As it’s the first of a new month – rabbit, rabbit, everyone.
Actually it was my son away at college who said this (texted it to me) this morning before I had a chance to even think about saying it. He wins the point for this month. Well done, sweetheart.
Our chickens are getting braver and braver each day. This morning when I let them out, they followed me in a row to the back door and yesterday we even found some of them (the juveniles from last year who are now full-fledged adults) in our front yard. Just be careful of those hawks, guys – please stick to the bushes.
Right now we are all in a holding pattern, the snow is slowly melting (but not enough for us to muck out the coop yet) and our new batch of chicks are not due to arrive until early May. This weekend, we’ll make the hawk protector tables, but until then, it’s waiting, waiting for the snow to melt, the grass to grow and the sun to warm.
In the meantime, I’m going to add some entries to my “Living Tiny in a Big House” series that I had started earlier on this blog. It’s based on a newspaper column series I wrote years ago where I documented my journey of cleaning out our house from top to bottom. When was finished I ended up getting rid of over 5,000 pounds of stuff that we didn’t need. 5,000 pounds! How does that even happen?
But, there is nothing like clearing out a home after someone has died to make you realize, we all (I) hold on to waaaaaay too much stuff. (And it seems to have slowly returned to our house.)
My sisters (who know me well) are very aware that I am a pack-rat. I hold onto things for security and sentimental reasons. I hold onto things because the kids might need them some day. I hold onto books because someday when I have the time I *want* to read that story. I hold onto things because I *know* how much money it cost to purchase and even though we don’t use them anymore (ski helmets) it would be a shame to just give them away.
But as much as I like my “stuff” I don’t want people to go through my things when I’m gone and make decisions like – “you know this is really a piece of junk, we should just toss it” or laugh at me because I have sentimental things – like saved feathers from Jan Brett’s prized Polish hens which I had framed.
So while I’m in a holding pattern for the outside flock and coop, I think it’s time for me to pay a little attention to our indoor flock and coop – and why I hold on to so much stuff.
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Wendy Thomas writes about the lessons learned while raising children and chickens in New Hampshire. Contact her at [email protected]
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