PRACTICAL PARSIMONY: Head first into chicken poop

Monday, March 14, 2011

Head first into chicken poop

Face plant
Yes, and I got a mouthful. Not nice. Not funny. It is not a pretty picture today, but this is my world today.

Chicken chores
As usual, I put the cage with three chickens from inside the house onto the porch, went to get their breakfast and water, and fed them in their pen. As usual, I locked them in the pen for a bit. Thelma was already on the nest before I got there with their food.

Surprise
An hour or so later as usual I went out to let the girls out in the yard and collect any eggs. I put the one egg in my pocket and decided I had left a container from the day before. As I leaned over to retrieve it from behind their chair, a broken plastic one, I leaned on the chair. Bad mistake. The chair arm broke as I barely leaned on it. The momentum of bending over kept me going. The other hand was outstretched with the container in it.

Bad, bad form
I fell on my face in about 10" of leaves that had been thoroughly pecked and scratched by the hens. As I fell forward, my mouth was open in surprise and letting out a little "ooof." Yes, my mouth was open when I hit the ground face-first. Immediately, I spat out leaves. When I got up, I shook out my hair, spitting leaves all the time.

I cannot believe I ate this stuff
My hands were filthy, so I hated to put fingers in my mouth to rake more bits out. I shook my hair one last time before coming in. By this time, I was crunching stuff in my teeth. Nasty! I washed my hands and brushed my teeth. As I looked at my teeth, I could see blackness in my teeth.

My clothes were filthy. At least I had not yet bathed, brushed my teeth, or combed my hair for the day...lol. At least I am grateful as I crawled around, trying to get up that my clothing was already in need of a wash.

Pth..pth...thirty minutes later, I still have bits of poopy leaves in my mouth. Under the top layer of leaves, it is dirt and mulch sized pieces! Eeeek! I actually quit worrying about radiation!

Your turn
Anyone had a mouth of freshly-turned-by-chickens-leaves/mulch/dirt in your mouth today or ever?

4 comments:

WendyMarch 14, 2011 at 3:50 PM
I feel bad for you, but the image you portray is just too funny!
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DmarieMarch 14, 2011 at 4:18 PM
um, no! but I can almost taste it from what you've written here!
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LindaMarch 14, 2011 at 5:21 PM
Dmarie, actually, so can I....lol...after three teeth brushings. The experience will be funnier tomorrow. Just now, I had to slowly chase Thelma and Louise around the pen to get them out of the pouring rain and into the house. Louise, let me catch her. But, I had to entice Thelm in with cantaloupe. I dropped a homemade unwrapped bar of homemade soap right where they hunt, peck, scratch, and poop beside the porch.I am soaked and exhausted. Whew!
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Simply Bonkers!March 15, 2011 at 6:33 PM
Fortunately NO! I'm sorry you had to go through with all of that.
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Okay, hoping the annoyances have gone away.

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The Cast

Fancy is my favorite hen. She is one of the three youngest hens I adopted. Because she is so gentle and friendly, she may be the one I rescued when she was being pecked to death after she could no longer stand. She got to live in the house in a box. Sometimes, I let her sit in my lap while she was convalescing. Now, she comes to sit in the swing with me, cuddling up to my body like a cat or dog. She died in February 2012.

Fancy follows me begging, complaining, needing me to do for her. She talks to me in various voices. She allows me to pick her up and carry her. When she became an adult, her head was a darker red and her body was light brown. Around her neck were tips of black feathers. It appeared she had a necklace of jet around her neck. When I showed this characteristic to a friend, he said, "Oh, you have fancy chickens and plain chickens."

Chessie has a broken toe. I broke it! She had a habit of jumping really high and almost sticking. A raccoon ate her in October 2009.

Thelma is the blonde. She is also the largest hen and the alpha hen. I suspect the gigantic eggs are from her. She often squats and presents herself to me. She is top hen, but I suspect she knows she had better be deferent to top feeder of the flock--me.

Louise is the auburn-feathered hen. She looks like the true Rhode Island Reds in pictures. She is almost as large as Thelma. Some days I suspect she is trying to be top chicken. When I got Pepper, I found out Louise is the Alpha hen.

Pepper came here from the same home as the first four. We were discussing putting red pepper on their food, wondering if it really would increase egg production. Pepper is the only name we agreed on. She is terrorized each day by Louise. Even after the worst was over, she was and is still filled with terror and very wary.

Linda is owned by four hens. They allow her to fetch for them. She loves them dearly, so she allows them to boss her around. Linda comes out in the rain to perform chores for them and make sure they have food and water. She begs scraps from all sorts of places to make sure they have fresh fruits and vegetables.

Parsimony is not a vegetable

Parsimony is extreme care in spending money. Stick around and learn about my random thoughts on accomplishing goals economically--dumpster diving aka safari, gleaning, do-it-yourself, sewing tips, recipes, and whatever is happening in my life.

Okay so maybe "parsimony" is not your thing. How about thrift, frugality or just plain saving money? I try not to go the tightwad route as that seems to imply others will suffer from my habits.

Some of my not-spending habits have very much been a part of my lifelong habits. Other habits are newly acquired and are an extension of my lifelong not-spending habits.

I am very imaginative when it comes to substituting or making instead of buying. I will tell you about making a heater for the chickens' water. Not one dime was spent since I had everything I needed right in my basement.

Practicality must rear its head alongside parsimony. For example, I will use the dryer in bad weather or because of allergies in the spring. But, I will not wash clothes in a tub as long as I have a washing machine or can find one.

You may hear more about my four Rhode Island Red hens than you care to hear. They lay delicious brown eggs.

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Monday, March 14, 2011

Head first into chicken poop

4 comments: