SUNDAY SEVEN 3-31-14 TO 4-6-14

My words of gratitude from previous week.

                                            Leadership
               Windfall
                                Yellow
         Preservation
                              Sacrifice
                                              Thankful
            Family

HAVE SOME WEED

Peek-a-boo

I see you:)

To some this is just a menacing dandelion weed but to me it is a color of Spring.

F.Y.I. Did not lose anymore hens yesterday and I found where David is keeping her kittens. 

Things are good right now on NOL-NOC Estates

HEE-HAW, HEE-HAW

"Gloom, despair, and agony on me
Deep, dark depression, excessive misery
If it weren't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all
Gloom, despair, and agony on me"

Remember these lyrics from the show Hee-Haw 

composed and sung by Roy Clark and Buck Owens?

These are the lyrics running through my head this 

week as I continue to count losses.  So far I am 

down 6 fat hens.  My neighbor is down over 20.  We

are nearing $300 in replacement cost not counting

the eggs production that we are out.

I can only explain the loss of one.  She got caught

crossing the road (oh why did the chicken?) and was

hit by a car.  All the others have simply disappeared

leaving nary a trace of wing, beak or feather.

To bring even greater agony upon me, my precious

new mama cat David* had disappeared along with her

four new kittens, Luke, Leia, Han and Chewy.  David

moved them out of the nest box as usual and still

was showing up for breakfast each morning but the

last two mornings she has not been here.  The

neighbors have not seen her and her kittens either so

I fear the worst.

Plus, look how this stupid post is appearing on my 

blog today and I can't fix it.   

And so I sing....."Gloom, despair and agony on me.....

*Happy Addendum: David showed up for breakfast and

came from the direction of my storeroom so maybe 

her kittens are safe too and hidden there. 

IGNORANCE IS BLISS

Question Of The Week 3-31-14

What  is the 

difference 

between 

innocence 

and

 ignorance?

SUNDAY SEVEN 3-24-14 to 3-30-14

My words of gratitude from the previous week.

DRAWING

POETRY

EGGS

CHICKEN-FEET

HEALING

LAUGHTER

GREEN

R.I.P. Jack

The neighbors came over this morning to tell me that 

Rooster Jack Bauer, Sr. 

died while they were gone last week.  

He sure had a good life here for starters 

and there as the head of their very large flock 

of fancy show hens.

October, 2009 to March, 2014

Click on his picture on my sidebar to learn about the designer of his attire.

KITTEN FIX

If you have been needing a "kitten fix" here are David's babies 5 days old.  I managed to snap a picture while David was eating yesterday. Only one is named.  The large black father with white socks was seen  creeping in and out of my barn on my surveillance camera and I called him Darth Vader so naturally that darker kitten would be Luke.  You can tell the other three resemble their mother.  We can probably guess from past experience that Luke will turn out to be a girl:)

As an added update, here is Rooster Chicklet who was recently de-throned by Rooster King Kong.  You can tell that he has recovered nicely and is no worse for the wear.  I think he might need to retake the power because last night I came up missing three hens.  We did not lose any hens on Chicklet's watch.  Not looking good for King Kong's initial performance report and I'm hoping the girls will show up this morning.  That has happened before.

MY CAR, MY CELL PHONE, MY KINDLE....???

Question Of The Week 3-24-14

What one material possession do you own that you could not survive

without?

What is this?  Can you live without it?

It's a One Touch can opener and any can opener would be hard to live without but we could probably survive.

SUNDAY SEVEN 3-17-14 TO 3-23-14

Words of gratitude from previous week. (And a few pictures.)

Rooster King Kong is now the cock of the walk.  He has won the ongoing competition for leadership of the NOL-NOC Estates chickens from Rooster Chicklet.  At least Chicklet has been allowed to retire with his life,  his dignity and a few chosen ladies.

Yesterday David gave birth to her kittens in a chicken nest box where she was born in 2009.  She and her brother Goliath had some celebrity at their birth.  See the story published in Countryside Magazine about the hen that tried to become their mother. David has given birth to each of her liters in this nest box.

Here David has lifted her paw to try and give me a better peek at her kittens.  I don't dare touch them yet but I believe there are at least four and maybe five.  I hope I can get a good count before she moves them.

BEAUTY IN NATURE

Don't fail to put this in your day:-)

MURMURATIONS

I have often seen the Starlings in large flocks around here but never such great numbers.

