Kristen’s Chickens and Farming Ventures

[aart]

OhBoy...what a dilemma..wishing you all the strength needed for whatever decision you make.

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

We have a new little friend, it’s confirmed... I have a recycling frog I’ve been trying to relocate somewhere safer for about a week now, and it is most certainly the same frog. I keep picking him up and moving him somewhere safer, but he just keeps coming back!

So cute!

 

[Aussie-Chookmum]

To the less happy news... After a very bad day attempting to work in the Abbatoir today Andrew is very seriously looking at our options for returning to the city. I really don’t want to leave, as I love the chickens and farming and many of the people here. But if his family cannot learn to be civil and polite then we can’t stay. Today was quite awful. I left at noon with a panic attack, having started at 7, Andrew continued to work until 7. We got home shortly before midnight last night. We were up and working before 5am actually, setting the chickens up for the day and burying Whisper. Our first meal of the day was 8:30pm dinner.

I would like to give them a little longer to learn to be less demeaning and rude, but by then we may not have enough cash left to leave. It’s something we will have to discuss further. I can find homes for most of the chickens if needed, but I was just starting to have success with breeding and raising them for a profit.

Most of me wishes we hadn’t sold our house and left our successful careers for this. We sold for just under 1 million in September 2017, we had over half of that after the mortgage and all our debts (CC and Carpayment) were settled. now we have 20k that his aunt took from us “for the house” and no way to cover expenses for winter: gas for the vehicles and generators, propane, our storage locker and phones. I’ve got $130k worth of house parts piled on the ground and no foundation to put them on. We have a few months to figure out what we’re going to do. But our ex-roommate is willing to support and help us get back on our feet in a move back to the city if we need to.

Yesterday our town trip was to the Vet, I needed to put one of my cats down. They are 16, and his thyroid problem and kidney disease was getting the better of him. It being the right thing to to for him doesn’t make it any easier for me, and I will always feel that I failed him horribly in the last two years. He relied on me to keep him safe and properly fed, housed, and medicated. At least he got to spend his last two months with us again, even if our trailer is barely fit for habitation. Here are some pictures of him from Happeir times.

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I just wanted to say thank you all again for being a part of this site and all the support and compassion you have shown me. You’ve become dear friends and I do hope I can find a way to continue to farm and keep my chickens.

Oh Kris, so sorry to hear about your beautiful boy on top of all the trouble you've been having with the family.
You must be due some good fortune after all you've put up with and and all your hard work.

Please, please, please remember that you don't need to have chickens to visit with us on the web. I really feel it all works out for the best, whatever that winds up being.

x2
Whatever happens in the future, I hope to still see you here on BYC just to see how you're doing

 

[WhoDatChick]

I’m so sorry Kris... I cry for you .... I truly hope all things work out well for you and make you happy... whatever that may be..

 

[Wee Farmer Sarah]

So sorry Kris. You've gone through so much and tried so hard to make a go of it there. You have to decide what is in your own best interest and never settle. Best of luck going forward.

 

[Kris5902]

Thanks for the love and support, we are in a time of much discussion, Andrew and I. There are further things coming to light as well... for instance his father will not be leaving his share in the farm to either Andrew or his brother. Which, if we had known about before would have certainly influenced our decision in moving here and investing basically our life savings into the property. We were under the impression that Andrew would be a 1-4 to an 1/8th owner eventually. I think we will be here for at least another two months minimum either way.

Some somewhat good news maybe, though I don’t really know what to think anymore, we have a date for the footings... Friday the concrete should be poured.

 

[aart]

Some somewhat good news maybe, though I don’t really know what to think anymore, we have a date for the footings... Friday the concrete should be poured

Salt in the wounds.
Will all your investments in building the house be gone if you leave?

 

[Ribh]

There are no words. This is a terrible situation & to lose Whisper on top of everything else...However it turns out, love & best wishes.

 

[Kris5902]

Salt in the wounds.
Will all your investments in building the house be gone if you leave?

Well, we certainly can’t take it (the house and chickens) with us. And I highly doubt they can afford or will even be willing to compensate us for it at all. Farming isn’t exactly lucrative. I’m trying to make it work, really I am... but now finding out that we will never be fully included in the farm has me feeling a little duped.

Family Drama it’s worse than any type of animal poop I’ve stepped in. I feel like I’m living in some bad daytime tv show. I really do feel like if we do leave I should take a can of gasoline and a match to it... house parts! Not the chickens... we were talking about who we can rehome them to as well.

 

[Kris5902]

There are no words. This is a terrible situation & to lose Whisper on top of everything else...However it turns out, love & best wishes.

Thank you for the thoughts and love. You’re all the best internet family a girl could hope for. I also got very lucky in that I randomly picked the best Vet in the area for my fur babies when we moved here.

Great news on the prolapse front, though. It seems to be staying in! Preparation H is a wonder drug. I suggest buying a tube just incase you ever need it! Luckily my wheat bran was on sale, the cashier informed me, I said my mealworms will appreciate that, which opened the “for my chickens” conversation... so I was able to slip in that all the hemorrhoid cream and yeast infection stuff was for them too! If only Andrew had picked it up on either of his two shops I might be done treating her already! She also got a nice bath and blow dry to clean up her back end which was getting nasty from prolapse induced irate leakage. Sammy was very confused by the whole situation.

I actually chatted a little with my vet about it while we were waiting for Whisper to be fully sedated, mostly because as we were sitting there someone came into the reception and asked about their sheep (“NOT a large animal/farm vet!”) and the look on my poor vet’s face... though horribly inappropriate for timing Andrew and I laughed quite a bit over that. We joke about it with him a little because he was a large animal/farm vet in Europe, and we have sheep and cattle and no farm vet available. But he did give me a little advice, without actually “giving advice”, and said I was basically the right treatment plan with her. Now about those pet cows of mine

Here are some pics of the farms new chickens.

A better comparison shot of the tiny meat bird egg

And in looking for the pictures of Whisper I managed to scroll back enough to find a cleaned up floor plan of the main floor before some of the needed modifications, we also flipped the floor plan so the kitchen is in the south east corner

“Foyer” is a real fancy way of saying mud room so you don’t track too much BS through the living spaces we also cut back on the windows in the “den” in favor of more wall space for our bookshelves.