Some of this &...

The MOTH, who is an eminently practical man, informed me today that preaching for one hour was equal to an 8 hour work day.  I think he thought I would find this consoling.  I do not. I am so wiped it is not funny.

It has been one of those weeks though.  One day I may figure out why everything piles up @ once but so far I remain clueless while I struggle to balance dental visits with doctor's visits & trips to the back of for chooks.  Both doctor & dentist are ongoing.  The dr for skin cancers ~ which involves needles... & more needles... an activity I can in no way abide & which stresses me no end.  I prefer dealing with the cleaning & filling ~ though this too will end in needles as some teeth are beyond repair. *sigh*

My quiet hermetic life hates these disruptions to its peace but some things just have to be done & removing the cancers is one of them for I inherited, not a lovely preaches & cream complexion from my English ancestors but, a ruddy Scots one that does not tolerate our Aussie sun well.  The first 2 were right on the temple but cheeks, hands & arm all need to be checked so we are doing the cut & stitch for the next lot when I have the stitches for the last lot removed.  Such fun! Not.

I birthed 5 children sans pain relief  or epidurals ~ anything being more tolerable than a needle of any description ~ & it takes up such swags of time traipsing to & fro when I could be doing something terribly useful ~ like contemplating my navel.

One Egg, Two Eggs...

 I spent a good part of today sitting quietly watching my chickens ~ which seems an insane sort of a thing to do.  However I find chickens restful.  Their soft chucking & delighted cackles when they produce an egg are eminently serene, the essence of a world that is intrinsically right.

However, my Australorps are already laying while the Rocks are POL, so Kate warned me to keep an eye on the Aussies, who are bigger & heavier, because they might hog the food ~ which they did! *sigh* And I needed to be sure the bullying didn't get out of hand because, after all, all these hens are still babies.  They are still learning ~ so much so they didn't realise the hutch was for roosting in last night & knocked the perch down; it is now firmly glued in place! But all my ladies were upstairs waiting to be shut in tonight.  Some were even actually roosting!

However sitting idly, sipping coffee, & watching my chooks scrabble in the mulch meant I was there when Nugget marched up the planking in solitary splendour to scrabble & thump & rattle & roll in the nesting boxes to produce our very first egg!

We ended up with 2,  Namaste also doing the deed, considerably later in the day.  They are a good sized egg, & a pretty, pale buff pink.  Nugget looks like being top chook, which no doubt will please ODD.

A Little Chicken in My Day...

Today was the day.

I dropped the man @ his boat & joined the long queue of cars, trucks, mowers & cement mixers headed inter~island or all the way to the mainland.  It's an hour trip,  bearable if  you have sweeping views of the bay to gaze upon,  stifling if you get wedged between the loos & the bridge, as I was going over.

ODD had agreed to navigate  for me because one of the purchased chickens was to be hers & I get to look after it because, though ODD adores all animals, her lifestyle prohibits owning even a goldfish.

We had several choices of route but as it was peak hour we took the Gateway, then cut across north Brisbane, only slightly less hair~raising than being on my own as ODD talked non~stop, & completely forgot she needed to direct me!  Never~the~less she did indeed get me to our destination.

Now chooks are messy birds & their pens & coops can quickly get on the pongy side but one of the reasons we were travelling all the way out to Mt Samson was because it was highly recommended & Kate, @  Beautiful Chickens, was the only breeder to get back to me & was willing to chat. So worth the effort.  Everything was absolutely spotless & all her birds are in wonderful condition!  I was madly impressed.

We had lots of choices: Sussex,  Rhode Island Reds,  Rocks & Australorps... but in the end I stuck with the Rocks & Aussies.  The Sussex were magnificent birds, large, splendid, stupendous ~ but still growing!!! Actually, so are the Rocks but they won't get that big!

 And all my birds got squashed into just 2 cages despite my having 3 because Kate assured me they would be happier together.  As these aren't small birds I was more than a little dubious but they travelled ok with only the occasional churring from my black girls.  I also got  informed about feed so got a 20 kilo bag while I was @ it.  Why not.  I had the island car to save all that hefting on & off boats.

 The Australorps are gorgeous birds.  Their black is not only glossy but has a wonderful blue/green sheen so they seem to glow.  One of these is ODD's *Nugget*.  The other her choir Mistress wanted named *Namaste*.  These 2 luscious girls are already laying & I suspect *Nugget* will be Top Chook so my chances of eggs shortly is greatly increased.

The Rocks are @ point of lay.  They still have some growing up to do & were reluctant to leave their carrier when we finally arrived home; the Aussies are braver ~ but they all huddled in the western corner  of the coop until the Rocks decided standing in the water dish was the way to go.  So glad I weighted them down but naturally they are now full of mulch & I will need to clean them tomorrow ~ probably several times.

They gobbled down all the food: kitchen scraps; mash & laying pellets but were terribly confused about where to roost for the night.  I had to shove them bodily into the hutch & whether they found the roost or not remains to be seen but they are such calm, happy girls & were chucking away quite mateily  as they surveyed their new home with eager curiosity.

The cats, on the other hand, acted as if I'd brought two~headed grogons home & yowled miserably. *sigh*  This could get interesting.

Counting Down...

At present I have a number of different things sitting in my yard: a roll of small gauge wire; 3 carrier
cages; a treadle feeder; 2 water containers; a bale of mulch & another of hemp...because we are that much closer to these chickens actually arriving.  Tentatively next Friday..?