ANOTHER ONE BITES THE DUST (MUD)

Lovely pine tree near the road at the front of our property.

Pine tree looked nice behind the John Deere Tractor when it was out front.

The pine tree grew into lovely shade for our goats and some favorite grazing too.

Last week we went from Spring to a sudden Sunday of rain, wind, ice and snow. Just enough to weigh down our beautiful pine tree at the front of our property and topple it over. Another loss to Mother Nature. Thankfully family was visiting and my son-in-law managed to finish the taking down and removal.  Monday the sun was back and Spring was making another go at it, but my tree was gone. 

Each loss of a tree is another sad day. 

IT'S GOOD TO BE KING

"It's good to be the King."

 
The henchmen from the office of the President and CEO of US Cellular have won the fight.  (At least she claimed to be from the President's office.)  My efforts to be David in the battle with Goliath have been in vain.  The complaint I filed with the FCC seemed to be shaking things loose, but US Cellular has me over a barrel when they can cut my service in the blink of an eye. Though they have admitted that these seven months of pain and agony have been due to misinformation and misdirection from their representatives, there are still  no apologies and it has to be their way or the highway. Life is too short for me to live in the middle of this mess any longer.  I surrender.

You Know It's True - My first post re: USCC - Oct, 2013

US Cellular Complaint Again - My second post Dec., 2013

INFINITY AND BEYOND

Question Of The Week 03-17-14

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

SUNDAY SEVEN 03-10-14 TO 03-16-14

LOVE THE PICTURE HATE THE PICTURE

Siblings gather for early birthday celebration of the hat-less fellow.

We met at our traditional gathering place for the traditional pig out of all-you-can-eat Alaskan King Crab legs and had our traditional fun and laughter.  We were having an early celebration of my brother's birthday.  This was Ron's favorite place to go and I am pretending that he is absent from the table because he is taking the picture. Otherwise his presence was definitely felt.  We always have such a good time and we feel especially grateful that the management has never had to ban us from the restaurant....yet:)

HEY, I'M A GEMINI

Question Of The Week 03-10-14

Family, dog, cats, chickens, travel, weather, work, supernatural, computers, cyberspace, shopping, writing, drawing, etc.? For me it can change every morning.

SUNDAY SEVEN 03-03-14 to 03-09-14

DON'T WASH THE COFFEE POT

Yesterday morning I woke up at 3:00 and could not go back to sleep.

Logged out of Facebook and will stay out for 40 days of Lent.

Had my morning meditation and my coffee and banana.  Thought about my grandfather's rule to "never wash the coffee pot". He kept a running battle with my mother who visited and she always insisted on washing their coffee pot.  I also thought about cutting up the banana peel for the chickens.

It was Senior Center day and the eggs were packed up that I donate to the center.  The members purchase the eggs for $2 a dozen and the money goes to the center.  They grab them up as fast and I bring them in the door.

After our lunch, I went to the church to help prepare the newsletter for mailing and then excused myself to go home and nap before the 6:30PM Ash Wednesday service. I could barely keep my eyes open.  But when I got home, no sleep would come.  

My daughter had called and announced they will be moving to Kansas for son-in-law's job promotion.  US Cellular had reared it's ugly head in my direction once again and that war is waging.   The snow and ice is melting rapidly and my drive is turning into a big mud hole.  My brain would not settle down and thus my rest would not come but I was still too weary to leave the house and so I missed the church service.

Finally fell asleep before 7:00PM.  Was awake this morning at 2:00.  Housekeeper is coming at 8:00AM and I have a doctor's appointment at 10:00AM.  Today I am thinking about Sunday being the 9th anniversary of this blog.  The stats say that I have had 346,435 views in that time.  That is highly doubtful but it sure looks impressive.  Looking forward to the big 10th next year and wonder what new blog friends I will meet. Also looking forward to a big nap this afternoon:)

A TOUGH MONDAY

Question Of The Week 03-03-14

Sunday Seven 02-24-14 to 03-02-14

 Gratitude words for the previous week:)

Chicken-Foot

Health

Rescue

Volunteers

Forgiveness

Timber!

Skills

Wonderful son and wonderful granddaughter with neighbors help spent Saturday taking down dead trees. They managed to return safely to their homes before freeze arrived again this morning.