You know you have a chicken problem when….
You know you have a chicken problem when….
the woman at the feed store rubs her hands together in delight when she sees you walk through the door.
you have a set up in the house and one in the dye barn and a special section in the coop for the various age range of your chicks.
your friends start texting you for chick raising advise.
you have a chicken book lending library.
you yell that you are off to the store for chicken food and everyone yells back at you, No More Chicks!!
you don’t mind that the little darling perched on your shoulder just pooped all down your back.
and the list goes on and on.
Right now our problem seems to be naming them all. Which is really quite funny giving my penchant for naming.
A few week ago Charlotte and Becky requested these crazy feathery hens so I went and got 2 Polish chicks and we named them Becky and Charlotte. I mean they did request them so it seemed appropriate at the time. I have to tell you it’s the best thing ever. We put them in with Isabella and Rossellini ( I have a thing for Isabella and this means I can stand in the yarn and call for Isabella Rossellini and have chickens come running. ) and of course, immediately Becky and Charlotte started picking on the older chicks, which is all kinds of funny if you know them. Anyway they all settle down into a happy mostly functional chick family. We’ve raised quite a few chicks in the barn over the past three years (Has it really been three years? Hmm…) but these two have captured the hearts of everyone. I’m not sure if it’s the names or that they are so very funny or maybe a little of both. What do you think?
Don’t you just love the mohawk on Charlotte?!
And Becky’s has this Phyllis Diller thing going on that cracks me up every time I see her little face.
Look we still have 8 more to name .
Life on the farm sure gets complicated!
Ok so I’ve been putting this next bit of news off because honestly, it just gets weird telling people. I also wanted to have all the information, all my ducks in a row and be as ok with it all as I could be before I put it all the way out in the world.
And yes, I feel like leading with the chickens was helpful, at least to me. You know if you can’t laugh you might as well dig a hole and crawl in it! And I ‘m sure as heel not digging a hole big enough to get in! Thank you Gran for that one.
In early March I was diagnosed with breast cancer. As so very many of us know from personal experience cancer is a very, very scary word to hear. It is my second time hearing it. I had kidney cancer 6 years ago so I have a little experience with it. I kicked it then and am bound and determined to do the same now. My family has a history of breast cancer so I’ve known that this was a possibility for me.
It is a lump and lymph ( I’m considering a colorway) in my right breast that is almost 100% hormone positive which made me a prime candidate for enodcrine therapy, which I have been on for two months. I was scanned everywhere you can be scanned and it has not spread anywhere else! Yay!! The endocrine therapy is working really well, all my numbers have dropped and it is so small they can barely find it!! It was not small to begin with so this is fabulous news! Because of my family history and genetics I am opting for a complete bilateral mastectomy followed by chemo. Which means this is how I am spending my summer and why I cancelled sock camp.
I am feeling great! I have no side effects from the drug I am on, other than I have a megaton of energy, which is making my girls a little nuts. Of course there are hard scary moments but mostly I feel like we caught it early enough and I have a great team of Docs on my side and so very much love and support. I am hopeful and optimistic and I feel so very blessed by the people in my life.
Ok so we are over that hurdle! I swear one of the hardest parts of this for me has been the telling. I’m not quite sure why. So…now that we are over that hard part I will most definitely keep you up to date and in touch.
My friend Lisa thinks we need a Bye Bye Boobies send-off party. I think she is right. When I feel sad about the whole no boobs thing, which is not very often,I go to the barn and pick out colors for knit ones. I can’t decide at the moment if my favorite combo is grawk breast and pond scum nipple or pond scum breast and grawk nipple. Hmm….maybe one of each, since I will need a pair. Ooh… that’s it! I haven’t started knitting them yet maybe I will this weekend. Although I was thinking the first pair was gonna be from hand-spun. That sounds right doesn’t it?
Okay if I don’t go feed the dog soon she is going to jump out of her skin.
I leave you with a dew drenched poppy! xoxo