Tentatively next Friday I will pick up ODD & head north ~ tentatively because it all depends a bit on the money because money is what will make this all go round merrily but just as I had everything nicely on track the bills started coming in, as they do, derailing all my plans.  It is all a bit iffy. If Beautiful Chickens have the birds I want... If I don't completely lose my head & opt for a beautiful Campine Girl even though they are flighty fliers...If I have enough carriers [even though 3 is all I can fit on my back seat]...if  I can't afford the 5 I want can I manage the 3 Rocks I want & 2 cheaper breeds...If ODD doesn't beg for the one bird I just know will be all sorts of trouble... ☺ 

And it gives me something to obsess about just now because we have packed Chile Girl & her bags back to Santiago & saying goodbye just never gets any easier.  After nearly 8 years you'd think we would be used to it  but this is the side of missionary work no~one ever sees.  We are, for all intents & purposes, invisible.  We are not on the field.  We are not the sending church.  So often we find ourselves waaaay, way down the list, especially on short visits because there are so many calls on Chile Girl's time & her funding so much depends on keeping  people  in touch & up to speed on what is happening so it can feel a little as if we've not had any time with her @ all.  I run her to & from boats, put her washing through the machine & hug her goodbye on the jetty in front of strangers ~ which is so not good because I don't do goodbyes well...

Fifteen months then she is coming home indefinitely because her grandparents are rapidly getting older & she wants to invest the time while she still has them.  She will do some study, find some work & eventually, I expect, head back on the field but as yet only God knows where that might be & what will happen in the interim.

...to All who Sail in Her....

Saturday was the BIG DAY. 

 Their service was a lovely mix of traditional & modern, fun & serious & as neither party is very young they were calm & composed throughout ~ & very, very sure of each other.

However I love this bunch of lads more than words can say! They have known each other literally all their lives. They went to the island school together; played soccer & cricket together; & then, as they grew up they stood beside each other as Best Men & groomsmen. T1 was Best Man for OT as OT was for him & all the lads wore something from each of the other weddings where they were there for each other, which I though was super special, really thoughtful & a quiet nod to all the other marriages they represented.

Now we can all get on with the serious business of walking out this marriage before God.

Cluck, Cluck, Chuck, Duck.

 The chook pen landed early Thursday morning.  Our wonderful island delivery man lugged it into the side yard for me where it was easiest for me to dismantle the packages & start the assembly process.  Everything was much lighter to handle than I was expecting & on cue, Chile Girl arrived, still in her PJs & quite unable to resist the temptation of putting it all together.

The first panels went together easily.  Unfortunately one piece of perspex is missing from a window  & the MOTH is still negotiating with the seller to have it replaced. It needs to be done for safety reasons, snakes being way too clever & with an unholy love of fresh eggs!

The assembly process was quite quick.  Everything is preassembled, lightweight & factory made to all fit together.  I am visual & Libby is hands on so between us we had the best of all possible worlds as I could *see* what needed doing & she had no trouble with the doing!  We did need the MOTH  for one or two things & we do have one minor hiccup requiring the roof to come back off so we can string the coop door string through so we can actually open & shut the door. Other than that I am pretty happy with it.

The only other thing is this particular pen didn't come with a wire floor but as that is easily rectified we aren't overly stressed & will just pick up the necessary wire on Monday.  Once that is done  I will purchase the cane mulch as we will do a deep mulch pen & the food & work out where we want the feeder & water dishes.  I haven't really decided what to do about the water.  Chooks need rather a lot of it but are notorious for knocking it over, pooping in it, scrabbling mulch into it & otherwise turning fresh clean water into something very nasty indeed. I have considered a hanging water feeder but there are 2 strikes against this: firstly I don't think there is anywhere really suitable to hang one  & secondly they are prone to green algae & hard to clean! For the present it will be dishes with pebbles in the bottom to make them that much harder to tip over.

My Dilly is also very interested in my as yet non~existent chickens.  Like me, she knows her son will be very interested when he visits.  I have lined ODD up to pick up these birds ~ partly because ODD has always loved her chickens, partly because she has named her own special one already: Nugget, as in Chicken Nugget.  As the girl is vegetarian I can only wonder where her mind goes!  Hopefully another fortnight will see us happily clucking about our brand new chooks.

Arrivals.

The chicken coop has landed @ T1's where I am sure it is being an absolute nuisance, parked as it is in his driveway. It should be here either Monday or Tuesday, which is very exciting in its own way.  Meanwhile the feeder, hemp bedding & bin have all arrived safely some time after the tracking assured me they had been delivered.  The joys of living on a small island!  People seem to think once an item has left the mainland it has somehow arrived here automatically despite the fact we have roads & mailboxes just like anyone else that still have to be located & accessed.

And somewhere in the hoo~ha Chile Girl arrived ~ & departed & came back & departed as she tries to catch up on a life un~lived in Australia.  We haven't seen much of her yet but she is cheerful & the healthiest we've seen her in a while.

Meanwhile the wedding that CG has arrived for inches imperceptibly closer.  I can't wait for the whole nightmare to be over.  The MOTH & I did ours so quietly no~one except our 2 witnesses even knew about it & I find all the drama prone to surrounding these events terribly wearing. Chatting to OT last night he mentioned his fiance's mother has bought 3 new dresses & is yet to decide which one she will wear on the day.  I, on the other hand, have pointed out I will NOT be wearing a dress of any description!  I don't own one.  I will not be buying one specially when I will never wear it again.  I am not dressing up like a twopenny guy for anyone.  I will be modest, seemly & comfortable sans makeup, hairspray & high heels.  And  will be very, very glad to depart @ the first possible moment. Sadly,  really am not the life of anyone's party, not even for something as important & life~changing as a wedding.