Hi Y'all,
It's been a couple of months since I've been to BYC. Boy am I way behind!!
I gotta question for y'all, I've subscribed to this post but I haven't been getting any emails reminding me of new posts - ergo, I haven't logged on. Have any of y'all that subscribe to this post had any problems getting notified of new posts?
Also, how many of y'all plan to attend the upcoming hearings on the State of WA wanting to charge us a whole bunch of money $$$$$$ to have our birds tested? I'm gonna submit a letter because I just don't see how I'm gonna be able to make it down to Oly for the hearings.
I went to the WFF Show in Chehalis and had a good time. Took Reserve Breed with one of my Blue Wheatens. A very nice Black Ameraucana took Best of Breed. One of the judges told me that I should go with solid colors if I ever expect to win any show honors. I sort of figured that.
I made it home from the Show ok though I ran into some fairly rough weather coming home. Worse yet, I came home to a real mess. I unloaded all the birds and then got started on doing chores. That was the weekend when the Temps dropped well below freezing and the snow started falling. All the waterers for the chickens and ducks were either empty or froze solid. All my water lines outside were froze solid so I had to take all the waterers inside the house, wash, clean, and fill them. All that took me about 4 hours to do. I think I got home about 1600 and didnt finish working until about 2030 or so. I also had the cats, dogs, llamas, and goats to care for.
Then I had to haul water in buckets from the house outside several times a day to keep them in water. The animals are all doing ok so far. The ducks didnt eat anything for the first day or two after I let them out of the pen but they finally ate some food. They are staying on the pond where there is open water. I dont know how they do it but they stay in the water all day and night. The chickens have been staying in the coop for the most part. The coop is already a mess and is gonna be a nightmare when things warm up!
We got about two feet of snow on the ground here. The snow was nice to have at Christmas time but its causing me havoc. I spent several hours one morning and again that night shoveling snow off the deck. There is one area where the snow slides off the roof that was almost three feet high! I didnt finish shoveling snow and even sit down to eat until 2330 that night! The last thing I needed was to have my deck cave in from the weight of a bunch of snow piled up on it. My arms and back had just about had it. My back was aching so bad I could hardly sit down and I was so stiff the next morning that I thought Id never limber up. The snow just kept falling on Thursday so it was more of the same but not as bad as Wednesday. The Temp actually dropped down to 4 degrees one night.
Since the wife left me on Thanksgiving Week, Ive had to hold down The Fort all by myself and its been pretty tough with all this weather to keep up with all that needs to be done. So Ive had to put my breeding program on hold for awhile. If the snow and weather let up, Im gonna try to get some birds separated and into breeding pens.
Now, you can add to the above that power went out three times in one week and was off for two days the last time. Plus the weight of the snow caused my canvas canopy carport to collapse. Its ruined of course. And if that aint enough, the harddrive on my computer crashed two weeks before Christmas and Im still trying to get everything up and running again. I spent three hours one night just trying to get my All-In-One printer/fax/scanner/copier to work and I finally just gave up but got it working 2 days later.
So, Ive been busier than the proverbial one-legged man in a butt-kicking contest. That's one of the reasons why I dont see how Im gonna be able to make it down to the hearings in Oly. I know Josh Simons and a couple of others at the Chehalis Show said they were gonna try to make it in person.
Well, that's the news from Granite Falls. Hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas and have a very blessed, happy, and safe New Year's Eve & Day!
God Bless,
