Lack of Sleep and a Long To-Do List

The girls had trouble sleeping last night.  They watched a (stupid) movie, which combined with the funeral we attended yesterday, freaked them out.  The movie was "Clue", based on the board game of the same name, which is one of their favorites.  You know - Miss Scarlet comitted the crime in the Ballroom with the wrench.

They were in and out of their own beds, sleeping bags in our room, and our bed.  I was in and out of my bed and L's bed (with and without her in it), and not much sleeping occurred for anyone.  Consequently, today it has been exceedingly difficult to accomplish anything.

I did go out to the garden with my Mom first thing.  I brought in spinach, lettuce, peas and strawberries.

I decided to see what would happen if I let the peeps down stairs in the Egg Cart'n today.  They all managed to get down and seemed to have a wonderful time scratching, pecking and taking dirt baths.  Hopefully they will be able to get back up this evening!



Fantine has moved back into the Chicken Barge with the other hens.  I have been ambushing the hens at night when they are all roosting and spraying them on their wounds and naked parts with Vetericyn.  They are starting to grow new feathers, and the wounds are healing up.

Right now I am supposed to be storing up water in all the 5 gallon buckets that I can find.  There is some kind of crazy storm, called a "derecho" coming through tomorrow, with hail and damaging winds.  I have no doubts that we will lose our power.

I also should get some cleaning done and make up beds for our guests coming this weekend.

But first, let me close with this picture of my potted flower arrangement for this year.  I like the cheerful orange and purple!



Pee-U!

I worked out in the garden most of the afternoon.  Whew!  It was a hot one today!  Now, I'm not smelling so good, and I'm a bit itchy and sticky.  Time for a shower!

The girls and I picked strawberries again.  We got about 2 1/2 gallons.  I think we've harvested almost 9 gallons out of the garden between my Mom and I, and there are still many more to go.  Hooray!  We used to pick 25-30 lbs of strawberries every summer at the U-Pick farm about 45 minutes north of here.  I discovered 2 years ago that they charged MORE for me to pick my own strawberries, than our local grocery store charged.  That was my impetus to grow enough of my own strawberries to be DONE with those fools!

I did some weeding out there, and planted the last bed of corn, as well as replanting some of the beans.  We found a Swallowtail caterpillar on the parsley, and L moved it to her butterfly habitat so that we can watch it change.  I picked some lettuce and peas for dinner.  The Bee Man came to harvest honey while I was working, and he gave me some honeycomb.  I feel rather rich this evening!

Every time I take my camera out to photograph the new Chicken family out scratching, they run and hide.  All seven peeps are doing just fine.  (I finally tossed that last egg on Wednesday night, it was a dud.)  I think you can see most of them in this photo.

My Dad commented that these peeps are so much quieter and calmer than the 3 dozen we purchased as day old chicks last Spring.  We think that must be the influence of Mama Hen.

The rose that I dug from my friend's garden last summer bloomed this week.  The flowers were so heavy that after a rain, they hung down to the ground, so I cut them and brought them in so that we could enjoy the sweet, strong scent inside for awhile.

One of the families that moved away last summer came back to visit this weekend.  We invited the rest of the gang up to Poplar Ridge for a pot luck.  It was so lovely to have T back with us, even for a short time.  We ate until all that was left were a few crumbs in the bottom of the bowl of chips.

Sadly, the mother of one of my dear friends passed away this weekend, so our gathering was bitter-sweet as we all felt her heartbreak in our midst.  I didn't know her mother well, but she was one amazing woman, who owned a little piece of heaven up the road by a bubbling stream. 

My parents were away at another funeral today:  my great Aunt was killed in an auto accident earlier in the week, and her husband was injured and hospitalized at the same time. 

It struck me again, as I worked in the garden today, the mysteries of the cycle of life.  New plants are growing in my garden, and old ones are becoming more beautiful and productive.  There are bright green striped caterpillars that in a couple of weeks will become beautiful black and yellow butterflies.  At the same time, the end comes for some.  I feel overwhelmed at times like this with waves of both sadness and gratitude.  

No Showers Again!

The girls took a lengthy shower together tonight, while I picked strawberries in the dimming light.  Most of their showers are lengthy, as they find the acoustics in the stall great for singing, plus they fight over who gets to use the hand held shower head.

When I returned, hands red and sticky, they were snuggled up on the couch with JP, listening to the final paragraph of Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator.  I turned on the water to wash my hands, and a fine trickle of water dribbled out.

Perfect.  Another summer of hauling water?  Sigh.

We tucked the girls into bed, then started a team effort to regain water - because you never miss it as much as when you don't have it! 

