I Love To Go A Gardening
Growing Our Life in Northern Michigan
Very November
A few days ago there were a few bare branches here and there, but the trees were still dressed in most of their colorful leaves. Over the last day or two, however, the leaves have been flying off the trees. Sometimes the whole sky has been filled with leaves. The wind has increased in strength throughout the day. It’s dark now outside the windows, but I can hear the wind roaring. I’m sure by tomorrow the trees will be completely bare. It’s amazing how quickly it happened. It’s supposed to rain and/or snow throughout the week. It looks very November outside now.
EJ puttered in his garage quite a bit today. I think he’s getting it more organized and working a few projects. In the afternoon he shot his guns to make sure they are accurate because deer hunting season isn’t far away.
I made a little room in the chest freezer in preparation for the three sheep that are being delivered later in the week. I’m not sure how much meat that equals, but if I have to I can move more things to the refrigerator freezer. It is good to have this problem.
I wheeled the poultry feed to the coop and scooped the feed from the bags into empty kitty litter buckets to keep them safe from mice and other rodents. I’m not sure we have enough to last the winter, but it will last for a while.
The two new chickens haven’t really integrated into the older flock yet. They seem to be staying mostly in the coop during the day and at night they are sleeping on the straw bales in the front part of the coop while the others sleep on the little coop and the old doghouse in the back section. However, I have noticed that our rooster Captain AmeROOca joined the new chickens on the straw bales for the past few nights. I think he’s pretty far down in the pecking order. I went outside this evening hoping to get a photo of the Captain with the two new hens, but he wasn’t with them tonight. I think coop feels very peaceful and cozy at night with the chickens all settled down.
Some of the chickens are still a bit naked from moulting. I think they look very ugly without feathers. Shhh…don’t tell them I said that! The new feathers begin to grow in a sort of gray-blue sheath. I think it’s kind of interesting. I didn’t know much about chickens until a couple of years ago when I started my flock. I thought I’d share a photo of a chicken’s feathers growing in for those of you who have never seen it and might be interested. You can click on the photos to get a larger view.
I’m still stressed, of course, but not as turbo stressed as I was before. Today was calmer with no difficult people so I could catch my breath. Dealing with difficult/abusive people drains me of energy and pushes me into emotional exhaustion. When I do think about our situation (EJ having health problems with no job), I tell God that I’m scared and to please help us. Then I just tell myself that if God can provide us with three sheep, He can provide us with other things as well.
Tomorrow morning we have to get up super early to drive to the hospital. EJ is having a metal splinter surgically removed from his hand so he can have an MRI on Wednesday so we can figure out what is going on with his health.
I Love To Go A Gardening 
It is just amazing how the wind has just stripped the trees of their beautiful leaves … I didn’t even bother to rake yesterday … all I have is my neighbor’s leaves, and she never rakes and lets them blow all over or she blows them into my side or front yards so she can put up her Christmas decorations – I grit my teeth every year and last year I raked them myself as it was the end of yard waste pickup and I didn’t want to have leaves hanging around in the backyard all Winter long inviting mice or rats to nest in the bags – OMG. Hopefully the splinter removal works for the MRI procedure to be done. My father was a tool-and-diemaker for years and he similarly had metal splinters in his hand, Good luck to both of you.
LikeLiked by 1 person