Mostly farm news

Monday’s aways seem difficult to get going. I am not sure why, especially now that I am not pressed to get up and report to a particular job. But this morning both Mama and I are having the same problem; just getting engaged. Fortunately, Jake is not an early morning person. He is more of an early afternoon person - even though he went to sleep last night before 11 pm. That is unusually early for him.

He remarked to Mama last night that he sleeps better here than at home. At home he has the TV going all night, a lamp on in both his room and the hallway adjacent to his room. Here he sleeps with the room completely dark. I think he and Mama are on the same page when she says she sleeps more soundly when she hears the Pyrenees barking through the night. With Jake in the spare bedroom, he is even closer to the should than Mama and I are. Normans and Seth hated the barking when they stayed with us last year. I don’t think either one of them had a good nights sleep through the time they were here. For Jake it is comforting. I like that.

One of the elderly ladies at church, Betty Lemon, who has recovered completely from the horrible experience she had in having a lung removed due to cancer, told me she was talking with Jake last Wednesday night and he was telling her that he wanted to come back here for Christmas. He told her that he was going to tell his parents they did not have to give him anything if they would let him fly down Christmas Day. She was very impressed about the remark and added that it shows just how highly he thinks of us; well really, Mama. Buy it is a sweet thought.

Early this morning Mama and I moved Boomer and Kai into the separate area away from the girls. Boomer, now four months old is showing a little too much interest in the little girls we have been raising him with. Kai is fixed, so he is just there to keep Boomer company. If we work our plan we will have him separated until June or July next year. I am not sure we will keep them as far away as we have them right now but it works for now.

I got to work on the pig shelter this morning using the lumber we got from Victoria’s house. It will be a very sturdy enclosure for any pigs we happen to get in the next several months. Victoria and Mama are looking regularly and starting to find some reasonable deals. I do not imagine it will be too much longer. At least I feel like I am ready.

We have new baby Bantam chicks hatching out. Three hens are sitting on another dozen eggs so we have no good idea just how many we will end up with. This time Mama allowed the broody hens to keep the chick rather than bringing it into the house. We did put food and water in the upper part of the shelter where they have the chick but we still do not know if leaving them is the best course of action. If they start to get weak we will intervene. 

We still have four full sized chickens and four Bantam hens (all hatched and raised here) ready to incorporate into their respective flocks, but Mama is dragging her feet because the integration ritual is so painful to watch. The ‘pecking order” is a very real dynamic in each coop. It is remarkable how brutal the hens can be in keeping their spot in that order. Generally, the lowest hen is the most brutal to the new ones - and Mama agonizes over it for days.

I have filled out several resumes lately but still no contacts. I am continuing to press forward with the internet business, but still no sales. I am also starting to write a book about our travels as a family. That is proving the most interesting project on my plate, and the most neglected.

FBI is tonight. It is the only time Jake will have to endure it this year.