Tues. eve, Sept 23rd… What a lousy day on the Cluckin’ “A” !!!!

This started out as a really nice morning and up until about 1:30 when Vicki looked out the window and saw Princess running out at the hen house. We went out quickly and called her in, but there wasn’t a chicken in sight. We put her in the house and went out to look around and immediately found a chicken laying against the flower bed just off the steps. As I picked her up, I could tell she was in shock and bleeding badly from a puncture wound near her wing and back which made me fear that she had a punctured lung. There was bright red blood at the sight of the wound. Vicki got the stop-blood powder and saturated the area with peroxide and then applied the blood-stop powder. We then put her in a milk crate in the brooding house to rest quietly as continued to look for injured chickens. I found one kicking behind the brooding house and Vicki found one dead in the hen house outside run area. I found another dead one behind the old shed beside the brooding house too. Later, I found the little Bantam lying dead in the yard by the hen house. After getting rid of the dead birds, we checked the injured one in the brooding house, but it had died too. We started looking to see how Princess had gotten out and I found a large hole near the ground that Casey Mae had chewed in the lattice between the pool deck and the lower deck, and Princess squeezed through the hole and went under the deck to the corner where there was a hole she could come out into the yard from. We immediately started fencing off the underside of the pool deck and boarded up every opening any dog could get into and placed chicken wire across all the lattice work panels left to stop any chewing. Now there is no place for the dogs to escape, but it was unfortunate that five nice birds had to die to find those holes in the fence. We think something has been singling out some of the birds, because Vick mentioned that it has been a long time since we saw the two Araucana chickens that looked like eagles, you know, the ones we called Mademoiselle Eaglet and Monsieur Eaglet. I agreed that it has been a very long time since I’ve seen those birds. Perhaps that’s why our egg production has fallen off some time ago. Perhaps the good layers have been plucked off by that damned hawk over time. Well, I know what has to be done in that case. All I have todo is catch him here like last Monday the 15th, when he swooped down to three feet off the ground right in front of me to grab a chicken in the yard. I was looking right at him when he came in under the trees to grab one, but I yelled and swung my arms and ran back and forth toward him like Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone when he used the after shave lotion. He flew up into the tree and then across the yard into the woods and into a pine tree next to the field back behind the house.

Vicki got on the phone and called Herman’s wife and asked if they were getting rid of any more of their layer hens and she said yep. If we were interested……. Just come on down and get em…….. So we did…… and just got home with about a dozen or better new chickens to supplement our loss today. Now I gotta tell ya this time wasn’t as eventful as last time when everyone there was drunk, but it was still a bit interesting. Anyway…… we’re home and the chickens are away and tomorrow is another day.

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Tuesday, Sept 23rd… A day of work on the barn toward finishing..

Good Morning Everyone, from the frosty site of the Cluckin' "A" Critter Farm, here in upstate New York!! This morning we have endured a temperature of 29-30 bone chilling degrees. It sure makes you feel like jumping up on the deck railing and crowing along with the chickens. For some reason, it makes you feel rejuvenated, energized and ready to do whatever you want to with zest and vigor. I love this time of year.

Today, we will do whatever we can to move toward finishing the barn, so we will start installing plywood panels to stop the thirty degree air like we had this morning from entering the barn so easily. We will simply install a board runner at the roof line, under the rafters for the hinges, then cut the eight foot plywood sheets about in half, creating two 24 x 96 inch pieces, install the hinges and then hang them, three pieces to a side. That will close off the ventilation system needed in the summer months and keep the fall and winter air out. We also need to spend an hour or so installing batten strips to the rear door and the outside wall toward the road where we didn’t finish. I’m also going to move all the leftover feed in the Wilson house to the feed room in the barn so it is away from any and all rodents. The Wilson house is rodent proof, but it wasn’t intended that we keep feed in there anyway, so it needs to move to the barn.

We need to get as much done as possible, because this weekend is the Garlic Festival (27th & 28th) and many other events of the fall season, so we want to be free to go to any or all since we gave our entire summer for the building of the barn and Vick’s therapy. NOW IS OUR TIME!

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Monday Eve, Sept. 22nd… We spent the entire day running!!!!

