I Made A Lot of These.....

                                                                  

                               I loved to make toys - All kinds. Must have made hundreds of 'em!

Today's funny :0)

Don't mess with a mama hen!

(H/T to Irish!)

Eight Chickens.....

..... Ethel, Lucy, Oscar, Nina, Charlie, Goldie, Amos and Andy.

Only Oscar, Nina and Goldie bite.

The rest I can pick up and play with. Amos & Andy are just so cute - they follow me around like puppy dogs. Nina keeps going back to the coop for most of the day. She is getting broody again but I will not let her hatch any more eggs for now. I just hope the ones I have will get along.

Maybe a 'happy pill' added to the feed?

                                 


The chick hutch will be out of the pen very soon (it's really getting to be a pain in the arse trying to keep them separate at night).

I don't know why I keep putting it off.

Is it because I KNOW deep down, what is going to happen?

Bored? Nah!

A Few years  ago,  we moved into a retirement development on  Florida 's southeast  coast.  We are living in the "Delray/Boca/Boynton Golf, Spa,  Bath and Tennis Club on  Lake Fake-a-Hachee". There are 3,000 lakes in  Florida ; only three are real.

 

Our  biggest retirement concern was time management.  What were we going to do  all day? Let me assure you, passing the time is not a problem. Our days are  eaten up by simple, daily activities. Just getting out of our car takes 15  minutes. Trying to find where we parked takes 20 minutes. It takes a half-hour  in the check-out line in Wal-Mart, and 1 hour to return the item the next  day.

 

Let me take you through a typical day: We get up at 5:00 am, have a  quick breakfast and join the early morning Walk-and-Fart Club. There are about  30 of us, and rain or shine, we walk around the streets, all talking at once.   Every development has some late risers who stay in bed until 6:00 am.   After a nimble walk, avoiding irate drivers out to make us road kill, we  go back home, shower and change for the next activity.

 

My wife goes  directly to the pool for her underwater Pilates class, followed by gasping for  breath and CPR.  I put on my 'Ask me about my Grandchildren' T-shirt, my  plaid mid-calf shorts, my black socks and sandals and go to the clubhouse lobby  for a nice nap.

 

Before we know it, it's time for lunch. We go to Costco  to partake of the many tasty samples dispensed by ladies in white hair nets. All  free! After a filling lunch, if we don't have any doctor appointments, we might  go to the flea market to see if any new white belts have come in or to buy a  Rolex watch for $2.00.

 

We're usually back home by 2:00 pm to get ready  for dinner.  People start lining up for the early bird about 3:00 pm, but  we get there by 3:45 because we're late eaters. The dinners are very popular  because of the large portions they serve. We can take home enough food for the  next day's lunch and dinner, including extra bread, crackers, packets of  mustard, relish, ketchup and Splenda, along with mints.

 

At 5:30 pm we're  home, ready to watch the 6 o'clock news. By 6:30 pm we're fast asleep. Then we  get up and make five or six trips to the bathroom during the night, and it's  time to get up and start a new day all over again.

 

Doctor-related  activities eat up most of our retirement time.  I enjoy reading old  magazines in sub-zero temperatures in the waiting room, so I don't mind.   Calling for test results also helps the days fly by.  It takes at  least a half-hour just getting through the doctor's phone menu. Then there's the  hold time until we're connected to the right party.  Sometimes they forget  we're holding, and the whole office goes off to lunch.

 

Should we find we  still have time on our hands, volunteering provides a rewarding opportunity to  help the less fortunate.  Florida has the largest concentration of  seniors under five feet and they need our help.  I myself am a volunteer  for 'The Vertically Challenged Over 80.' I coach their basketball team, The  Arthritic Avengers. The hoop is only 4-1/2 feet from the floor.  You should  see the look of confidence on their faces when they make a slam  dunk.

 

Food shopping is a problem for short seniors, or 'bottom feeders'  as we call them, because they can't reach the items on the upper shelves. There  are many foods they've never tasted. After shopping, most seniors can't remember  where they parked their cars and wander the parking lot for hours while their  food defrosts.

