# 573 - Rooster Love

Our roosters are kind of adorable, even when mean-mugging me.

They are big, healthy boys who get along and wake us every morning to their crowing.

Sometimes it seems they are posing for me, literally strutting their stuff. Roosters can look quite regal. This is Pavarotti; he's got a beautiful voice.

I love the classic rooster stance with one foot in the air. The roos look great when shaking their tail feathers.

I think I heard him whisper under his breath, "Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

# 542 - Living a Dream - Countdown to Country House Construction!

Nearly two years ago, we sold our house in the Greater Houston area. Our kids had both left home for college and for bigger, better things, so we were empty-nesters. The house was actually a great size to accommodate all of us, but the location of the house became undesirable to the two of us.

There were things that were bothersome due to the "neighborhood" normalness of this location. Our street was always packed with cars lining both sides of the street. Often, people visiting other neighbors would park in front of our house and block our mailbox. Our deliverers had a strict policy of not delivering to a house with a blocked mailbox. You would think people would know to not block a person's mailbox, but they do.

One of our good neighbors and friends would be the worst offender! Since we lived by the bay, our community was a huge boating/water recreation community and this one neighbor would have his four vehicles, his TWO boats and jet skis parked in front of his house...or he would try to park them there and they wouldn't fit, so he would end up parking in the only available space, in front of our house. But, he sure couldn't stand to have anyone park in front of his house. It was a situation prime for drama. Then, people began backing up into each other's cars as they tried to get out of their driveways.

We got sick of the parking issues. We had a very long, ample spaced driveway, but our neighbors didn't.

Then, we could not walk into the front or back yard for any privacy. Even the backyard...we were surrounded by people who could see everything in our backyard and hear everything. We couldn't even sit in the backyard and have a private conversation...all of us could hear each other. The lack of privacy became more bothersome through the years. Sometimes, you just wanted privacy.

So, we decided that we didn't need to keep living in a location that no longer met our personal needs and desires. We longed for space. We longed for nature instead of concrete and bad community planning for drainage.

We sold our house to a family who lived about two blocks away. They were a family of six and they were so excited to be buying our house. They lived in a one-story two-bedroom home and ours had four-bedrooms with a separate study, separate formal dining room and very large gameroom.

Our new house in the country won't have as many rooms as the old house, but the rooms are roomier. I didn't opt for a breakfast area, but we will have a breakfast bar that will provide comfortable daily dining space for the two of us. We might be able to fit a little table in the kitchen area that seats two, which will be nice and allow the cook to sit while preparing a meal, but the formal dining space will be just off the kitchen. The layout for our house is almost identical to the below shot...

But one thing that will change once we build the new house is that the chickens will not have the ability to get into our yard space or to get onto our porches. The chickens are much more lovable as they keep their distance from our home-site. Chickens destroy your potted plants, your veggie garden, they leave poop bombs everywhere and it becomes a yucky situation. For me, moving to the country is not relaxing to substitute the lack of privacy for chickens invading our private space, so we will take care of that issue very soon. I have two choices, get the chickens accommodations set up to keep them away from the home-site or don't have chickens.

So, I hope we figure things out as we build our house so that we can keep the chickens happy and this momma happy...I love being around my chickens, but they are not invited as house guests. Regardless, they are beautiful gals!

This particular chicken thinks she should live indoors with her people. Every day, she makes countless efforts to get inside. She knows where the dog food bowls are and Howdy the Aussie will snarl at another dog eating his dog food, but he just lays and watches this chicken raid his dog bowl with a dreamy expression on his face. I think he loves this chicken.

Of course, when I yell for Gracie, the dog we found in the woods after moving here, ALL the chickens come running from up to two acres away...as if they collectively think their name is "Gracie."

Gracie and Howdy, being cuddly on a recently cold day.

It is quite comical.

We do have predators all around us. The 30 chickens we had last year have suffered all kinds of encounters that have reduced our chicken flock to 15. However, I must say that the perfect amount of chickens for our home flock is from 6-10...I am leaning more toward 6. More than that becomes expensive to feed, more smelly for their poop trails and more destructive as the claws are multiplied.

We will have a driveway path leading to the house and then there will
be an expanded area stabilized for parking. But, we will start off our
driveway onto the acreage with this kind of tire trail.

As for the house construction, we are coming up to a closing day sometime between April 3rd-10th and that seems to be a date whirling toward us with increasing speed. After all this time, the day of closing on the construction loan approaches.

We have an idea of what we are building, but since this is a custom house, I have not actually walked into it before, so that is nerve-wracking. I am hoping everyone is on board and that once it is constructed and actually on our land, with a mortgage payment attached to it, that I will be THRILLED with it.

I think I will be SO HAPPY to finally have a bath tub again. RV living with a shower is great because it works to keep us clean, but sometimes, I just want to become a prune from soaking in a tub for much longer than is advised.

I still haven't figured out our Master bathroom configuration, but I
can promise this...the bathroom will not be a country-design. The
Master bath will be sleek and with white trim, very similar to the
bathroom above. I must have things in my bathroom clear and clean.
So, I will have a bit of metropolitan design with me in the country.

