Life

just flies by. Hard to believe next week will be November. And of course living here, you don't get the clues like frost on the windshield, leaves falling, etc.. that you would have to tell you it's getting into fall.

But aside from the lack of a job, this has been a difficult week.

Larry was out of town, so he wasn't around to do the "manly" tasks of putting the dead rat out of the garage or dealing with the chickens that got sick. Those chickens.. sigh.. the grown ones, not the little ones- they never looked well. They came with 1/2 their feathers. We were told they were just coming out of a molt and their feathers would return.

However, they didn't. We dusted for mites and lice. And they continued to loose feathers. Until they looked sick as they lost more and more feathers. Really sickly. Like scrawny things ready for a cook pot. Cept I don't know that I could ever actually cook and eat them shy of the apocalypse. So the first one got sick and died and the others picked at the carcass until there was dead chicken spread everywhere. Then a few days later chicken #2 died and the remaining chicken similarly picked at the dead one. This time I was expecting it. Well.. not expecting it, but not as surprised. I had taken sick chicken #2 back to the store we bought her from and said "she's sick, she came sick and I don't know what to do with her" And was going to leave her there just so I didn't have to deal with the carcass. But they said I should de-worm them and they'd be ok. Well... no. I think she was too far beyond gone.

So. I have 1 semi-sick chicken left and the 2 chicks. We'd been keeping them separate and will continue to do so until hen 3 croaks, I think. However I think we'll be buying eggs for a while. The young ones won't start laying for another few months, I think. And we might just have to get a few more chicks. Or not. I'm almost ready to give up on my urban homestead life. No where in my vision of my self-sufficient life did I have to deal with sick and dying animals.

So.. Aside from swearing off eating chicken for the rest of the year, I've survived. I kept the kids from seeing the dead ones so they're blissfully ignorant. They realize 2 of them are gone/dead but don't really have a full idea of that that entailed. And since I've sworn off eating chicken, we've been eating red meat this week. Good thing we don't have a sick cow. I don't know what I'd do then...