I am a problem to myself

I've figured out the dilemma, my friends, it's me. I am a problem to myself and create all the work I speak of. The good news is that I actually document it here, and then use this blog as a time-line or quite often for reference. For example, haven't I done this before and it didn't turn out so great? Or when did we get the piggies? Or when did we change the barn around (for the 100th time) like so like that. Or, I can't believe I'm doing this again, but I am. That's what I circle around to the most. But hey, I can always go back and reference my online diary and remember it fondly, oftentimes more than once. My husband might say I’m famous for making the same mistake twice.  

So we've been around the block and back on many things here on the farm, but one thing in particular we are circling back around on at this very moment is training new guard pups. Attempt #3 is going well. Well, 'well' may not be the right word. It's going okay. Wait, let me think. No, how it's actually going is like this: We are constantly reminding ourselves to not do the things we did before. And to do something different so that we can make it work this time. 

This seems to be harder than it seems, for me anyway. Because if I knew what to do to get potential guard pups to not eat the chickens they are supposed to guard then we likely would not be on attempt #3. But here we are and trying hard to try to make it work. We second guess every move we make about the new guard pups, and have come to this conclusion: Dutch and Penny do not want to actually kill or eat the chickens, they just want to play with the chickens. Play as in hold them down with their gigantic paws and lick (yes, lick) the chicken until their feathers are completely wet. It's the strangest thing. For every chicken they have done this to (we caught them doing it more than once) the chicken bounces back up and walks away stunned that it is still alive. We feel that same way. 

We have watched YouTube's on training guard pups to not bother the chickens (seems this is a running theme for people) and we have consulted others who have tried it and consulted others who were successful. You'd also think we would know what to do because Levi and Whisper do not bother or eat the chickens. But that in itself does not translate to other dogs. We've had people come over to visit and they bring their dog thinking it's a good idea, and their dog instantly gets a chicken. I'm convinced that only a small percentage of dogs are able to co-exist with chickens, while a large percentage of the human population are convinced their dog will not kill or eat a chicken. It’s the darnest thing. 

Penny and Dutch gettin' big

How could these little faces lick a chicken til it's dripping wet? I don't know, but it happened. So we had to do something about this licking business. Therefore, Dutch and Penny now have a staging area they stay unless we are outside to monitor them. That way, we are able to reinforce the rules. No playing with the chickens. No licking the chickens. 

Sorry guys, we had to. But you have great 
piggie and turkey neighbors 🐷🦃

This new pen for Dutch and Penny also enables them to watch Levi and Whisper from the sidelines. All night long they are able to witness what guarding is all about. Without any fowl play going on. Penny and Dutch are able to come out of their special area only when we are out to keep an eye on them. Because pups will be pups, and once a dog eats/kills a chicken (even accidentally licking them to death), they will do so again. Trust me on that one. 

We have high hopes for these soft balls of fluff who are growing so fast that we are now on larger collar size #2. Our #1 goal? Teach them that the chickens are not to be bothered but to be guarded. Still working on it folks. I’m happy to report that all the chickens are still alive.  

Significantly less cancer-y

At David's 1 year cancerversary, he had a recent visit to MD Anderson that earned him a A+. All the gold stars for David! 

We are so relieved and happy which I will now title as: relappy. We are very relappy. Yet, there's an interesting phenomenon going on here. I'll attempt to break it down:

David gets diagnosed with SNUC (sinonasal undifferentiated carcinoma). He had surgery to remove the tumor, and then he had cancer treatments of chemo and radiation simultaneously. The MD Anderson doctors (which he has many) all tell him the risk of the tumor (relapse) coming back is high and the probability of cure is considered modest (neutral, but swings on the not-likely side). David is considered unusual by his oncologist (and maybe others but that's not the point at this moment) as his cancer is abating and he's not towing the line most other SNUC patients take. He's beating the odds at this moment in time. That means everything to us - and nothing to MDA. David's treatment plan is to continue with PET scans and an MRI every 2-3 months until he's told otherwise. His oncologist informed him at his visit that this timeline may be pushed out of every 4 months eventually. And after 3 years of "clear" PET scans, they will lighten up with all this scanning. 

Bottom line? They will not declare him cancer free yet. MDA will continue to watch him closely due to the nature of his aggressive cancer. It's like they make us feel like the cancer is hiding in his body, and could sneak up on him like it SNUC up on him before. 

So we celebrate the small wins! David had another visit whereby the oncologists said, "Good job not growing more cancer! You're able to go now, but come back soon." And he will. 

Let's take a moment to review how David's visit go at MDA, shall we? Each visit to MDA is an expedition of labs, IV's, scans, oncologist visits and walking to get to each of those places like a speed walker practicing for an upcoming race, except it's inside a building with lots of obstacles and transitions.

