The First Post

It has been years since I have attempted to blog...and I fear I am just not very good at it.  However, being the eternal optimist, what the heck, I'll try it again. 

Down on the farm, we suffered a bit of some problems....we seem to have a disease running through our chickens that causes them to be happy-go-lucky one moment, beak down in the dirt 10 minutes later and dead an hour after that.  I have attempted antibiotics, hand feeding electrolytes with an eye-dropper, and various other things and they don't seem to work.  It seems that once a chicken goes down with this, that is it.

Not everyone is succumbing....a few of my Silkies, some of my Americanas...and the first of the latter bunch it struck down was my prime rooster of a new color I am working on.  ~sighs~

At any rate, this, coupled with the season, has kept me away from my normal forums, away from my e-mail, and away from my computer for the last many days.

What other things, you might ask?  Well, it is January in Texas, and unlike you poor, unfortunate Northerners, it means that it is time to get that garden started.

Which, for me, means it is time to set up that extra hoop greenhouse, time to start 1000+ seeds, etc., etc., because next month, people are going to want started plants for their cool weather gardens.  (The only time we can grow things like cabbage and lettuce down here, without it bolting  the very second after it has sprouted, it to grow them in winter.)  But also, in two months, folks are going to want big, healthy tomato plants to start their spring gardens, and I need to be ready to oblige them.

So, that means that my goat forums, my chicken forums, and all of my other forums are neglected, because right now, I just don't have the time to give them the attention.

Please cross your fingers for me over the chickens.  I'd hate to have the entire flock die off and I have no idea what is getting to them.  It couldn't have happened at a worse time, either, when I *should* be planting fervently and not nursing sick livestock.

Well, now I am off to town.  I need paint stripper, PVC clamps and, just for my own enjoyment, some Hosta plants that I want to put in my bedroom window.