Opa's place -Where an old rooster visits with friends - Page 486

Another morning is here and I've already drunk two cups of coffee, worked the crossword puzzle, and boxed a rooster.  As strange as that last part sounds I'm sure it was stranger still for the rooster esinvolved.  Recently a friend in Oklahoma contacted me wanting some Welsummer eggs.  Raccoons had killed the rooster he had gotten from me last fall to improve the quality of his flock.  After a little discussion we decided that my spare rooster would be the best solution for his problem.  Although he is 3 years old and a little worn and ragged looking from frostbite, the necessary equipment wasn't frostbitten and he will still produce excellent offspring.

So the poor guy was sitting calmly on the roost await sunrise when he was suddenly snatch from it and stuffed into a box.  While he protested the abrupt  wakening, once he was in the box he immediately settled back down.  I had to get a special post office approved box to ship him in and it is pretty tight quarters.  Hopefully he will arrive tomorrow morning in Oklahoma City with no ill effect.

I had to order the box from a company in Missouri besides having the necessary filters installed on it, it has in bright red lettering the words "warning live birds" marked on several places.  When the postal carrier delivered the box, which was shipped broken down and flat, she remarked to Hope "that must be an awfully skinny bird". 

I spent a portion of last night working on mine and Hope's taxes.  Her's is completed and mine is almost complete.  I only have to gather the information about last year's heating costs to see if I qualify for any heating credit and mine is complete.  I always hate filling out all of the IRS forms and doing so certainly tests my vow to never let anything bother me. 

When my sons were still at home I always filled "head of household" and when they grew up and moved out I had to file "single."  When Granny moved here I had hoped that I once again would be able to file head of household once again.  Even though Granny would not be able to live on the monies she has coming in, it is still too much for me to qualify.  I defy anyone to live on the amount of money the government says is enough for her to live alone. 

Well the dermatologist appointment went about as well as I expected.  I swear that feller takes some kind perverse pleasure in toting that bottle of liquid nitrogen around.  I don't think I've every seen him without it.  He probably froze 50 different spots and I must return at the end of May to see if they have healed properly.  One spot he was a little concerned about and if it doesn't heal then he will do a biopsy to determine if it's cancerous. 

He was very complimentary of my hat.  Said it was a great looking hat and wished more folks would wear them, but did feel it was one of largest hats he'd ever seen a patient wearing.  Wonder what he'd have said if I had worn my big hat?

Taxes are all done and e-filed.  Had to pay Federal but getting twice that amount back from the State so all is good.  Next year I won't do as well since the State has decided to start taxing my pension.  They started with this year and decided that they would "grandfather" anyone born 1945 and back. Unfortunately I am 26 days too young.   Been a lot of years since I was too young for something. 

I hope everyone had an Easter that was as nice as mine.  Started out by taking Granny to church and returning two hours later to pick her up.  The church is close enough that I can see it from my front yard so it doesn't take much effort to get her there. 

Spent some time moving birds around and then working on a boat trailer that I'm rebuilding.  Not much more to do and then I will transfer the boat onto it and put the old trailer out on the drive with a for sale sign on it.

Hope put a ham on to cook and we had a big dinner late in the afternoon.  Dave and Amy came down from their house and the semi-adopted neighbor joined us.  Since her stepfather can no longer drive Hope went and got him.  The only way she can insure that he is eating properly is to bring him here or take food to him. 

All of the spot the dermatologist burnt are healing and while no longer sore they are starting to itch and it takes some concerted effort not to do so.  I still have 6 more weeks to wait before returning for a checkup and I will be glad to know if this treatment has been sufficient or if I will need additional treatment.  One spot just below my right eye does concern me.  It is a rather deep hole that looks very much like a previous spot that required some rather extensive surgery to excise. 

Aging is not for the weak and accepting it gracefully does take some effort.  But when I look around I realize how fortunate I am. Several guys my age that I worked with are having to deal with much more than my few aches and pains that by comparison I am really blessed. 

While it is much to early to start planting the garden, I think I will start working the ground up and amend some of the compost to it.  The soil is really starting to look good and now very few rocks come to the surface when I rototill.  I may wind up with a quart of thumbnail size rocks when I pick them up.  My son Joe's garden is so rocky that if you only picked up fist sized rocks you could fill a pickup truck.

  I need to look for a couple of apple trees to replace the ones I recently cut down and I think I will add a couple of pear trees as well.  I should have done this several years ago but I guess later is better than never. 

It's still rather cold here but each day the temperatures are improving.  Every time I have planned on going fishing the weather has turned crappy so I think I am going to quit plan.  I think it might be better to just get up one morning that looks decent and say I'm going.