The world is changing every day and I’m not sure, honestly, where I fit into that changing world. There are so many different things that are becoming “unknown” to me and, like most of the people in the world right now – I don’t like it. Not one bit.
We are thirty days into this endeavor and, over the past seven days I have felt my shell cracking and, you know what? That’s OKAY!
I took a day to stay home, watch the 1995 Pride & Prejudice remake, fall in love with Mr. Darcy all over again, and be a tad bit inspired to keep the best “pen of hens” possible – as that was definitely a compliment of Mrs. Bennet in the book that has hit a home a little extra for me lately.
In order to give yourself a break, I have a few quick rules for a “Me-Day” that I think everyone should do at least once a month!
- Take a long, cleansing shower where you shave, scrub and deep condition your whole body – pamper yourself. Then lather your entire body in lotion.
- While your muscles are warm and hot take sometime to stretch and do some thoracic extensions – relax your body and let it naturally align into good posture!
- Eat some comfort food and have that favorite drink; mine is deconstructed mac’n’cheese and an ice cold Pepsi!
- Watch a movie, read a book, journal or do it all! Whatever direction you feel your heart and mind being pulled – do it!
- Take a nap!
- Eat another meal!
- Drink ICED water throughout the splurge.
- Eat some fruit.
- Go to bed early!
One of the hardest parts about this time for me is that my creativity has begun to ebb. There is this constant worry and fear of if what you are doing has any point to it? For some reason, I decided to start dabbling in TikTok and was rewarded with almost 100K views on a video plus a significant number of “likes.”
I am not sure I quite get the world of TikTok but it’s a great creative challenge that has me working hard on how I can further utilize the newest platform of social media for my clients in the future.
Farm News
In farm news, the hens are loving their new outdoor pen and have continued to reward us with almost five eggs a day! How fabulous is that? It’s the perfect amount to supply my sister and her roommate, the farm house, my apartment and my boyfriend’s house with enough eggs for all of us. We seem to all be working on overtime so the added fresh protein is a blessing.
Phoebe is loving life as a farm dog, much preferring the outside world to that of the one indoors. More than that, she’s really getting the hang of her obedience skills. She’s got great confidence, most of the time, and has a strong natural tendency to guard her people when she thinks there are intruders. The neighbors poodle is the only foe that we have to watch for constantly but I wouldn’t be surprised if she soon starts to make the transition to being an outdoor dog as that seems to be where her heart is the most happiest. It seems that while she likes being with her people inside, it’s too warm and boring in the house for her.
The horses are wrapping up into great shape and it won’t be long before we start setting them up for barrel training. We took it easy on them, easing them into condition and taking the time to go back and find those holes that have a natural tendency to open up in their training.
I look forward to the next big project on the farm as we finished the deer fencing around the garden. We are one more tilling of the garden away from being able to get all of the planting done. After that project, I wonder if we will start doing some more building for the chicken coop to make better nesting boxes and roosts for the coop before we start to introduce the Novogen chicks into the flock.
Pacific North West Country Girl 
Introducing new birds isn’t too hard if they’re similar in size. Do a “See-don’t-touch” for a week, with a wire pen or cage inside the run or near the coop so they can all see each other but not actually run together. Do it every day for a week then slip them onto the roost bar in the coop at night. There’ll still be some fuss as they work out pecking order but no murderous intent.
If they’re much smaller make a “creep” area where there’s slats that the small chicks can fit through but the adults can’t and do the same thing. For both, make sure the pen isn’t totally wide open either. Have barriers and branches for chickens to run behind and areas where they can get out of sight from other chickens. Make sure there’s at least two spots for food and water.
There’s always some pecking and fighting. But these things should help keep them safe and settled down.
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