Hello. Hello... Hello....
Hi. The last time I wrote in here was today, one year ago. My link showed up on my FB page. I hadn't forgotten about this, but honestly it has been a tough couple of years and I didn't know if I wanted to write in here anymore.
Today is the Winter Solstice. Lots has been going on in our little home over the past few months. I made the mistake of saying to someone that all our animals have been healthy lately. Hee hee...probably the next day, I come home after a lovely day out with my family and my husband greets me at the door. He told me that something attacked our oldest chicken Penelope and she had passed. I was upset, but she has lived longer than any of our other original chickens. She had a good life, I thought.
It was stormy out, so my husband got ready to go out and bury her for me. And boy was he surprised to find her standing at the back door when he came out!! I think he calls her zombie chicken now. In any case, she had been attacked by something. It was so late I couldn't really figure out what to do with her, but I knew that she could not be put back with the other chickens. So I enclosed her in the secure run-around pen that we have, gave her some water and food and a box with straw to snuggle in if she got too cold. She woke me up at 3AM, letting me know that whatever had gotten her was back to finish the job. She was safe, but very distraught by the time our dog and I got out there. As it was still pitch black, I hung out there raking with my head lamp on in order to discourage the thing...still not sure what it was...not to come back.
Once it got light out, I gave Penelope a good bath (have you ever seen a chicken in a bath? They really like it once they realize that they are not going to be cooked.) and cleaned her wounds with hydrogen peroxide. I read that on the web. She was pretty beat up with most of her feathers off her neck and a puncture wound in her side. My husband helped me get our dog crate out and filled with straw. We put her in the dog crate in our laundry room. The first thing that my husband said to her was, "I know you have been wanting to get in the house for a long time, and see, you finally made it." Penelope has always liked to sit at the back door and she tried to come in when we opened it!
I am not sure what day that was, but it felt like she was out there for a while. As of yesterday, she is back out in the coop with the other girls - Ruby and Rosy. These names are thanks to my young friend, who wanted to name them. We got these girls as grown ups a couple months back. They and Penelope seemed happy to see one another. That was a relief.
In the meantime, while Penelope was still recuperating, our youngest and most feisty cat Yoshi started yowling. We couldn't figure out what the problem was. I honestly have never had cats before his older sister and brother. He kept eating and drinking, but now that I think of it, his belly was very rolly-polly. We brought him to the vet and found that he didn't just have a urinary tract infection, but he was completely blocked. He had to stay at the vet for five days! We have been asked to continue watching him very closely and he has to eat special food, but he is doing so much better!
My beautiful Mom passed in March. It was as lovely a death as I could have asked for. But it was hard and continues to be hard all the same. We made it through Thanksgiving...but for me, Christmas is a lot harder. So many memories all wrapped up. I am so thankful though for the time that we had with her after her stroke. It was a trying time, but a beautiful time as well.
Let's see, it has been raining like crazy this fall and winter so far. Our back yard is a messy, muddy muck pit. The front yard is just as bad, as there was NO rain this past summer and the grass has mostly died in the front. I am tempted to do some gardens out there!
We did have a garden this year! That was kind of a miracle. The things that grew well were lemon cucumbers, tomatoes and the berries - blueberries and raspberries. The sun was hard on the leafy veggies this year. Will try to do a more shady spot for them next year. We did use chicken manure in the boxes and the rhubarb especially liked it. It is fun to talk about gardens when it actually snowed for a bit today!
My husband got a bit interested in the garden this year. He fenced it off, so the chicken (we only had one at that time) would stay out and not eat everything in site and so our dog would stop making a race track over the garden beds. Then when the weather turned, he gathered cardboard, cleaned the beds, covered them with cardboard and then with leaves. They are sleeping soundly and preparing the wormy-goodness for next year.
My husband made points with me today too...I came home to beautiful twinkle lights all around the living room. He spiffed the place up too. I was so tired after work that I just laid down on the couch and reveled in the beauty all evening. Christmas is coming!
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