Stricker Cirque Farm

Finishing touches

The kids are finally better today and so I got the "I'm bored!" comment multiple times today.  I ignored it, as usual.  I did offer solutions later in the form of cleaning up messes they made or giving them a broom.  The workers finished their portion of the house today and it looks great.  I need a guy to come lay the final shingles to the portion of roof they added to the Summer Cottage Time Capsule(SCTC) and when I sent Thadd a picture of it today he said, "Now all it needs is a deck."  For those of you with young children who may be in the market for a pimped out playhouse in a few years, let me know.  I'll give you a really good price!

Adding to the roof

Brett lost a bolt that helps hold the lock in place and I did something I try very hard not to do.  I threatened him with something I likely could not follow through.  I told him he was not allowed inside until he found the bolt.  In my head I was fully prepared to give him a blanket, pillow, and the dog for company as he slept outside from not having found the bolt.  He was outside crying and scouring the ground with tallish grass for the bolt.  After about thirty minutes of hearing him outside, still whining, I joined him.  After less than a minute I found the bolt and he returned it to his sister.  She locked up her playhouse and turned off the air conditioner.  Brett walked up the stairs to the house with puffy eyes from all of the crying and a red mark on his cheek from where the goat accidentally bonked him.  It was a baby goat and sometimes they can move their heads a little crazy.

Cherry Blossom practicing her Cirque routine
or maybe she is dead....

Speaking of goats, Cherry Blossom decided to have a nap on Charles today.  I'm fairly certain they are born with Spidey(as in Spiderman) abilities and they are found in places you wouldn't usually imagine. Since I am a member of a few goat sites, weird goat sleeping spots are actually quite normal.  I was quite impressed at how cozy she was and completely relaxed and asleep.  Charles, being twenty-eight and all, doesn't mind a thing.  The goats and even the kittens pounce around on him without incident.

At chicken bedtime I happened upon my once injured chicken.  The one who was grabbed by something and escaped and I treated as if she had an impacted egg?  Yeah, her.  Well, tonight I was inspecting her wounds and was over joyed with her healing.  Before I set her down I felt something rough on the underside of her body, along her breastbone.  I flipped her over to find another spot healing up nicely.  It was a four inch wound that was rather deep like the one on her side.  It was healing and the scab was spanning the length of the cut with some skin growing over the top of it.  After the many baths and blow dries that I did to this poor chicken I never discovered her serious wounds.  I think the warm baths likely helped to clean out the wound and the oral vitamins to help her recover, but I think it was only God who save this little chicken.  She must be a real prayer warrior.  If you saw her in the flock today you would have no idea she was that sorry little injured chicken who lived in the chicken nursery for almost two months.

This is the original wound I found,
I didn't take a photo of the other one.  My phone
was inside...shocking.

Today I checked the incubating eggs and turned them for equally cooking.  When I candled them, they all seemed to be doing very well, except for one.  One of the eggs has a crack.  I can't figure out when the crack happened, but from the looks of it, the baby chicken seems to be developing fine.  In a few days when I candle the eggs again, I will check on its development.  If it has stopped growing, I will be forced to throw it away.  I am always sad to throw away an egg that stopped developing.  It reminds me of the many woman in this world who struggle to become pregnant and lose their babies or the pregnancies that fail to develop and the fetus dies or aborts itself.  I find it amazing how simple things like chickens eggs can increase awareness of the things going on in the lives of my friends.

I am thankful for the simplicity surrounding me that weaves a beautiful story. (Day 155).  Goodnight Friends.