Still Amongst The Living

 Yes, I am still here.  I haven't been mashed or givin' up and run off to the circus.  Not yet anyway.  I have really wanted to post several things lately, visit your blogs and leave comments but for some reason my crummy Internet out of town has deteriorated even further these past couple of weeks.  Most evenings I can only get on for a few minutes before it throws me off and then it's just sort of hit and miss getting back on.  I did go down to a local Books a Million one night, where I got an excellent and fast connection but, to be honest, I usually just don't have the energy to do that.  I have even given up dinner on a few nights, preferring to just shower and go to bed after a quick snack.
There is enough steel work on this job to keep 2 or 3 welders busy but so far they seem to think I can do it all, so they have been throwing it on me pretty heavy and with no help to boot.  It takes a little ingenuity to hang some steel by yourself but I have managed it with the help of some equipment.  I finally got a small crew to help this past Friday though and we made good progress.  So, I've been a little discouraged and disgruntled also.  Many on the job feel the same way as I do and are reconsidering their choices of employment.  It has just become a lot of bullshit to put it simply.  They want everything fast, cheap and right.  Well, like the old saying goes, you get to pick two of those items, not all three.  Those of us who've been with the company for years want to turn out a good quality product but they make it darn near impossible nowadays.  I do not want to participate in this lifestyle anymore.  I want to get out before my body is completely worn out and I am discarded by the company as I have seen them do so many before me.
 But, I did not mean for his to be a rant, believe it or not.  I have just been so tired lately and down and when I get down I don't know what to post.  This lifestyle is SO not like what I was doing at home and SO not what I want that it has been a bit of a shock to my system basically.  I am managing to still eat good although not my own food for the most part.  There is a wonderful organic grocery store in the town that I go to for many things so that helps some but it's not like being at home.

 So, just a little update on what is going on here.  The chickens are all doing well.  These Barred Rocks and the one little blond one on the far right are the four that we hatched in the incubator back in the early summer.  They are doing great.  The roosters are very handsome.  The one hen (Scooter) is doing well but looks a little funny.  See, way back when they were bitties, one of the older hens got a hold of Scooter's head and just tore that little chick up.  they are mean that way sometimes.  We had them in a separate pen but Scooter must have managed to get her head through the wire right when the big hen walked by.  It was bad but we nursed her back and she is fine now.  Well, for the most part.  She doesn't have feathers on part of her head and sometimes seems a little slower, mentally, than the others but they look out for her.  At least she doesn't run backwards anymore though.  That's why I started calling her Scooter.  It must have messed up something in her wiring because she would just be going along and all of a sudden throw it into reverse and take off!  She doesn't do that anymore though.

 I have managed to get something of a fall garden planted.  I planted a few things on the deck in pots as an experiment.  This is a lettuce mix.  So far so good.

 Fall is definitely here now.  Our normal first frost is around October 26 but it came about a week or so early this year.  We have been keeping a fire going on some nights when it dips into the 30's.  The mums are all blooming so pretty.  These are all plants that I picked up last year or so when Lowe's puts them on clearance towards the end of the season.  I got most of them for a quarter or fifty cents.  Yeah, they look like hell then but the next year they always come out real pretty.

 I have got broccoli, lettuce and cabbage planted in the garden.  That is one last bell pepper plant still hanging on there.  My leeks and Egyptian onions are doing really well and I have been harvesting a few here and there when I'm home.

The broiler chicks are doing well and growing fast but these are no 6-8 week birds.  I guess they'll be ready at about 10-12 weeks.  These are very active and have completely decimated the grass we had planted in their run so we have been letting groups of them out in the chicken tractor to get fresh grass.  We still have a couple with leg problems though.  Although the majority of these are just fine (it seems) I don't think we'll get these again.  And on a very sad note, my little Katsu died.  Katsu was the little exotic chick that came with these in the order.  They just send you one for free.  Katsu was a sweet little chick and would have probably been very pretty.  I nursed her back to health after these hybrids just about stomped her flat once and she rebounded well.  She was fearless and would jump feet first right in the middle of a pack of these even though they outweighed her by a substantial amount.  She got sick with something though, it may have been thrush and couldn't get over it.  I tried to nurse her when I came home but she was too weak and didn't make it and then I had to leave Jack to deal with it and a messy house because I had to go back to work.  I was upset to say the least.  I have already expressed my intention at work to retire after this one.  I will not live this kind of life anymore, finished house or not.