So, I’m starting to think I’m just allergic to Mondays. That’s the only real explanation for my weekly couch time. Actually, today is Tuesday, and I’m still here, so that wouldn’t support my theory too well. I spent yesterday down with a terrible headache and general malaise, but I ended up feeling better in the evening, and by bedtime, was fine. However, at 2:30 this morning, I woke with a hard chill followed by terrible body aches and difficulty taking deep breaths. I wasn’t running a temperature, so I got a thick blanket and tossed and turned for the next two hours, unable to sleep. Craig woke up at 4:30 with a stomach ache, then went into the exact same pattern I had followed, with chills, aches, and shortness of breath. We finally managed to get to sleep, and he woke up feeling much better. I, on the other hand, am still hurting. What a strange occurrence, though. Whatever it is, it sure has a funny way of presenting itself. I’m hoping that tomorrow, I’ll actually be able to get out of bed in the morning, or this week is going to be totally shot! While I haven’t enjoyed an aching back and laying on the couch all day, I have enjoyed the TLC. Craig stayed home and rested a while, then he cleaned the house and did laundry while I slept. Now, THAT is a good honey!
We returned my nieces to their mother on Friday, after a fun-filled week. We played and swam, and had a pretty good time, and I was sad to see them go, but it did go back to being a little quieter in the car! They were really, really good, but having two more just adds more “energy” to the situation.
We spent Friday and Saturday at the family reunion that I have missed only three times in my whole life, and had a good time. It was fast and furious, but we had fun, and the boys did a lot of swimming, so they were happy. We returned, however, to find a tragedy in the chicken yard. When Jake filled the waterers on Friday morning before we left, he forgot to remove the cap, so the broilers ran out of water and five of them died. I don’t mind losing the chickens near as much as the thought of them suffering and dying of dehydration under our care. That is one of the reasons I try not to buy commercial chicken and other meats… because of the conditions in which they are raised. It was a difficult discovery, but we’ll be more careful from now on.
To make animal matters worse, when we got home Sunday night, there were deer in our yard. We watched one doe leap over the fence, then a little baby ran after her. He couldn’t get over the fence, but he tried his best to get through it, by running straight into it. He did that several times, running frantically up and down the fence, trying different places, before he finally got through. HOW he got through, I just can’t understand, as the squares are about 4 inches across, but he did. We saw him get hung in it, then get through, and I thought he had gone over, since there was no way to get through, but Craig found his hair stuck in one of the squares. That was a feat, for sure. He got into our other pasture and was trapped again, so Craig and Jake tried to herd him to the open gate, but he wouldn’t go. He was still frantic, and he started breathing really loudly, so we knew he was in trouble. Finally, after about 20 minutes of running, he just laid down. Craig laid him on the four-wheeler and brought him up to the house, but he was already dead. I guess he had injured himself pretty badly going through that fence, and had scraped all the fur off one side of his face and neck, as well as various other places on his body. He was only about 25 or 30 lbs, so we didn’t even try to save the meat. It was really sad. Hopefully, that will end our animal escapades for a while. Well, until Saturday, which is broiler processing day. We’ll have some help this time, though, so maybe we can get our now 18 birds done in less time and with a little more skill than last time. Farm livin’ is yee-haw!
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