Here’s the movie!

The chickens are laying again! I just went out to feed them and saw that poor Foghorn had some nasty frostbite on his comb.  I went in the coop to check their heater and saw several eggs in the nesting boxes. Three had already frozen and exploded but three were still intact so I brought them in. They’re probably pretty well frozen too so I guess we’ll find out what frozen eggs are like.

We had thought about getting goats this spring but I think we’re probably going to wait on that. We are going to get more chickens though, because 10 chickens isn’t really any more work than 4 chickens, and then we’ll have a good supply of eggs to feed our french toast loving children. We’re deciding whether to get chicks or adult birds. With adults we know we’ll get all hens and won’t have to deal with chicks, since chicks require a lot of attention. There’s a young girl in Embarrass who raises chickens and has some layers for sale. Getting adult birds from a big chicken farm is a bad idea since you’re likely to introduce diseases into your current flock, though I’d feel pretty safe buying them from the local girl. However, I think raising chicks would be a great experience for Delia, since she was so good about “checking an eye” on the kittens. The other consideration is how to introduce new birds into the flock. From what I’ve read, it’s not easy. There are stories of huge fights and dead birds, but other people have done it with no problems. I don’t know if raising chicks and putting them with the old flock once they get big or getting adult birds from a larger flock so they’d be used to defending themselves would be better.

Delia’s skating show is today! Here are a few pictures from the dress rehearsal yesterday.

Lucy has lost a lot of weight over the past few weeks. She’s acting fine, but she’s just skin and bones. No matter what we feed her, she doesn’t put on any weight. At first we assumed she had parasites again, so we got her some more Heartguard medicine and figured that would solve it. It didn’t. Emily finally called the vet yesterday, and he said he was a little worried because parasites shouldn’t cause that much weight loss. We brought her in yesterday afternoon, and again he said he was worried and suspected a protein losing disease. That occurs when the kidneys filter properly, but spill protein so the dog just passes all the protein from food out and very little gets used by the body. He said with that type of disease the dog will usually feel fine, so the fact that she’s still running around doesn’t mean much. If she did have that disease, the prognosis isn’t very good. He drew blood and I collected a urine sample for him, and told us to call tomorrow.

I did some research last night about it and didn’t really learn much other than what he told me. I was pretty worn out and nervous and I ended up going to bed around 9:00. I woke up several times during the night thinking about it.

This morning I got up with Henry at about 6:20 – too early to call. I set Henry up with some Cheerios and looked at the usual websites I read every morning. On Drudge, I saw the top half of Brett Favre’s head at the bottom of the page. I got chills. I had a feeling that meant he was retiring, because if he had announced he was going to play another year, which everyone had expected, it wouldn’t have been big news. Still though, I had a little hope. I nervously scrolled down and saw the word “retire.” I can’t say I blame him, and I’m glad he went out on a high note (even if his last pass was an interception), but I’m still really sad about the whole thing.

So needless to say, this morning wasn’t fun. I tried calling the vet at 8:00 and there was no answer. I called again at 8:30 and finally got to talk to Chip. He said her blood and urine looked fine. No protein loss and nothing else abnormal. He said “You know, maybe she’s just skinny. I don’t see any signs of any problems so there’s reason to keep spending your money.” As we talked, I started to realize that we have been switching her diet around quite a bit and she has been running outside a TON lately. He said we should to get her more calories and that fat is a good way to do that. Mushers buy 5 gallon buckets of chicken fat for their dogs, so he suggested we look into that. So, for now anyway, she has a clean bill of health! That was quite a relief, so now the day is going quite a bit better.

It’s funny how your perception can be affected by what you fear or what you hope. This morning before I talked to Chip, I started thinking that maybe Lucy was acting lethargic and she looked totally emaciated to me. Now after talking to him, I swear she doesn’t even look that skinny anymore.

Back to Brett. I’ve had the pleasure of watching him play for over half my life now. During that time, I’ve watched probably 90% of his games. I watched him on Monday Night Football in 2003 throw for 399 yards the day after his dad died (by the way, NFL Network is replaying that game a few times this week. If you want to be truly inspired, I suggest you watch it.). I watched him win a Superbowl. I watched him finish 4-8 in 2005 and then have one of his best years ever two years later, at 38 years of age. I watched him take a nasty hit, stagger off the field, and then turn around, run back on the field and launch a long touchdown pass before they could get the backup QB ready. They pulled him out after that play and it turned out he had a concussion. I watched him stiff-arm a rusher so hard that he had to be carried off the field. I watched him complete his first every pass as a Packer – to himself. I’ve watched him thread the needle with an impossible completion, and I’ve watched him throw cringe-inducing interceptions. I’ve watched him run down the field with one finger in the air after every touchdown he scored, as if it was his first. I’ve seen him hoist his teammates up onto his shoulders. I’ve seen him get in the faces of opponents twice his size when they start shoving his teammates. I’ve seen him break just about every NFL quarterback record. He has started EVERY SINGLE GAME since 1992. I watched sportscasters call him a washed up has-been prima donna two years ago, and those same guys talk about him like the messiah this past season. I have no idea how much he got paid or what his contract looks like, unlike some other football “greats.” It’s certainly the end of an era, and I can’t imagine what opening day next season will be like without him. Farewell to The Gunslinger.

Delia and I had a super fun day today.  First we went to the dump.  This was actually really fun for two reasons: 1) Using my custom made dump trailer, I got rid of 1/3 of a ton of garbage (about 3 months worth) which took me about an hour total and cost $14 (compare this to how I used to take the same amount of time every 2-3 weeks to dump off three garbage cans at a cost of $5), and 2) Delia got to ride around the driveway in the now-empty dump trailer.  She has been asking to do that for weeks.
After the dump, we went sledding and skating in Embarrass.  I read about a sledding hill (referred to as a sliding hill around here) behind the town skating rink, so we decided to give it a try.  It’s a really neat place.  There’s sort of a little plateau with a small hill going off one side and a large one off the other.  The whole area is surrounded by nice pine trees.  Delia went down the small hill a few times, and then the big hill, from about halfway down, around 15 times.  That meant I had to pull her back up 15 times too. 

Next up was skating. I’ve only seen her practice her routine for the show during the past couple of weeks and I didn’t go to a few of the non-rehearsal lessons before that, so I was absolutely amazed at all the stuff she could do!  She skated for about an hour and still didn’t want to leave.