Sick Week

There hasn’t been much happening around these parts. We’ve all been too sick to do much. We’ve had a horrible cold. Last weekend I was too sick to knit much. When I started feeling better, the littlest knitter needed to be held most of the day. Not really a productive week.

I did manage to finish sewing my quilt squares. It was something I could do that didn’t actually require a lot of concentration. No keeping track of rows, lace patterns, or slipstitches.

A little report on last year’s chickens. Out of the 12 little darlings, there is 1 left. However, one of the little roosters did beget 2 more little roosters with one of our hens. Several of them met with accidents. I suspect they were all hens. Until The Beast came along and began eating all our chickens, we had 4 or 5 little roosters and one little hen. The one little hen is the one we have left. At least the bobcat had the decency to rid me of those nasty little white roosters. The white roosters were mean, like regular bantams tend to me. I had to boot one in the yard one night because it was chasing Knitter #2 trying to peck her. He was going to take me on, but he found that rather difficult when you get nailed with the business end of a boot. Just for good measure I chased him around the yard with a plastic shovel. This year, I am going to wait a bit longer before letting the little ones out so they don’t run into trouble with the adult chickens. Adult chickens can be really vicious with young chickens. I always try to get babies penned up with their mom as soon as possible because I tend to find them floating in the water pans that they could never get into by themselves. I think the roosters do it, but I’ve never seen something like that happen. Back when we had geese, I did see them try to drown a duck. One goose stood on its head in their kiddie pool while the other one (I kid you not) stood look out. I gave them both a couple good whacks with a stick. The geese both died before they were a year old. One got injured somehow and died. The other one died the next day. It moped around the pen and then we found it in their pond. My husband absolutely believes that bird committed suicide. I will now quit depressing you.

Yesterday I started my gardening for the year. I planted lots of flower seeds. Outside, I planted poppies. Inside, I planted a lot of different things. Hopefully, I will start to see sprouts in a few days.

I know that most of you will be able to identify with how my morning was hijacked by bloglines today. I checked bloglines and went to read the ones with new posts. One of them mentioned wanting to make sourdough and someone left a comment about how this group on Ravelry was having a discussion on making sourdough bread. The next thing I knew, it was 5 hours later and I was studying cheese making kits. I am also going to have a go at sourdough starter again AND make some yogurt. I do have to say that during those 5 hours, I did stop and fold laundry, tend children, etc. I have not yet committed myself to making cheese. But I probably will because I have this vision in my mind of my husband coming home and asking how my day was. Fine, I would say. What’s that on the table he would ask. Oh, just some cheese I made. And he would be amazed and tell me how perfect I am. Some people fantasize about yarn or you-know-what.

Comments

Rebecca said…
I understand the cheese fantasy...and also have fantasies about making artisan breads, yogurt, soap making, and it can go on and on. I am going to start with the bread and soap this year, I think.

I hope your chickens have better luck this year. I keep trying to scheme and figure out how we could get some animals. We have some land, but it's far enough away that it wouldn't be practical to have animals on it.

What are your plans for your chickens? Are you going for eggs, meat, or just to have them? I would like them for eggs and meat, but I have issues when it comes to playing with meat. Sometimes I think I am too much of a wussy city girl - that prepackaged, boneless, skinless breast stuff appeals to me. Until you get to the hormones. I work in chicken country. One of my students last semester lost all of her chickens because they didn't get water for 12 hours. They have so many hormones they die after a short time without water. I remarked that that was a good argument against using hormones. Her reply was that then it would take too long for them to grow. Another good argument against hormones. They used to butcher them at about 15 weeks, now it is about 5. Makes me a bit nauseated to think about eating that. Good argument for becoming a vegetarian.

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