At least I have the comfort of knowing that I have put everything possible into this process to make this home the best we have ever lived in. For both me and Sgt. Dave, I have been very conscientious about adding elements into this house that we both love. Seeing it be brought to reality will be like watching a dream come to life.

Living a dream is pretty amazing. A chicken poop-free dream is even sweeter!

# 535 - Incubator Chicks Hatching!

This past week, we have been shocked to find that our first attempt at using the incubator has been a success! We actually had hatchlings this week!

The first chick to start pecking through an egg brought me tremendous excitement. WHAT? It's really working?!

This egg is the first to have a chick start to hatch. Sadly, this chick
was obviously hatching prematurely, and this chick died after the first
24 hours following hatching.

Of course, we had a couple of eggs that didn't make it. We had to candle the eggs, which is really easy to do, then take out the eggs that did not contain a growing chick.

But, we missed this one, and it soon began to be a potential mess, so I removed it quickly.

After a while, I could see that the first egg that had begun to hatch was having problems. Soon, the chick behind it began to hatch.

To my surprise, the second hatching chick would be the first to fully hatch. The concern for the first chick that was trying to hatch became more intense. The chick was peeping loudly from the first egg that was not making progress, as hour after hour passed.

I also knew we needed to remove the egg holders, so we did it quickly because I was scared it would hurt the chicks.

The process of hatching seems to go like this, in my experience...I first heard peeping, which scared me as I looked around the room carefully and then it dawned on me that the sound was actually coming from the incubator, even though the shell had not yet been cracked. The chicks peck an initial hole, then they make a "zipper" line, and if all goes well, the chick pushes the top of the shell upward with a burst of mighty strength and then they are BORN!

The chick works to hatch itself, then falls asleep, then suddenly perks
up and wiggles around, then falls back asleep. It is precious.

However, this in an exhausting process for the chick, it will peck for a while, then sleep, then peck, then sleep, and it can take a few hours. Then again, there are other chicks, as our third chick, who pecked the initial hole and was fully hatched with ten minutes.

Since we had no idea these eggs would be hatching, Sgt. Dave and I had no choice other than to work very quickly together to get the egg-rotator out of the incubator. I carefully cradled the chick so that it would not be pulled any direction that would affect hatching, he took out the rotator and I carefully laid the hatching chick back on the grate for it to finish its hard job of being born.

I must say, it was an unexpected, yet amazing experience to hold a hatching chick, but not one I want to do again. It was completely nerve-wracking, but I didn't want the chick to be caught in between the rotator trays. Back in the incubator, after another hour or so, it hatched face down and fell back asleep as we cracked up.

Sweet baby.

This chick would be the first to hatch and is now strong and healthy!

This is how an egg shell looks after a chick hatches from it...the top of the shell that is white is the air bubble area where the chick's head had been and is the zone for it to start pecking the zipper.

The other 2/3rds of the egg shell had a membrane that had blood vessels, kind of like a placenta. This membrane holds the chick's blood circulatory system until the final stage of hatching as the chick develops its own vessel system and the blood can be absorbed into its own body. This is fascinating to me. There is also a yolk sac at the bottom of the chick's body that is absorbed before hatching and that provides nutrients so the chick can recover from hatching over the next 24-48 hours...this egg yolk goes into the body of the chick and the abdominal hole is closed. If this process is not complete before hatching, you will likely have a chick that won't survive. You can see the "umbilical cord."

God's plan with nature is so incredible! I'm glad we had an incubator to help it along.

The little black feathered chick was the first to crack the shell and to zip, yet it was still in the shell nearly 24 hours later, with its peeping becoming more faded and weak. I researched the matter and found that chicks can literally get stuck in their shell. I checked the egg and found the area that the chick zipped was as hard as glue...the chick and the shell felt as if glue had dried everything in place. The solution was to slowly and gently rub warm water on the area and to even use Neosporin to keep the area moist and hydrated because the water will still eventually evaporate. I had Neosporin and helped the chick out a bit so it could move again.

Even with the assistance it needed; the fact that the chick needed ANY assistance was a really bad sign. After the chick came out, the yolk sac was still attached and to make a long, horrific process short, I will say that the egg sac suddenly filled to enormous proportions and I knew that the internal parts of the chick had prolapsed...the intestines were soon visible.

It broke my heart. The chick lived about 24 hours. It was a very difficult Farm Life Lesson.

All I could do was make the chick as comfortable as possible and to keep it protected from the healthy chick pecking, especially because we had a third chick making a rapid hatch.

As the third chick hatched, the strong, dried out, found-its-legs chick was in a pecking mode, so I put the newly hatched chick into the bowl with the chick that was struggling. This seemed to work out. Soon, the newly hatched chick could join the other strong chick.

The good thing is that out of the first three chicks we have ever hatched with the incubator, two are thriving.

I am very grateful these two chicks have each other as cuddle-buddies.

This Farm Life Lessons chick loves those two little fuzzy chicks!

# 528 - Snakes Eating our Eggs & Say Your Prayers!

Needing to catch up with my posts.

One day, about three weeks ago, Sgt. Dave was in the barn and noticed a MacDaddy Rat Snake curled up in the barn.

A humorous turn of events would soon follow.

After he finds the snake, he comes inside to tell me about it so that I can go check it out. The truth is, I did not feel comfortable with the snake in the barn. I either wanted to dispose of it with a bullet or catch it, then release it at some point further from the home-site.

Yes, I got all the lectures about how these snakes are great for rodent control and so forth, but the chicken coop was about 300 feet away from the barn, and I told Sgt. Dave that I did not feel comfortable with the thought of that snake making it to the coop.

Sgt. Dave got testy with me. "The snake is staying," he said.

"Hey, but I have to go to the coop during the day by myself, if I KNOW a huge rat snake is lurking in the area, I don't want to take a chance for it to be in the zone where I must go every day," I tried to reason with him.

What does he tell me?

"You are being dramatic. That snake is far enough away to not be a problem, don't be ridiculous," he tells me.

Well, THAT was rude!

At this point, I must tell you that, initially, I felt as if my head were filling with red anger, so I decided to go inside and calm down with actual prayers for God to give me peace over the freakin snake issue.

So, I went inside and did exactly that...I prayed. As I sat there in the zone, laying the words the husband said about me being "dramatic" over the huge snake nearby at God's feet, I got this clear message that I can only describe as being divine that said, "Don't worry, you need to laugh because the drama is about to be his, not yours...he will be the one to confront the snake, relax."

I don't like the eggs being scavenged by slick bellied creatures.

Honestly, this is one of the times when I received an immediate, clear message to reassure me that everything would be okay, but with specific details. Yes, details.

After a while, I went back outside, feeling rather happy, in a warped way...as if God and I were sharing this private, massive joke in a good humored kind of manner.

Sgt. Dave walked over and said, "We can go catch that snake that's in the barn."

With peace, I responded, "No, it's okay." I was smiling and Sgt. Dave is looking confused. So, I just shared the truth, "I said my prayers about it and have been reassured by the Almighty that things will be just fine because I will be protected, the worries I had about coming against a snake at the coop will not be for ME to worry about, it is going to be YOUR problem, so I don't have to be dramatic about it."

Big eye roll from Sgt. Dave, as if he highly doubted that I had literally prayed and received this message.

I had a complete sense of calm and faith enveloping me, but I was ready for what was about to happen, after all, I had been given a preview.

The weird story continues...

And guess what happened? Within 30 minutes of this conversation, Sgt. Dave was checking for eggs in the coop and in one of the nests, a nice-sized rat snake over FIVE FEET in length came slithering up from the hay.

And guess who suddenly got dramatic?

Can you imagine how I felt privy to the scene BEFORE it happened and that since I had flat out TOLD him what was going to happen, it was even more hysterical!

I think the ordeal creeped Sgt. Dave out, a lot. I think that being in the country, in more solitude, has put me in better touch to listen, but I also LOVE God's sense of humor.

Sgt. Dave suddenly had NO HESITATION about running for the .22 rifle with the scope, to take position outside of the coop with the bullet ready to fly through the coop itself to shoot the snake.

It was creepy.

Two big rat snakes within 30 minutes of each other in the residential area was not pleasant.

 

I reminded him that the entire moment of divinity over this snake issue was not with malice, it was with good humor for a good lesson. My concern had been valid, especially since the coop is now enclosed in a fenced-in area that makes it a lot more difficult to run for an escape at the sight of a snake.

And the chickens got to enjoy some revenge.

Show and tell goes further to demonstrate these snakes can get quite a few eggs in their belly.

I don't know if I will ever have a moment like this again, but lately, it seems that the Lord is truly hearing me and creating some consequences and events on my behalf that is uncanny. God is cool like that, He really is. I can vouch that it is better to be a friend of God, to be the one laughing WITH Him than being the one taught a lesson that can only be laughed about at a later time.

:-) I will keep saying my prayers.

# 523 - Fluffy Chicken Sweetness!

I now have 26 chickens. There are a couple of Bantams that my grown daughters picked out, and one in particular has managed to capture my heart.

Yes, chickens can capture our hearts, even Howdy's.

Howdy is a big black fluff-ball, and Baby is a tiny black fluff-ball.
Two adorable balls of fluffiness.

This little one follows me around, hops onto my feet, and sits in my arms comfortably, sometimes falling asleep cuddled against me.

I call her "Baby" because she is the little baby of the group. Her breed will make her the eternal baby of the group because she is a small breed, a Bantam.

But, her personality is completely adorable. Actually, I would love to set up separate accommodations for this little chicken and the little flock that she grew up with because they do stick together, except when I go outside, then Baby runs over to me and sticks with me.

She gives me a guilt complex for living indoors and for leaving her outside. I have to keep reminding myself that she is a chicken.

Yes, at little piece of me is in love with this little chickie.

 

 

It is amazing how a little ball of fluffy sweetness can make you smile.