Abby's Special Egg

So, Abby (our resident feather plucker) has decided - along with every other bird in our household - that she is hormonal. What a FUN time of year!  Instead of actually LAYING an egg, she has chosen a substitute - a small plastic mug for the birds - a foraging toy.  This is Abby's "egg of choice"!  Pretty cute to see her on it, but I can't help but wonder if it isn't uncomfortable! Here are a few pics of her last night. 

"This is MY egg - even though it doesn't LOOK like an egg!"

"I DON'T appreciate the intrusion!!"

"I LOVE my green egg!!!"

It's really fun trying to change her paper as she is so protective!!  Cute, hey????

Springtime Easter Bunny Giveaway!!

Angi over at Drakestone Primitives Country Cabin is having a generous giveaway!  She is offering the sweetest little primitive Easter bunny holding his own Easter egg - he is just SO sweet!  Go to Angi's blog and check it out! 


Sweet Bunny giveaway at Drakestone Primitives
Country Cabin - SWEET or what????

Good luck to everyone who enters and thanks Angi!

A Sunday Morning Surprise

I love having Bantam hens around the farm.  They are SO cute!  We have a Bantam (meaning SMALLER) hen on the farm currently - her name is Molly!  She's VERY cute!  She came to live with us back in the fall.  She found a friend in Reuben the rooster.  He's a very handsome guy and easy to get along with.

The only BAD thing about Bantam hens is this.....



Molly the Banty hen and one of her brand new babies


I looked out the laundry room window this morning to see Molly with EIGHT of these!!!!!  It certainly WAS a Sunday morning surprise!!!!!

Clear The Roads

DS got his "L" today.  In British Columbia, we have a graduated driving license program.  The "L" allows people to drive only with supervision for the first year.

 

The "L" is a magnet that is issued by the Government and it MUST be displayed on the back of a vehicle that is being driven by an "L" (learner) driver.

So, my friends, be forewarned!  The roads will NEVER be the same!!! 

The Seasons of Life

I had a pretty yucky flu before/during/after Christmas.  With the cough that was one of the last "stages" of this flu, I was affected for almost 8 weeks.  It was a doozy and many people I have spoken with have also been down for several weeks with this one.  My 81-year-old father lives with us in a mobile home on our property.  He is able to be independent and we each have our privacy, but are close enough if need be. 

Well, the nasty flu bug caught up with Dad.  He went downhill pretty fast once he caught it.  He also has prostate cancer, so is somewhat immune compromised with the meds he is on.  Well, within 10 days, I ended up having to call an ambulance for Dad. He had pneumonia. It was a particularly snowy night and he had fallen and was not altogether coherent, so I called because I certainly was NOT comfortable taking him into the hospital by myself.  He was in the hospital for six days and never left the emergency department of the Abbotsford Regional Hospital the entire time he was there.  That is how BUSY our hospital is!  After six days, he was released.  My sister, Karen, brought him home in a very weakened state.  I was out of town that weekend helping a friend move. 

Long story short, Dad is recovering, albeit slowly.  It turns out that he has never been truly sick in his 81 years on this planet!  Can you believe that?  He was nauseous in the hospital for several days and had never experienced that sensation before - almost impossible to comprehend for the average person!!! He is NOT a happy sick person (of course, who is??).  We have HomeCare coming in to assist him once a day with dressing and bathing.  I am helping where I can with meals, meds, etc. and my wonderful sister, Karen is helping me when she can.  She lives 45 minutes away, so it's difficult, but she is always there for me if/when I need her whether it be for physical or mental support!! Thanks, Karen!! Y

So, my life is not quite my own right now.  DS turned 16 on Saturday the 4th.  DD is 13 and they both are really becoming mature young adults.  I guess that's why they call us the "sandwich" generation - finish with the kids and then help care for the parents.  "Seasons of life".  I'm certainly not complaining, but it's not easy!

My dear friend, Connie, lost her Grampie at the age of 91 years on Saturday.  I will forever remember that date as that was DS's 16th birthday.  I had the priviledge of meeting Connie's Grammie and Grampie in 2008 when she and I went back to visit with her family in Ontario.  My thoughts and prayers are with you & your family, my dear.  I know how much you loved your Grampie and how special he was.

