Thursday, March 26, 2009

ain't no one here but us chickens (two)














(sorry all, blogger somehow knew I was in a hurry so it was mean to me. Clare, please comment again, I had to delete the first post to fix the code on the page. Stupid internet making me re-learn html before I've had coffee)










One of the interesting things about keeping a blog, or any journal for that matter, is the psychological effect it has on the individual who keeps it when they let things laps. The first few days you don't blog, it's fine, you can blog tomorrow, but once so many days pass it's more difficult to write. There is nothing you can think about that is good enough to compensate for not having written. Or, maybe, you cannot get the wording right - that beautiful flow of words that comes so easily when you write every day, dries up. Whatever the reason, the longer you leaves something like this, the harder it is to get it going again. It follows faithfully one of Newton's laws: bodies (or blogs) at rest tend to stay at rest. You need substantial force (of will) to set things going again.












But really, you don't. You don't need some great thing to write about, some super-duper event to share with the world. The blog (well, this blog) is not about that. It's about little things. Every day things. Really, when it comes down to it, it is that sort of little everyday things that make up the world.












So, my every day things:












Well, for about two weeks, the cougar moved into our shed. This was great because the deer stayed away and stopped trying to eat the new buds on the fruit trees. But the cougar moved on when G'pa set fire to the yard. This was a few days after he fell out of the fruit tree (12 feet) and hit his head. You think that would slow him down a little, but no. After 24 hours and a night of observation in hospital, he was out and about in the garden again. I tell you, I can't keep up with him. Anyway, this bump on his head came to our advantage as it was the very same fire chief that helped him after the fall, who came and told him off about the fire. The fire men very kindly educated us on all the little details that the council neglected to inform us about when we asked (like yes the council was right, we can burn, but only under certain conditions-something the council denied). So we learnt something new, got to know the local fire chief, and started building a chicken coup.
















What? I didn't mention the chicken coup? Yesterday I helped dad start it. It's nice to get outside after most of a month in bed (tell you about that later), even if most of what I did involved eatting popcorn and watching with the occasional fetch, carry and "hold this there, no a little to the left, no, my left". We made a floor and two walls. Today, it's the other two walls and with luck, a roof. Later, we will put some siding on and with any luck at all, it will be finished before Easter (when the cute little chickens come home). This house is for the hens (and one rooster) and they will probably be free range. The neighbors seems to be able to let their chickens out without any loss. The cockerels will go into chicken tractors so that they can move around where we need them to eat bugs.












I think I'm going to make a sign for our coup: "Ain't no one here but us chickens." I think that's how the saying goes.


















And here's Ginger:



















She loves watching us make the chicken coup but gets a little upset that we aren't spending all our time petting her.













Rabbits, eh.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, it's good to hear from you! I was wondering how you were doing, and what was happening in your life. I'm sorry you had to spend most of the past month in bed, but I'm glad you can go out now.
Ginger seems to be curious about the camera, that makes for cute pictures!

Claire said...

I forget exactly what I said, but I still love the sign idea! :P