Tag Archives: life and death

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Monty

Monty didn’t make it.
If you follow me on Instagram, or we’re friends on FB, you already knew that.
Sadly, chicks that need help to hatch have a low chance of survival.
But, I always try.
I always want to give life a chance.
Sometimes, oft times, I lose to Death.
Sometimes tho…sometimes, I win.
Like with 13 the Turkey (who is one of my best layers and broodies).
And Lefty the chicken, who brought me her clutch of 5 chicks last Fall.
So I always try…

Anyways…
I said I’d keep y’all updated, and there, now y’all know.
Yesterday I just took the day to putter in the garden and sit with the grief of it.
I know he was just a 2 day old duck, who likely was gonna end up in Freezer Camp, but still…
We have a connection to our food animals here.
When you raise them, and love them, and give them the best life they can have, there is a connection that makes you hurt when you lose one prematurely.
And it’s not because of the loss of food, it’s the loss of the life that leads up to that…
There was no chance to swim and splash.
No chance to chase bugs. Or play with other ducks. Or waddle about to and fro like ducks like to do.
That’s what I was…am…mourning.
The life that leads up to the moment, that one bad moment, where the food animals fulfill their destiny.
I might be a bit soft for Farm Life.

And, I know I can avoid that grief by not helping chicks out of shells, but, as I said…
I always want to give Life a chance.
Always.
That’s just me.

Last night we sat on the deck, with music and wobbly pops and bbq.
And in one quiet moment, The Kid says “I hear chirping…and it’s not Bart!”
We looked at the cat house where the broody hens were…
I reached in under those hens and found a wee surprise:

Bart standing, new baby sitting.

And so now we’re back at 2.
Life.
She’ll always find Her way.
❤

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Thankful Thursday

Yeah, today is thankful Thursday.
I’m not feeling extremely thankful today though…

It’s cold.
It’s day I-don’t-even-know-any-more of extreme cold warnings. Which means it’s much colder than typical for this time of year.
I guess Mother Nature is catching us up for the nice weather we had back in December and January.
There’s always a cost, right?

So that hay we’ve been doing so well on?
Blowing through a bale every 3ish days.
But mares gotta eat, or they don’t stay warm.
A cold horse in this weather dies.
Not on my fucking watch, if I can help it.
So eating my Merry Mares have been.
And then there’s the waterer…*sigh*
I feel like it’s always something, know what I mean?
The winds were savage for a while, and the damn thing kept freezing over.
And then it froze at the spigot.
That means standing there in the freezing cold, with a hair dryer to thaw it…with 3 toddlers dying of thirst, even though I just brought them buckets of warm water from the house to drink, but they be dyin’ and I be cryin’ because my hands are cold and I’m hopin’ I can get the water running before the hair dryer conks out…
*sigh*
Get horses, she thought…
It’ll be fun, she thought…
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
😂😂😂

Egg production is waaaaaaay down too.
Where I was getting 50-60 eggs a day, now I’m getting 8. If I’m lucky.
People want eggs.
I don’t have much eggs.
I’m just barely making regulars and that’s because I had some stocked up from last week…but now we’re low because 8 effing eggs a day.
60ish hens.
But they’re eating and drinking and trying to stay warm.
Ain’t so easy even with a heat lamp and deep straw.

Today we found we’d lost a duck baby.
Again it’s the cold.
We can feed ’em, we can make sure there’s fresh water, and draft free coops and heat lamps and damn if some aren’t gonna just die on us anyways.
But ya sure feel like shit when it happens.

And then, just to cap off the craptastic shitstorm that is February, I have to go to the dentist.
While to some that’s not a big deal, for some of us it is.
I have a tooth that has to come out, but need a dentist that won’t make me wear a mask (got that) and will let my Hubby in the room too (can’t do that yet…fuck the govt, because it’s their shit restrictions) because y’all….this woman does not do well without her support person…
So I get to stay living with this fucking thing until the shitty restrictions open up enough that I can have my person in the room while having the dental work done.
Looking at the way the hand wringing from the “experts” is going, that oughta be sometime in 2037.
Think I’ll just tie a string to the tooth, tie the other end to Ruby’s halter and give my girl a big ol’ smack on the bum…that oughta yob that fucker right out of my mouth.
😂😂😂
And if I die, they can list me as a covid death.

I guess I should still be thankful…
My Hubby is still working and is able to get his teeth fixed (thank goodness! he’s had problems with his mouth since I’ve known him).
We have plenty of food in the house.
The house is warm.
We’re still able to share our bounty with those who need it.
All in all, as frustrated and cold and tired as we are, we’re still grateful for all that we have.

But for this weekend, I’m just done.

Here’s a picture of cats…Hobbes in front, Trouble in back.

Sharing with Sandee at Comedy Plus and Brian’s Home for Thankful Thursday.