~ Retired and Starting My Future In The Foothills ~ - Page 131

Earlier today I thought I had a Cayuga duck going broody on a nest.  It was in a very inconvenient spot for me, but probably a perfect spot for her.  She chose to make her nest in a section of the concrete planter in front of my porch, in amongst <*blush*> stuff I have just stacked up "to put away eventually."  I had planned on attacking that project this weekend, and she came quacking off the nest as I started to move one of the boxes.  Uh oh.  Sorry, sweetie!

But it appears I only disturbed her as she was laying and/or resting on her eggs in her nest, she's not really broody.  Which means I have to clean that area up tomorrow, after all.  Or Monday.  

My three young silkies really, really want out of their outdoors pen under the deck.  If the weather is nice enough, I'll take them out and see how they integrate with the rest of the flock, now that they've been in view and approachable through the pen wire for the past two weeks. 

I continue to find out my next door, retired neighbors are really, really nice.  And, because everybody calls him by his last name, I was pleased to see the Caller ID on my phone displayed his first name with his last!  Mwaaahaaaa!  Mrs. Retiree called to see if I had a clue about a stray dog tied to their front porch.  I had a clue, but she didn't like it.  Cousins of the equally nice neighbors on the OTHER side of my property were up here wine tasting, stopped by to see their relatives who were not home.  As they approached our road, they saw a female dog with a pink collar, no tags, running with the pit cross ACROSS THE HIGHWAY.  So they picked it up, thought it lived up on our road, and simply tied it to somebody's front porch post.  (No fence around their property, like mine.)  They shouted to see if I was home and told me the tale before they left to go taste some more wine.

So Mrs. Retiree, pretty steamed about it (they're leaving for a vacation tomorrow morning), called Animal Control.  Before AC arrived, said doggie chewed through the rope and exited stage left.  Now Mrs. Retiree is upset, worried about 'that ****** dog' she had been ticked about being left tied to her porch.

Anyway, as I don't cook, (yet!!) I picked out the nicest, freshest, prettiest eggs and put them into the nice, clean, empty, covered dish he'd brought over earlier in the week full of Chinese food.  Walked it up their very steep driveway and she still wanted to pay me for the eggs (but finally accepted my refusal).  Offered me a drink, pull up a chair.  "So, you're retiring in about 30 seconds or so, is that right?" 

Somehow she'd gotten the idea I was retiring in March.  Noop...  probably June 30th.  We talked about State employment and retirement issues for a bit.  Mr. Retiree came home from his Too Bored To Be Totally Retired job - at a gun shop! How perfect for him. - and we sat outside and smoked before I headed back down their driveway to my own.  Both Mr. and Mrs. tell me they try their best to shoot the pit cross that "really, really wants [my] chickens."  A BB rifle plunk or three on its butt keeps it away for a few days at a time.

I forgot my train of thought...  Oh!  My WCB Polish chicks in their brooder in my office are such happy little chicks.  I don't handle them very often except on the weekends and they aren't all that friendly, but they sure are happy chirpers.  I don't know if it's due to their pressing their heads up against the EcoGlow, but the largest of them have flat tops!  Their head feathers are starting to come in and the fuzziest bits on the side are projecting to the sides, with the new feather shafts laying backwards.  Yup, flat tops.  Pretty darned cute!   

<*yawn, stretch*>  I finally escaped the clutches of my Enchanted Recliner where I slept ALL NIGHT and made my way into my home office-slash-Nursery room.  Brinseas all holding steady temps and keeping humidity within a tick or two of the setting.  That is, I see the digital display change and watch the humidity pumps activate if the readings are more than a number or two off what I've set them to maintain.  That way I know something is actually happening, rather than just always displaying the same thing just to fool me.

Five little WCB Polish chicks in their brooder were terrified of the bits of scrambled egg I gave them.  Maybe they were more afraid of the New Dish I put into their brooder.  Because I never got up out of the Enchanted Recliner to go to bed last night, I also did not put the lid of the brooder back on.  Pleased to see Lizbeth did not suddenly turn chick-killer. 

I was gonna try to integrate the silkies today.  Took one of the 3 silkie chicks out of their pen and set it down where it was immediately pecked by three hens in rapid succession before I could take out the other two. Okay, back into the pen.  Sorry, sweetie.  Not yet.  Yah, yah, I know pecking order rules were in operation, but the weather is kinda crappy and I would like them to have a nicer, warmer day to explore (under my close observation) as they run like heck from the larger birds!  Those silkies look big in their pen until I take them out and the looming bulks of Molly BA, Bernadette CM, or Buffy BO are right next to them.

First silkies for me.  I may become a terribly doting auntie.  The WCB polish chicks may suffer the same fate.  Why ever did I get talked into getting frou-frou chickens????

(They're so freakin' cute.)