Update From the Weekend

On Friday I thought that maybe putting Nelly in with Ducky would be a good idea. Nelly could show Ducky how to be a fighter, not that she wasn't already giving it all she had. It was a bad idea. Nelly trampled Ducky to get to the food and Ducky did not respond to having a box mate. I quickly put Nelly back with her sisters.


It seems Ducky was perfectly content with her horse friend. Saturday morning she took a turn for the worse. I was holding her and talking to her as she passed and letting her know how proud we were of her for trying as hard as she did. We will miss Ducky very much.


The girls in tub one also lost a sister on Saturday morning. She too was a fighter. After I had changed the water over to antibiotics she seemed to be responding. We made sure she ate every couple of hours and got drinks and she was eating much better. I guess we just did not get the medicine in there early enough. The other 15 seem to be doing great and getting wing feathers. There is a runt but she is tough and hangs right with the rest of them. Hopefully the 25 we have left will all do well and thrive now.

Saria is doing great. She is developing her feathers faster than every one else and seems to have that aloof attitude that Zelda continues to have. Her favorite place to be is perched up on the feeder. We must get them a little roosting stick in the tub very soon.

Speaking of Zelda, here she is. She is our biggest, fullest, healthiest bird. Not much seems to phase her really. During the winter months when they were all getting a bit aggrivated by the wet weather she started a bad habit in the group. She started eating feathers and taught everyone else how to pick them out. Now I think we are getting it under control but while everyone else looks worse for wear, Zelda has every feather perfectly in place.

The big girls like to gossip around the feeder. I am sure half of the conversations are about Zelda.

I did get all the posts up for the new chicken run. Woo Hoo.

Hubby got some mowing done on Saturday before the rain. It was a good thing.

We rake up a lot of the cut grass and clover to throw into the run with the big girls. They have so much fun digging through it, keeps them out of trouble.

Miss Sarah had a game on Saturday morning. Ninja boy was there to catch it on film.

Spring was being so wonderful to us. The neighbor's pear tree is all leafed out.

Bushes and flowers are blooming and bringing color to us almost every where you look.

Inside we have Tomato plants preparing for their debut to the garden.

The Artichokes are doing well.

The lettuce is wondering why it is not in the ground yet but it has been so very wet.

On Sunday we caught a glimpse of a Towhee in the yard.

And since it was raining Sarah thought it a good idea to enjoy the rain with some bubbles.

The Countdown

This has been a rollercoaster week. The weather on Tuesday was 80 degrees and now we are experiencing a couple of days with temps in the 30's and 40's. Monday we lost a hen, no signs of why, the day before she was fine and no one else has had any signs of an issue. On Tuesday one of my amazing neighbors broke up my garden spot for me with his tractor. There is no way the tiller would have touched this plot because in the past it had horses on it so the ground was pretty packed. This was perfect timing because now with the cooler weather it should kill off some of the weeds that were in there but it is great because the clover had really gone nuts with the burst of warm weather and so now that is buried up in the soil. I plan to spread some composted horse manure across it before we till it in which should help really prepare the soil for planting. I am giddy with Spring on it's way, only a little over a week til it is officially here.

Daniel's blood sugars always get crazy with the changing of the seasons, the last couple of days have been absolutely nuts. Usually Spring brings many lows for him but he has been going through the roof, tricky disease that diabetes just when you think you get it, you realize you don't. He is so thrilled with the idea that baby chicks will be here soon. The kids are really looking forward to getting to know the new babies.

New adventures and Old memories

We are so excited to say that we will be doing the 4H Chick Chain again this year. It went so well last year and has really added so much to our lives that we are looking forward to the next stage. There are a couple of ways that we could go about handling bringing a new flock onto Redbud but we have decided not to mix the flocks. We are building a new hen house and run for our existing layers and will clean, disinfect and rebed the existing building as a brooder unit. Since the babies will not be able to use the run for some time it will give me a chance to correct things I now know I would have done differently and to turn the soil several times for the sun to disinfect.

My first wave of garden seeds should be arriving this week. Now to find someone to break up the garden area for me. We have a tiller but it is ancient and tricky, the first go around on that ground out there needs to be deep like with a tractor. In the meantime I will be starting my seeds in small pots the kids and I are making out of newspaper so that when it is time to transplant we won't have to disturb the roots, we can just put the whole thing in the ground. We have been saving soda bottles, the kind that come in a six-pack of soda. We cut the bottle in two pieces about half way down, set the pot into the bottle and water. Then replace the top half and it creates like a terrarium of sorts to hold in the moisture and warmth.

I love sharing these things with my kids. Daniel is only interested in some parts of it and then moves on but Sarah loves to help and to learn it all. Sarah is eight now so I think when it is time to can our treasures this year I will start teaching her that part too. Some of my most wonderful memories is helping my grandmother garden and can each year. She taught me so many things that many kids today do not get to be a part of. I was never fond of chicken killing day when I was little because those headless beasts would chase you. lol Grandma would set me on the back porch and have me clean gizzards to keep me out of the way, but she did it in a way that made me feel that it was the most important job of the day. The good part was that I learned how to cut up a chicken and just how many meals could come from one bird. =) We always had one goat and once in a blue moon grandma could trade stuff for a calf that we would raise for butcher. The goat was a good friend to an only child, she followed me every step I took and the milk she produced was always a treat. The calf thing got easier as time went on, but in the beginning I made the mistake of naming one and growing attached. Her name was Tinker Bell and she was great. Boy it was hard when I found out her fate but understood that Grandma had a reason for everything she did. Somehow the occasional pig we raised did not cause such an emotional response when it had to say goodbye. Neither did those blasted mean roosters that would flog any and everyone that crossed it's path.

The older I get the more in awe of my grandmother I become. She was such a good provider and worked so hard even with RA and Lupus. She raised her own seven kids as a single mother and then took me in and raised me most of my life as well. She was the person that taught me to fish and even let me keep my first one, even though it was so small it probably would not have been worth cleaning. She taught me how to be a good shopper and careful with money. The first time I bought the groceries alone I was probably about eight or nine years old. She could no longer drive, it was a small town so everyone knew us, she called the store to tell them I was coming and I did the shopping all by myself. I can not even imagine sending Sarah to the store like that now but we did what had to be done then. I wish my kids could have known her, she was not lovey but you knew she loved you by her actions. I guess that was part of her Indian influenced raising, her mama was the same way. She taught me to quilt, how to cook, how to make do, to always be honest and help anyone in need. She taught me about family, community and the love of our country. She believed in me when I did not, she encouraged me when I felt hopeless, she would admit her pitfalls when she saw me go through the ones of my own and she was the one constant rock I could always count on. I miss her every day of the world but I feel blessed to have a part of her in my heart and in my character.

Spring is on the way. I hope that everyone can find the joy even in these trying times. Better days are a comin. =)