 

David knows these MDA employees well, and he’s always happy to see their bright and shining faces at his regular visits. And don’t forget the ever famous hurrying from one appt to the next in this ginormous building. This is from his most recent visit, and it hits home every time about the humongous halls, many floors and vast areas within MDA :

In the meantime, we declare everyday a wonderful day. My own next visit with my oncologist is towards the end of December. But before I closeout this cancer update, I wanted to make mention of a reoccurring conversation David and I have often. Sometimes daily, because our self-awareness brings it into focus daily. When we were living in 2019 BC (BC = before cancer) and we thought just like everyone else did - we are going to live forever. I mean, it's what humans think. Humans know they are going to die, but they don't really believe it. It's not a real big conscious thought 24/7, but it's in human's brains that life seems to go on and on and the end is hard to see. It's what David and I thought. Whenever the financial advisor asked us how long we thought we'd live, we would say just like everyone else, maybe til 80 or 90 years old? And then they handle your money (or try to) so that you can live that long. What no one really tells you, and what cancer does tell you, is that you won't live forever like you thought you would. I remember when I used to live like I wasn't going to die. It wasn't that long ago. I was actually doing death cleaning before I really thought I was ever going to die. It was a notion not a real feeling. A notion of "the end is so far out there that I can't see it". Things like cancer, heart attacks, strokes, and esp ALS and many other horrible diseases take that silly thought straight-away out of your head. Life is fragile. It's like a club of people who all know that life is not going to be as long as we had originally thought. Similar to the club you joined when you had a baby and thought "no one told me it was going to be like this". It's just a big secret club until you join it. Then, you too are in the club. Yeah, there's better clubs to be a part of, but I will say that joining this cancer club has woken up parts of us that we did not know were there. We just don't see life like we used to. We see it more sparkly and shiny. Like we need to step up our game of living. It's so cliche, but so real. When you think you might die, you get to the 'living' real quick-like. We don't know our expiration date, but we know it's out there, and likely not as far out as we had originally thought. Oddly, there's peace in that. There's also conversation about the end of life and what we want to do til then. We just come at life from a different angle now, that's all. And no person could have ever taught me this or showed me this. It had to come from inside me. 

Cluck's up in Cluckingham

Oh dear gaud, let the madness begin. Or should I say continue. You're never going to believe it, but I got more chickens. Wait, let me explain. It all started when I moved my Egg Fridge to the front of the property. People can just stop on the side of the road, and grab eggs out of the fridge. Easy peasy. Is there a problem here? Well, I cannot keep eggs in that fridge. People are buying them, and I just don't have enough eggs to sell. Economics would tell me that that supply and demand are at play here. This fun-demental principle tells me one thing: I need more chickens. Plain and simply people. 

Speaking of my people, my fellow crazy chicks who are deemed Cyndi's Crazy Chicks (you know who you are 😏) delivered shirts to me that are the cutest!!!! Not only are they comfy soft, they are super cute and I love them!

And I actually have those exact chickens.

I owe a huge thank you to Brooke and Kaitlyn for the awesome work they did getting these fabulous t-shirts made. They make me smile - and I thank you, fellow C3-ers. I couldn't do all this without your undying support and love. 💕

So Brooke and Kaitlyn will likely understand that apparently I need more chickens. So I contact my chicken lady friend in Oklahoma. You know the one with the wild wild west chicken coops of the Saloon, General Store, Post and Cantina that she built HERSELF. Yeah, her. She recently moved to a new place with more land, and she sells chickens of all sorts. David and I took a drive to OK and went to buy some laying hens from her. Unfortunately, she had mostly grow-outs (not yet laying) and not many actual laying hens. But I did buy 9 chickens from her, but none that will give me the number of eggs I'm looking for. I did get some really pretty chickens though.

Let's see, whose new here, raise your wing.

I then decide Craigslist would be another avenue to find some laying hens and I wasn't disappointed. I even found a guy who had hundreds of laying hens on a farm not-that-far-away and would even deliver some to me. How many did I want, he asked: 10, 20, 30 or more? He has hundreds of Hy-line chickens which are an avid egg laying breed of chicken. They can lay a brown egg a day for a few years. And, his price was right. So on Thanksgiving morning, yes Thanksgiving morning, he delivered 15 of those girlz to us. Just for the record, I had said 10 chickens and David said 15. We went with 15.

I've lost all control now. Where's the new girlz?!

Needless to say, our chicken barn was complete chaos with over 20 new hens. This bounced my total chicken count to around 80. And since David happened to give me a $hit Show Supervisor sweatshirt for my birthday recently, it seemed applicable to wear.  

It's at this point that you can imagine we need to get our chicken $hit together. David, as the amazing chicken guy he is, whipped straight out of his wood working shop a couple new chicken roosts, along with a gated nesting box area (to allow chickens in and keep other animals out). Chickens need a little quiet time to lay an egg, ya know. 

