Thursday, December 28, 2017

Back in the Chair

It has been more than a year, I know.

Much of the stuff I have wanted to write during this year was not for public consumption, it was for me and only me. I have been ready to write for others again for a little while, but either my schedule or my dead desktop computer got in the way.  Enough of the excuses, I am back and ready to write again.

The important stuff:

My husband found a used 20X zoom Panasonic Lumix  camera, just like the one I dropped in the sand and destroyed, bought it, and gave it to me.  Actually, it is not exactly like my old one, it is the model previous to the one I had.  It doesn't have the GPS on it, which would suck the battery dry, so it is better than the previous one. It looks like someone was given it as a gift and threw it in a drawer, there is absolutely no sign of use on this camera.  Yay! I can play again!!  The cell phone camera just wasn't cutting it for me.

We lost many chickens this year, most of them in one day to a growing fox family.  They were killed on a day that was already horrendously stressful, during a week that I had walked through feeling as if life had punched me in the gut. I came home with the giant hollow inside me and found the backyard full of 3 foot diameter piles of feathers, a separate pile the color of each missing chickie, but one, Ursula, our black Australorp. 

I stood there staring, jaw agape for about five minutes. My neighbor appeared and said she had noticed the piles in the late-morning and offered her condolences. She and I raked up the piles of feathers, so that I could tell my daughter about the loss of the chickens at an appropriate moment rather than have her discover the color coded piles of despair on her way into the house from the school bus. 

 

Over the next couple of days, we kept waiting for Ursula to come home. She and her "I'm in charge here" attitude never returned. 

 

We have three remaining chickens, BB the Buff Brahma who is a little slow in every way. She was injured by the fox, but her massive size might have made it difficult for a fox to whisk her away. She has healed, but is especially skittish. Bubbles the Light Brahma, the beautiful and bossy, is top chick, and Effie, the Amerucana, the loner, but by far, the smartest of the bunch, still hangs at the edge of the flock. I just stopped typing for a few minutes to lock them in for the night, they were already on their perch huddled together, ready for another freezing night in their down jackets.

 

We can't free range them anymore. The fox have found us out. We were resolved not to get any more. Losing them hurts so much, but our resolve has weakened and in March there will be some fluffy little chicks living in our garage, yet again. I think there will be six, which means we will have to find six great female names, suggestions welcomed. We will also need to build an annex onto our run to provide space for the girls.  The projects abound!!

2017 is almost over, the year designation, I know, is completely arbitrary, a human construct, the marking of time beginning and ending is nonsensical, but still I am glad to see 2017 end. Good Riddance.