Another Busy Week

It would be nice to be able to sit down and blog about things as they happen, instead of tossing something together when I finally realize a week has gone by. But I really have been scrambling from dawn to dark to keep all the chores done. The chickens take the most time this time of year because of the chicks.

I sold 15 birds last week. Four of my good ones went to Nanette and her two very charming kids who are in 4-H. They drove all the way over from Lake County and went home with 4 white Old English bantams and one Dominique bantam. Meeting them and talking to them really made my day, there is nothing much better than a homeschooled 4-H teenager to remind you that the world will do okay in the hands of the coming generations. The world would be better off if there were more of them, of course.

Later that day I had a visit from an old workmate, Betty, and her daughter, Kelly, an older teenager who will be starting college in the fall. I got to watch her grow up over the years I worked with her mom. I always enjoyed hearing about her and talking to her. She has made her own path in life, she's an accomplished photographer and has danced and acted in stage shows. Currently she's interested in agriculture and has enrolled in a small college in Vermont. This is another kid who wasn't happy in public school and found alternative solutions that worked really well for her.

On Saturday I met yet another wonderful teenager. I had seen Brady's poster at the feed store. He was looking for work cleaning stalls and doing odd jobs. I made a note of his phone number. On Friday I cleaned two pens myself. It was taking me a long time. Everything takes me a long time, I'm such a stumbly klutz. Finally I decided, "Well, this just sucks." Then I went back into the house and called Brady.

He worked for 4 hours on Saturday and cleaned everything. Every single pen. And he did a great job. I had to take all the birds out of their pens. I put them in wire cages on the lawn (where they were intensely happy) and as I put each one back into its clean pen, I wormed it, trimmed its beak and nails, and made note of which ones I would sell.

I got up at 5 a.m. Sunday and took 10 birds to the Roseville Auction, had breakfast at Denny's, and came back home to work some more. Before I accomplished much, though, Jonathan showed up. Jonathan is Bob's old friend and one of my former 4-H kids. He's always doing something interesting and it was fun to spend most of the afternoon hearing about his new projects.

Last night I finally got a chance to sit down and catch up on reading blogs and other things on the internet. This caught my eye.

I didn't read the article, I was just skimming through the headlines, but for an hour I kept returning to the question: Why would anyone in a Casino care if Ben Affleck was counting carbs? Was he unruly in the restaurant or something? Demanding low carb food? I finally went back and read the story. Duh.

This morning I had a lot more work ahead of me. This is my Poultry Central desk, the end of the dining room table.

There are 95 chicks at this point. It takes a lot of paperwork to keep track of all of them.

Here was my list of chores this morning:

The worst part is taking a picture of each chick when it's 4 weeks old. I'm doing this for data so I can compare the baby photos to adult photos later and see if traits are actually predictable at an early age. I tried it last year but only got photos of the first 20 or so chicks. It's such a tiresome chore, trying to pose and focus and photograph each little screeching brat by myself, that I finally gave up. This year I'm determined to do the job right. I'm also weighing the babies at intervals to see if early size determines adult size. Okay, so some of my chores are self-imposed, and unnecessary, the result of an obsessive mind.

One thing I forgot to put on the list was to hook up this new baby:

I tried transferring some photos to my old external drive a couple of weeks ago and was shocked to find it's already full. So sometime soon I'll need to make myself hook this up. Darn! I should have had Jonathan do it, it would only have taken him about 5 minutes. I guess I'll have to do it myself. Luckily that's usually very easy with my Mac. And I do have an assistant.

That's my mousepad he's laying on. It's gigantic, but he covers the whole thing. If I try to put the mouse under his nose, he bites me. If I try to use the space by his tummy, he kicks it with his hind legs. Then he bites me. And I whomp him with whatever magazine is handiest.

Note: I only made it halfway through the list today. Guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow.