Return of the Kitchen

It's the same every year. At first they are so small and sweet, peeping gently throughout the day. Then they get bigger, and become more fun to watch as they run around and jump on each other. Their feathers start to come in and a lemon baby becomes a russet brown bird with black spots. Sometimes you just don't know what the end color will be and it's a surprise.

But then again, they are chickens after all. They make a hideous mess, flinging wood chips around. And as their new feathers come in the amount of dust and dander they create is amost unbelievable. The plants are covered in a thick layer, and even if I dusted the first floor every day it would barely keep up. By the end I resort to using the brush attachment on the vacuum and suck dust from the leaves of plants, from the windowsills, from the light fixtures.

Oh yes, and they smell. Without almost daily cleaning the kitchen smells like a barnyard.


So today was the day. Harold is off at his new home, so I cleaned out the chicken coop and put in an extra thick layer of wood chips. I put a 100 watt bulb in the lamp (it comes on automatically at dusk and off at dawn) to help them get used to the cold. The girls have at least the first set of their adult feathers and with the way they pile on each other to sleep at night I don't think they'll have a problem getting warm. Actually, the colder air will encourage their bodies to produce more robust feathers so it will in the end help them grow up faster. The entrance to the nest boxes is blocked off so that Gladys can continue to sleep there if she wants to. I have a feeling she's nesting in the trees again but I wanted to give her the option.

Then I spent three hours cleaning the kitchen. I'm not done yet, but the majority of the mess has been eradicated. It took lots of vinegar and sweeping and mopping and scrubbing but the kitchen is mine again. I even ironed my new tablecloth from Cabo (thanks, Elisa, haggler extraordinaire!) and smoothed it over the table for a smattering of spring color.

Harold's Exciting Day

We think it happened sometime on the Friday afternoon right before we got home from Mexico. Something, probably a coyote, carried Marian off. I couldn't find even a feather. Harold has been wandering around outside gobbling incessantly looking for her. I couldn't bear the idea of getting another hen and having her eaten too so I posted on Craigslist to see if anyone had a safer happier home for Harold. To my surprise there was great interest. I picked a local park that has a farm outreach program. They had a turkey pair and had the same experience where the hen was taken but not the tom, and he was just as lonely. So with Mona's help I wrapped up a (surprisingly heavy) turkey in a towel and put him in a huge dog kennel and drove him over there this morning.

That duck, Buzz, REALLY wants to be friends. He followed Harold everywhere.

The best part: he'll be happy. The second best part: I can visit him anytime. I got to pet some sheep and baby goats and check out their rabbits and chickens. Since there is a lot of human traffic they don't usually have predator problems and frankly I can't think of many animals bold enough to take on TWO male turkeys. Goodbye Harold, I'll come to visit you with some corn sometime soon.

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In other thoughts, where is my warm weather? In the space of a week I have gone from this:

Charlie's legs are a perfect nesting spot for Isaac on a pool-break

to this today:

another four inches of fluffly misery

Cabo snippet

mask assortment, photo courtesy Steve Kalning

I'm catching up on laundry, cleaning, and life in general so here is a brief snippet from the Cabo trip. It was on the way home......


In a group of 300-some people, there are bound to be some problems. The crazy American Airlines shenanigans left many of our friends scrambling to find ways to fly home, many of which were multi-stop nightmares. Our friends Jeff and Suzanne found themselves on a complicated Cabo-Mexico City-LA flight path and were worried about lost luggage. Specifically Jeff's custom dive gear that had it's own suitcase. We offered to take it with us on our relatively uncomplicated flight, since you're allowed to have two suitcases per person.

Which brought me to Saturday morning in the Cabo airport trying to figure out how to tell a customs agent "I have my friend's suitcase, and it is full of scuba equipment I SWEAR but I can't open the locks and show you."

