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dragonlady7via http://ift.tt/1W1an40:
i am so tired
i am so tired
i am possibly having some kind of autoimmune reaction or something, my face feels horribly sunburnt and kind of itchy, and is red but i mean, that’s my complexion, nobody really has noticed
i also feel like i got punched everywhere but i literally actually did, my niece loves me gratifyingly but violently
the only consolation prize (well, apart from having a yurt platform nearly completed) is that I have all these lovely AO3 comments waiting that I haven’t really read
people never really react like I expect and that’s lovely
i really want to write the snippet that’s percolating in my head about Iolo Arana being the only school buddy ever to go home with Poe on break from the Academy but I just don’t have the time or attention
cut for farm life observations and discussion of animal death (mostly, miraculous not-death)
There’s a hawk that very badly wants to take some of the egg hens and has made several attacks over the last couple days. My sister witnessed one yesterday; a hawk landed directly on a hen, but was chased off by one of the roosters, and the hen ran off and later she couldn’t find any with any sign of injury. (She was amused to note that the unsuccessful hawk flew off and was harried by crows, who are not particularly pals with the chickens but who have no truck with raptors.) Today I witnessed another attempt– I heard an almighty ruckus; the Eggmobile is across the creek from the yurt site, and with no leaves yet on the trees I can see it, so I looked, and I saw a big hawk flying away, but it had nothing with it. Later there was another ruckus, and my sister went and checked, and again there was no blood, no feathers, no sign of a success. She said hawks can’t carry a chicken off; if they succeed, they’ll kill and eat the chicken very near to the same spot. We debated whether the chickens would chase off a hawk on the ground; there’s no doubt they could outfight it. Raptors rely on speed and can’t really fight on the ground, but chickens can’t fly well; the roosters’ spurs are designed to be used from the ground. And the chickens can be aggressive; just picking one up to show to visitors, my sister has been attacked by other hens. They can’t hurt a human much, but they’ll leave marks.
I heard the chickens making a ruckus yesterday, and looked and saw that there was a hunting hawk on a thermal nearby. They did it again, and I looked, and they were flipping out about a small flight of crows conferring in the trees nearby. The crows were not a threat, but the chickens are not particularly bright. Sometimes turkey vultures go by, but they’re even less interested in the chickens. But the chickens are wisely afraid of just about anything flying, and they’re not really wrong.
My sister has come around somewhat; most egg producers don’t like to have too many roosters in their flock, as they’re useless for eggs, but if you pasture-raise, it turns out the roosters tend to get killed at a higher rate. They do actually defend the hens against predators. So they’re not totally useless. Just, some of them are real assholes.
This is all probably relevant but I don’t know how.
And oh, the sow who farrowed has adjusted to motherhood. At first they thought she had a dozen piglets, as best they could count; one was injured and died pretty much right away, a second died in the night– possibly of cold, possibly of just not being born quite right, it’s not uncommon and a large litter is often just too much for a sow to really support, so it’s sad but not unexpected– and yet today there are still a dozen living baby piglets. So possibly the sow is magic, or possibly the piglets are just very wiggly and they had not counted them correctly yesterday. The sow has learned already how to care for them, and they’re visibly already fattening up. So that’s a hopeful sign.
i am so tired
i am so tired
i am possibly having some kind of autoimmune reaction or something, my face feels horribly sunburnt and kind of itchy, and is red but i mean, that’s my complexion, nobody really has noticed
i also feel like i got punched everywhere but i literally actually did, my niece loves me gratifyingly but violently
the only consolation prize (well, apart from having a yurt platform nearly completed) is that I have all these lovely AO3 comments waiting that I haven’t really read
people never really react like I expect and that’s lovely
i really want to write the snippet that’s percolating in my head about Iolo Arana being the only school buddy ever to go home with Poe on break from the Academy but I just don’t have the time or attention
cut for farm life observations and discussion of animal death (mostly, miraculous not-death)
There’s a hawk that very badly wants to take some of the egg hens and has made several attacks over the last couple days. My sister witnessed one yesterday; a hawk landed directly on a hen, but was chased off by one of the roosters, and the hen ran off and later she couldn’t find any with any sign of injury. (She was amused to note that the unsuccessful hawk flew off and was harried by crows, who are not particularly pals with the chickens but who have no truck with raptors.) Today I witnessed another attempt– I heard an almighty ruckus; the Eggmobile is across the creek from the yurt site, and with no leaves yet on the trees I can see it, so I looked, and I saw a big hawk flying away, but it had nothing with it. Later there was another ruckus, and my sister went and checked, and again there was no blood, no feathers, no sign of a success. She said hawks can’t carry a chicken off; if they succeed, they’ll kill and eat the chicken very near to the same spot. We debated whether the chickens would chase off a hawk on the ground; there’s no doubt they could outfight it. Raptors rely on speed and can’t really fight on the ground, but chickens can’t fly well; the roosters’ spurs are designed to be used from the ground. And the chickens can be aggressive; just picking one up to show to visitors, my sister has been attacked by other hens. They can’t hurt a human much, but they’ll leave marks.
I heard the chickens making a ruckus yesterday, and looked and saw that there was a hunting hawk on a thermal nearby. They did it again, and I looked, and they were flipping out about a small flight of crows conferring in the trees nearby. The crows were not a threat, but the chickens are not particularly bright. Sometimes turkey vultures go by, but they’re even less interested in the chickens. But the chickens are wisely afraid of just about anything flying, and they’re not really wrong.
My sister has come around somewhat; most egg producers don’t like to have too many roosters in their flock, as they’re useless for eggs, but if you pasture-raise, it turns out the roosters tend to get killed at a higher rate. They do actually defend the hens against predators. So they’re not totally useless. Just, some of them are real assholes.
This is all probably relevant but I don’t know how.
And oh, the sow who farrowed has adjusted to motherhood. At first they thought she had a dozen piglets, as best they could count; one was injured and died pretty much right away, a second died in the night– possibly of cold, possibly of just not being born quite right, it’s not uncommon and a large litter is often just too much for a sow to really support, so it’s sad but not unexpected– and yet today there are still a dozen living baby piglets. So possibly the sow is magic, or possibly the piglets are just very wiggly and they had not counted them correctly yesterday. The sow has learned already how to care for them, and they’re visibly already fattening up. So that’s a hopeful sign.