Blessings to all!  Have a great day!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to those in blogland.  It seems like time goes so very quickly and other things take priority over blogging.

2011 ended with a bit of a flop in that I had a pretty awful flu through Christmas and the holidays and wasn't feeling too good.  Thankfully I'm on the mend now with just a residual cough.  My 82-year-old Dad has the flu now, though, so hopefully he will be able to fend it off - I'll be keeping a close eye on him.

We did have a wonderful Christmas dinner on Christmas day at my sister, Karen and her hubby Allen's house.  It was really wonderful to enjoy Christmas dinner with family even though I was feeling under the weather.  A very special time, for sure.  Karen, your house looked beautiful and the dinner was AWESOME!  Thank you for having all of us and I'm sorry that it's so much work and stress for the hostess.

Here's hoping that 2012 is kind to everyone. It's like a clean slate and a fresh start, isn't it? 

I'm off tonight to join one of my "other" daughters (Connie's daughter, Tianna) in picking out her wedding dress for an upcoming August 2012 wedding!!  How exciting!!!

Bird count: 2 Greys, 4 Quakers plus 2 foster Quakers plus visiting Lucy Quaker plus 2 Society Finches

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our neighbours to the South.  I hope you have a wonderful celebration and enjoy your friends and family and lots of turkey and trimmings.



Update is Due...

Well, I'd say that an update is due.  I've been very busy with life things and well, sometimes there just aren't enough hours in a day.  When life is busy, blogging is what suffers.

I'll be back tomorrow with a few updates on life in the past couple of months.  Thanks for your patience, bloggy friends!!

A Bloggy Giveaway

Linda over at Sewfine Quilts is having a giveaway!  You can get in on the fun, too - just visit her blog HERE, leave a comment asking to be included, then do a post on your own blog about her giveaway!  Pretty easy and she's got a lovely table topper and a couple of other neat things that you could win!  Good luck everyone!!!

Rueben the Rooster

We've had Rueben the rooster for almost two years now.  He was an SPCA seizure and I adopted him from them when I was in picking up some budgies for Greyhaven.  He had been tied BY HIS FOOT (!!!!!) and seized in a cruelty investigation.  They treated his foot and I adopted him when his foot was well again.
 

Well, Rueben now has a thing called Bumblefoot.  It's a relatively common occurence in chickens/roosters caused by staphylococcus bacteria.  If the bird gets an open sore in the foot, the bacteria can enter and cause the infection which can include redness and swelling with pus and can be very painful for the animal.  Rueben has been hiding up at the far end of the pen for a couple of days.  He was fighting with Roscoe, one of the other roosters last week, and was knocked down in the pecking order.  I suspect it was because his foot was sore.



Rueben the rooster

I have now isolated Rueben in a large cage in the barn away from the other chickens.  I have treated his foot with some (believe it or not) Preparation H to reduce the swelling.  Tomorrow I will head to Langley to get some antibiotics and proper treatment cream for him.  I have done some research on this condition which, in 20+ years of poultry keeping I've never seen, although I HAVE heard of it in parrots. Poor Rueben.  Hopefully he will be back in action soon.  When we put his food and water in his cage tonight, he seemed very thirsty.  Good thing we noticed him up at the far end (it's over 100 feet long and the weeds are very long right now).  So, he has nice clean water and fresh food now, and a safe, clean place to sleep tonight.  It's always a bit stressful treating the outside animals because we don't see them all the time like the inside animals.  Rueben is used to being handled and fussed over, however, and he's a very good patient, thank goodness.  When I picked him up at the SPCA, the girls there had grown very attached to him.


I have to be very careful in treating Bumblefoot.  The staph or other bacteria that cause the abscess can infect humans.  Best to wear gloves in case of any open sores or nicks on your hands.  It also can be transmitted to the inside birds.
 
Hopefully Rueben will be back to his old self in no time. I'll keep you updated!