Old Bessie was filled with a most of a load of wood mulch that I didn't get around to putting on the flower beds over the weekend (although I did get them weeded.)  JP backed her up to my flower bed, while I found a giant tarp.  Then we both shoveled mulch on to the tarp until Bessie was empty again.  At the same time, my Dad came over to repair the Water Buffalo, which blew out of the lean-to one windy day over the winter and sustained some minor damage.  Then he assessed the well situation, and (we're just guessing here) it doesn't appear that the well is dry, but that the pump is damaged...perhaps because of the half a dozen or more brown outs in the past week and a half.  Finally, I scrounged up a handful of quarters, and JP headed out to the potable water station at quarter to ten at night.

He has returned now, and it takes a while to empty all 200 gallons into the cistern.  I think he plans to return for a second load yet tonight.  In the morning, I will need to call our Well Man to check the situation.  Dad will probably need to make another couple of runs for water.

Well, at least we'll get showers tonight.  For now though, I need to rustle up a few more quarters!

Mama Hen Update #9 - The Whole Flock

Mama Hen has been out and about in the Maternity Ward with her 7 chicks today.  She has 5 black ones and 2 yellow ones.  They all seem strong, healthy and curious, and do just what chickens should do:  eat, poop, and scratch in the shavings.

One lonely egg remains in the nest.  It hasn't changed since I candled it at about 2 weeks.  There was something growing in there, but it stopped.  I don't have the heart to toss it yet, but I guess I should.

Fantine down below in the ICU is frantic for her discharge.  She did lay an egg today, so I guess she is doing fair.  I haven't been able to catch her to evaluate her wounds since she was admitted.  My opinion is that she will need a couple of weeks away from the rest of the flock.

I will try to post pictures soon of the whole family.

Mama Hen Update #8 - A Chick of a Different Color

This morning, Mama had 6 chicks with her, and another egg with a pip.  One of the chicks is definitely from a Golden Comet hen, since he is a little puffy, yellow fellow.

We candled the suspicious egg again, and still no change.  We also gave it the good old sniff test, and were definitely getting a whiff of something stinky.  That egg is WAY out in the woods now.

The egg with a pip hasn't changed since this morning, but the chick is still tapping away in there.  That leaves one egg to go!

Hopefully we will actually catch one while it is hatching so we can watch!

Catt and J brainstormed this afternoon, and came up with a hatching chick Haiku:

Pipping, zipping out.
Playing around and about.
Fluffy little chick.

Much nicer, I think, than the one I wrote about our chicks last year:

Now just balls of fluff
Scampering, peeping, scratching
Soon to be my soup.

Mama Hen Update #7 - Hospital "Wing"

We now have 3 adorable, fluffy little black chicks!  Here is a picture of #2 shortly after it hatched.  Its eyes are still closed, and it's still sticky and wet.

The egg in front has a pip on the left side. 
We banded Mama with a green zip tie so we will
remember that she has broody tendencies.

These eggs hatched much faster today, I guess they were good and ready!  There are 2 more eggs with "pips" (a little cracked hole where the chick begins its exit from the egg shell), so we may have a few more chicks by tomorrow.

Recent unfortunate circumstances have required us to turn the Egg Cart'n into the Hospital Wing of the chicken yard.  The top floor is the Maternity Ward, and the bottom floor is the Sick Bay. 

All of our hens have been looking terrible lately, with feathers missing from their necks, hips and backs.  From everything I can tell, they are not ill, and do not have mites, but are getting "over mated" by our rooster.  I read that usually a rooster needs 4-8 hens in order to prevent over mating.  We have 19!  This evening I found a hen who was not only missing feathers, but actually missing skin in an area at least an inch in diameter over each hip.  She was immediately removed to the Sick Bay, where we have improvised shelter, roosts, food, water, and (most importantly) quiet for her.  We don't know yet if she will make it, but time will tell.

In the Hospital Wing, while poor Fantine recovers below, new life is arriving upstairs.  We hope everyone makes it in the end.

Mama Hen Update #6 - One Baby!

Early yesterday afternoon, I noticed that one of the eggs had a small hole cracked in it.  I thought we were FINALLY going to get some chicks!  I checked it every hour or so, and nothing changed.  After dinner, the hole appeared a tiny bit bigger, and we could hear cheeping and tapping from inside the egg!

There was no change late last night before bed, so I worried that something was wrong.  After all, it had already been almost 12 hours without the chick coming out of the egg!  Unfortunately, I chose to look up on the Internet about helping a chick to hatch.  As you can imagine, the comments I read (everyone's an expert) ranged from taking the eggs to a vet, to never NEVER helping a bird hatch, to help after 12 hours or 24 hours or 48 hours.  NOT HELPFUL!

I woke with a start at 6 AM this morning when the power flashed off and on again.  (JP's CPAP machine beeps when it's turned off...wakes me every time.)  I couldn't possibly get back to sleep, even though sleeping in on weekends is one of the highlights of my week.

I snuck out to the Baby Hotel and heard tiny peeps along with Mama's disgruntled clucking!  One adorable, fluffy black little chick was peering out from under Mama's wing. 

Yay!  One down, 8 to go!