update from the rehab and maternity ward

I thought you all might like to see how the patients are doing. First, the elephant in the room. Braveheart, who proudly juts out his three remaining tail feathers. He now makes noises at me like a drain pipe glugging. I was looking for where the sound was coming from for a week and it was following me. Braveheart also gobbles, of course, and has started stomping one foot with his wings out and cupped. I do Indian dances with him. I swear he dances just like he is at Powwow. I often think about how silly of a woman I would appear to be if there were hidden cameras up there. Fool woman.

Braveheart the turkey, growing back feathers and feeling his male-ness

I grabbed every duck egg I could when Rain, Happy and Crick (Indian Runners) were in the hospital. Crick died, Happy recovered, then one day just gave up and joined Crick. It hit me very hard. Rain's leg healed, then she took a flying leap down a story of stairs and started hobbling again. She now spends her days inside the uphill barn-house with a flock of teenage ducks who are growing out. I noticed yesterday, she is putting weight back on the foot. I am relieved.

Rain is getting better, again

Rain, silver indian runner

While all of that healing was happening, I had eggs in the incubator. I have to thank my Birds of a Feather Group for enabling suggesting to me to grab all the eggs I could in the event that I might have their bloodlines. Because I was not prepped for hatching in breeding pens, I got a nice little mix.

First came these two:

Jensen (don't be such a chicken) and Hendrie (grandmother of the flock) trying to find the fluff cycle button

Jensen and Hendrie are growing fast

Happy is gone, but we now have Jensen who is a white Indian Runner. Hendrie, a blue bibbed Indian Runner, could be from Rain. She did lay an egg the first day she was in the Hospital.

Jensen and Hendrie out-grow the chicks quickly

Hendrie and... ?

Jensen - not a chicken at all

Then came a few more ducklings...

this one might be related to Squint

actually, baby's daddy (Squint) might have fathered the two darker ones

this one is possibly an indian runner trout or mix

the bigger blue and white may be a indian runner pekin mix

Jensen and Hendrie are not nice to the new ducklings

but the newbies seem to be holding up fine

the black copper maran chicks love them

except this guy (RI Red), who was moved up to the teenager brooder

Marie the French hen, has been resting up from her prolasped oviduct. Luckily, I have not had to treat her a again. She has not laid an egg since, but her and her sister's egg have hatched. Somewhere in the duckling photos above are her children. She doesn't seem to care about them.

Marie Antoinette

I don't have a current picture of Knuckles the hen, but she is completely healed from her foot injury. She kicked off the last shoe and began placing her fool correctly on the ground. Now she is walking with ease. Knuckles is with the Delaware breeding group right now, but soon I will have to put her back with the flock, I need to make sure I am hatching Dels only. Yes, I will be hatching all the way though until Summer!

 

I lost a couple baby rabbits (it breaks my heart), but the rest are growing fast. I will do another baby in the basket photo shoot, and also I want to talk about...

 

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turning 49 and how I feel and don't feel about that. I think I will explore getting older from a tom-boy-ish woman's perspective. I hope to bring a mix of honesty, humor and humility to the table. Pre-Birthday activities include being sent to the cardiologist and the neurologist by my primary girl lady doctor. Which means heading out to the big city. I need to make sure I don't have crap on my shoes. Last time I tracked some in to my doctor's nice white and shiny office floor.

 

Today I am a mess, as well as-- a healer, a funeral director, a farmer, a therapist, a cook, a maid, a farmer, and a woman living wild and wonderfully here in WV.