holeYou know how I try to find an image to fit my title each post? Well, while roaming around the web trying to find a hole image, I ran across some interesting information that led me down the rabbit hole (no pun intended, but definitely appreciated) for a while. Did you know that trypophobia is commonly known as the “fear of holes”? These various phobias that I find out about are just fascinating to me. Trypophobia is really a fear or disgust of clusters of small holes, which could manifest for some people because, “clusters of holes may be evolutionarily indicative of contamination and disease—visual cues for rotten or moldy food or skin marred by an infection, the researchers theorize.”  You can read the entire article I found, if you are so inclined, here; however, I would caution you against searching for images using the phobia’s term, some of the photos are ghastly! Why are we talking about holes? Let’s move on….

img_3954.jpegToday, Sue began the arduous task of digging holes for the supports for, what I am calling, the flying buttresses on the coop’s covered run. Digging in and of itself is difficult because our ground is so incredibly hard, but becomes arduous because that hard ground is full of huge rocks! She ended up having to dig holes twice as wide as needed, just to get the rocks out of the way. Four out of the six are either completed or begun… sometimes overnight soaking is necessary.  She had a great deal of help, or maybe more like many offers of help that became simply nuisances, from the chickens, ducks, and geese. Once they started finding little yummy tid-bits in the dirt piles, she was overrun with assistants. Some of them falling into said holes in their eagerness to get at the dirt piles. Silly little things. I wish I was around to have videoed some of that!

We may have to end up digging a hole with the back-hoe very soon, as our eldest goat, Mr. Taco-George has been experiencing some coughing issues, and now has gone off his food. We’re not exactly sure what is going on with him, (his coughing has stopped completely) and our attempts to find a large animal vet that works with goats has come to naught. I’m hoping that he can pull through, but it’s not looking very good these last couple of days. He has aged significantly over the winter; turning very, very white and slowing down a great deal.

We also recently lost another hen. The little black hen that we had put in the brooder area to recover from a hurt wing was just never really able to recover.  She passed in the night Wednesday. Now we have a duck that is limping around, but showing signs of improvement and also one of the Three Sisters has been looking a little peakéd. The Three Sisters are part of the little flock that I brought over when I moved, so they are over three years old now. So difficult to believe that!

thank-you-300x200Guess that puts us up to date with the goings on around here. Not sure at all what the weekend holds. Well, I know I need to take eggs to Tom the Baker in Bisbee – other than that, your guess is as good as mine. We’ll fill you in Monday evening. Until then, as always~
Thanks for reading!

IMG_3956.jpegToday’s Weather: Well, the overnight low wasn’t as bad as it had been; in the higher mid 30°’s this morning. The weather app on the phone says it’ll be 27° tonight, NOAA says 30°. We’ll just have to see. Currently, at 6:11 p.m., it is 49° with 28% humidity. No rain on the horizon. Sunrise today was at 7:15 and sunset at 5:48.  We went ahead and covered the garden anyway, just to be safe. So far we are doing a good job sheltering it from the weather phenomenon. Took a photo just to share with you.

Egg Report: Catching up on the week’s numbers…Tuesday – 2 duck, 21 chicken.  Wednesday – 1 duck, 20 chicken.  Thursday – 3 duck, 24 chicken.  Friday – 2 duck, 16 chicken.

img_3952.jpgCool Thing: This last Sunday, we were blessed to be able to fulfill a small portion of one of our goals. Our church has been helping out some of the local families who are struggling due to the government shut down. We were able to provide some of our organically raised meat birds to these families… I believe we were able to donate 7 birds altogether. I had to laugh when one of the mom’s asked me, “Do I have to clean it?” Luckily I was able to let them know they were really just ready to defrost and use. The photo on the left is the sweet, smiling face of one of the youngsters taking a couple birds home. He has some allergy issues and so all of their meals are prepared at home, from scratch – including chicken broth. Mom was very happy to get some good meat! Our Outreach Co-coordinator texted me this photo on Tuesday and it just made me feel warm and happy all over. Thank you, God, for the opportunities you have given us!