Hermione and Frederica

It was a wonderful weekend with sunshine and so I ventured down to finish the chicken coop stoop.    I turned to look at her and she continued making these incredible squawking sounds and so I asked “Hermione, have you laid an egg?”

I clambered up from my knees and peaked into the coop, looking in the obvious corners but I saw nothing exciting there.  Then I looked behind the door and sure enough, there was a brown egg a little larger than a robin’s egg.  I picked it up and found it very hot, it had only been out for a few seconds.  Imagine the thrill of having the hen produce 2 months early (according to some blog which I now feel is unreliable).  As I praised the hen her faithful friend Winifred stood by while all the rest of the sisters were out chasing butterflies.  There was nothing for it but to give the two girls some bird seed as a reward.

I then hurriedly finished the stoop and then began to clean out the chicken coop.  Now that the hens were going to produce it was imperative that the coop be fresh, clean and ready for nesting.  The nesting boxes had been used as a roost for the last month so I had to pull them out and give them a thorough scrubbing and then raise them up off the floor so they could be used for proper nesting.  I carefully laid fresh straw in all eight nests, patting it down and making a little nest for the Henriettas’ comfort.

There was no further action on Saturday but lo, on Sunday I had the thrill of seeing Hermione up in one of the nests, making a commotion, trying to settle herself down.  I carefully shut the door so she could have privacy to concentrate.  An hour later Mother said “there’s that special squawk” so I hurried down to investigate but there was the hen, still nesting.  Another hour passed and I heard the announcement.  Again I went down and lo and behold, two eggs!  Winifred had hopped up and nested in the same nest as Hermione!  Well, the girls were getting the hang of it.

Now the question is, how quickly will the eggs get up to normal size, and when will the remaining 24 begin?  And somehow I have a feeling I will run out of egg cartons.  Now what was a wishing for?

Vacation, Staycation, Workcation

A vacation is supposed to be a restful break from work but even when one travels it seems that there are pressures brought to bear to make for stress, things like catching planes, scheduling glitches, and then squeezing so much into each day that fun sometimes becomes a chore.  Then there is the “staycation” where one stays home and hopes to lounge around and just enjoy home life.  Instead chores around the home crop up, family arrives to be entertained, and before you know it, it is time to go back to the grind.

And then there is the deliberate “work-cation” where one plans to work through the vacation.  My experience with this first serious workcation resulted in overwhelming relief at returning to regular work and giving the safety moment “know your limitations when doing home repairs”.

No, we did not have any accidents or even any near misses thanks to all my efforts as ground crew, cleaning up daily all the shingles, nails, papers and wires that were coming off the roof as we tore off the old shingles and proceeded with building up the new roof.  Despite careful planning, timing the work to coincide with the typically nicest two weeks of the summer we were forced to deal with 3 weeks of excessive heat, two days of high winds and several bouts of thunderstorms.  So much for planning against Mother Nature!

One night I woke from my sleep to hear my mother calling me.  This is something that has never happened before so I hurriedly put on my glasses and ran to her room only to find her standing in the middle of her room with a towel and bowl, desperately trying to catch water which my startled eyes saw streaming out of the light fixture in the ceiling.  Good heavens!  All through the house the rain was pouring in through the light fixtures.  I kept Mom there holding onto a bowl while I ran around getting plastic table clothes laid on furniture, then running for yoga mats, pots, bowls and anything else that would hold water.  I finally managed to get back to her room to lay out plastic, garbage buckets and towels to save her bedding. 

Since we were only replacing the front roof my own bedroom was dry and I gave her my room to sleep in while I staggered down to the basement to sleep.  I was awake most of the night though as it is such an uncomfortable bed and finally I dragged myself upstairs to discover Mom had decided to sleep in her own bed so myself sacrifice was for naught.  Woe is me.

That was the high drama of my two week workcation!