The Great Chicken Debacle and Visitors

 

In the past few weeks we have experienced mass chick death.  This event has become known as "The Great Chicken Debacle".

  I was so excited to order 20 chicks online.   I picked them up from the post office, put them directly into their state-of-the-art brooder and within 48 hours 17 of the 20 died. 

  

They literally just passed out each afternoon.  Is it too hot?  Too cold?  If they are too hot why aren’t they leaving the heat lamp,  if they are too cold, why aren’t they huddling under it!?    

I tell you, the living conditions for these chicks could not have been more perfect.  The hatchery refunded me for all 20 of the chicks – which was very kind and I went to Tractor Supply and got 20 more replacement chicks.  Within a day 13 more had died!   All in the evening!   I told Tractor Supply my ordeal and they asked me things like, “Do you have a heat lamp?”  “Do they have water?”  Ugh!  Yes!  I am not a total imbecile!  One guy said “What kind of water are you giving them?”  I stared at him and said “……..water, water.”   He gave me some probiotic and electrolytes to mix into the water.  I did that and I was convinced that they were too hot so I put a little fan blowing down into the brooder.   Ever since then, we have had no deaths.   Yikes!  

  The third time I bought replacement chicks the gal at Tractor Supply sold them to me for only .50 a piece so that was great.

Hopefully The Great Chicken Debacle will not be repeated.

We have been finding interesting creatures lately.

  Frog eggs that Joy scooped out of a puddle and hatched, 

(they are still alive nearly 3 weeks later!)

 

This little prehistoric guy.

 

A poisonous lappet moth hanging out on the wall.

 

A real FROG, not toad, and his slug friend

 

And this guy that is also not one you would want to touch.

But this guy is irresistible to touch and snuggle. 

We have had visitors!

 My uncle Joe and Paula drove up from Houston for Memorial Day weekend.

We showed them around, stuck our hands in the hot springs, 

and went to Garvan Gardens.

 

At night we played one of our family favorite games, Chicken Foot.  Paige was really into it.

The following week my younger brother and his family came from Oklahoma.  It rained much of the time but the cousins had fun regardless.  It is nice to see them more than once a year.

"It's bright! My eyes!"

 

Meeting baby Jovie.

Before we had visitors, we wanted to clear out the trash collections that had been gathering.   We found out that the county was having a hazardous waste day and we were allowed to take as many tires as we wanted for free!  My dad made 3 trips and dropped off 66 tires in one morning!  66!  

There are a few more to go but it was a relief to be rid of them.  Then he went to a regular dump to get rid of all the other stuff.   All that is left now is metals that will be taken to the recycling center.   Hurray!

We went to the library out here and WOW!   What a great library!   They have a section called the “Library of Things” where you can check out life vests, fishing poles, inflatable kayaks,  cake pans,  air fryers,  beading kits, etc.  Claire checked out a cake decorating kit and made a cake for when Joe and Paula were here

 and also a tiered cake.

We also enjoyed checking out movies like Disney’s 1990’s Heidi – because Paige just finished reading the book and also What the Dead Man Heard.   Good times.

This week’s project is going to be the kitchen counter tops!  I can’t wait!