We’re home finally……just in time to put all the critters away for the evening and gather the dozen eggs we were blessed with today. We were able to complete every stop we needed to make and accomplished our goal except for the main reason we went to Albany after Vick’s chiropractor visit. We were called last week about our roof flashing being in and ready to be picked up at Bradco, on railroad street, but when we got there and they gave us the paperwork and instructions to give it to the yard guys out back, they couldn’t find it. Finally the yard man (after numerous trips to the office), said they were going to order it again, because they thought it was loaded on a truck with someone else’s order of steel roofing by mistake. I told Vick on his 5th of 20 trips back and forth to the office that they gave it to someone else by mistake. They seem so un -organized!! Anyway, they are now going to deliver it to us, since we drove all the way there for nothing. That’s cool with me……… as long as we get it sometime. Vick got her copies of Lenore at Kinko’s after a cluster smuck there too. The machine was screwing up the color and blotching it, so they had to change a part in the machine, then it worked ok. Vick made sure they credited her for the three screwed up pictures, then we left happy to have our copies. Next, we stopped at Wal-Mart and got groceries and we did ok there, except, that they were out of the regular 8 O’clock coffee that I usually drink, so I tried the Columbian in the dark brown bag. Who knows…… maybe it will be different than usual and I’ll not be able to say: “Yep!, I should not have bought this s_ _ _ _ _ coffee, I’ll never learn!” I mostly talk to myself but will include anyone within ear shot sometimes, but usually they won’t say a word……… and sometimes they even act like they are deaf or didn’t hear me at all, when include them and I think I’ve done something stupid. I seem to never learn from past mistakes either, so I repeat them over and over. AW…….Come on……people, give me a break……. You know s_ _ _ _ _ means Stupid, don’t make me sound like a bad guy with a fowl mouth on top of being a dumb guy for buying that coffee too. We also stopped at the Lowe’s store behind the Marshall’s store in the Northway Mall on Central Avenue. We picked up the twelve hinges and screws needed for the plywood panels, so we can put them up now, even though we forgot the eye hooks to lock them down. We also picked up the electrical panel for the barn, so I will mount that and install circuits we can use for area lighting to make things a little easier at night out there until it is all installed correctly. That will be easy with all the parts we have hanging around the basement and such.

I gotta vacuum the swimming pool and add the closing kit and get the cover back on it again for the year. Seemed like such a waste to open it and swim in it twice. Hopefully next year we will wear it out.

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Monday, Sept 22nd… Weeeee’re Off to See the Doctor… most Wonderful Dr. of ALL!!!

Yes, we’re off to see Dr. Paster…… the doctor that gave Vicki back her life. Now we just go for a weekly visit, for him to manipulate her and keep her in top notch health after the spinal decompression therapy has done the job of repairing the damage done by her herniated disc earlier this year. She is back to normal, the barn is almost done, the egg production is beginning to climb and all is well on the Cluckin’ “A” Critter Farm. We have some new pictures of Barbie & Boobie, which we snapped as we past them Saturday evening, on the way to Ichiban Restaurant, where we took our weekend family visitors. It looks like Barbie gave birth to a young Boobette, that we will call “BB”. I always thought Barbie was the female counterpart and Boobie the masculine one and seeing Boobie taking BB for a ride on the bike in her (or his) UPS uniform, I think, confirms my suspicions. Oh well….we wish them happiness and health no matter the situation and I’m sure that they will move on to the next phase of their relationship in a mere week or two. Actually it might be sooner, because coming up fast, in a few more hours, we will kick off the official start of fall and Bill A. can’t wait for the Halloween Barbie, Boobie and now BB scenario we expect to come.

Yesterday, Bill, Loraine and Andrew concluded their brief, semi yearly visit with us, which was as pleasant as always, but really short. They really enjoy the peace and quiet afforded them by being able to sleep in a few days, do what they choose to do and go to bed as early as they wish, so it is a kind of healthy break from the ordinary grind of the everyday, fast paced living in East Meadow, New York, on Long Island.

After we leave Dr. Paster’s office, we will stop at a Lowe’s and pick up the final hardware needed to install the ventilation panels at the top of the barn, which will then give us the ability to close off the cold air of the evenings so the chickens and bunnies can stay warm in there. We only have a few simple things to complete now and the barn will then be completely done. We’re looking forward to having the barn for the animals this winter because it will make it so much easier to maintain the animals than it has been in the past. All the feed will be in a strategic spot within the barn, in the feed room, which will be accessible easily, even in the deepest snow storm. I can easily carry feed by the bucket to the duck & chicken house and feed the other animals right in the barn. No more messing around trying to get feed out of the Wilson house, to the duck & chicken house in deep snow. The water will be piped to both locations and accessible from freeze proof hydrants placed at each building, that way we do not have to carry water all winter long, as before. The barn and year-round water will make having the animals much more enjoyable this year.

Boobie took BB along to work today. Boobie is a manly girl, anytime you see her. BB is helping her girlie-Dad deliver a UPS package too.

See.....Barbie is in her housecoat with her air in curlers. She's definately a Lady Girl.

And,  Now what do you think of the lousy Chinese milk scandle you first heard about here on this very blog Monday, Sept. 15th......... since then they have killed more of their own and have thousands more Chinese babies sick and in their hospitals.

Isn't it about time we look at what's going on around us and get wise to these people. They kill and mame their own! They will not bat an eyelash at killing all of us. We need to boycott any and all products (especially food) from their country, allowing nothing from there to enter this country.

