In the blink of an eye!

Apparently life was so busy that I forgot I started a blog in 2015. Maybe it will be fun to pick it up again. Life has had many ups and downs since my last post. I helped to open a hospital then left that one to work at another two hospitals. One as a full timer and the other as per diem. Then life twisted all over the place again and after  year of being SAHD (stay at home dad) Big Daddy went back to work and I just stayed with one of the hospitals as a per diem employee. Essentially I worked weekend nights so pretty much one of us was always home. We did this for a year and then I was struck with a sprained ankle that wouldn't heal and within a couple of months my whole right leg was not right. I was ultimately diagnosed with Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. After more than 8 months of uncontrolled pain that affected my mobility and put me on disability leave I have now had surgery. Now I am bionic and sporting a Dorsal Root Ganglion stimulator at L4, L5, and S1. I have an implanted battery pack and can control any one of the three leads with an IPOD. Medical science is amazing! I have a couple more weeks of strict restrictions of no bending, no twisting, and no lifting then I can begin rehab and driving. I haven't driven this entire school year which has meant girl kid 1 and boy kid 2 have been driving girl kid 2 and boy kid 2 every where as well as me to all of my appointments.

Boy kid 1 just graduated high school and will soon begin college. He has put away his instruments for now but hopefully as he acclimates to adulthood, he will pick them back up for fun. As a senior he started playing the trumpet. He said he wasn't very good but he was playing in a trio with two guys that were superb so keeping up with those two guys was no small thing. By the time he finished with high school he could play every saxophone, trumpet, keyboard, bassoon, and soprano and alto clarinets. Days before his 18th birthday he submitted his final project paperwork for his Eagle Scout and now we await for word from the Council office.

Girl kid 2 has promoted to high school with honors. She will be entering the BioTech program and is shooting for a future in forensic science. We can't wait to see where she lands. She is still in Girl Scouts and is finishing up her Silver Award which is the highest honor a Cadette level (middle school) Girl Scout can earn. She has earned lots of badges, the journey summit pin for completing three journeys, and to date has almost earned her Safety Award. In addition to that, she and her best friend have run Daisy level and Brownie level Journeys in a Day. Her mentoring skills have increased tremendously. She is also in a travel troop now and those girls are go getters. They have been doing lots of workshops for younger kids as a way to earn funds for a big trip summer 2019. The girls are doing all of the planning and we will be heading to Europe to enjoy Belgium, Amsterdam, London, and Edinbugh. We can't wait.

Check out that Mario game!

Boy kid 2 is 5 now and such a wild man. He is starting kindergarten in the fall. He loves to build intricate projects with legos as well as construct trains. He will often construct his trains and then build towns with legos that the trains and cars will travel around for fun. In addition to that, he loves to draw "video games" and also draws all of the players. Mario rescuing the princess is his current favorite. He also loves to go outside and play with our chickens. 

Girl kid 1 is finishing up college over the next year and will be majoring in Anthropology. She says she wants to move across the country after she graduate with her rescue Beagle, Norb but only time will tell. Stay tuned.

Our life with chickens over the past few years has been wonderful and sad. We started out with 6 awesome girls April 2015 (Aunt Peg, Penny, Lucy, Minerva, Ethel, and Mary). April 2016 we added two more girls (Thelma and Louise).

Not long after that, My sweet Minvera a Dominique became paralyzed. She ingested some metal pieces and proceeded to live in the house for 8 months while I gave her shots to clear the metal from her system. She learned how to walk again but not well and she couldn't get up on the roost in the coop. Then about 6 months later our girl Lucy came down ill and needed antibiotics so she also ended up in the house for nursing care. Thanksgiving 2016 the boys built a space for a smaller chicken coop that we call the mini coop. We moved Minerva and Lucy out there together but sadly Lucy passed away and just one week later we lost Minerva too. It appears that they came across the droppings of another animal and their systems were too compromised to handle it. I had friend that also lost a couple of her sweet girls too and we decided to go in on and order of day of chickens for the following spring.

So in March 2017 we got three more girls (Opal, Pearl, and Ruby).

So we ultimately had nine chickens living in the large coop together and free ranging all day. The girls loved their life and Justin would make them a river every day to drink and walk through for temperature control.

Unfortunately just last week we experienced a predator attack and lost our sweet Penny. She was a Buff Orpington which is a breed well known to be friendly and loving. We miss Penny desperately and have put the remaining 8 girls on lock down. The secured run although large seems too small after a free ranging life. So that leads to the current project of building a second secured run with a chunnel system connecting it to the first run. We hope to have it up and running in a couple of weeks.







I took a stroll around the garden center today as we will need some shade for the western wall of both runs. I am going to add a butterfly bush or two as well as some Juniper, Lilac, and Gardenia.

So we will get our backyard back for our own use since we won't have poop every where after a while. I think I will put some chairs on the back porch to enjoy watching the girls in their second run during the day and early evening. That is it for the moment in chicken land.