HEY dear journal!
It got very late, nearly 6 in the morning, its one of those nights that i could not sleep. Working in the summer months in the nightshift for 13 years has an effect on somebodys sleep all year around, this is normal for me tho.
Earlier tonight as i was searching random crap on the internet, i heard my wife calling my name, she usually just call me names and not by my name, so i knew something was wrong. She was talking with her mother on the phone and saw something out there jumping down in the yard, in the beggining she told me it was a "cat or what?", i went outside and made the usual "get the h*** out of the yard" call for the stray cats that still pay regular visits where i used to leave the garbage 8 months ago, "
xxxxxxxxxxxsssssssssssssssttttttttttttttttt" and then i heard the fence sound. "Ok" i said, my job is done. As i was returning to my very serious work that i have left in the middle, she described what she saw as a gigantic rat with a huge pointy nose and thin tail. However, in the afternoon when it got dark, i have heard one of my chicks making sounds and even tho i wondered why, i didnt go to check on them, so i was worried that huge zombie rats from outter space have intruded my yard and are eating chicks when she told me about the gigantic rat. We still have no lights outside in the yard, infact we have no outside lights at all, so i went in the car and turned it into the yard with the high lights and checked on the chicks, guess what, they were fine! So was the rest of the flock. I also checked their food and was full.
No rat, nothing. Are you mad too?
I am disapointed i didnt find a huge rat eating my chicks because then i would have something new to deal with and talk about. But who knows this post might be the start of this rat intruders adventure and it cannot be missed from my journal, right?
---end of rat thing---
Yesterday night the weather got bad and it started raining ALOT, about 5-6 in the morning i checked outside and all the yard was shining. Wow what happent to my soil, why is the yard shining? i thought. It was flooded!! So much rain, the water dropped last night must have been the 1/5 of all winter rain together if that makes any sense. I was VERY glad that my hard work in moving soil around the yard and leveling up the new chicken run has worked, the only spot that you could see the ground was the run
you probably could not go there without a boat or jet ski but thats another story. I keep my mobile cage in the new run and have the chicks in it, so i can "free range" them in the run in the daytime and lock them in the cage in the night, this way the flock cant attack them. In the morning when all that water was gone, i went to check on them and they were completely dry. They looked like they have spent that bad night in a hotel suite. What a relief!
I think i am getting MORE addicted to my chickens and i am even getting addicted to the bunny. Everyday i take the bunny out and leave it in the new run with the chicks, otherwise i cannot start my day. I hope there is nothing wrong with me, i love the animals i have to take care for, i just hope this does not get worse and worse because i will start living in the yard in a while
What else should i spam my chicken journal with?
Have i even mentioned one of my hens (the mother of the chick) has respitory problems or something (wrong spelling) I am not 100% sure and i might open a thread about it too. I feel sorry for her. See, when she eats she stops and looks in front of her and makes a weird sound. I cant describe that sound very well with my english but its something like she sneezes but with a sound of her voice, then she eats more and more but keeps doing it. If she does not eat, she is ok. The worst thing about that is that the top hen, the Dinosaur, attacks her when she does that. Sometimes the troubled hen gets so troubled and keeps staring in front of her and if she cannot get normal again to start eating she walks slowly in the coop and sits in a corner
i will not be surprised to see her dead one morning.
I have thought that its a good idea to use this hen as my first hen to slaughter and BBQ. This way she will not suffer anymore. She has given me tons of eggs and a hatching chick experience, i gave her the best life i could and now i can also give her the best death by beheading her.
i make it sound evil so i can get used to the idea and just do it, but i feel i am very far from slaughtering. But what that hen goes through every day is much worse than the 1 second it will take me to cull her and then i will have my first homemade chicken BBQ too, i cannot wait for that! i just cant go out there, grab that hen, grab my slaughtering tools that i have ready since last july and do the job, i prefer to go inside, grab some treats and give them to the flock. What a bad balance, how am i going to get to the other side?
What a long post, i am sure most of the readers gave up reading by the first look of it, so i dont feel bad for wasting your time.
Time for me to shut up and just submit this post!
In my country we have a saying that translates into something like "this time, those words" which means if its very late the words that come out are not always serious and sometimes pointless. Well well......
Goodbye dear journal!
another reason is that i am 200% sure that BYC will be online for ever and i will be able to find my journal anytime anywhere. The photos i upload are already lost because i formatted my computer, but i am lucky i started this journal and i can find them again.