In the Cabo airport, they have no x-ray machines. They have no fancy TSA-approved-lock-jimmying tools. They just have every single person in line hoist their suitcase up onto a folding table right in front of the ticket counters and open it up and rifle through your underwear in front of the entire airport looking for drugs and other naughties. And I forgot to ask jeff the combination to their locks. These are very serious security agents. They do not smile. They are probably secretly hoping that you are trying to smuggle something unmentionable just so that it gives them variation in their day.

Enter: Elisa, savior of me and Jeff. She helped me through the trip on many occasions... finding good restaurants, making reservations, haggling for me when I was too shy when shopping. But in this, her last act of assistance, she rose to heroism. I don't know exactly what she said because it was rapid-fire spanish, but at the end of it the guy didn't. even. open. the. suitcase. He just took our word for it. I was prepared for him to cut the locks, do whatever he needed but Elisa's magic went further than I thought possible.

At the time it was gut-wateringly terrifying, but now it's a great story!

The Arch, photo courtesy Steve Kalning

More pictures to come.....I didn't take any at all because of the aforementioned 300+ people on the trip, many of whom are top notch photographers and will supply me with images I could never have taken myself. The great pooling of photos has begun at work, and I will dip in later this week and pull out some gems.

highs and lows

I had to euthanize the white puff this afternoon. It was clear that she was very ill.....couldn't stand up well, kept falling over, had glazed eyes. She had the same sickness as the other puff and the only mercy was to end it for her. Luckily one of the blogs I read regularly (Vituperation, in the side bar) dealt not only with the same chicken problem but also with the issue of how to euthanize.


So, just in case you find yourself in the same sad situation (his was finding a fatally injured but still alive owl) this is how to end an animal's life with the least amount of suffering. In any auto supply store you can buy a spray can of engine starting fluid for a few dollars. The key ingredient: ether. In an airtight container big enough to hold the animal, soak several paper towels in the spray and put the lid on quickly. Don't breathe it in, obviously. Let the fumes build up for a few minutes. Fold another paper towel and in quick succession open the lid, put the dry towel on top of the wet ones for comfort, insert the animal, and close the lid. Walk away and take a deep breath, knowing that after a few breaths the animal will fall asleep and die. I'm not sure how long it takes for larger animals, but the peep was almost instantaneous.

I think I'll hold off on more puff chickens until next year.

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In happier news, remember my sneak project peek a few days ago? The dresses are complete and one set of sisters has already gotten theirs, and the other set are getting theirs tonight. I got the most wonderful thank you from Grace and Emma in the mail today. It was the perfect remedy for being sad. I can't wait to see all of the girls together in Cabo!

spring stutter

Charlie went to Toronto on business this weekend, and his big car growled off at 4 am on Sunday morning through several inches of snow to pick up a couple of coworkers who were also going. I pottered around inside, and watched the snow melt with rain. And then it snowed again. Then rain. Then hail, then snow. Then nothing yesterday afternoon so I went to the grocery store and in the 10 minutes I was gone there were another 4 inches of snow and I had to park my car at the bottom of the neighborhood and walk home. By the time I puffed my way up the last big hill it was sleeting. Hours later, the snow was completely gone. Charlie came back from his trip and drove me back down to get my car and I brought it home over completely clear roads.

Insanity! Today it is sunny and in the high 40's. I think I will start wearing a bikini underneath long underwear.

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In sad news, the littlest black puff chick died mysteriously while I was out today. She was fine in the morning, and stone cold when I got home 4 hours later. There were some strange problems with the McMurray hatchery and an outbreak of Avian Encephalomyelitis, and I thought I had escaped being a victim. You really can't tell that they are sick except that maybe they are a little unsteady on their feet. Frankly, they are so tiny that I can't tell a wobble from a 'learning how to walk' lurch. The bigger girls all appear fine, and the littlest have been living separately anyway. Now I just have to keep the last puff by herself and see if she pulls through. Luckily if they do have it and survive, then they are immune. Be strong, little puff!