Slowly starting up again

I am coming out of my funk just a little bit. Its hard to be depressed for too long. I don't know how some people do it. It's spring, that just gets me going, everything is so ALIVE and GROWING, how can that not perk you up, right?

I started in again on the coat! YEAH!! I am not going to do anything else until it is done. I have to. If I don't, I will put it aside "for a while" and it will gather dust for the next 10 years. This is how I am. So I sewed the cuffs onto the sleeves yesterday. I know, not much, but a little bit every week now and I will be done by the time I need to wear it. If it rains, I could actually finish them and set them in the coat. Ambitious, I know..... but there could be a downpour of biblical proportions. I'm going to need that kind of time to set them in!

And finally, I got some chicks hatched! YEAH! Four, as of this morning. Hopefully two more when I get home. All Chanteclers, the Brahmas aren't laying yet. So I start the year again. I'll have young birds to carry over the winter, but thats OK. At least they will be alive.

Oh yeah, put the garden in over the weekend. Should be buried in produce by the end of July. ANOTHER YEAH!

See you soon, hopefully with pictures, still haven't taken any yet.

Not too much going on....

Haven't been writing as there is not too much going on lately. I suppose, it being spring, that I should be hopping. I am busy, but not working on the things that I write about on this blog.

The garden is full of weeds. I haven't put anything in the ground in two weeks. 

I haven't touched my coat in the same amount of time. I need start the sleeves and can't bring myself to start. I will never have it done by the time State Fair, I know this now.

There are only 16 chickens left at the house. It is so lonely without any young ones around. I have 8 in the incubator with a week left to go. They may hatch, but the temperature has been very erratic, I hope they hatch. I need a new incubator, but they are expensive.

What have I been doing? Working on house repairs, and moping around. Repaired the floor under the toilet after we discovered it had been leaking for years. Fixing the bathtub faucet. Working on the kitchen sink also. Fixing the waterline for the icemaker. TRYING to find a new job. Short hours, paycuts and temporary layoffs at mine and my husbands jobs are taking their toll. We're broke. I'm scared. If my job goes away, it will be hard to replace. I work in a dying industry and people who do what I do are not in short supply.

I may end up in retail again and working until I die. 

Yeah I'm depressed today, can you tell? Maybe tomorrow will be better, you never know. 

Right?

All gone............

They are all gone.

All of the chicks my son and I hatched out this year. All gone. In one day. Because we were stupid. 

We trusted our dog. Fatal mistake for the poor birds. The dog house was undergoing some revisions to the door and we had to put them somewhere. Our large coop was empty and the dogs were to stay in there for the day. My husband wanted them to go outside though. He reinforced the fencing between the birds and the dogs. There was even an empty pen between the dogs and the chickens. All to no avail, however. Dog went through two fences and killed every single one. Puppy followed him and helped.

My heart aches with the guilt, I knew better than this. Given the opportunity, any animal will behave according to his instincts and breeding. Given the chance, a bird dog will chase birds. That is what they do. They don't differentiate between a chicken and a pheasant or a goose when you are not around to remind them.  All dogs are predators, they kill other animals for food. That is just what they do.

Please if you have chickens, learn from my mistake. Your own dog(or you neighbors) will be your worst predator.

Just give them the chance.