Goodness, It's Been a LONG time!

I'm so sorry!  I didn't realize how long it's been since I wrote in here!  We're doing OK, I guess.  Life has been difficult in ways I can't describe, but it's still going OK.  Jesus is watching over me, and I know that He has awesome plans for me!

Not much has really been going on since the camper blew over.  I've been working and helping to make changes to what I do at work.  The changes in my job have been incredible, and I'm so happy to be able to help this company prosper by bringing them into the 21st century when it comes to marketing!  I've been working on their Facebook page a LOT, and it's really helping to boost sales!  I LOVE the fact that I can be on Facebook and get PAID for it!  LOL  Not only that, but I've started a Pinterest board for our company, so I get to spend time on Pinterest and get paid for it, as well!  Again, it's really helping to boost our business, and that's what's so awesome!  My boss (the owner of the company) is quick to recognize that on-line marketing like Facebook and Pinterest are where the future is, and is happy to have me in charge of them!

As I said, not much is going on.  However, it's been a LONG time since I had a chicken story (or two), so how about one now?  Seems like a good time!

A couple weeks ago, I was at a store in our area called "Farm & Fleet" because I needed to pick up some sand for my truck (I need the weight in the bed of my truck during the winter so I can get some traction in the snow.  I usually pick up 400-500 pounds of sand every year and then we put it in the garden in the spring).  This particular store also carries farm supplies, so along with the 450 pounds of sand, I picked up 100 pounds of chicken scratch.   When I was done getting my supplies and was out the door (with a very nice young store employee to help me load everything), I heard a woman ask me if I had chickens.  I turned, and there was an older woman, who told me a story of her father passing away, and they needed to find a home for the chickens, geese and ducks that he had.  She told me that the Holy Spirit "told" her to turn around as she left the store.  When she turned around, she saw my cart with the bags of chicken feed!   Now, mind you, we were down to three chickens, one duck and one goose (Larry -- our female goose -- fell prey to a hungry fox about three weeks ago, so Rufus was now all alone, too.  (African Geese mate for life, so this was a BIG problem for us and I was concerned about Rufus and how he would handle not having his girl around.)  We weren't going to get any more chickens or geese or ducks until spring, but when this woman approached me with her story, well, what could I say?

To make a long story not too long, I made a deal with her to take the pair of geese (African geese, just like Rufus!), five ducks (two Rouan ducks -- which look a LOT like Mallard ducks -- and three Pekin ducks -- really pretty white ducks).  We also took 15 chickens from her!    I was worried about how Rufus and Leo (the duck) would react, so wanted to keep them separate from the new poultry.  Greg used some wire fencing and split the chicken coop in half so that they could get to know each other through the fencing.  

Turns out I had NOTHING to worry about!  The new flock was put into the coop, with Larry and Leo on the other side, and it was VERY quiet!  Larry and Leo were so busy checking out the new folks, they hardly made a sound!  I KNOW they were happy!  After all, Leo had gone a few months with no one around who understood what "quack" meant!  Rufus had been without Larry for just a week or so, and I'm sure was still sad, and there was no one around who understood what "honk" meant!  (Not only that, but these geese mate for life, so I'm sure he was quite sad without Larry.)  We still had the three chickens, and they were on their roosts when the other chickens came in, but they were quite curious, too!

We kept them segregated for two days, and kept the new poultry in the coop for three days, before letting them out.  That way, their new home "imprints" on their little brains and they know where to come back to when they've been let out.  This is pretty much standard in the backyard poultry industry.

So, after three days, Greg opened the coop door to let all the poultry out.  Everyone came out and hung out very close to the chicken coop door. They stayed in a big group, and seemed to kind of follow Rufus and Leo around, even though they didn't go far.  It was good to see them all together and made me feel good, knowing that Rufus and Leo were happy again.  

I'll post some pictures of the new poultry in the next couple of days.  In the meantime, just wanted to let you all know that we're doing OK, and everyone's just fine.   Hope that the same is with all of you! 

Love, Peace and Prayers! 

Julie