Chonkey Hooligans

OK, most of you know I had knee surgery a couple of months ago.  Progress is steady but I'm not yet at 100%.  I keep experimenting with "back to normal".  Like adding chonkey duties.  Yesterday morning, I said to Rick that I would do morning feed.  I miss talking to the chickens. 

Mornings = cool temps, quiet time, chatty chickens, peaceful donkeys (once they get their hay).  The chickens follow me while on manure duty, pecking and talking.  About life in general.  Especially Sweet Pea who loves to climb on the fork as I'm scooping and help.

Well anyway, yesterday amid those cool quiet temps, the donkeys escaped twice.  Yea, it was my fault.  I was lax and they were bold.  So twice this new knee had to go scoot them back in.

Three chickens scooted through the gate to peck around the pasture.  Twice this new knee had to go scoot them back in. 

I finally got everyone coralled, by this time limping, and discover through my head count I'm missing Buffy.  Damn it!  Back out to the pasture, to the back corner and scoot her out from under the tree.

Hooligans!!

I haven't posted pictures of the donks lately, which they have mentioned isn't fair at all.  To appease all concerned, here are the lovelies.

      Spice on the left, Sugar on the right

By the way, I am smitten with Sugar's summer coloring

Gabs on the left, Luigi on the right (the escape instigator, of course)

Crisis Averted

A huge weight was lifted off my shoulders just minutes ago and wanted to tell you.
Whew!

Sweet Pea sat in a nesting box for over 12 hours yesterday.  Something was terribly wrong.

Now she is my favorite hen and the last of the original four I got in 2015.  She had not demonstrated any abnormal behavior or distress leading up to this strange behavior so I had no idea what to do for her.  Talk about feeling helpless.

I feared I was going to lose her too.

This morning Rick went out for first shift and reported she was up and friskier than normal.  Oh my gosh, I think I'll do the dance of joy.

Now, I will admit to you I believe in energy work.  I had a Reiki session many years ago that cemented my belief.  Someday I'll tell you about it.  Last evening I sent Sweet Pea the strongest message of healing energy I could muster.  Who knows if it helped.

    My little stinker

Sometimes Life Stinks

LANGUAGE ALERT:
Damn it, damn it, damn it.


We lost Emmy Lou 2 this week.

I don't even have a good photo of her, but in this image she's the middle brown girl.
She was a good little girl, although a little pushy when it came to bananas and would leap up at the bowl I was carrying.  If you recall, she was one of four hens I adopted from a farm being sold.  They did a good job of re-homing all 100 chickens with our four in the photo above.  That was in November so we've only had them seven months.

Rick found Em in a corner of the donkey pasture at the conclusion of their free range time on Tuesday.  No sign of a struggle which is odd.  I don't think that particular part of the pasture would have pointed to a hawk.  So, we'll never know what happened but I have to believe it was a predator.

 

Here's Emmy Lou peeking through the door.

Our numbers have now dropped to eight, with Ruby Dee's death in late April.

Damn it!

The Carpenter At Work

Going to do a bit of bragging here.

My husband can build just about anything.  That pretty much sums it up.

He built our house, the sheds, donkey barn, chicken coop.  And the list goes on.

Most recently he added a hay manger in a nifty afternoon.  If you recall past photos of the donkey yard, a wading pool always made an appearance to throw hay and straw into.  The theory was to keep the donks from eating off the ground and consuming dirt, which can cause gut impaction.  Well, my little lovelies got in the habit of picking the hay out of the pool and throwing it on the ground.  Yup.  Thwarted again.

So while I was convalescing with my knee, Rick decided to build a manger to contain their forage.

It's working well, I'm pleased to say.

And more recently, he built a Little Free Library, upon my request.
I have had this project in mind for at least a couple of years, but for various reasons didn't act.  About three months ago I moved forward, received permission to place it in a nearby modular home community, and Rick whipped it up.  Just a week ago it was officially installed (although I am waiting for the Little Free Library plaque) and I am excited as heck.

Again I say, pretty nifty, huh?

