A year later...

Yes, yes, I haven't updated in a while...a loooong while. Moving on.

I had a dream last week. *Katie decided we needed life sized cookie jar replicas of ourselves. So we shopped around potters who specialized in ceramics and found... MY MOTHER! She quoted a price of $2000 per cookie jar, and promptly started planning how much money she could make if she specialized in cookie jar people.

At which point I was chased by bears past a swing set in our backyard. *

In my Dreams!

So Katie says I need to start writing down my dreams because she finds them hilarious. I think it may have to do with our choice of beverages but we shall see.

Two nights ago I dreamt that my brothers ordered a baby king cobra on line. For some reason they decided to keep it in an old cardboard box of Lego's. After a few hours they got tired of it so Tim tossed it down the stairs (jerk!). I Of course was totally exasperated and tried to explain WHY you can't just toss a baby cobra down the stairs into the living room and expect it to be ok!

So I go to find it and put it someplace safe, like a nice terrarium (I love terrariums). Of course it was out of the box and slithering around the room, so I'm looking under the couch and moving stuff around and I spot Tim's old amp. It's open in the back, so I tip it up to look and BAM! Cobra bites me in the EYE, my left eye, BTW. I still have a totally clear memory of it striking me in the eye. It gets my lower eyelid and scrapes the top part of my eyeball. I could feel the pain of the bite and the venom starting to numb and burn my eye.

Was I terrified? NO! I was just so pissed at Tim. "SEE??!" I say this is why you CANNOT throw a cobra down the stairs!!"

End of an Era

I have had my driver's license for 10 years. I don't speed (more than 5 over) I'm careful about obeying all laws. Well, ok I have accidentally run a few red lights, but not on purpose mostly!

Last night Katie and I were driving home from Ty and Dave's. We pulled onto 55 after a police car. Katie mentioned she was glad he was in front and not following us. Almost as soon as she said that he put on his blinker and pulled to the side of the road, when we passed he started following us. I wasn't too worried, I knew he was running the plates. It was close to 1:00 AM and I'm sure he was looking for suspicious characters. I drove normally and took my turn onto Rolling Hills and he pulled in after me and sure enough, turned on his lights.

Oh crap, so much for my 10 year streak! I'm glad Katie was with me, she found the insurance info and I got out my license, so exciting! He came up to the window and all I could think was, he looks like Jeff Krotzer, how am I supposed to be afraid of him??

He says, "The reason I pulled you over tonight is your tabs are expired". I might have gaped a little I had NO clue. He asked if it was my car and I said yes, he took my license and went to run it. At that point I remembered that the car is NOT in my name and waited for him to come back and billy club me. I guess that little discrepancy -or the fact that it's in dad's name, same last name- didn't bother him because he came back and just told me to get new tabs.

Nice, no ticket, no nothing.

This morning I told mom and she said oh yeah, I forgot about that, we need new tabs. Thanks Ma.

The wholde incident did kind of make me want to be a cop, but I think they frown on the sort of vigilante justice I would bust out. Oh well.

First Snow

We got our first snow of the season last night! On my way to bed last night I looked out the window and saw snow flurries like glitter falling outside the window. So pretty.

This morning I went to let the chickens out, usually they're all camped out in front of the door waiting to run outside. This morning the only one out was Jack. Pumpkin must have kicked him out of the coop, poor guy. It's not any colder than it has been, they just really don't like the snow on their feet.

With the bright sun this afternoon they're all outside basking in it. Winter is coming, but it's not here just yet.

What I've been up to?

Sipping cocoa now. It's been so cold and rainy here, and I've been out in it everyday for hours, harvesting and washing vegetables. It seems kind of silly to stand there in the pouring rain with a hose in my hand scrubbing vegetables, but what can you do?


It's been a busy summer. I'm taking over more and more of the farm work. It's almost easier to do all of the harvesting, washing, and bagging of the veggies, than to deal with mom. Luckily the season is almost over. We had our first frost a couple of weeks ago and are looking at our first freeze this weekend. Still a lot of veggies out there, but we are winding down the season.


The chickens are all doing pretty well. Had two outbreaks of a respiratory problem with Ella this summer. I think it's the same thing that Apollo had. There were a few days when I though she might not make it, thankfully she did recover and is back to 100%.


Most of the chickens are molting right now, losing all of their old feathers and growing pretty new ones in preparation for winter. It looks like someone was murdered out there with all the feathers blowing around the yard.


I've reintegrated Pumpkin into Jack's flock. He, Jack and Leif are now co-existing, not really happily, but there is no more bloodshed. The fights were showy but not nearly as violent as they were this spring. This was mostly posturing, very little actual damage done. It was tough to watch them fight it out, but worth it to have the whole flock in the big coop for the winter.


I haven't had time to do almost anything with the little horses this summer. In the time I have spent out there Candy and I have gotten to know each other better. She's such a sweet little girl, she just wants to know you're in charge. If I go out there with the right attitude I don't even need a halter or lead rope, she will follow quietly beside me, stopping and turning when I do. I hope we have a mild October/November so I can spend some more time with her.


Got a chance to do a lot more canning and pickling this summer and I am so glad! Katie and I have been baking too, pies, muffins, and cocktails. We've had some fun evenings!

How did that happen?

It looks worse than it feels.

The weird thing is I don't remember how it happened. Best I can figure it was when I was carrying 7 dozen eggs out to the fridge in the garage. There was stuff piled in front of the door and I had to open it with my elbows and knees, but I don't remember hitting it.

Layers

I started out with 26 pullets (female chicks) in March of 2003. Of those original 26 only 2 are still here. Over the years I've lost 24 of them. When I realized that I was shocked. I remember every girl and what happened.

A few simply fell asleep and never woke. Many more of various genetic factors. One died under anesthesia at the vet while being treated for a large gash in her side.

Most died of reproductive issues and cancer related to laying.

This is not surprising considering chickens, like other birds, were only meant to lay 10-20 eggs a year. The average hen today lays between 200-300 eggs per year.

Hatcheries all over the country raise and sell purebred chicks of hundreds of different breeds. These chicks may be all different breeds, but they have one thing in common, they are produced in massive numbers. Many hatcheries are the equivilent of puppy mills and just like puppy mills their first concern is on producing large numbers of animals for sale. The health and wellbeing of the offspring is of secondary or no concern at all.

The result is tens of thousands of birds with genetic and reproductive issues. This is not a problem for most people. Laying hens are kept for only 1 or 2 years before being slaughtered and replaced. Hybrid meat birds live only 5-7 weeks before being slaughtered. They are literally still chicks, not even into adolecence. With such practices all sorts of problems can be passed from generation to generation without ever surfacing.

It's people like me who deal with them.

There are breeders out there who are breeding for more than just numbers. Dedicated people who are devoted to their particular breed and try to better it through selective breeding. More and more people are breeding for their own needs. Combining different breeds to make a chicken specialized for their location.

I started doing so 2 years after getting my first chicks. Of my first hatch six of the nine I hatched were males. I shuffled them around, trying to keep as many as I could. Two were culled for extreme aggression, I still have a scar above my eye from a rooster named Oliver.

Despite all that it became very difficult for me to give them up. To try to find a home for them where they wouldn't be immediately slaughtered is nearly impossible. And after incubating them, watching them hatch and grow I couldn't stand the thought of sending them off and not knowing if the person doing the slaughtering would be quick and as gentle as possible or...

So I'm back to ordering small numbers of female chicks from smaller hatcheries every few years. I don't like supporting the system, but I'm not principled enough to stop. :/