The hens had an outing yesterday.

 

Owly is the first to head over to the raspberry patch.

It’s looking really good this year. The winter’s heavy snow cover gave the roots a deep soaking this spring.

 

 

There are masses of fruit, which are just beginning to blush a hint of red.  Owly was disappointed to find that the berries are not yet ripe. Although chickens seem to eat everything, they will leave green fruit on the vine. Or, at least mine do, as there are plenty of other things that are better to forage for.

 

 

Owly and her friends are waiting for that moment of bursting red ripeness. As am I. Raspberries are too precious to share with the hens, They won’t be on free-ranging when it’s raspberry harvest season. Enjoy your time out now, girls!

 

I discuss how to manage chickens and a garden in a lecture that I’ve created for garden clubs. Check my schedule. Many clubs welcome non-members to their programs. I’m already booking into next year. If your club would like to engage me for this talk, contact me.

I’m not a modern minimalist. I like books on the shelves, art on the walls, and a knick knack here or there. But, live in one place long enough and stuff accumulates. Your life changes, your taste changes, what you use changes, and yet those things on the shelves stay put. Not only do these objects collect dust and clutter the home, but for me, they also clutter my mind. There’s something freeing about letting things go that one no longer needs. The hard work of life is to do this with the intangibles – prejudices, assumptions, grudges and fears – but it isn’t so hard to do with things. It may sound trite, but when I jettison the stuff that’s physically cluttering my space, it serves to open my mind as well. For example, when I donate a box of books to the library book sale, I feel like there’s room in my brain for new reads.

A few years ago, I had an excuse to purchase a lot of delightful things to use as props for

. My editor and I discussed future books in the series, and I scoured eBay and flea markets for cheerful chicken tchotchkes. Then my editor was fired and I was handed over to an editor who had no interest in me or my writing. (This happens all too often in publishing.) I was left with boxes of props. I like all of these objects, but they’re weighing me down. They’re part of a project that is now defunct. They need new homes and so I’ve slowly been selling them off on eBay. Yesterday I sold an egg timer for 99¢. It didn’t make me me much money (I believe that I paid more for it when I purchased it) but it made me happy to see it go. Someone is going to enjoy it, and I have more space on my shelves. And in my head.

Yesterday I listed one of my favorite finds – picnic plate holders.

 

There’s a place for the plate, a cup, and a handle. How useful is that!

 

Not to mention charming.

 

One person’s clutter is another’s necessity.

 

The auction listing is on eBay. These plate holders will ship out in a flat rate box, and there’s room in it for more. If one of my HenCam readers wins this auction, I promise to fill the box will other chicken-themed fun objects. Just let me know with a note at checkout! (Sorry, but I only ship to the US.)

Have you jettisoned any clutter recently? How did it make you feel?

A dog’s hind leg has a joint much like our knee. It’s held together with a cruciate ligament. Lily tore hers. This causes pain and lameness. When this happens to little dogs, all it takes is rest to heal it. Big dogs require surgery, which has become a rather standard procedure. The difficulty comes in the rehab. That requires total rest for months.

As with so many things that our animals go through, it’s up to us to make the decisions. It’s rarely any longer a question of Can I fix it? but Should I?

Cruciate repair is major surgery and in order for it to work, the dog must stay off that leg – almost no movement – for a couple of months. This means being confined to a crate and hand-walking outside to do her business. Lily doesn’t understand rest. She believes in work and rules. Her job is to make sure that the UPS truck drives away (she is always successful), to watch for predators, and to chase things that should not be on the property, like vermin and great blue herons. Most importantly, according to Lily, her main task is to always, always know where I am. I work at home. My office is on the second floor. Lily’s job is to be where I am. That entails stairs, multiple times a day. I tried confining her to an x-pen, and providing bones to keep her occupied. She ignored them. I tried keeping her in the office when I left. Not a happy dog. I tried carrying her up and down the stairs. She weighs 50 pounds. My back ached and she was miserable.

I gave up.

Lily says that she is fine on three legs. She can do the stairs. She can go outside to pee, on her own, thank you very much. Lily has figured out how to conserve her energy and to rest. On her own terms. On the porch.

 

 

And under my desk.

 

We’ve reached a compromise. If I’m going down the stairs for only a few minutes, I close her in the office. She knows I’ll be right back. She’s no longer allowed to jump on the bed because that’s too hard on her hind legs. She has adjusted to sleeping on her pad on the floor. She uses a ramp instead of the steps outside. On my part, I accept that she needs to walk around the yard, sniffing at scent trails, and that she would prefer to do her business on her own and not on a leash.

Lily is twelve. I can’t see putting her through surgery and months of rehab. My vet, Dr. Craig, understands Lily. He says that the only way she could have success with the surgery is if he sedated her for three months. That’s dangerous to do to a dog, and besides, is that the life we want for her? Dr. Craig and I agree that it is not.

Lily was slowing down before this injury. She figured out how to be Lily despite old-age aches and pains. Now she’s figured out how to be Lily despite one damaged leg.

What do you need Lily? I’m listening.

DNA update: The swab test didn’t get enough material for the lab to work with, so I had Dr. Craig pull a blood sample. We’ll have results in a couple of weeks.

 

Here’s a man who’s not shy to show off his two loves.

I live in a town so small and quiet that we don’t even have a traffic light. Recently, though, I’ve been stuck in a few traffic jams.

I stopped to let this fox cross the road. By the time that I got my iPhone out, it moved into the woods and continued on her way – she’s heading up the road towards my backyard. So far, though, I haven’t seen this fox on my lawn.

 

 

This mother mallard and her six ducklings stopped both lanes of traffic. See them heading under the guard rail? There’s wetlands on the other side of it. I should learn by now to have my camera at the ready! Sorry for the poor quality of the photo.

 

 

I had more time to take this photograph of the wild turkeys. They saunter. They do look like extras from Jurassic World, don’t they?

 

The mallards and the turkeys are mostly ground dwelling birds. They travel in groups. As much as I like seeing them go from here to there, what I don’t want is for them to stay put on my property. Their droppings can contain parasites, and because of the size and habits of these wild birds, when they visit they leave a lot of fecal matter. I work diligently to keep my hens’ pens clean of manure. Manure management is the primary way to prevent internal worms in your flock. If the hens free-range where these wild birds have foraged, they can easily pick up worm eggs. This has been the case for a friend not too far from here who have had a large flock of turkeys take up residence in the woods behind their house. My friend’s coop is immaculately clean, but they still get roundworms. Another reader, in Florida, has a similar problem with feral peacocks.

It’s not easy to treat on-going infestations of worms with poultry. There are no approved drugs for laying hens. (Beware of “Rooster Booster” – it’s marketed as a drug that can control parasites, which it does, but it’s an antibiotic.) People do use OTC drugs (in the USA, unlike in European countries, you can purchase these at feed stores without a veterinarian’s prescription.) However, not all drugs work on all worms. If you’re going to go the route of chemical treatment, have a vet do a fecal exam and recommend the right drug for the species.