To the moderator of General Discussion :)

Re. the post I made titled "Sorry for posting on the wrong board friends :-("

Thank you very much for not moving that post this morning, even though it does not really belong on this forum. I kind'a explained why I posted here instead of on the emergency forum & I really appreciate that it was kept here since I am having a bad enough time to keep going over the edge mentally lately. I truly don't think I'm special in anyway, but I actually don't have the energy to browse all the forums anymore like I did several years ago. You can see that my postings have gotten fewer & fewer since I became a member of BYC 3 years ago up to now.

The way I'm going I really don't expect to survive many more years & guess what?!?! All of you here are going to have to take most of the chicks & make good homes for them, because I doubt that my wonderful wife Carol will be able to keep up with all of them, especially Grace & he is the one I worry the most about, because he requires the most special attention with his handicap.

I know this is no ones problem except for myself, but I truly appreciate you having the kindness to understand & allow me to cheat once in a while; which for some reason I was not on the ezboard General Discussion forum.

God bless you & thanks from my heart, I really needed the special pick up today by your random act of kindness friend.

Verlin

 

Hi friends,

First of all thank you for your concerns about me. I hardly even remember making the last couple of posts. I also remember how sick I was that spring. Our very hard winter & all my physical ailments had really gotten the best of me. My weight had fallen from 160 to 120 in five years & I never thought I would be writing this now.

This winter was by far worse than 2007, but the Lord blessed us with a truck with a snow plow. This made keeping our 700 foot, mostly up hill much easier than the winter before using a yard tractor & small snow blade. But even with the truck & plow, keeping the extremely deep snow off all our roofs was a chore that required almost weekly attention. Than the Lord we had no roof damage, like many neighbors & even large businesses in town; many porches, carports & entire roofs caved in. Even our large chicken coop & covered yard made it through.

I'm sorry I have not posted for so long. It's gotten that even sitting at the computer for a long time is a battle for me. My permanent vertigo, drop attacks from Meniers disease & very bad COPD wears me out quickly. But thee good news is that I have put on 20# in this past year & a new medication for my Asthma seems to be helping out some.

Well enough for the complicated medical update. This is a medical posting board isn't it ...

After Grace died, it was really hard to get over it. He was such a special, loving little rooster, who thought he was a human. His custom built coop & yard area to accommodate his inability to stay on his feet without all the board pathways sits empty, but I let my Black Silkie pair to spend time in it along with their next door area; Grace would want it that way. And his special little mate died last summer & that too was hard to deal with.

I have been hoping to get a book written about him, but as of now I have accomplished next to nothing on it.

I lost four of my pet little Bantams last summer & as usual I fought hard to pull them through their illness. I still have 12 left & will not be surprised if my three old timers live much longer; they are four years old now, but then all of them get very special care.

Winter of 2007 we hosted over 200 Wild Turkey. When the snow started to get deep they made a large stand of pine & fir trees their home. There is a clearing on the end of our house that is about 1/2 an acre, thats where I throw out feed for them twice a day. This year the flock was smaller, only 100-150. They wandered off for the summer now, after putting on a great mating show for us. An occasional young one stops by & a few big old toms. They get pretty independent of each other till fall time.

The summer before Grace died, he & his mate Laz had a baby, even though it was adopted from our Mottled Cochin pair, he was a very good daddy.





For those who don't know the story of my special buddy, Grace, I have three short web pages about him & his mate Laz.

We thought Grace was going to be a hen, but NOT!
This shows a bit more of how we worked with his handicap
And this shows the new home our little guys finally got out in the remote country

If you want to see even more pictures of Grace, there are many on my WebShots albums. And there's many other pictures of our special place in the country if you care to look at them.
WebShots Photo Albums

Well friends this about all I can do for now. I will try to stop by occasionally to say hello to all my great friends at BackYard Chickens.

God bless & have a good day.

Verlin