I can be up for almost 2 hours now before the sweling starts so long as I don't lift anything heavy, sand when I groomed the dogs, I did have my leg elevated. It just felt good to be doing something useful for a change.
I had purchased nest pads that I asked the handyman to put in the nest boxes. I had been using shavings, (in the summer I use shredded paper, but the print comes off onto the eggs when the hens are wet. When someone told me my mortgage balance, I stopped using the paper!). Because the nests are built so they can be roll -out in case I get egg eaters, the shavings were very messy and were always spilling out into the storage room making everything a dusty mess. The handyman simply plopped the pads on top of the shavings! I meant for him to clean out the box and then put the pad in. Also, because my kids have been terrible about bringing the eggs in, there were a lot of broken eggs with chicken poop and shavings in them glued into the nest boxes. I cleaned them best I could with a scoop and a brush, but I will have to soak them when I do the big clean. I only did half the boxes. If anyone wants to help with the Big Clean, I will pay and have a BBQ. The high-school kids were grossed out at the thought of having to scrape chicken poo, and the $35 per hour handyman takes too many shortcutts. I took him off chicken duty. He is now painting. He's good at that.