You guys might have gathered from my recent posts (or lack thereof) that the last couple of months have been particularly challenging. I finally had to have a little come-to-jesus talk with myself about my attitude of late, which went something like, “What the hell is going on with you? Everything seems like such an effing struggle. What is this? Is this depression?” And then I took a hard look at my life right now and realized no, this isn’t depression… this is winter. This is weeks of spending hours just trying to get the barn door open so that I can spend more hours plowing the driveway just to leave the farm. This is sub-zero temps, and fevers, and broken websites, and empty fuel-oil-tanks, and spending my mornings bathing a chicken in my kitchen sink and then manually reinserting her intestines.
Turns out that sometimes life feels like a struggle because it’s a fucking struggle. Go figure. (Also turns out that if there’s something that will make you question your sanity more than walking around your kitchen every morning, rocking a chicken wrapped in a towel like a newborn… I don’t know what that would be, and I hope never to find out.)
As much as I like to make sure I’m always telling an authentic story– sharing the good parts and the bad– when I feel like all of the words coming out of my mouth are tinged with stress and frustration I spend less time writing and more time, uh…
Yeah.
But the truth is that even in the middle of snow and writers block and insomnia, I still spend an inordinate amount of time laughing. Because, chickens…
Seriously, the sound of tiny chicken feet scurrying across the floor may be one of my favorite things ever. The little shit.
It was clearly time for the bigger cage.
In other good Nugget news, everything seems to be cleared up for the Nug with the prolapsed vent. She rejoined the flock last week, reducing the total number of chickens living inside my house to six.
Which. Actually, now that I think about it? There are still more chickens living inside my house than outside of it at the moment, so… yep. Still dangerously close to becoming a Crazy Chicken Lady.
And now that I’ve crossed a couple of big chicken-related issues off my list, I’m hoping to add a little more sawdust back in to my life soon. Or, you know, maybe a tractor.
(Also, all of the comments on this post were one of my favorite things to ever happen on this website. You guys are effing amazing. Always.)
20 Responses
Great to see the chicken thing is going to work out, even though it hasn’t completely been going as you’d hoped.
I certainly hope you get rid of your winter blues sooner than later, as it’s not something you really want to go through. We didn’t quite get a winter over here (seems like it went from fall to spring), so on that side we’ve been lucky. But then we’ve had other misery, to each their own I believe they say. Just remember, after snow you’ll get sunshine!
Winter blues are killer. Think warm. What are the garden plans this year?
The winter blues are apparent at our house. Just when our temp hits 60F it is followed by three days that barely break freezing. We want to get out of the house so badly!
I am possibly guilty of laying in front of the window on a particularly sunny day, wearing very little, just to absorb as much sunlight as possible!
Glad to hear your prolapse girl had recovered and is back with her girls…has she layed again yet?
I have little chicks in the house too. 6 I hatched out last week from mine and a friends flock. Got a Welsummer pair that are a 1 and 2 weeks old yesterday. I started with a refrigerator box brooder this time tho…..should hold ’em until they go to the coop partition for flock integration.
Not that I know of, and this will be the real test…
There is no better sound than stampeding chicken feet…. Maybe stampeding chicken feet with peeping in the background…..Maybe stampeding chicken feet with peeping in the background and that slightly hysterical laughter you find yourself spouting before you realize other people would find this odd. Yeah. That.
Rock on, Nuggets.
I look at rocking a chicken wrapped in a towel more as a form of therapy rather than a loss of sanity, but well, I’m the last one to claim I’ve got that sanity thing nailed down. Speaking of which, at the risk of sounding like those bat-shit crazy old ladies who are constantly harping about medical problems, consider getting your vitamin D levels checked next time you’re at the doctor. It’s been one damn long winter, and not having enough can really undermine your coping mechanisms, struggle or no struggle, nuggets or no nuggets.
Hey, just wondering, are you going to come up with a name to differentiate the new nugs from the “old” nuggets, or nuggets.1?
yay! so glad she made it through. i didn’t hold much hope – you’re one awesome mamma! don’t you just love their little personalities? i used to love watching the roosters try to get the hens to bed in the evenings. it was a nightly power struggle for the little guys. we’d carry a cocktail + sit by the coop just to watch them do their thing. fun times!
Checked out your barn door post. How about moving the door and track to the inside? That’s how the T-hangers are set up at my local airport.
This just blew my mind…
Great news that you nursed your poorly chicken back to health!
Don’t forget to be just as kind to yourself…..why not start by getting a check at your docs (iron, thyroid, etc). I can tell you from bitter experience that low iron feels just like depression.
Spring is on the way, yay! Sending you massive hugs from the UK XXXXX
So glad to hear the adult nug is OK! And to see an update on the little nugs. Spring [apparently] happens this Thursday at 1:34pm… [random!]
I hope it comes to your neck of the woods too!
Hang in there! I’m live close to your neck of the woods, and this has been the winter from hell. We are used to some of it, and we even expect severe weather, but this has been beyond anything we anticipated. Every single person I know (even those who adore winter) is hanging on by our fingertips and eagerly awaiting spring.
And I think that tiny Nugget Escapette is going to be a fun challenge. Love the sound of their feet
Ahhhhh winter. Woke up to another blast here this morning. But so much beautiful weather last week made me realize that spring is only a hop, skip and a jump aways! I love chickens! You’re a good flock mom! Cheers
Your posts on the chickens inspired me to research some graphics and make some brooches. I would be happy to send you one, (free), but I don’t know if you’ll think that’s strange. I can only send you the link to see it on my shop.
We are so done with winter here too. It was a miraculous 48 degrees for one whole day. I had the windows down and the sunroof open. I opened my kitchen window. It was glorious. Every day above freezing feels like victory. They seem to be followed by three days of 10-20 degree weather though. But guess what? I can see GRASS!!! There may have been celebratory grass dancing. Yeah…..can we have spring now? Please?
Yeeee! Just saw nuggets and ducklings at Tractor Supply!
There’s only two things I can think of that rival those little chick feet running around, and that’s the little duck feet running around, and of course equine hoofbeats. Wait, then there’s mewing kittens and baby goats. Okay, honestly, there’s a lot of very cute and heartwarming sounds around the homestead. 😀
When you consider the effects of sunshine and fresh air on egg yolks, what makes you think you’re any different? You need some SUN, girl!
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