We even did a re-do of the barn to accommodate all these chickens - and we took (back) the Tack Room for all the feed (for all the animals actually). I know it's hard to believe, but for the ka-gillionth time, we changed the barn around. 

I'm hoping more will roost here at night, with time.

They even sleep up in the rafters.
Sorry Sugar, I'm coming back down to get you.

I mean, they are everywhere.

They love this area the most.

I'm happy to report that every one is settling in nicely, and the egg production numbers went up. Eggcept for one small issue, that because the chickens free-range, they are now deciding to lay eggs just about anywhere and everywhere. It's like a freaking Easter egg hunt to find them and I know I'm not finding all of them. I don't want to talk about that right now, because I'm going to call a mandatory Hens Meeting (not on Zoom) and discuss that the willy-nilly work they are doing will not be tolerated. I don't care if it's covid-times, you will come into work (the barn, folks) and be productive. "Or I will turn this car around right now". Those mealworm treats are not cheap. Have you priced mealworms lately? Better yet, I will have C3 over here to do an in-service if need be. 

Turkey Troubles

No need to worry, we did not eat Paul for Thanksgiving.

This is really in our front yard. We'd never eat you, Paul.

But guess what Paul is doing? He's decided to try and date a few of the ladies around here. So, we had to relegate him to the same area as the piggies for security reasons. Sorry Paul, the girlz are not interested. They cannot be fraternizing with any boys. It's enough for me to get them to lay eggs in the barn, much less worry about if they are messing around with a turkey. Something is not right about that. 

And I won't let the piggies eat you either.

Infirmiry 

Things happen, right Spice? Seems she was in a hurry and not watching where she was going and stepped on something that ended up infecting her foot. No need to worry. David and I learned what to do off MD YouTube and hence surgery was performed at our kitchen table on her foot. Yes, she (and David) made it through with no sedation. We are changing her bandage every other day and she's getting better, slowly. She's on antibiotics for her infection and what she has is a common term called Bumble Foot. 

Details left out of video, your welcome.

Spice is popular with her fancy 'shoe'.

You purdy

I could have gone my whole life not knowing what it's like to get a birthday gift of a piggie dress. Well, actually 2 piggie dresses. 

I'll get these dresses on them one day soon. 
Uh huh, sure I will. 

David had piggie dresses hand made for Maggie and Prissy from a talented seamstress. Thank you, MegRose! Matchy matchy of course. I failed the first attempt to get them on the piggies. But give me a little more time and I will. And you'll be the first to see them, piggie promise. 

Sweet Mag Pie

Barn Sweet Barn

After the recent concreting experience, the back pasture barn is now floored. It's sooooo wonderful and is now split between the mini horses on one side, and the sheep on the other. As a reminder, Winston (once a stray who now lives with us and the sheep) has been given a dogloo of his very own with a comfy dog bed inside. 

He absolutely loves it, and even gets breakfast in bed some days. After all, he's half blind and hard of hearing and getting his arthritic body in and out of his warm "house" is just plain hard on some days. 

Just in time for cold weather.

David has placed our thick rubber mats on top of the concrete, then mucho straw for warmth. He also built a fence and gate inside the barn to keep the animals separated. It's an amazing place for the animals, and just in time for winter. We are so fortunate to have this for the animals, and I hope they are as happy about it as we are. 

Pawfect

Junie B and Finn

I'd like to tell you these are barn cats. The siamese, June Bug, with the bob tail was actually born in a barn and we found her and her siblings abandoned. The calico, Finn is an adventurous girl who lives to hunt mice. Both these cats have sweet, soft souls and are kindred spirits. They find their way through the doggie door and into the laundry room to take refuge from the cold. We keep the laundry room closed off to the rest of the house, and it's best said to be a Cat Room rather than a laundry room. Either way, there's beds, food and water available to any that dare enter. And they do. And that's okay. 

Cuddle Puddles all around with these two.

Brookie Bear

Since it's humanly impossible for me to leave Brooks out of a blog post, I'll leave you with him having breakfast at our house. We had the wonderful pleasure of him spending the weekend, along with his mom. 

He's a two fisted drinker. No coffee in there though.

We love having him over and anything to spoil him is on the menu. 

Pops lets him stay in his jammies all day. 

Dessert first, extra butter on everything, plenty of icing and whipped cream, and lots of playing outside in the rocks when possible esp when mom is not looking. 

Yes, we have merch

I'm enjoying my C3 shirt, and thinking of adding it to my merch collection. Another big thank you to my C3 chicks, and I also think that bringing back the "chickens are like tattoos" temporary tattoo (I need to order more of those, Brooke) could be in the mech collection, too. 

I mean, why not.

Gotta go look into getting my pretend online store going,

Cyndi