This has been a community effort in that friends have been donating books, and as a Friend of our local Library, I've been allowed to capture leftover books at the conclusion of a book sale.  I am so appreciative of people's generosity.

It's so handy to have a handy builder around.  And that's a fact.

High Energy Dog, Indeed

OK, let's get news of the new knee out of the way.  This one was a tad slower to turn the corner and was a tad more owwie, but all is going well.  I've been out to see the donks and hens three times, although my physical therapist doesn't want me on uneven ground frequently (shhh, don't tell I went out again today).  Hopefully I'll be back with more photos soon.

In the meantime a little story about Faith, the greyhound.
Recently someone said they thought greyhounds were high energy dogs.  I had to laugh, politely.

Here's the bright eyed girl, seemingly ready for adventure.  Ha!

Faith in her morning nap,

afternoon nap,

and, of course, evening nap

To be fair, these rest periods are interrupted with brief zoomies outside where she runs like the racing girl she used to be, round and round the horse trailer.  OK, now that that five minutes is out of the way, it's time to return to the house and settle onto the couch or the bed.  

And that's the life of a greyhound... 

And Then There Were Nine

A quick update --

We lost Ruby Dee yesterday.  It was just a matter of trying to make her comfortable. 

What makes her loss particularly poignant is she was one of the first four hens we got in 2015.  Now only Sweet Pea remains.  Golda was killed by a predator and Emmy Lou (1) died in a similar fashion to Ruby.  Both Isa Browns.  I have to wonder.

I'll miss Rubes.  She'd respond to her name.  And could be a little firecracker.  And she was only four.

 Ruby Dee strutting her stuff

Ruby on the left, Sweet Pea on the right

The "senior" hens tend to hang together -- Sweet Pea, Buffy, Ruby and Jo (although only three years old Jo goes to bed early with the seniors.)  My guess is Buffy will miss Ruby; they had been together more frequently of late.

Goodbye sweet girl.

Boy, Has It Been a Week

Can I tell you about my week?  Cuz it's been a doozy.  And the fun keeps  on going.

Let's start at the beginning.
Last Monday the four donks got into the hay aisle and ransacked the supplement can and the grain can.  For those readers not acquainted with the perils of the equine world, this can be kind of catastrophic.  All four were lethargic (well, except Gabby), but Luigi was the worst.  I was pretty worried the boy was going to colic.  Got him up and walking to stimulate some gut action.  I won't enumerate all my worries and reactionary techniques, but long story short, everyone survived.  We've doubled locked that area of the barn and I've decided to eliminate the grain; it was a once-a-week treat.

Stinkpot Luigi

The next day Faith chose to sniff out the hidden Easter candy and devour it.  Yup, chocolate.  Yes, she too survived.

Now Ruby Dee is acting pretty strangely and I don't have a good feeling about this one.  I've followed the DIY suggestions for an egg-bound chicken which her symptoms suggest, but have not seen any improvement.  I'm very afraid we're going to lose her.

Adding to the stress is my knee surgery scheduled for Friday.  Trying to get doctor's reports to the right people (call after call after call) and billing errors straightened out (call after call after call) is testing my patience.  As of this moment, I'm still making call after call to the hospital and equipment vendor.  Apparently this is a test.

Earlier in the week I learned my teeny tiny job at a local bread store will end.  I've enjoyed it since I retired from my "real" job four years ago and will miss my boss and my customers.  He has two stores and is closing the one I worked at.

Then there's the area hay shortage.  We got the last load from my hay guy on the 23rd so I made call after call (see a pattern here?) to find some hay to get us through to this year's first cutting.  A huge thank you to my former horse farm owner, Dee, who sold me some of her stash.

The salvation in today's activities was my yoga class.  I've been a teacher for many years and have a most wonderful class.  Today concluded our spring session, with the surgery date timed for it's conclusion.  I won't be able to rejoin them for a few months and will miss the laughter, the groans, and the interest in all things yoga.

So dear readers, this may be the last post for a bit.  Sitting at the computer will be very owwie for a while after this knee gets "fixed".  Send me good thoughts and I'll return with the antics of our crew as soon as I can.