what a weekend

A tragic loss: On Saturday, as we were getting ready to sit with the goats (which means a Geraldine on my lap, Mike scratching 71, recoil, 205 behind the ears), I went into the chicken area, saw that the peahen only had one of the pea-chicks with her... and then I found it... a peachick was dead inside the chicken waterer, a water tank made of metal that has a 1 foot side to it. Dunno how the creature actually got there (the peachicks are about the size of a racketball), considering. I used a red scoop and took it out of the waterer, then showed Mike before I tossed it into the wooded area. Very disappointed that one of them had bought it. So just in case we needed to put water out (a shorter, more accessible waterer) for the peahen and her chick, we did... but not until a day later.

Then on Sunday, a day we've spent not doing much of anything (well, I made a pecan pie, kahlua, tortillas and several other things), we were sitting out with the goats again, and up drives our neighbor. He is a very large man with a mustache and owns some sort of contracting business - a home-building type of sorts. His wife was with him, a lady that seemed to come directly from Spain, including the attitude - she seemed put-off to be there, despite the fact that she wanted the chickens. When people come to the farm, Mike greets them because I'd prefer it that way.

I caught up with them in the barnyard, where he was heading to the chicken coop. We still had one red rooster from our disastrous Cornish-cross year. The rooster was a little rough with our chickens and we were glad to get rid of him. We were able to give these folks that one as well as two hens (for eggs). The hens are still quite young and their eggs aren't quite large, yet, but they will be. These are the Cornish that evaded capture when we tried to 'harvest' them and they had scooted to the forested area behind the barn, literally flying over a six-foot fence to do so. So it was a weekend.. and the neighbors were interested in paying for them, but Mike and I both figured they did us a favor... the red rooster was probably preventing the red hens from laying and was just a pain in the ass, pulling out feathers constantly and stressing out the poor hens. The neighbors said they wanted the roo to eat, but didn't want to say that directly in front of their kids. We got the hint. Now it's gone and our hens can breathe a sigh of relief -- there's only one barred rock rooster left and he does a good job. He had been beaten up, as well, and we suspect the red rooster did it. C'est la vie. Goodbye red roo. We won't miss you.

Anyway, and for whatever reason, the hot tub works tonight and we're going to use it for the first time in ages.

Update - we put bromine tablets in it yesterday and the foam from it causes me to gag and cough and generally not do well this evening when we tried it for the first time. Ah, well.. tomorrow. I know my bones will like it and my muscles will relax once it's back up and running. It's been way too long.