Spring so far

I suck. I know. I've been busy. Really, really busy for like three and a half months. Ok, not really. But it seemed like it. To me anyway. Okay, that isn't so true either. I just haven't felt like it. There. So here is what I've been up to:

I got four new chickens! One of my Plymouth Barred Rocks died in March. She molted late and just never really seemed to get her strength back. After a few days in chicken intensive care she gave up the ghost. I watched the other chickens for a few weeks for signs of disease and they were fine and healthy, so I got four more Barred Rocks. These little girls are about 4 weeks old now, they were two weeks old when I bought them. Hopefully no roosters in the bunch.

I lost thirty five pounds! I got sick in January and was on antibiotics for awhile. This particular antibiotic killed my appetite entirely and I literally had to remind myself to eat every day. So that resulted in about 15 pounds lost which is as good of a jump start as you get, and I've kept on going. Yay me!

I've developed rats. Sometime in February I noticed the chicken feed going faster than usual. And then one fateful night in late March I came face to face with a surprisingly large rat in the chicken house one night. It was reddish brown and not at all shy. So I bought some poison and shoved it down some holes that were chewed into the chicken house floor behind some flowerpots and waited. On Sunday, I strolled across the yard towards the chicken house and there sitting in the sun was that very large rat. Sort of struggling to breathe. I felt kind of bad. I know, its a rat. But still. So I went to get a stick to poke around at it a little, never having been that close to a rat. And when I returned my husband was standing there with a shovel poised over his head which then came down hard on the rat's head and rat was no more. I felt really bad. The next day I read on Wikipedia that rats are self-aware like humans and primates and that their favorite food is scrambled eggs. And I felt worse. I hope there aren't any more rats.

My tree is starting to bud out! A bit slower than the silver and red maples that we have, but that's okay! As long as it does.





My garlic has all sprouted!