Officially Empty Nesters! Oh, and Turkeys are Jerks!

I am not old enough to have my baby turning 20 years old tomorow!   I'm not old enough to have a 26 year old, either!  And before I get hollered at for not mentioning my poor, neglected, misunderstood middle child, I'm not old enough for her to be 23!  So, there you go!   I'd like to think of it as my amazing children growing up, rather than me growing old.  Ha!   So, Abby made plans, I think in late June or early July, to be moving out.  I think she thought we weren't going to "let her."  But as she's over 18, we didn't have much of a choice.  She had all the plans with her friends made and seemed to have thought of just about everything.  What could we do but advise her and help as best we could.  She has a great head on her shoulders and has always been very good with money, so I don't think we have much to worry about.   Now that Abby has moved out, though, we are officially empty nesters!   First time in 26 years that we are all alone in our house on a daily basis!  While it's odd to not have any of the kids around, it's also kind of nice!   At least for now, Greg and I are enjoying being all alone and not having to worry about closing doors or being quiet!  Ha, ha, ha!  

On another note, Greg had his last chemo this past week!  YIPPEEE!!!!  His "travel pack" of chemo emptied for the last time on Saturday.  I must say, he really hated that thing!  I can't even imagne.  I hated it and it wasn't even connected to me!   Just imagine having to have a "fanny pack" attached to you 24/7 via a long tube connected to your arm.  You certainly don't want to accidentally get it caught on something, or that's going to rip right out of your arm.  It makes my stomach tumble just to think about it.    His oncologist gave him the option of having his PICC line removed, but he decided it was better to keep it a while yet, as there's still going to be blood tests and scans, etc., and it's much easier to use the PICC line than to have to have an IV stuck in his ("very tough") skin, and veins that are probably in even worse shape with more chemo and radiation over the last three months.   It's not too big of a deal to have the PICC line, as there's nothing we need to do for it, except wrap his arm in plastic wrap (and vet wrap) when he takes a shower.  Not a big deal at all in the scheme of things.  

He's had a hard time with chemo during this most recent cancer attack, but he's still handling it better than I ever would!  He tries to do as much as he can around the house, but after 15 minutes of mild exertion, he needs to sit and rest for a bit.  He just doesn't have the energy or stamina he's had in the past, which is completely understandable.  The other issue he has with this chemo is mouth sores.  They've reared their ugly head again.  He has his "magic mouthwash" but it doesn't completely cure the issue.   I feel bad for him, because he really wants to be able to do more, and it really bothers him to see me working full-time and then doing so much around the house.  Most of the time I don't mind it, but like every other human on this planet, I occasionally have my melt-downs.  It happens.   

One of the things that normally helps to keep me calm are the chickens (and geese and ducks).   A couple months ago, when we added four chicks to our flock, we also added two turkeys!   I don't recall the breed, but they look like wild turkeys.  

They're very cool looking and are fairly friendly.  The only problem is that they don't want to go into their coop at night!  For about 1-1/2 weeks I've had to grab them off a low tree branch and put them into the coop when we go to close them up at night (usually around 9 p.m.).  That wasn't so bad, except when our neighbor had to do it for me when I had to take Greg to the ER!  Poor Jessica!   She wasn't exactly thrilled about having to do that!

If that wasn't bad enough, the last two nights, the stupid things have flown up on top of the chicken coop when it was time for bed!  Seriously?  What's up with THAT?  The first night, (Saturday), I was able to grab one and then had to get up on a ladder and literally push the other off the coop with a push broom!   So, we got them safely in bed Saturday night.  

Wouldn't you know it, once again, last night, the stupid things were on top of the coop again!  I happened to be watching out the patio door and saw how they did it.  They jumped onto the little coop, onto the window sill (the window was open), and then up onto the coop!  Oh, geeze!  So, last night, I was again able to grab one, who managed to scratch my arm pretty good with his claws.   It started to welt right away like I do when the cats scratch me, and was bleeding slightly.  But I had more important things to do than worry about the scratch, and that was to get the other stupid turkey off the roof of the coop!  Greg came out to help me.  I was on the ground this time, with the push broom, trying to get the stupid thing to fly off the roof.  He finally did, and we were able to coax him into the big coop.  This was the first time that everyone was in the big coop overnight!  I was a little concerned, but they needed to figure out their "pecking order" and who sleeps where at some point.  

I let them out early this morning, because I was concerned about how they fared overnight.  The baby chicks are getting bigger, but they're still quite a bit smaller than the full grown chickens, so I was more worried about them than anything.  Everyone was just fine this morning, so I'm really hoping that the turkeys will just go into the big coop without me having to chase them off any roofs!  If this keeps happening, we are going to have to clip their wings sooner than we anticipated.    As for my scratch, I washed it well when we were done, but it still itched (again, the way it does when a cat scratches me), and it was still welted.  I slathered it with some triple antibiotic ointment and that seemed to help.  It was a little red this morning, but it hardly hurts at all now.  So all is well.    If anyone has suggestions for names for these two jerks, I'm all ears!  We don't know if they're male or female, and they look so much alike that we'll probably never know who is who, but still, they need names!     

Just for fun, here's a few more pics of our flock.  These are our Guineas.  The bigger one in the back is the male we got two years ago.  He had four mates, but they became casualty's of the highway (Guineas like to roam, and aren't quite smart enough to look for traffic).  The one in front we got when we got the turkeys and chicks.  We didn't know if she was female or not, but took a chance.  We got lucky (and so does the guinea! ha, ha) in that she's a hen, and he's not as much of a jerk as he was when he was all alone.   They are always together.   Oh, the Guineas need names, too!   Any thoughts on that are welcome, too!

The geese and ducks and a couple of the chickens just hanging out.   

And one more of George (our Naked Neck Rooster) and a couple of hens wandering about the yard.  

Hoping bedtime goes smoothly tonight!  

Blessings to all!