Things are going well in Thornton. Things have been a whirl wind here. It is hard to believe that we have been here for almost a month now. Lexie is to the point that the baby is safe to have at any time. Her official due date is 2 weeks from now however at least two of our other kids came 2 weeks earlier that their due dates.
Last Monday I made up some new nest boxes for the chickens. The chickens seem to like them, we haven't had an egg anywhere but in a nest box since installing the boxes. Most days we collect 4 or 5 eggs and two days were able to get 6 eggs which was most likely one egg from each hen. Unfortunately or 6 egg days are most likely over for a while because one of our hens got sick. It is hard to tell what is wrong with her. I treated her and the rest of the hens for lice and mites even though I couldn't find any on them. The treatment was mostly so that I could feel like I was doing something. Between my reading and talking to chicken owners I have been learning that dying is just one of those things chickens do regardless of their circumstances. With that said I can't keep my mind from reeling through ways to improve their current pen and living conditions. I do feel satisfied that I have them set up well. We'll just have to pick a spot in the yard to be the chicken cemetery and move on.
The hens inspect their new nest boxes.
I keep going back and forth about whether or not I want to do a batch of broiler chickens. I have just enough time to get them raised before our departure date but don't have a clear cut economic case for doing it in as much as the little fluff balls sell for a $1.40 each in the quantities of which I would buy them and the feed they eat costs about $15 a bag. With whole chicken selling in the stores for often less than $1/lb it is really hard to have the cost of ownership come out against the cost in purchasing from the store. The main reason I would like to raise them I know is just because I find few things more fun than getting a box of day old chicks from the post office. The main justification I can give myself is that I think it would be good to learn farming as a skill for purposes of self sufficiency and even though I plan to use commercial feed for this batch I may eventually move on to growing my own grain. There is also a harder to pin down component that has something to do with freedom. I am not sure if it is freedom for me or freedom for the chickens. It sounds dumb but it seems like a person would be happier if they ate meat from an animal that was happy while it was alive. Oh yeah that does bring me to another little quirky thought I have been having on the subject which is actually abstractly related to the freedom issue. I have been thinking that if I am going to continue in a carnivorous diet I should own up to the actions and process through which the meat is acquired. As I have been looking at history (the few little tidbits I remember from the times I was awake in class) and thinking about the way our social structure works it seems that it is a far to frequent tendency of man kind to simply turn their heads and ignore abhorent action. If it is moral to end an animal's life at 10 weeks then it is moral for me to do it. If I find myself uncomfortable with the idea of the killing than I should not have actions which promote the act. Over all right now my thought is that it is just fine to kill and eat animals. I just think I need to kill a few myself to make sure. If I find it too internally bothersome then I think I will stop eating meat.
With the belief that babbling is OK in a blog I am going to continue a little more. Yet another concern and possibly the arch concern I have with respect to making the few simple clicks of the mouse which would direct 25 little peeps to my pad was mentioned in the opening of this entry. I am expecting a baby anytime! Which is one of those things that is in fact more satisfying than even a box of little chickens. It would not be good if I were trying to deal with setting up pen area when I was needed for other things. It seems lately as if I need four or five of me to cover all of the things I am trying and wanting to do. It is very nice to not have a rigid work schedule but it lays extra responsibility on me in terms of finding a balance for life. It is so easy to use work to mask ones priorities, having lowered that shield I have full accountability for any action I take. A minute working is a minute away from the family, a minute with the family is a minute away from work, a minute with work or the family is a minute away from church responsibilities ... I imagine most of you 30 somethings and others know exactly what I am talking about. With the grand trio of family work and church it is hard to know if chickens make sense. I have of course found the link of food storage and make up things to myself about having the kids take care of the chickens as a way for them to learn responsibility. However so far my experience with myself is I am too impatient and particular to let the kids have a major role with the chickens and with respect to the food storage the reality is that my food dollars go farther at a grocery store with my current infrastructure.
On the other side of the coin life does not seem to be a process of things being convenient and timely. Most goals worth attaining are goals which are reached through up hill struggle and effort. I believe in the thought that tomorrow never comes. A person only has today in which to work. That is not to say that one should not prepare for the future but it is to say as they said in ancient Italy one should seize the day. Every result we reap in the future will come from action in the present. The habit of putting things off is the habit of letting future opportunity slip away. The delicate balance is that a persons skills and resources go only so far and one wants to operate just at but not over the maximum of their potential. Another item to think about of course is that in that action of trying to squeeze every fragrance and breath possible from life it is important to find some relevance in the actions. When I die I expect that the there will be very few actions of my life that really mattered. I have had several things which seemed huge and all encompassing in their moment fade to meaningless with the passage of only a few years. While on the other hand I have had very simple actions of which I thought nothing at the time grow to bring me satisfaction later. A simple but illustrative example of this is found in a row of wind breaker trees I planted in the field of the Thornton house when I was 14 or 15 years old. I remember when I planted the trees my only thinking through the process was revolved around distaste for the task and excitement to blow the money I would earn from the planting at the arcade in town. I planted the trees, earned a reasonable amount of money for doing it and had the entire bundle squandered on video games before the night fall. Now almost 20 years later coming back to look at the trees I am filled with a mixed emotion of pride and guilt. Pride for having been so instrumental in the placement of the trees and guilt for knowing the mindless manner in which I performed the task. Thinking of the trees makes me think I want a life that is filled with more things like planting the trees and less things like squandering the money at an arcade. In the end the net result of ones accomplishments and impact has very little to do with their level of comfort or enjoyment in the process of pursuing that accomplishment. I think the secret is to give one's self a clear enough picture of where they are headed that they can dig inside of themselves to find the new strength needed to continue that journey. Lately I think I have been letting things cloud my vision. I think I am headed the right direction but in a stumbling lost kind of a way.
Grandpa enjoying some time after church with the kids.
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