Things set right, fowls

Things are slowly being set right in the repairs Mama and I needed regarding the recent breaks, and disruptions in our lives. Before I looked at ordering a new watch to replace the one I broke while trying to clean it, I looked to see if there was a way I could send the watch off to be repaired. It turns out that the manufacturer has set up a repair request site that was very easy to use. So, I have sent the watch off for repairs as needed by the company that assembles and sells those style of watches. The estimated repair cost is not clear at this point but the predicted cost for a small repair was $35. We will see how that turns out, but it makes sense to explore that course of action first.

Internet repairs were completed yesterday. Since I ripped up the cable coming from the dish to the house, I was a little concerned about the work involved in refitting that connection. However, the internet company is equipped with special fittings to easily affect those repairs and the technician was done – as Mama tells it – rather quickly. It took longer to reset the router than to affect the repairs to the cable. So, internet is restored. In fact, I had laid a four-foot piece of garden hose I had split lengthwise to be placed over the cable at the pole holding the dish to prevent such damage in the future. I was going to slide that hose over the cable after the repair was made but the technician, guessing the intent of the piece of split hose, placed it over the cable before he completed the repair. I was as impressed as I was thankful for his extra help.

The nail gun that had failed me in the course of all the minor disasters that plagued my weekend was disassembled and reassembled several times before I recognized the part that was malfunctioning. I actually had to refer to the exploded parts diagram that still resides with the nail gun to find the part I need to replace. One of those things that was not obvious until I was clued in on how to look at it. Once I knew what each part should look like, I was able to identify the one part that did not resemble the drawing on the parts diagram. It will cost about $14 to replace. Considering I have had that nail gun for almost thirty years, it is worth the money to repair it, but I have also order an upgraded replacement for that tool.  

As for the repair required to get Mama’s computer operational again, Mama called a local repair shop and got moderately good news from them. They are confident they can restore the factory settings and get the computer up and running again for an entry price of $45. The full cost will not be known until all the repairs are affected.  If our local technicians are successful, that beats trying to get the work done at an Apple Retail Store. We have such a store about an hour away, but the wait times at the retail store average more than an hour just to get in the repair que. We have high hopes the repairs will be accomplished locally.

On the farm front, Mama has become fascinated with the idea of raising ducks. So, I will more than likely be building a duck habitat in the very near future. I am okay with the idea; I just do not want too many of those fowl. Perhaps four to six total. I do not know if a male will service more than one female, like our roosters, but we do not need to add an influx of duck eggs into our accumulation of eggs, although it would be fun to sell the eggs to others who might want to hatch them. We are reading that certain varieties of ducks lay over 300 eggs per year. Plus, we would be able to raise ducks to eat. Provided Mama and Victoria like roasted duck. I do not remember if I like duck or not, but I am willing to experiment. I do know that we would be able to sell or trade the ducks we could raise, and the way things are looking, having a variety of animals to use for meat would be to our advantage.

On the sad side, one of the several days old chicks Mama recently purchased is not going to survive. Mama is deeply saddened by every one of those losses, but those losses are a part of farm life. That still leaves her eleven to raise, most of which are hens. The roosters we have in the bunches we are raising will eventually be processed for consumption, either by us or by our Chinese friends.

In kind of a funny mishap, as Mama was placing the four chicks we recently hatched, now a few weeks old, into the Banty house, one of the chicks escaped the confines of the Banty house and took off like a shot. I got to see that chick yesterday evening so it did not die or get pecked badly by the older chickens, but there is no way I could have caught it. As it was last sighted, it was scampering into the coop yard and taking up residence under the East side of the coop. If it stays alive, it will eventually roost inside the coop with the other chickens. If it survives. For now, it is our one wild chicken.   

Meanwhile, Mama’s older chicks, now a couple months old have been placed in the little coop.  After weeks of having access only to the inside of that coop, we opened the door allowing them to get out into the small yard attached to that coop. It is always a challenge to get the little ones out of the coop and into the yard. They eventually overcome their fear, but it takes several hours. They are, after all, chickens. It is a bigger challenge to get them to reenter the coop for the first several nights. So, to close them up in the coop overnight, I have had to wait until all the little ones at least get into the opening the door provides them and using a broom, gently push the mass of little bodies further into the coop so the door can be shut. Hopefully, that process will become easier as they begin to occupy spaces on the roost instead of settling on the floor of the coop, but we are not there yet.

For now, I have to plan on taking a half hour to get all the occupants shut into their coop. But it is a humorous challenge.