 

Lastly, it's important to choose a development with an  impressive name. Italian names are very popular in  Florida . They convey  world travelers, uppity sophistication and wealth. Where would you rather live:   Murray 's Condos  or the Lakes of Venice? There's no difference -- they're both owned by Murray,  who happens to be a cheapskate.

 

I hope this material has been of help  to you future retirees.  If I can be of any further assistance, please look  me up when you're in  Florida . I live in the Leaning Condos of Pisa  in Boynton  Beach.

                        

Today's funny :0)

O.K. folks, caption this:

H/T Donna (Thanks!)                                                               

So Far, So Good...

... Seems to working out with Amos and Andy eating with Charlie and Goldie. Oscar is still a bit of a problem chasing them though. Evil Ethel is just as nasty as ever, but they can out run her.
  
                                       
                                                           

                     
 This switching them all around every day is getting kind of weary, although it seems to keep them from fighting. I'll still do the musical chairs bit for a while longer. The real test to see if they get along will be when they all have to go in the coop at night. Everyone tells me that I just have too many roosters and there is going to be BIG trouble soon.

Maybe my flock will be different????

Everyone.....

..... have a safe and enjoyable holiday! Will be with family and friends today and Monday!

Here's a little something until then - this fellow is amazing - enjoy!   :0)

I wonder how many pairs of gloves he went through to do all these with chicken wire!   OUCH!!  Hard to believe that he does this with wire.....   CHICKEN WIRE SCULPTURE

Born in Nairobi, Kenya, Ivan spent his childhood in Africa, England, Wales and Germany . When not outside enjoying the natural environment, Ivan was drawn to all forms of artistic expression, and began drawing birds and African wildlife. As an adult, Ivan worked mostly in construction, but art was always an important part of his life. Ivan would spend all of his spare time learning about art, experimenting and trying to explore each medium to its potential. Ivan exhibited his sculpture and paintings in group exhibitions at the Guildhall Grantham, before emigrating to Australia in 1994. He now lives in the Gold Coast Hinterland. Artist Ivan Lovatt makes remarkably lifelike sculptures of famous folks, icons and wildlife out of poultry chicken wire.

MICHAEL JACKSON   Albert Einstein -- Here, the father of relativity is lovingly rendered in chicken wire.   Sir Edmund Hillary --  What better way to honor the fabled New Zealand mountaineer, explorer and environmental champion than to recreate his likeness in wire fencing?   Grace Jones -- Has posed for fashion magazines, recorded hit records and even battled James Bond, but here she is immortalized in the finest of sturdy barnyard materials for posterity. Dame Edna Everage -- Australian comedian Barry Humphries beloved character, Dame Edna Everidge. Perhaps her boa includes some actual chicken feathers. Jimi Hendrix -- The fleet-fingered guitar legend finally gets his posthumous due as a chicken wire sculpture. Mick Jagger -- The mouthpiece of the Rolling Stones may have been knighted in 2003, but you know you've really made your stamp on the world when someone sculpts your face out of chicken wire. John Lennon -- As one quarter of the Beatles, John Lennon inspired a generation and helped define rock n roll as we know it. Its fitting, then, that he should be canonized in chicken wire. The Beatles -- Depicted during their Sgt. Pepper era, the Fab Four is captured in all their epaulette, facially hirsute glory. Bob Dylan -- Having introduced both profound poetry and a keen social conscience to rock n roll in the 1960s, Bob Dylan gets the Lovatt treatment, looking suitably cool and wiry. Wings of wire -- Who said chicken wire was just for poultry and  celebrity depictions? Here, Lovatt presents a sculpture dubbed, The Eagle. A clucking masterpiece  --  Yes, its a chicken made of chicken wire. Who saw that coming? A meshy, metallic marsupial  -- Here, Lovatt creates a cuddly koala, clinging tenaciously to a tree.