Safe arrival, steps, access, egg protest, weekend time

Victoria kept us updated on her progress as she made her way to Honduras. Arriving in Houston about 6:40. Leaving Houston about 10 am. She let us know that she was in she customs and immigration line in San Pedro Sula at about 12:40. After that things went dark. But I expected as much. Once she was with Nate, Cori and the kids, I did not anticipate much state-side contact. Mama will catchup to her today sometime. The part of the trip that gave us the most concern – the flights to Honduras – are over and she is safe with family. She reported to Mama that she was not hurting much, but at that time she had not received her bags or stood in line for the hour or more it takes to get through customs. More updates to follow on that but our expectation is that all is very well with Victoria.

I wanted Mama to try the Fitbit to see how well she liked it before we thought seriously about getting her an Apple watch. So, I ordered a similar watch from Amazon and passed the Fitbit off to her. The watch I got has the ability to monitor my blood pressure. And, it is waterproof. It was not expensive – only $35. But it is quite the gadget. Mama was not thrilled about wearing the Fitbit at first, but I really wanted to track her sleep as well as her steps. What we found out as she wore the Fitbit was impressive. Yesterday she put in 8,425 steps by the time she got back from Kimberlyn’s. She also logged an impressive 9.1 hours of sleep. Which is interesting since she thought she was awake for two hours through the night.

My H Band missed my waking time by ten minutes this morning, but I can live with that. As far as my blood pressure is concerned, it looks very good according to what has been measured by the watch. I have been concerned about my blood pressure lately, so this is turning out to be an inexpensive way to keep track. It takes a little getting used to when text messages display in full on the H Band. But I do not miss as many phone calls or texts because the H Band vibrates in a way that is not easily ignored for each of those types of contacts. It would also alert me to Facebook, Twitter, and any other messaging contact. Not interested.  

Mama and I moved the Cornish Rock chickens to the birthing building a coupe nights ago. It will probably not be used again for puppies and even if it is, it can be cleaned and sanitized for that. Right now, we needed a place where the chickens had more room. The building still has the kennel attached to it with a covered ramp access between the two structures. After reading an article on raising these chickens I opened that access yesterday evening. We had a box fan blocking the opening. Workable but not effective. As soon as the fan was lifted out several of the birds went out immediately to scratch around in the hay left from the time we had Midas in there. To make the access safe at night I had to build a panel we can slide in place to secure the little opening against predators. I did not want to use the box fan for that. Plus, as the nights get colder, I want to be able to block the draft from that opening into the building. Assembling the panel and guards turned out to be fairly easy once I located all the scrap pieces I needed. A few cuts on the table saw. A coupe screws and everything was in place. I put the panel in place last night as I closed up the chickens. Mama will lift it out sometime today to give the birds access to the yard. She is always happier when her birds have room to move around.

We are going through a dearth of eggs right now. Either that or the chickens have coordinated to hide the eggs they are laying. That happens pretty frequently when they have all day to roam around. Mama and I have to look around to find the nest and inspect the eggs we find to see if they are marketable or must be discarded. Or, maybe put in the incubator. We have not found that nest yet. Last night we got only three eggs. Not nearly what we should be finding. In response to this little revolt, Mama is going to keep the chickens cooped up for most of the day versus letting them run free all day. We will see if that makes any difference. It should. We are feeding almost thirty laying hens. If we do not get an uptick in egg production, Mama and I will have to cull the flock and limit our losses.

I stumbled across a recipe for catfish bait yesterday that I am anxious to use. Hotdogs, Jell-O and garlic powder. Maybe this weekend I can try it out in the quarry lake. I am not gung-ho to get back out on the water with the temperatures getting so cool, but I have a lot of places I can fish from the bank at the lake. I have also been studying up on filleting catfish and am ready to try my hand at that. I will have to coordinate that around going to Lawton each weekend to keep abreast of any work being done on the houses.

As for the fishing, there is no hurry. It’s just more fun.