The Fate of the Indoor Chicken

Ya'll, this post sucks. I'm just gonna tell you that right now.

PegLeg's condition worsened, and despite my best efforts, continued to deteriorate.

I tried moving her into a different room, tried to set her up in a chicken sling, bought & set up a cage that could help support her weight, but all to no avail. She could no longer walk at all. She started losing weight because she couldn't get to her food. She would sleep on her back or her side. Feathers started breaking off of her wings in her efforts to get around.

To her credit, she managed really well. Nothing was gonna stop this chicken. The chicken sling didn't work, because she would fling her weight around until she managed to fling herself out of it, which usually resulted in her falling the 10 inches or so to the ground. If she wanted to get somewhere, she would just fling her body in that direction, and she usually made it, if unceremoniously.

Chickens being the dirty creatures that they are, relieving themselves wherever they happen to be, this also meant that she was covered in poop almost constantly.

Have you ever tried to wash a chicken?

I have. Repeatedly. It's not pretty.

Neither were the sores that were starting to form on Peg's poor little wings from rubbing on the ground.

After a lot of discussion, and a lot of tears, the decision was made that we needed to end her suffering. It was obvious that her condition was painful, probably excruciating. She had lost a lot of weight. Her sores were at risk of infection from the feces.

We tried. I tried. Hard. To rehabilitate her. Our vision at first was that she would become healed enough to reintroduce to the flock. When it became apparent that that probably wouldn't happen, it was that she would maintain her current state and live out her days as a pet, as PegLeg.

Unforunately it was to no avail. Maybe someone with more chicken experience would have had more luck. Or maybe not. From what I've read many chicken enthusiasts don't even recommend trying to heal a chicken with a broken leg, much less one with the injuries she had when we brought her in.

And so the heartbreaking decision was for her to go "live" on one of the neighbors' farms. And as far as FireGirl is concerned, that's exactly where she is.

Critters

Buddy

the chickens

Tootsie

Peg Leg

feral kitten we rescued, hiding out behind the dryer, as usual

Blessings

Physical Blessings:

1) No serious medical issues yet this year
2) My back is stable (not worsening)
3) Jason is healthy & strong as ever
4) Jena is healthy & growing well
5) All the pets are relatively healthy


Financial Blessings:

1) We can feed & clothe our family, and pay our mortgage
2) We have good benefits, including affordable health coverage
3)  Our car is almost paid off
4) We are on target to be debt free (excepting the house) within 2 years max
5) We can afford a few extras


Mental Blessings

1) My issues with depression & anxiety appear to be (mostly) over
2) So far I see no signs that my PPD will lead into Clinical Depression
3) My job is providing me with enough challenges to stretch me, but not enough to stress me
4) Jena has tested above her age group in all developmental milestones
5) I haven't had writer's block in months


Spiritual Blessings

1) Mine & my husband's salvation
2) So many answered prayers & visible miracles
3) Continued growth in the Lord
4) Finding my "fit" in our church home
5) Spiritual battles won


Answered Prayer

1) TheBoy's miraculous recovery
2) Continued growth & healing in our marriage
3) Promises fulfilled
4) Safety for Jason on the job
5) Unspoken


Today's Blessings

1) We all woke up this morning (and healthy too!)
2) We both have jobs to go to
3) My parents watching Jena
4) We can talk during the day
5) Phone call from a friend

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this post inspired by this post

More Randoms

I've had a headache for 5 days now. It goes away for a few hours a day, but most of the time, I have a headache.

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The other day I finally figured out that caffeine seems to help it feel better. So my Weight Watchers plan has been bust the past two days, as I've gone from 2-3 caffeinated drinks per week, to 3 Pepsi's per day.

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Today is also Jena's school pictures. Her class is actually supposed to go on Friday, but she doesn't attend school on Friday. So she'll miss the class picture. We tried to arrange to bring her in just for the picture, but apparently the photographer doesn't have a schedule (??? - really?), so they can't even give me an estimated time for the pic. They offered to call me before they start her class so I could "run her in real quick", but that doesn't exactly work when you live 20 minutes from the school, and she's supposed to be at my parents' house 40 minutes from the school. I don't think holding things up for 20-40 minutes is gonna work.

So she has her individual shots done today. She even let me fix her hair. I put her in a "nice" solid colored long-sleeved Tshirt, and her black dockers, with her good tennis shoes. Figured solid colors usually look better, especially since I don't know what background they're using.

Apparently, I am not the majority. Most of the kids in the classes getting their pictures done today were dressed. to. the. nines. Frilly dresses, dress shirts & slacks, all hairbows & headbands, ribbons & curls.

{{ sigh }}

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The injured chicken is still living in the laundry room. I have named her PegLeg. And we now let her into the house when we're home. She usually makes her way to the living room, settles in, and watches television. It's actually kinda funny.

