Bug and Dog and Gang

When things shift, for me it always seems to be a violent shift.... but an invisible one. It's like a horrible fart that makes no sound, but the smell wakes you in the night, and you think WTF has that dog been eating in the woods?
My life... silent but deadly... smelt it but didn't delt it?

I have a dog now. My neighbors dog who is known as the neighborhood "whore dog" (AKA, Bruiser) - because he can't seem to stay at home. He doesn't say why and it doesn't matter how he ended up back at my house... he is here now. A big bag a gluten free dog food, and I made him his own pillow bed from some wool and fabric. He seems content, and has not yet run away.
I was feeling a bit more then disappointed this week, because the local primitive & outdoors living skills classes (called Firefly) was happening and i missed it due to having to take the Flagyl anti-biotics to kill the mean, evil, worthless giardia (parasite) that was plaguing my intestines.
And kill it, it seems to have done. Kill many things. No more diarrhea! YAY... but oh the fuckin' side effects that linger and my body is eager to throw off toxins, which means now the waves of nausea are again my pal. A friend I have to tell to go away.
I chant over and over "but no more diarrhea!"

I have noticed with the weird weather we are having this summer (it never gets hot here, and now it is downright chilly!)... the variety of bugs has shifted a bit from last year. I have seen maybe 3 live mosquitoes all summer. Had only one night of No-See-Ums.... and the moths are slightly different too. And remember the giant bug that got in bed with me? The Palo Root Borer Beetle....
here is a video of one outside, looking for a place to lay eggs and then actually laying them in a dead log outside the Luck Cabin!......


My animal gang is my joy, entertainment, my drama, and my laughter.
If you replace "my animal gang" with "my future man" ... that totally sounds like a terrible 'walk on the beach' personals ad. ha ha. I bet these guys would love to walk on the beach too... maybe i can book that whole animal crew and myself a plane ride to the Caribbean, the donkey would love it.
XOxOXoxOX

Just Me and JuJu (the donkey) and Chickens

the gang. today.

Xoxox

Lady Grey (the chicken)'s Secret Stash

There is one chicken here who has been a loner from day one. At first I thought she was picked (pecked?) on because she was beautiful and different from the rest, then i realized she was bitchy & her attitude towards other chickens sucked. (Which comes first the chicken or the egg?... being picked on and turning mean, or being mean and then getting picked on!) OI! I call her Lady Grey, she wanders around alone mostly, she is the only chicken who has figured out how to climb out of the fenced in area, she comes to my house every single day and tries to sneak in the window or door if it is open a crack. She steals my cat Toot's food, Toots let's her cause Toots is a total pussy when it comes to giant birds. At night Lady grey goes back to the barn, where the chicken coop is but I never see her go in the coop with the others. She always preferred JuJu the donkey to her own kind. I have been wondering if she lays eggs, because of course she will not get in the coop or nesting box with the others. It wasn't until this morning when I was prepping to have new bales of hay delivered that i found her secret nest, where she has been laying some pretty light brown eggs!

!!!! I love her style, i love how she wants a private chicken life, i love how she is sneaky, and i looooove that she was keeping a secret nest full of eggs!

XOXOxoxo

My Chicken Sneaks into the Window for Cat Food

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xoxox

Duck Eggs Too!

This is so fun! This morning I went out to see if the chickens had left some more eggs in the nesting boxes... when i noticed a little nest built underneath. When I looked closer I realized my lady duck has started laying some eggs! The brown ones in the basket are the chicken eggs, and the white ones, only slightly larger in the ground nest are duck eggs.

So amazing, i did not gather them up yet, the nest with it's two eggs was so beautifully made, so beautifully set... and I have more eggs then i even know WTF to do with.

But of course, i am going to have to do a taste test ASAP, i have never eaten a duck egg before!

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You can see only the slight difference in the chicken and duck eggs, in the pic below:::

(duck egg on the left, brown chicken egg on the right...)

XOXOxooox

Spring Sounds! Chicken Funnies & Frogs!

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It finally warmed up here, a little tricky break from the winter... and it's got everyone going. The chickens are bocking, the rooster is crowing, the frogs in my pond suddenly appeared and started chirping in the middle of the night.

I found a random egg in JuJu's hay that one of the chickens laid, so i picked it up and put it under my old hen Skinny Minny - and she got this look of suprise as though she had laid the egg herself and began to announce it to all...
that's when the noise party got started!

