Another Year, Another Celebration

Another year has gone. We have now lived in our Queen Creek area home for two full years without falling in a fissure.

We are truly blessed and prospered exceedingly.

And the Lord was with us; and we did prosper exceedingly; for we did sow seed, and we did reap again in abundance. And we began to raise flocks, and herds, and animals of every kind. - 2 Nephi 5:11

As most of you know we have a ferocious dog. A terrier that is meaner than...well...a stuffed animal? Sparkle XXII is a Yorkshire Terrier. She is the cutest Yorkie this side of Oz.

It was a difficult decision when we brought Sparkle home three years ago. My wife and I are not animal people. We love to garden, but we don't love animals with their dirtiness and smelliness and well, you get the idea. But the kids begged. They pleaded. We found that Yorkie's don't shed. They are less likely to cause allergies (one of the people we talked to went so far as to call them hypoallergenic). So we gave in. We figured that was all the animals we'd ever have.

Not long after last year's Fissure Fest we received 17 chickens and a rooster from our neighbors who were moving. Free chickens? How could we refuse? We don't yet have fences on the property, so we built an enclosed coop for them. It has chicken wire all around it so as to protect them from the owl that sits on the neighbor's house at night. Now if I can just finish the coop this year.

With these 17 chickens, we got about a dozen eggs a day. The kids sold the eggs and made a little money for themselves that they are using to save for something special, even if Ma and Pa lost money on them overall. They have been a great way to teach responsibility.

The chickens lived happily, even if they had a rough year. We gave away the rooster so that my wife would actually eat the eggs we got from the hens. Then as it got hot, we lost another five of the older hens. And then there is the Shaniqua incident.

Shaniqua was a Plymouth Rock chicken (black and white stripes). It was one of the few names that we remembered when our neighbors gave us the chickens. For some reason the other chickens didn't like her. We think they were racist. They pecked at Shaniqua until we could see her veins exposed and pulsing with each of her weak little heart beats. To protect her, I built the infamous "box of shame."

The box of shame is a small five foot by one foot by one foot chicken wire cage that could be put over any one chicken giving them enough room to not go crazy but allow them to be separated from the other chickens. The chicken could still scratch at the ground, have a place to roost, be fed, etc. Shaniqua was safe, but shamed in the box.

We went to re-introduce her in the flock when her wounds healed. The others still didn't like her and caused serious bodily harm. She was again placed in the box of shame. We found a new home for her with the people who bought our neighbor's home, including the coop where she used to live. And, she has been happy in her new old home laying an egg every day or so ever since.

So we have been down to eleven hens in our flock since Autumn, and they have been producing about a half dozen eggs a day because some of the older hens have stopped laying and egg production had gone down.

On New Years we brought home five more chicks. These new chicks were put in the garage in the box of shame that had been modified into a brooder.

And these chicks stank. As soon as it got warm enough, they spent most of their days outside. This past weekend I finally finished their new home under the coop and they moved out of the garage. The new home is temporary, as it helps them to become integrated into the larger flock, which they should do in the next weeks. YAY! No more smell in the garage. My wife was was so happy. I was so happy. We even had a party at Chick-Fil-A with the kids to celebrate. A very happy celebration indeed.

On the way home, we stopped at the feed store to pick up a new watering trough for the growing young chickens. And wouldn't you know it, as soon as I got in the car, middle daughter told the others that the store had some cute little polish hens in the store.

That's all it took. My wife has a soft spot in her heart for those little chickens with their little chicken afros. So, the rest of the family went in, and I was begged to get five more. And they are back in the garage.

This year we also added six fish - two of which are still living - and two shrimp to the Walker's marvelous one-acre farm.

Post note: In other animal news, we've killed six scorpions - three of which were more than three inches long. We've made little progress with the gophers, although we've found that fire ash is a deterrent.