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Jena thinks "PegLeg" is a hilarious name. Which is even funnier because I'm 99% sure she doesn't actually get it, she just thinks it sounds funny.

Chicken Update

photo by Jena

See this chicken? She's injured.
Broken right foot, missing a toe off of her left foot, comb almost completely ripped off.

She found an opening under the chicken tractor & tried to get out. Jason found her stuck there. We didn't notice an injury at first (adrenalin??).

Then the rest of the flock turned on her. Apparently, this is normal chicken behavior.

So we brought her into a dog crate in our garage. She's much improved in the 2 weeks since we separated her, but I'm worried that even when she's as healed as she'll get, she won't be well enough to put back with the rest of the flock.

Now that she's doing better, I've begun putting her in the laundry room during the days we're home, and sometimes overnight. She seems to get more exercise when she has more room to roam. Hoping it will promote healing in her feet.

She gets around pretty well, just very slowly & unsteady.

And otherwise she's just fine.

Anyone want a pet chicken?

photo by Jena

The rest of the chickens are doing well. We get around 5 eggs per day. Some of them are still small though. Once we're getting a steady production of large eggs we'll begin selling them.

With the start of Spring we started moving their chicken tractor around the property, starting close to the house. So far, so good.

They stay in one location 2-3 days, then we move them a bit.
In that time they usually strip the ground of grass, but it grows back once they're moved.

I worry about predators at night, but solar powered lights around the edges of the coop, chicken wire expanding out from the bottom, plus four outdoor dogs (especially Buddy) seem to be doing the trick.

Doesn't keep me from worrying sometimes though.

Our Easter Eggs

This was a great year for Easter egg decorating! We actually have never decorated eggs with Jena before, so this was our first time. And as an added bonus, we got to decorate our OWN eggs, from our OWN chickens! Even better.

Decided to forego dying. Glitter glue & puffy scrapbook stickers (that she picked out!) were the formula for decorating success in this house. And with minimal mess to boot!

Jena did end up dying eggs in preschool, but she said she liked the glue & stickers better. This momma knew what would be the most fun for her girl!

Happy Easter !!

Friday Fragments

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Felt like it was time for another Fragments post, so here it is, ya'll.

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Like every December, life has been crazy busy this past month. Busy, but good. Very good.

I met up with 4 different friends I hadn't seen in a while (on 4 separate occasions), we've had 3 classes, 3 Christmas parties, 1 playdate, 1 band concert, 1 date night, 1 cookie swap, 1 doctor appointment, 1 holiday breakfast, got our family pictures taken, went to a Christmas tree lighting, and went to Southern Lights.

If you add it all up, that's 19 different activities, and it's only the 23rd of the month. There was some overlap on dates, for better or worse.

And that, of course, doesn't include our normal craziness. That's just special holiday craziness, LOL

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Jena is still doing very well in school, and has started learning to write (tracing letters). I'm still very impressed     :)

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Potty training still not doing any better. In fact, she's had a few more daytime accidents. I do a lot of laundry.

I started a rule that she has to go 2 nights dry in UnderJams, then she can wear panties to bed. That at least gives me some respite. Plus she gets better sleep because she's not waking up wet.

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The chickens are now outside. Their tractor is wrapped in plastic sheeting to keep out the elements. And we extended the invisible fence wire around them to teach the dogs to leave them alone.

And something (a raccoon?) has already been trying to get to them, and broke the wire in 3 places trying to dig underneath the coop.

Thank goodness for Buddy, or we might have lost some chickens.

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I want to break Jena of her lovey while I'm off between Christmas & New Years. Jason thinks we should wait until the lovey falls apart and deal with it then.

Part of me thinks he's right.

Part of me thinks when it is time, he's not the one who will be up with her overnight, and then have to try to go to work the next day.

I'm torn.

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Still working our way thru FPU, and things are going really well. We've paid off two smaller bills (the TV & the living room furniture) sooner than planned, and should pay off two more smaller bills (the hospital bill & my Lane Bryant charge) by the end of this month.

Oh, and while this was the first year we actually set a real budget for Christmas (and tracked it), we're actually gonna end up being under budget, so we've decided to buy small presents for each of our six nieces & nephews, which we don't normally do, and we should still end up under budget. Yay us!

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Work is going pretty well, minus the database project that never ends, but I'm expecting an increase to my stress-level the first few months of the new year.

And maybe most or all of 2012.

So I'm a little anxious / nervous about work right now.

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As always, thanks for checking in!

Have a great weekend!

Jena and her Chickens

The chicks are about 4 weeks old in these pics. We've moved them from their brooder to their chicken tractor, but still have it in the garage until their feathers are more developed. They might be a cold-hardy breed, but they are still babies. We'll move them out eventually.