This makes me laugh... makes me happy...



xooxxo

Chicken Chasin' & Shovelin' Sh!t ( ft. JuJu the Donkey)

I don't really make plans anymore. I think there was a time though, many years ago that i could make plans and stick to them, that i could decide way in advance what i might be doing a particular day. Now I wake up in the morning and have no clue, i might get asked by the first person who rings my phone "what are going to do today"....
usually I have no plans, i have to make it up as i go along. I am almost living "in the moment" (maybe Eckhart Tolle would blush), but I wasnt trying to. I just fell into the abyss of no time frame (no watch, no schedule), and I can't say whether it is good or bad, only that I remember that alarm clocks are stressful evil noise makers and I think had i stuck with using one i would be mentally ill now.
I dont really know what i am doing with my life, but I know for me, life is for living.

Here is a video of today. I spent alot of hours, shoveling donkey poop that finally defrosted in JuJu's stall.


Xoxoxox

RIP Beep Beep, I Tried.

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my chicken Beep Beep died yesterday in my arms.
I am doing better today, although still really upset ---- i have to foreWARN that the video below is a little bit disturbing, there is a dead chicken, crying , yelling, and grief. It's been a really hard winter for me and I feel that the isolation from other humans has made it even harder. (Which is why i am talking outloud to a video camera everyday, to help keep me sane.) The loss of my animals though, on any level, any animal, any season always makes me extremely upset. Especially when they have to suffer and be sick. I have suffered and been ill, laying on my death bed with celiac sprue before so I know the fear, pain, and peace that comes with the fading of the body.
Beep Beep had something called "sour crop" which I was not able to diagnose till it was too late.

If your chicken is sick and has a bulging chest, lethargic, watery poop, droopy wings, heavy breathing and bad putrid breath they may have sour crop - and can be saved if it is caught early enough! Beep Beep's blockage (which is located below the neck on their chest) was really swollen and huge (felt like a soft rubber stress ball consistency), I tried giving her olive oil with with a dropper, then massaged the swollen crop over and over. She did pass a small amount of it on her own but it was just too much. The advice to hold her on her back and induce vomiting didn't work for Beep Beep at all, nothing came out.
Please read more HERE about this if you suspect your beloved chick might have it.
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also... anyone wanting to leave a rude comment on this post will be immediately erased and banned as spam, so please keep this one peaceful.



xoxoxoxox

Beep Beep the chicken is SICK :(

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my donkey riding, shoulder sittin' spunky fun smart wonderful chicken Beep Beep is really sick.
3 days ago i found her suddenly acting lethargic and the other hens had pecked her till she was bleeding out her ear. I rushed her inside the cabin and cried for an hour.
...
I have given her apple cider vinegar, ginger and usnea in her water... but i am not sure she is going to make it. It's been a chicken roller coaster this winter, but this chicken... is... my baby. She was a chick when i first got her, and JuJu had nailed her with her hooves and almost killed her. Beep Beep eventually learned to be great friends with the donkey and rides her back everyday. I really dont know what to say - I look forward to spring time when life is something full of hope and ease.



Xoxoxo

Beep Beep the Chicken RIDES JuJu the Donkey

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JuJu the donkey gives rides to Beep Beep the chicken.
I LUVVvvvvVVVvVVVvVvVvvvv freakin LUV them!!!!!



xoxoxo

RIP Ms Buttersworth the Chicken, I Love You!

I brought Ms.Butterworth back in my cabin before the last few bad storms. She was not doing well. She no longer perched.
Tonight though, i knew she had stopped eating or drinking. She slept all day and I waited for it to come and when the time seemed near I picked her up and put her in my lap next to the warm wood stove. She would open her eyes to look me in the eye, the kindest look a chicken could ever give was reflected in the blackness. A thank you. Then she would close them again.

She always was happy, she never showed any sign of pain or suffering just the steps it takes to leave this world when you are done.

At the very end her head moved round and round, like she was in some kind of voodoo ritual, her wings opening up and her head then moving inward to point straight up into sky. A crucified pose, an opening, and flight of the spirit from the body.

She then layed her head down in my lap and was gone.

MS. BUTTERSWORTH YOU ROCKED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Xoxoxoxoxo

I Liked When Ms. Buttersworth Lived With Me

I had put Ms. Buttersworth the chicken back out with the other chickens........
but not really. She's been staying in the feed section of my mini-barn where the rooster and most the other chickens never go. Anytime I tried putting her back with the others they immediately picked on her, pulling out her feathers, the rooster mounting her so violently I could tell that this was why i had found her in a corner shivering in the first place. After bringing her in the cabin for a week, we got to know each other. We spent many long hours sitting with my cat Toots by the warm fire.
I never imagined a chicken would love me, but Ms. Buttersworth now loves me in a chicken love kinda way. She wants me to hold her, she coo's when she's warm in my arms, she perches on my arm, and nests in my lap. I miss her being in the Luck Cabin with me.
I don't know if chickens are really smart creatures, but they are definitely sensitive with a range of feelings - even if those feelings never form into thoughts as we humans know it.
( Side Note: i am not meaning to make any statements on whether we should eat them or not, I eat what I can eat AKA what I am not allergic to... these observations are just how i see nature.)
Of course... JuJu the donkey wishes she could live with me too. Why can't all my babies be potty trained? Or maybe I should move into my barn instead! ;)

Xoxoxox

Ms. Buttersworth The Chicken Improves!

