Lingering on the Window Sill...

Hey ya’ll,

Well, my basement is dry as toast since I bought the electronic pool cover pump and installed it in my basement. Thanks Denise, for the idea and the loaner and thanks for helping me pour the concrete basin, Dave! This last downpour was the real test and it works just fine. I have been on flood patrol in the basement ever since September and I can’t tell you what a relief this is to be able to sleep through an all-night rain…

Dear Grace is still doing well. The hole in her foot is healing slowly and that is what we want; so that it continues to drain… The hallux stub is still wanting to face forward so I suggested that we clip the tendon and see what happens…less invasive, faster recovery time. We can always go back and amputate the stump if we need to. What this bird has gone through…she is such a trooper. And FAT AS A PIG!!!! Finally! She’s probably around 1650 grams by now and tonight is the first night since January 6th that I am fasting her. I haven’t told her yet. Every time I get up to go in the kitchen, she’s watching me from atop of her crate…waiting.

“What? No supper? Are you kidding me?”


The chickens have been having lots of fun free-ranging during the day. Of course, it looks like someone has offered to help me rake, but only here and there and then they forget to pick it up. Oh well. Raking leaves in a pile with chickens around is an open invitation for adventure…the pile never lasts very long. Oh, those three warm days last weekend were yummy, weren’t they? Oh…spring, please come on!


Johnson, however…doesn’t care much for the chicky-poodles anymore. This is HIS yard, dammit, and he has been rude to them quite a few times; hissing and honking and charging them…running the poor dears all over the yard. (Looks like I’m going to have to take away his credit card…sorry:)

So, I had a heart to heart chat with Dick the other Day. “Dick,” I said, “are you gonna let this big doofus chase your women’s all over the yard? Stop being a chicken and stand up!” Well, last weekend during one of the nice days I was sitting in the swing and I just happen to look over my left shoulder and here comes Dick, flying full-tilt bozo at Johnson with his feet outstretched and BOOM, hits him right in the chest which sends him reeling backwards! All it took was once and Johnson has decided that the yard is big enough for them after all…

One of my jobs as goose-mom is making sure Johnson has good food to eat and since the grass hasn’t started to grow, I cut up some romaine lettuce for him and set it out, only Church (the dead cat that visits from next door) likes, you guessed it…lettuce.

“What, no mung beans this time? Ugh…how boring.”


“Hey! Wait just a stinkin’ minute! That’s MY dinner!”


And one of my jobs as chicken-mom is to make sure they get fun things to eat like niblets corn, except…you guessed it, the cats like it, too!


And then Johnson has to try it out…the chickens never got any…


This here is Gwen, a cat that belongs to some friends. She licked a frog and started tripping and has never been the same. I’m not kidding…you can’t make this stuff up.


This here is Peanut, Gwen’s housemate. He had to have his tail amputated Wednesday and I hope he is recovering well… He is one very cool kitty.


Dick and Jane’s tribute to Michael Jackson…


And Buffy messing around in the honeysuckle…


Face lingering on the window sill last week…


“Oh great, chicken carry-out again? Can we please have pizza next time?”


Well, I’ve had chicken babies in my living room for a month (could this be why I don’t have a husband:) and today, they graduated up to the big chicken chamber! Of course, I have the heating pad on them and have gone up a zillion times today to check on them… I must say, it’s so quiet in here now…and it smells so much better! Pictures to follow!

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog. As always, please feel free to pass it along and if you can spare some change, we sure would appreciate it. I may have to make that awful decision not to rehab this spring until my economy gets better. My phone is not ringing for programs and I can’t take on any more than I can feed…it’s costing me about 500 dollars a month. Ugh….m.

paypal link www.hawktalk.org

Dingleberry's to Doppelgangers...

Hey ya’ll,

Well, dear Grace is home from a week long stint in hospital. To recap; Dr. Martinez had to remove the hind talon on one foot and reopened the bottom part of her other foot to allow for the infection to drain. While there, she had daily bandage changes, along with that horrible antibiotic that stings her so much, but the staff fell in love with her and gave her scooches and made mushy-mushy noises to her. The stub where the talon was amputated is still very swollen and the other foot is draining like mad, as it should. All in all, Doc is satisfied with her progress. We won’t be giving her any more antibiotics, so we will just hold our breath and hope for the best.

When I brought her home last night…she quoted from Winston Churchill. “Why stand when you can sit?” Then she inhaled about 12 mice-mini nuggets!


This taken just a few minutes ago. ‘Grace’ aka – ‘Rocky Balboa’It’s absolutely AMAZING Grace can balance so well with her feet bandaged like that.I’m doing good to walk on my two feet. You should see me sliding down the bunny trail…


Please continue to keep her in your thoughts and prayers. She is filled with the spirit!

One of the down sides of being a new chicken mom is…dingleberry patrol. Yep, sometimes, you have to clean their butts… Baby chickens, like all other babies are sort of sloppy in the personal hygiene department, so you have to take care of business every now and then when those little crusties get in the way.

I had a bit of a fright the other day while on DP. I had taken one of the babies out and I was holding him with my right hand and using my left hand (don’t worry, it’s gloved) to break up the offending clingon. Sometimes, it takes two or three pretty stout breaks with your thumb and forefinger to pull it off and of course she was squeaking her head off from the sheer humiliation of being yanked on in her private parts, when lo and behold, a long stringy piece of something fell out of her butt and hit the floor! I shrieked, “Oh, my God! I have pulled her innards out!!!” Her short chicken life flashed before my eyes and then in horror, I looked at her butt expecting to see blood and the rest of her guts coming out, but there was nothing. I put her back in the brooder and took a paper towel to investigate what hit the floor and it turned out to be only a very long poops. The dingleberry had plugged up the poop chute! Who knew? I’m learning through humility over here.

What a chicken butt is supposed to look like…nice and clean!


This here is the front end. I believe this is the Dark Brahma


This is the Egyptian Fayoumi rooster I call, ‘Dick’. Get your mind outta the gutter! I named him after Dick Dickerson, who raised him from an egg. Handsome, eh?


No, Barbi hasn’t been hit by a bus, she’s just taking in some rays…


Another Rod Stewart doppelganger that was at the Newnan chicken show… He’s all growed up, but I wonder if he still has dingleberry’s???


I am in agreement with Johnson’s opinion of the snow today. We are BOTH over it. Seriously.

This is my friend Dass. Fashion is on the back burner when you’re a guest at my house in the winter. The main objective is to keep from freezing to death. We had a pajama party and watched movies and swilled wine. It was good to catch up!


Thanks for taking the time to read my blog and please feel free to pass it along to others. If you can shake some quarters out of the couch cushions, we sure would appreciate adding them to the birdie-bank. You can go over to www.hawktalk.org and use the PayPal link for your convenience! Thank you very much! And Grace thanks you, too…she told me so….m.

Monteen McCord
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POB 130
Holly Springs, GA 30142
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