FireGirl and her Chicks

The chicks are about 3 weeks old in these pics. We kept their brooder in the laundry room until they got feathered.

Friday Fragments

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I've been on a huge writing kick, which is awesome, but I kinda feel like I've neglected keeping ya'll updated on some issues, so let's do it in a Friday Fragments post, 'kay?

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Jena is now 3 years old, and is finally settling in to her new classroom at preschool. She resists change (like her momma), and still wants me to watch her for a few minutes, and occasionally cries, and always pouts, but drop offs no longer take 30 minutes, nor do they consist of the staff literally ripping my daughter off of my person while she screams bloody murder and sobs about wanting her mommy, so... I consider that as going well.

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I am really impressed with the curriculum in her new class. They teach reading via phonics, and she's already beginning some basic math concepts. Very impressed.

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Potty training has regressed, and I'm at a loss. After washing way-too-many loads of sheets, comforters, and the like, I finally gave in and bought some Pampers UnderJams for bedtime. Mostly because I was getting too far behind on our regular laundry trying to keep up with the pee laundry so our house wouldn't smell like urine and Jena would have clean bedding to sleep on.

The vast majority of her accidents are at night (every night), with rare accidents during the daytime.

Sometimes I wonder if it has to do with stress from changing rooms at preschool. But then again, since they're mostly at night, I don't know.

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The chickens are growing. Fast! I can't believe how fast those little suckers have grown! They are very tame, and have now moved to their chicken tractor in the garage.

Just by word of mouth we already have people putting in orders for fresh eggs once they start laying, so that's a blessing. Because we just won't eat a dozen a day.

Oh, and one is HUGE. I call her Fatty (endearingly, not insultingly). Much bigger, in every way, and not as social as the rest of the flock. We're starting to wonder if "she" is really a "he". And being new to the chicken business, we don't know how to tell yet. Guess we'll find out soon enough.

BTW - they came sexed with a guarantee of 90% accuracy. Not bad. We can deal with one rooster. As long as it's just the one.

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Jason & I are still doing well in our marriage

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We are also taking Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, and are getting a better handle on our financial situation.

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We decided to cancel our family trip in December. Mostly due to finances, but some due to other stuff. But mostly money.

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I'm really enjoying being on this writing kick that I've been on, but I'll try to do a better job of keeping ya'll updated on my life as well. After all, you guys are the best readers a gal could ask for!

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Today is the last day for the giveaway, so don't forget to sign up!

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Have a great weekend!

We Have CHICKENS !!!

Fifteen to be exact. All hens. Plymouth Barred Rock.

We got them when they were approximately 28 hours old.

We've been talking about getting chickens since we moved onto this property a year ago. The house sat empty for so long, plus the previous owners didn't take care of it, plus it is in a wooded area, so... we had a major bug problem. Primarily wood roaches and wolf spiders, which were probably feeding off of the wood roaches. Plus when Spring rolled around we had a major mosquito issue because of our neighbors' (non) maintenance of their (stagnant) pond.

So we had several people suggest to us that chickens are an effective, non-toxic, and green way to control bug populations.

But neither of us have experience with chickens, and I actually had a fear of chickens (little known fact), plus we had plenty of renovations to work on in the house, and some marital issues to focus on, so... chickens weren't exactly a priority.

Just doing the renovations & cleaning up the property greatly helped control the roach & spider problem. And we purchased some Mosquito Control Rings which Jason secretly threw into the neighbor's pond, all but eliminating the mosquito problem within a few days.

But we do live in a wooded area, so... there will always be bugs. Always. As the colder weather has been setting in this year, the little critters have already been making their way indoors.

And so... chickens. All natural, non-toxic, environmentally friendly bug control, plus excellent producers of organic, sort-of free range eggs.

Technically I think they qualify as "free range", but once they reach adulthood and are outside, we will be confining (ie protecting) them by housing them in a rather large chicken tractor, the square footage of which is nearly double the recommended size per bird. Yay.

But with Tootsie's history of, ahem, not being nice to animals, and even Buddy, when introduced to the baby chicks we hoped he'd protect... yeah... ends up he thinks baby chicks look yummy. So a very secure chicken tractor. Very secure chicken tractor is in the works.

They are currently in their brooder, locked in the laundry room (away from Tucker), but will be moved to their chicken tractor in the garage within a few weeks, as they outgrow the brooder. This Winter they will be too young to be outside at the outset of Winter (we intentionally chose a cold hardy breed, so future Winters they should be fine outdoors, but this year they will be too young).

So far having chickens is fun. But they poop a lot. Surprisingly a lot. But they're still fun. Thanks for checking in!