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Here is my vid of Ms. Buttersworth my sick (but less sick now) chicken over the last 3 days. She is still staying in the Luck Cabin with me, but seems to be improving - thanks to everyone for their comments, ideas and help!



PS- For those that mighta missed it... Ms Buttersworth was acting strange, not seeking out food, shivering, hiding from the other chickens, isolating herself, lacking hygiene habits, acting confused & scared. She was eating and drinking if the food & water was brought to her, she just wasn't making any effort for herself.
I put garlic, ginger and usnea in her water and am keeping her fed by the nice warm wood stove.

Xoxoxo

Ms. Buttersworth (the chicken) Moves In (temporarily)

The last few days Ms. Buttersworth the chicken has seemed to be gettin' senile. She had been a little clucky and weird a few weeks before that, I thought maybe she was going through a possible nesting phase... but then she just seemed cold, confused, and I got that nursing home vibe. The last rung on the sanity ladder. Her lil' red comb on her head turned half black and patchy, flopped over a bit. When I would pick her up she seemed to be shivering, and was hiding in the corner of JuJu the donkey's hay pile.
So now Ms. Buttersworth is in the warmth of the Luck Cabin, her own private box with food & water... and a cat 'nurse' to watch over her. Toots the cat has been making BiG EyEs since I let Ms. ButterCrazy inside.
She eats and drinks. She just doesn't roost, or hang out with her friends, or seem to know where she is going...
is this chicken old age?
XOxoxo

Snow Day With My Animal Friends! (Ducks, Chickens and Donkey)

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Here are some videos of my animals here at the Luck Cabin today on our first snow day together! No one seemed to care about the changing seasons except for me... and maybe JuJu the donkey.


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This second video I am singing. I don't sing well but it doesnt matter to the chickens and donkey because they love to be sung to (this is one of those things that makes animals cooler then humans!)
Singing time makes Beep Beep the chicken sleepy... which I find so cute I could explode, or maybe melt, or fall to pieces. :)


XOxoxox

Spring Water + Old Sink = Fresh Water Container For The Animals

In the fenced in acre where my animals live there are two spring water sources (plus I have a rain barrel I am setting up at the mini barn!)...
I found a nice lil' sink underneath my cabin that I thought would be perfect for catching the spring water that had already been piped before I moved here. I settled the sink into the dirt and then took a handful of thick native clay (that has been dug up when building the barn) and shoved it into the drain to block the water from leaking. (I have tried this trick even with leaky buckets and had total success!)

Me and JuJu the donkey waited for it to fill up completely, drip by dribble for about 30 minutes.

Once the sink was full I had it lean slightly to the left side so that the water would overflow out in one spot... since it's spring water that constantly flows year round whether it comes out in a pour or a drip.

Before even pimping it out with some rocks, leaves and hay, the chickens came by to test it out...

Rooster approved.

I put a larger flat rock under the drip, and smaller rocks around the entire sink to make it sturdy. I also started covering the black pipe I had dragged under the fence with debris just to make it look like it's not there. Would be cool to make a second water pool with some rock and clay only under the drip.
This sink will ensure that no matter what the animals are constantly getting a flow of fresh spring water that has no contaminants in it of any kind (including their own poop.)

Yay, I am feeling clever now. ;)

PS - I got the idea to do this with the sink after having BAD dream last night that something happened to me where I couldn't get home & my donkey had no water and became very sick, I was crying in the dream because I thought she was gonna die of dehydration. Nothing like a lil' nightmare to get you extra motivated.

