will let you sign up for a full account. Paypal does it also, and it's perfectly fine. Unfortunately, identity thieves use this idea to check to see if a stolen card number is active. Once they see the charge is successful, they're free to either use the card or sell the details to someone else. So some scumbag got my details and tried to test the waters to do a little shopping by having Napster charge my account with $1.00.

Before I get lectures or "this is why you shouldn't use a credit card" comments - I'm not stupid, I don't throw my card around all over the place, I don't visit backwater sites that aren't secure. I'm not an idiot. I mostly use my card for scheduled bills like insurance, internet, etc. I do occasionally buy things online but always from trusted sites.. so I don't know how someone got my card. For all I know they could have got my details out of my recycling because I didn't shred my statement into confetti. Who knows. Maybe from now on I'll let my rats have them as nesting material.

I don't know how they got my details, but it doesn't matter now, that card is toast. My bank's fraud team is badass and they picked it up first thing in the morning, put a block on the card immediately, and asked me to call. I had to have the card reissued, which sucks hard, because I'll have to call up about 8 companies to find out how to change my details. I'm really lucky that the bank is great and pick these things up so fast, because it could have been a lot worse.

I just wish I could send a great big "f#$k you, asshole" to whoever tried to steal my card. Scum.

Cooling towers, approaching storms, and a grassfire in front.

Cut because frankly I'm too lazy to resize.

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I work two jobs.

My second job is in a small office. A very small office. The back "office" is a tiny room with a desk that runs the length of the back wall, and then at one side there is a bar fridge with a microwave on it, a tiny cabinet with a kettle on it, and then next to that is the all-in-one printer/fax etc. So it's like an office and a kitchenette, I suppose.

My boss was having problems with her phone line. Up to this point it had shared the same line as the fax, meaning that anytime she was on the phone (a lot), she couldn't receive faxes. So she wanted to get it split to enable her to do both at once - chat on a teleconference for 2 hours, but know that faxes could still get through.

After phoning several places, she found someone that could come out right away. He turned up very quickly. Very nice looking young man, with a very thick accent from somewhere in central Europe (I'm afraid I'm not very good with accents so I'm not sure exactly where). Very polite, but he had a little trouble understanding what my boss wanted.

Although he did the job very nicely in the end, I have to tell you that it is slightly disconcerting to have a technician walk into your office, point at your microwave, and say, "This is fax, yes?"

o_O

I made a huge pot of soup!

Cabbage, spinach, carrot, corn, green beans, celery, parsnip, zucchini, capsicum, potato, sweet potato, chick peas, kidney beans, tomatoes, onion, leek, garlic, and half a chili.

Veges veges veges!

Y'know, it struck me the other day that it would be really cool to have my own personal cow catcher.

That way I could charge through crowds - say, at the supermarket, with nary a worry about slowing down for pensioners chatting in the aisles, or people dawdling and fussing over the vegetables. They would simply peel easily off to the sides and then lay dazed and confused in my wake, as I slice through the crowds like a hot knife through butter.

*chews pencil*

Yeah, that'd be awesome.

Conversation on vent last night during a raid:

leath: sorry guys, last attempt for me, my eyes are on the keyboard.
malekai: you could try licking them
me: Oculolinctus.
steevo: what?
me: the act of licking someone's eyeballs for sexual gratification

(silence)

steevo: Keeva, PLEASE tell me you just looked that up.
me: it's best not to ask.

"Deep Peace" from this album is my new favourite song at the moment. So pretty.

I stayed home today because there were several road closures due to flash floods, and they were predicting destructive storms with winds of 90-110km/h. Last time we had something like that, it threw one of my aviaries (empty, luckily) across the front yard and slammed it into the front gate, literally flattening it. It was a really violent and scary storm, and I didn't want mum to be by herself (or the animals to be trapped or scared) so I stayed home.

The winds never came, so I feel like a bit of a dope, but better safe than sorry.

I took some photos when the rain eased:

You know what feels really satisfying?

Hammering nails into wood.    

....don't you think?

If you've never done it, you should give it a go sometime.