How is your day Today, plans and achievements 2024....

packleader said:
How to catch a rooster and lose a hen; or, the saga of a suburban micro farm

Both my wife and I had our happiest childhoods on farms. So, when I heard three years ago that a large chicken farm gave away egg-laying hens for free, I told my wife about it. OK, we got four hens for free and paid $250 for a chicken coop (center picture) the price of which has gone up to $450 in the meantime. Because egg-laying hens live only 2 - 3 years, and we may have gotten older ones anyway, the last hen died a year ago.

I had enough of chickens because I had done all of the work. But my wife had gotten the hang of it. Within two months, she bought two baby chicks although one turned out to be a rooster (bottom left.) Because my wife wanted to have more eggs, she bought yesterday another chick that died within hours. We buried it on our pet cemetery this morning (top left) where a dozen dogs and other pets rest in heavenly peace.

My wife bought this evening two more chicks (top right.) She also found someone who would take her unwanted rooster although I had fallen in love with its crowing. It brought back so many happy memories, but it's futile to argue with my wife. To catch the rooster, she laid out a row of chicken favorites leading into a large box, a la Hansel and Gretel, but no luck. I tried a blanket and almost caught it, but this rooster is a brave warrior (see bottom right.) I checked online my immunization records, and my tetanus booster still covers me.

Eventually, we waited till it was dark and the chickens had gone to sleep. This time I won the game. The rooster is now in a box inside my car waiting to be driven to the new owner. In the meantime, however, the hen had left the chicken coop in search of its mate. It turned out that the hen is a more talented escape artist than the rooster. We searched in vain for an hour in the dark without finding it. Our hope is that tomorrow morning the hen will hopefully find its way back to where the food is, namely the chicken coop.

Last not least, my wife somehow blamed me for all the misfortune. Over the years, I learned my lessons and kept quiet.

View attachment 344672View attachment 344671

View attachment 344676View attachment 344674View attachment 344673

Good news: just before midnight we located and caught the hen, but only after I lost my footing and roled down a slope
Click to expand...
Looks painful! Ditto what @OneEyedDiva said. 🤗
 

I've been out and back in today. Trying to get ahead of the rain here mowing more lawn which has gotten pretty happy with weather conditions. Pollen is still heavy here and these days I get a cough rather than being hit in the eyes and sinuses as in my past.

Mower charge topped up. Time to get back to it. Once the rain hits I think I'll clean up and try a new falafel joint after the lunch crowd dissipates.
 
Good evening Mi amigas/os .... it's past 7.30pm now still sunny and warm like it's been all day.. I got home around 6pm...traffic was horrendous, not quiet like I expected it to be today...

Anyway the day was good, the sun shone, the skies were blue.. my friends and I put the world to rights over lunch.. then had a little walk around the Mall.. and the market.. then had coffee at another place ( I'll post photos).. before going our separate ways. On the way back before I went for my car, I spotted a walk-in hair salon in the high street ..so I took the opportunity to have my hair washed/blow dried and cut....

haircut-may-2024.jpg


I didn't buy much today.. got a lemon and white striped 3/4 sleeve T-shirt from NEXT.. a new Straw sun hat.. and that was about all..except for some Cheese scones from M&S (The Mall was almost completely empty, I can see the death of it soon)...I can't see how those stores can pay their rents with no customers....but anyway it was just a lovely day..

this is where we had lunch...

IMG-4146.jpg

this is where we had coffee...

IMG-4151.jpg

street market

IMG-4128.jpg

empty Mall

IMG-4176.jpg
 
Well my county care supvr just left....it was time for a checkup
on this old fart!! LOL...She managed to call the county and
get my cost on emergency help button system reduced to
zero dollars a month yayay.....and she's going to call about
the palliative care again, cause I have not heard from them...
anyhoo it was nice to have her visit cause I always enjoy
chatting with her....very nice lady.....:)
 
@hawkdon Yay on the free help button system! Free is good.

@hollydolly Looks like it was a good day to be out and about. Your mall looks about like what the malls here look like. I wonder about how the stores stay afloat, too. Scones from M&S? I'm jealous.

Most of the things I bought this morning have been planted, but I just couldn't stay out there any longer. I was going to guess that the temp was 87. Not quite. It's 84 but the feels-like temp is 87.

DD's lawn dude is here. He has three houses to do, two across the street and ours. He started on the blankety-blank monkey grass, but had to take a break. That stuff is tough as nails and has gone crazy growing just this spring.

Next time I'm gonna do it myself with the trimmer thingie from Amazon. Well...not exactly next time. I'm just gonna keep after it so it won't get out of hand again. "Next time" will be an ongoing exercise.
 
Georgiagranny said:
@hawkdon Yay on the free help button system! Free is good.

@hollydolly Looks like it was a good day to be out and about. Your mall looks about like what the malls here look like. I wonder about how the stores stay afloat, too. Scones from M&S? I'm jealous.
Click to expand...
That Mall is not near where I live.. the Malls closer to here are very busy.. ... Over in that town the malls were always super busy, but in recent years they built a retail park close by ( amazingly for a very large town, they must have been about the last in the UK to get a retail park).. .. with big box stores, and I suspect that's what's taken the customer base from the Malls.

another corner of the Malls.. ( there's 2 adjoining)... this was the busiest I saw it...
IMG-4177.jpg


Inside the restaurant/bar where we had lunch..

IMG-4117.jpg

IMG-4114.jpg

more of the street market.. the indoor market was open but most of the stalls were closed, must be closing day Tuesday...
IMG-4136.jpg
 
Nice pics!!! Sadly, many of the malls here in America are floundering too. Much is do to the failing of the basic cornerstone stores (i.e. Sears, Macys, Foleys, Penneys) and the like. Of course the dramatic increase in online buying added to their loss of sales. Another factor is that a few are now just downright dangerous to go to, be it day or evening.
 
Mobilman44 said:
Nice pics!!! Sadly, many of the malls here in America are floundering too. Much is do to the failing of the basic cornerstone stores (i.e. Sears, Macys, Foleys, Penneys) and the like. Of course the dramatic increase in online buying added to their loss of sales. Another factor is that a few are now just downright dangerous to go to, be it day or evening.
Click to expand...
I've heard about the American Malls closing down in the USA..etc for quite a few years, but here in the UK, the Malls until now have been continuing to Thrive. The trouble I think is since the Russian /Ukraine war, the prices of our basic necessities like Electricity/gas, and Fuel, have gone through the roof.. and people have been struggling for a couple of years now trying to make ends meet, and millions are having to use food banks .. so shopping at Malls come way down on the list of priorities..
 
Last edited:
This morning my plan was to clean out my kitchen sink, also do the cabinets
Marcia called me around 8:45 asking if I could come dog sit my buddy boy, Tage. She was picking up a mutual church friend to go to a 10am meeting in Orchard Park{ suburb,south of Buffalo} then going out to lunch
I strolled over around 9:30 let Tage out of the crate as usual he was happy to see me. I spent the next 4 1/2 hrs with him,he 'shared' my lunch
It's been a beautiful, sunny warm day,temps in mid 70's, we went outside in the backyard 3 times so he could run around and chase squirrels
 
In Germany if you turn up at a restaurant on Tuesday (and a lot of other places) you're likely to see a sign on the door that says, "Dienstag ruhetag"--Closed on Tuesday.
 
Last edited:

Back
Top