Xoxoxo

Making Use Of My Halloween Pumpkin

I made sure to buy an organic pumpkin this year and carved it with my lovable faux Frost knife....
I don't like being wasteful and could have done better with utilizing my jack-o-lanterns' sacrificed pieces parts...
so here is what I did do, and wish I had done ::::

1. Save the seeds to plant next summer (win)
2. Save seeds to roast & eat (fail)
3. scoop out innards and cook it down to eat (fail)
4. light a candle in it and feel total artistic pumpkin carving bliss (win!)
5. feed the carved pumpkin to my chickens when it's face starts to cave in (future win)

Ya'll have any more ideas??!
xoxox

Hen Sitting On Ducks Eggs

My uncle loves raising ducks and chickens, and yesterday he dropped off a pile of duck eggs to see if any of my chickens would sit on them and make um' hatch. Why ya might wonder?
Well, humans have done things to animals, something called domestication... in fact humans went so far as to only breed over and over the traits the *thought* were the best. They bred the chickens so much that most hens have totally lost all instincts to sit on their nest, sadly some ducks too. It is now a rare bird who is willing to set, and the only way he has been able to hatch some baby ducks is to shove the eggs under a rare setting hen.
So I snuck some duck eggs through the back hatch in the barn/coop where the hens lay their eggs... (see pic above)...
One hen sits in the nesting boxes all night and her name is Skinny Minnie. She seems to sit alot, and prefers it to sleeping on the roosting branches- so my fingers are crossed she will somehow get a glimmer of maternal instincts and just warm them babies up!! Cause oh my gawd, everyone knows baby ducks are SOoooOOoOOoOO f'en cute, I could die just thinking about their fuzzy wittle selves, their quack and swimming, floating, riding the ripples.

Rootin' for Minnie to have some instincts & duck babies. Yeah, it'll be confusing that her babies like to swim and have big beaks... but hell a good mommy overlooks their ugly ducklings and excepts that the times are a changin'.

XOXOXoxo

JuJu The Donkey + Beep Beep The Baby Chicken= No Longer Enemies

Remember the attack, when JuJu tha' donkey felt strong murderous instincts against the baby chicken Beep Beep?

No longer a problem. :)

Xoxoxo

The Pecking Order, Literally

It's like highschool all over again in my barnyard. I started out with one Rooster (the rhode island red) and one hen (golden comet I named Honey Pie)... Red and Honey Pie were in total bliss, always bathing in dirt, basking in the sunlight together, sticking together like those glued by the squeeze tube of love.
And then.... the other hens came, and the hardcore pecking, squawking, fighting and bitching exploded. At no instigation of the Red Rooster, this was between the women - and Honey Pie was not going to lose her place as top hen, even if she had originally earned it by being the only one around.

Pictured above is Honey Pie (#1 in the pecking order), I now have one other hen who looks similar to her (see in the background of the pic) - I call that one Skinny Minnie cause she has a long skinny neck. Skinny Minnie by some twisted racist default got accepted right away just cause of her color/breed similarity to Honey Pie - even the donkey didn't bother her because she was familiar looking.

So even though Skinny Minnie turns out to be somewhat of a loner herself, she never gets picked on, she always goes to the coop at night, she gives up the sex to the rooster, and fits in fine with all the hens. This is why I consider Minnie #2 in the pecking order.

The creamy tan colored hen pictured above is Mrs. Butterworth. She is in the middle of the pecking order, with her friend Margarine (who is tan and white feathered, and can be seen in the very top pic with all the chickens together). Mrs. Butterworth and Margarine are both in the middle because they equally stand their ground and peck back, yet also allow themselves to be pecked on and pushed around by Honey Pie. Margarine is more aggressive to those lower then her on the pecking order (since she can only fight so much to those higher)- and for this reason it makes it so Mrs. Butterworth is #3 and Margarine is #4 (she spends too much extra time seeking out the weaker, which takes away from Rooster time).

And then below pictured is Whitie (for lack of a better name)....

she is kind of a dull personality. So unassertive & so barely there in her energetic presence that she is more of a sheep or chicken droid who has no real place - she can fluctuate between #2 to something lower, but mostly has her loyalty to the rooster and doesn't concern over the other hens. She knows were the fertilization is at! She is still #5 in the pecking order, cause she lacks importance to... well... anything around but me.

Second to last on the pecking order (#6) is Beep Beep, the baby chick (see pic below)! Everyone except the rooster picks on her, even the donkey! She is always spending her time running away from everyone or finding a lil' nook to herself to scratch in, all alone. In Beep Beep's mind, she don't even care 'bout all them bitches running around acting all plump and egg layin' --- to Beep Beep I am her mommy and best friend and she follows me all around instead.

LAST in the pecking order(#7)....... is of course my most magnificent, beautiful and stunning hen! Lady Gray. They tear her feathers out, she is never allowed with the group, they are cruel to her and treat her like shit - she refuses to even go into the coop with them at night and has taken up with JuJu the Donkey who doesn't seem to mind letting her sleep perched in her stall. She never initiates an attack on anyone else, including tiny Beep Beep - she avoids everyone at all costs except for myself and the donkey. She has to be fed separately then the rest to get a fair share. It breaks my heart to watch.

Gawd....

do they not remind you of humans? We peck each other into order, we too are still animals.

XOxoxoox