There’s a cock in my henhouse!

I have mentioned before that hubby and I decided to try our hand at hobby farming by purchasing five chicks to use for their eggs. 

Things are going quite well, although hubby deserves all of the credit.  I pretty much just observe them from afar while he keeps them watered and fed and continues to renovate their coop for the coming winter. 

For quite a while now – since the birds started looking like adults and not chicks – there has been one bird that has looked just a little different than the others.  See that extra little “waddle” under the chin?  We weren’t really sure what to make of this but knew that we had time to ponder the anomaly since the birds aren’t mature enough for egg production until at least November. 

Since we have time, let me back up a little to when the little chicks were purchased.  Hubby found an article in the local ‘buy and sell’ paper.  A few weeks later we drove up to this modified trailer that is surrounded by junk that lies on grass that hasn’t seen a mower all year.  (Let me clarify the word ‘modified’ … I don’t mean ‘modified for the better’.  I mean that the trailer had a two-room wooden porch built on the front of it many years ago that is now half fallen down, has holes in the floor, and is full of greasy, smelly junk.Oh, and chicks.  Lots and LOTS of chicks.)

I knocked on the door and this old guy comes out, bent over and limping and with eyebrows arched to the ceiling in suspicion.  I mean, he’s keeping a really close eye on me.  Once he realized why I was there, he entered the back room of the porch to get the chickens that I wanted.  He would pick them out of their cage one by one, turn them over, look at the ball of feathers, and either put them in the box I was taking or grunt and say something like, “I think that one’s a rooster”. 

Very scientific indeed. 

So here we are, many months later, wondering if that one odd-looking chicken just naturally looks a little different than his siblings or if it is, in fact, a rooster.  All wondering came to an end this morning with an IM sent by hubby first thing this morning:

“It is confirmed.  I heard some loud cock-a-doodle-doos this morning as I was walking to the garage.”

GREAT. 

You might think this is not the end of the world … and obviously it’s not … but it does mean actual chickens where the eggs for breakfast are supposed to be.  I imagine our neighbors are not likely to find the novelty in early rooster crowing for long either. 

Chances are we will have to get rid of this bird and we’re not quite sure how to do it.  Yeah, the actual mechanics of it are pretty straightforward (axe meets rooster) but going from scrambled-egg-lover to chicken slayer is a pretty big leap. 

If the course of action involves an axe-wielding hubby, I just hope he doesn’t fight back.

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Images of Fall II

In honor of the first snowfall warning of the season (yeah, I’m serious!), here are some shots of the beautiful foliage in my little corner of the world this time of year.  I hope you have a good monitor. 

A few weeks ago, Hubby and I packed a lunch and went for a long hike out back, near my nan’s woodlot, on trails that mostly looked like this.  It was a labyrinth of four wheeler trails, old logging roads, and some paths we weren’t even sure were trails – some turning left and some turning right and some we made up as we went.  But… we managed to make it out alive (although I did save half of my sandwich just in case, I ended up eating it in the truck on the way home – because being vegetarian makes cannibalism out of the question). 

 

Those woods had mostly yellows and greens but I did come across this gleaming red beauty. 

 

I haven’t uploaded pics of the girls lately so here they are in their makeshift hunters orange collars.  They had a blast running through the forest, scaring up partridge (thwump-thwump-thwump-thwump-thwump) a couple of times along the way. 

Maggie …

and Nelly …

And on the drive home we stopped for a picture at this spot that my blog-reading cousins will easily recognize. 

 

The rest of these shots are from a solo walk I took on another day.  I like close up shots and my camera seems to do them really well.  Here are a few of them. 

 

 

 

And a little spider friend.  Not that I particularly like spiders; they do make for interesting photography though. 

It’s a little difficult to time but if you are thinking about a trip to this part of the world, definitely try to make it this time of year. 

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These are the people in my phlegmy neighborhood…

Today at the office, for my listening pleasure …

The honker.  Yes, he’s still at it and this week he’s recovering from a cold so the honking is definitely at its peak.  I’m still at a loss as to how that sound comes out of someone’s head.  It’s so loud that I can’t hear the guy next to me and actually have to stop conversations until he’s done. 

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The saliva guy.  Nice as can be but the coworker in the adjacent cubicle is one of those people who seems to be drowning in saliva all the time.  You know the ones… every word spoken is through a puddle of spit that just hangs out at the back of his mouth around his teeth all the time.  I haven’t been spit on yet but it’s only a matter of time, really. 

He is also recovering from a cold this week so ‘saliva guy’ has temporarily turned into ‘very snotty saliva guy’:  the regular saliva still applies (but in grosser -pun intended- quantities) and is accompanied by phlegm-filled coughing and sneezing that you swear will require a mop to clean up.  I find myself wondering how that one little tissue does it!  And how he sleeps. 

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The spreader.  You know the knob in every crowd that often doesn’t cover his mouth when he coughs or sneezes?  Yeah… gross, right?  This is another coworker that also seems to be more phlegmy than usual this week.  Not only is he not conscientious toward his fellow co-workers, but he is also the type that makes a big loud sneeze then turns completely silent afterward and you know he’s assessing the “damage”.  The other day he sneezed while on the phone with his woman and I actually heard him exclaim where it all ended up.  I’ll say again … gross, right? 

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So yeah… these are the people in my neighborhood this week.  Once, yesterday, they all got going at once and it was like some really wet, sickening sonata that filled the room with sounds of snot and visions of germs dancing above our heads. 

All I have to say (after all the words above on the topic, obviously) is that these people better not make my pregnant ass sick.  I’m fine with a cold when I can take some NyQuil and wake up three days later feeling better and wondering where that new birthmark came from but suffering drugless through a cold is just no fun at all. 

Photo from http://www.canada.com/topics/bodyandhealth/gallery/germs.html?g=0

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