There's always something

Years ago, when Steve and I were years-ago younger, we would silently roll our eyes when his mother would sigh, "There's always something." It would be some minor solvable problem, often related to home maintenance, and we found her helplessness pathetic.

Lately - and often - I say to Steve, "Your mother was right, there's always something."

I am much more like a chicken than I care to admit. Last night, for example, Steve and I were bedding down the chicks for the night when we realized the infrared heat lamp had burned out. The feed and hardware stores were closed and supermarkets and pharmacies don't typically carry anything of that magnitude. Oh, what to do, what to do? My inner Chicken Little was watching the sky fall down...

If these chickens were a bit older I wouldn't have blinked. But they're only 4-5 weeks old and I'm not totally clear about their needs. There was a lot of wind, it seemed a bit sharp....

In the end we used the strongest household bulb we could find and added a heating pad that I attached to one wall. I covered three sides of the coop with a heavy tarp to keep the wind from tearing through and called it a night. The pampered chicks settled down soon after and seemed content with the way things were... a bit different, but sufficiently cozy, at least for a chicken.




"The chickens seem fine," was Farmer Steve's early morning report. He had sprung them, they were roosting on a branch they had weighted down from a bush -- I swear they swing on it! -- and had merrily started their new day. We could learn from these guys, I know we could, I'm just not quite sure what!

This afternoon, checking the mailbox for today's supply of junk, I couldn't help but see a substantial limb from our plum tree hanging low by the sidewalk. Chicken Little called Farmer Steve who assessed the situation and ran for a saw. Several limbs had cracked, it seemed, so he was out there for quite a while. My job was to hold down branches and apply some pressure.
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Two household maintenance issues in twelve hours. Both minor and fixable, but you know, there's always something! (I saw you roll your eyes!)