Vacation? Livestock, birthdays

I will be off for the next two days although it would be less work on me personally to be at my job. We will be moving most of the time in order to get ready for the final move – the one we will need help with – coming next Friday or Saturday. We have the house on Fairfield rented through the middle of October but we planned to be in Bowie the week of the 10th, so we need to plan our move accordingly. We have a lot of stuff and some of it needs to get to the farm over the next several trips, but that is another move altogether.


Yesterday afternoon, on my way home, I stopped to look at some chicks that someone in Fritch had advertized for one dollar each. They were listed as Rhode Island Reds and Barred Rock chicks; both of which were at the top of our list. I found the place and the trailer was a dump with trash and valuables left in piles across the yard the porch and the driveway. But since I was there I knocked and told the lady who answered the door why I was there. She was expecting me.

She fought back her five little dogs to answer the door and asked me to go to the corner of the fence where she would meet me – with all five little yapping dogs. It was a low fence without any gate, “They hadn’t made it that far yet.” she examined as we stepped over the fence into the yard which was attached to the animal area.

They had built a very nice chicken coop and horse shelter and had recently adopted a horse from the local shelter – which was so friendly that he opened the door and followed us into the chicken coop as we were looking at the chicks. She had a passel of them. I knew from the shipping boxes left on the porch that she had recently bought the hundred or so chicks that were scurrying all over the place as we entered the area segregated for the little chickens and brooding hens.

I was impressed with the setup they had and the chicks looked very healthy, much better than ones we had looked at only a few weeks earlier in another location. I offered to buy fifteen of the Reds and five of the Barred Rocks, but later bumped it up to twenty and ten. The biggest problem was finding a way to keep the little stinkers in a container to count and transfer them. She got one of the shipping boxes that had a lid and we fed them into the box several at a time while I opened and closed the lid as required. Seeing this large woman stoop to catch the fleeing chicks was both hilarious and gross – all at the same time.

The livestock waited in the truck as I went to the hospital to visit one of the men from our church that is being treated for an ulcer on the bottom of his right foot. Then I met Victoria and Mama at the Jennie house to show off my purchase. They were both impressed and we scrambled to find something to put them in for the night and to give them water after their harrowing experience.

Later Mama and I bought a cage, food, feeders and water dishes for the herd and set them up for the night. It will be a mess to deal with until we get them to the farm, but it is a fun mess for now. I have no idea how many will survive but I know Mama will morn the loss of even one should that moment come.

Two birthdays tomorrow and September will be all but over. It has been a fast paced month and the pace shows no signs of slowing as we charge toward the holidays. I am trying to do some advance preparation but it does not look like I will get too far along. We will just have to take things as they come and pray for the best; especially as I am torn in different directions at work and at home. We will see how things work out as we finish the local move. Moving to the Decatur office may follow next year, but until then Mama and I will split ourselves between two homes and two callings and do the best we can.

I can sense how my father felt as he and mom were building the home in Chappell Hill.