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

[Opa]

Cold and more snow seems to be the only words the weather forecasters seem capable of uttering. There was a time that I would have taken much pleasure from predictions. Now as I look at a temperature reading of 5 degrees I can't do much beyond wishing for spring. As soon as we have lows in the 30s I will return to the rivers for steelhead fishing.

Being this cold has made it easier to resign myself to staying home and keeping an eye on Granny. The anti-fungal medication causes hallucinations and disorientation so I have not ventured far from her side. I take her for weekly blood draws so they can monitor her medication levels closely. In addition to hallucinations and disorientation, it affects the electrical timing of the heart so they don't want to give her any more than necessary. They have twice lowered the dosage and hopefully with each successive blood test they will continue to do so.

 

[1muttsfan]

Thanks for the Granny news, Opa, hope she doesn't need to be on it for long.

Going ice fishing this weekend hopefully, although the fishing hasn't been that great so far this year.

 

[Cindiloohoo]

Hi Opa Hope everything has been going well for everyone. Thought I'd stop in and say hello

 

[Opa]

I wonder if I will ever stop worrying about the welfare of my sons? I talked at length with my oldest, listening to his concerns about an upcoming job interview. He has been in his current position for 14 years and the money he earns is unbelievable. The downside is the amount of time that he must be away from home and all that he misses out on because of the traveling. The new position would be a 9-5 job only 25 miles from his home but the money would be substantially less. I could and would not do much more than be a sounding board for him to bounce thoughts off while trying to reach a decision.

He also talked about the concerns he had for the trip that Scott, my youngest, had just left on. His concerns were the same as mine. Scott and Rebbecca left yesterday for Cancun, Mexico. Once there there they will be renting a car and driving south to a remote village not far from Belize. Over the last few years the news media has had numerous stories of American tourists being robbed and murdered in Mexico. While he is 40 years old I can't help but worry about the wisdom in selecting their vacation local. The area is supposedly one of the best diving sites in the world but is so remote that it has no phone service. I know I will breathe much easier once that are back on US soil.

 

[1muttsfan]

Worrying about someone else when there is nothing you can do to change matters is sure difficult. Worse still is to try to influence matters, because then if things go wrong you feel responsible for the outcome. Remember that old Chinese curse - May You Live in Interesting Times

 

[Opa]

By some strange quirk of fate I learned what I feel is the secret to being a father of adult children. Just be there to listen. No advice, just listen. When my sons were still children I tried to be first and foremost a father. I tried lead by example, nevering having a rule for them that didn't apply to me as well, tried to be as fair and even as possible; but the bottom line was that I was in charge. Once they became adults they were in charge of their destiny.

The year my middle son was discharged from the Army he came home in May. The school he wanted to attend wasn't starting until January of the following year. During that interim he worked with me on several construction jobs I had and well as accompanying Hope, Scott, and I on a 6 week backpacking trip in Montana and Wyoming.

A few months after he had gone to school in North Carolina we were talking and he expressed his thoughts on how the sense of absence seemed much greater than it had during his two years in the military. I told him I thought the difference came from the fact that when he left the first time we were father and son who were friends. The second time we were friends who were father and son.

Parents have to lead, guide, or make their children into responsible adults, then they have to know when to step back.

 

[mamagardener]

Hi Opa,
Just checking in to see how your mother is feeling. I hope she is done with her medication and feeling much better!

I don't know if it is just me, but it seems like since the changes on BYC, it is hard to stay in touch with everyone. Makes me very glad that Sam started this thread.

 

[Opa]

Granny is doing surprisingly well considering that most people who experienced it were in horrible pain and their best prognosis is that they will have to remain on the medication for at least one year. She may be off it by the 1st of April. It did rob her of a lot of strength but it is slowly coming back.

Some days I really miss the feeling of camaraderie that seemed to exist on our old thread. Still occasional some of the folks do drop in here from time to time to let us know what is going on in their lives.

 

[Opa]

This explains thing rather well

 

[vanalpaca]

Hey Opa, I'm sorry I haven't been on is so very long. Last year I ended up incubating most of my eggs and eventually the room humidity and nutrition levels caught up with my ambitions. I think I did eventually hatch way too many Welsummer chicks, but it was good management practice in figuring out how to house them until suited to larger areas. 5 cockerals are still upstairs at the farmhouse deconstructing a bedroom but I plan to build some more coops and integrate them into hen protection duties. I only set the largest eggs with great spots or the largest darkest eggs. Most were very very dark almost bordering on Marans coloring. I did notice the most of the cockerals came out with good 5 pointed combs.

I am down to 13 roos out of the 2011 season of where I began gathering chicks and eggs from 7 different breeders including about 16-18 or so of your offspring. I finally let 16 of the boys go off to feed the hungry. Simply extras or some had defects and others weren't manly enough to live comfortably in with the dozen Cocks. I will be having to downsize those boys some more this year, depending on feed costs. I simply love my roosters though as I sat with them every day as chicks and they are willing to let me give a chin rub now and then.

I am getting MORE darker eggs in the hen house now that the pullets have started to lay. What I am going to do with all of them this year I do not know. But once I get the Buff Ameraucana group and cockerals out of the Welsummer hen house and get purer eggs I can put up a few dozen for sale and maybe in the meantime when they don't freeze offer eggs for sale at the farmhouse.

So that's some of my chicken news. In the true life news, I am sad to report that hubby passed on Sat after his courageous 9 year battle with his advanced stage cancer. He'd been in the hospital then hospice for 3 weeks after Christmas and then home under hospice since Jan 15th. He just finally ran out of excuses for sticking around as he became paralyzed by the cancer in the spine in Jan. I feel that after 37 years with him, he is reflected a great deal in who I am today as I hooked up with him at the age of 20 and we had a great adventurous life together. I see the world often through his eyes and influence, so he isn't truly gone from me. But I do miss his physical presence a great deal. He really needed to go but I can't say he lost the battle. I figure that he had to last 9 years so I could gain the strength to live after he passed.

Take care, Opa, and my thoughts are often with you as I look upon my fine Welsummers flock to which you had such a great contribution. Say hi to your family for me and I hope this year's Chicken Stock goes well.....it was a lot of fun. Bonnie Van Meter