Oops, more chickens, weather

In our exuberance to combat the overpopulation of wild hogs plaguing us, we almost made a serious mistake yesterday morning. As I was getting ready to leave for the museum, about 7:15, Mama opened the curtains in our bedroom on the window that looks to the West. Normally we see the goats milling about as they wait for us to feed them. Yesterday Mama looked past the goats and saw several big hogs in the field beyond the goat paddock. 

She alerted Norman and both he and I got our rifles. It was only as we got closer that we realized they were our hogs. A quick look at the gate to the pen confirmed that. I am not sure how long the pigs had been out rooting for acorns, but it had been several hours. Possibly before daylight. They had covered a large area but fortunately for us, they had stayed together. As we approached, they were happy to see us. It is easy to recognize their “happy to see you” grunts. It always makes me smile.

It did not take too much effort to get them back into their pen, but it did require setting up some roadblocks on their way back into their enclosure. I did not relish the thought or chasing them around the property. So, Norman and Mama herded them along the fence towards their pen. All in all, it took us about fifteen minutes to get them resettled. The interruption to my preparations to leave put me a bit off track and it was only when I was too far down the road that I realized I had forgotten my wallet. 

It's kind of funny, because as I was driving off, I saw Mama feeding the girl goats and knew she would be walking in front of the house to go feed the boy goats. I backed up and circled the driveway to intercept her so I could get my goodbye kiss. As I headed back to the car after our proper goodbye, Mama asked if I had everything I needed with me but all she listed out was my cellphone, not my wallet. It was not a big deal. The only consequence was that I did not have money to buy anything to eat. So, I fasted for the day. 

I had a good but largely uneventful day at the museum. I got to spend a bit of time looking over the EDS unit that I will have to pack up and ship off soon to have the repairs made. It will be a chore, but nothing insurmountable. Plus, it was requested that I call Vili, the service tech, as I was doing the disconnection and let him double check my work. When the box comes that is needed for packaging up the transmitter unit, I will get the disconnection and packaging done. I guess it will take me four to five hours to complete. 

Also, Tuesday or Wednesday, Norman and Grandpa bought five chicks to add to the fifteen Mama bought a few days earlier. Norman bought a straight run set of five. So, we will not know if we have hens or roosters until they mature. In addition to that, Mama is collecting Banty eggs to put in our incubator. Again, we will not know what we will have until those hatched chicks mature; 21 days from starting the incubator process. As I said in another post, we ended up with six roosters out of the seven that we hatched last time. 

We have potatoes coming up in the garden. I spotted the first sprouts to emerge Tuesday afternoon. When I told Mama and Grandpa they went to look the next morning and could not spot them until Mama told Grandpa that I see the first hints of green before anyone else is able to. So, they both looked a lot harder and eventually saw the sprouts throughout the rows. The onions are doing well for now and Grandpa planted cucumbers and several other vegetables yesterday. Hopefully, we will get the plants well established before the summer heat kills them.

Other than the storm a few weeks ago, the Winter has been mild. It does not look like we have a chance of freezing weather anytime soon but that could change quickly. Other that it being unusually dry, we have survived the worst of the season and very warm days are upon us. Eighty degrees today and tomorrow with the long-range forecast for highs in the upper seventies. 

We don’t know what is in store for us this Summer, but it could be a scorcher.