 

Sunday, Sept 21st… Top of the Morning from The Cluckin’ “A”

What a beautiful fall day. The sky is cloudless and deep blue, the air is just right and the sun is warming to the bone. It’s just one of those priceless fall mornings that make you feel alive.

Today we will do a little target shooting with the grandson but we are going to throw in a twist for him that he’ll never forget…. A Muzzle Loader. I’ll get the 50 caliber Mountain Rifle down off of the wall in the kitchen and throw some thunder balls across the back yard into the target bank. If he has never fired a true flintlock rifle before I am going to take him back to c. 1800, when you dropped the powder into the barrel, laid a piece of muslin over the barrel, placed a lead ball on top and gently pushed the ball flush with the top of the barrel, cut the remainder of the cloth flush and rammed it all the way to the bottom of the barrel, then sifted a little frizzen powder into the flash pan……… pull the hammer back, put the frizzen cover down on the flash pan, aim and fire. BAAAAAAAAVOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMM ! Such a big flash and huge puff of smoke………… and then the actual ignition of the powder load as it finally goes off sending the round 50 caliber ball to it’s mark. This should be really should be fun.

Later we are going to go to Red’s Diner for the brunch buffet, which everyone raves about. Vicki and I haven’t been there yet, but had been invited by Stanley Maltzman when Vick had her back problem and we couldn’t go, so now we will finally be able to experience it. After that, we will go to the Coxsackie Antique Mall and see what they have before Bill, Loraine and Andrew trek down the thruway heading for Long Island and home. We always go to the Antique Mall as a last function before they're leaving because it is right next to the thruway entrance where they will get on for the ride south. That will be the end of another fall visit for them and I assure you they will be planning on the next mid winter visit as they drive toward home. I don’t blame them. It is so peaceful here and we’re so lucky to have everything daily that they come to enjoy during their two yearly visits. Vicki and I take nothing we have and enjoy for granted. We truly love it all and are thankful for everything.

Saturday Sept. 20th… A brisk, Beautiful, Sunny, Fall Morning on the Cluckin’ “A” Critter Farm!

                     

Today starts a day of relaxation for not only Vicki and I, but Bill, Loraine and Andrew, our family from East Meadow, New York, on Long Island. All are sleeping in as their first form of relaxation from the daily grind of work and college life. Later today will bring……………… who knows what for each? I know Bill will definitely try the fishing…… Loraine will do some serious puzzling and Andrew will simply be Andrew and hopefully mend from the daily pounding he takes from playing college Lacrosse. Vicki and I don’t care what we do since we are not going to work on the barn. We finished the feed room yesterday and can now relax a little bit until we get to Lowe’s, somewhere, to pick up some cheap hinges so we can then install the ventilation flaps near the top of the roof on each side. Everything beyond that is icing on the cake and will be done as we find it, I’m sure. We do have to go to the Rensselaerville, see an art display by Susan Story, Stanley Maltzman’s daughter. We are very close friends with Stanley and had just recently met Susan at the Institute during Stanley’s last art showing during the winter. We finally had the privilege to meet her and her husband Doug, at a dinner party with Stanley and his friend Joyce, at Stanley’s house a few weeks ago.

Anyway, we are going to the art show and then the rest of the day is up to Bill, Loraine and Andrew.

Below are some pictures of the work we completed in the barn yesterday and a few of the dinner at Richie’s house last evening.

Here's where we started yesterday

We finished all the wall studing and was ready for plywood.

Here, all the plywood is completed. The feed room will remain dry and rodent proof.

This is how it looked when we were finished.

Loraine, then Audrey coming down the steps

Audrey & Alfredo the nightclub performers... Anita, behind and Joe, Vick's parents,  at the top of the steps.

Our Grandson, Andrew, the Lacrosse man

Vicki, Bill, Katie, Robin and Andrew with his back to the camera. Caught just a bit of Alfredo in the left corner.

Friday, Sept. 19th… T minus 5 hours, 59 minutes 8 sec until liftoff

This is the message Bill got from me this morning. They will pick Loraine up from work at 3:00 pm in the city and head directly to us at Richie’s house for Friday night dinner. They has become their desire to have diner, the first evening, with Vicki, me and Vick’s entire family, during every visit, (Bill & Loraine have known everyone since they were kids, just married) so this is how the visitation always starts and it shall remain so. After dinner and a chat session while visiting, we will head for the farm where they are dying to see the barn and animals. This shall be a weekend of leisure, fishing, shooting, puzzling and dining.

                                        

Today…… we finish the feed room which we really just started yesterday afternoon and if we finish it today…… then we are going to be in really good position for the coming weeks, because all that needs done to cpmplete the barn is to install 3 plywood ventilation panels on hinges under the lower roofs to close off the ventilation needed in the summertime, and then wait for the freeze proof water hydrants to be installed and then the electric for lights. I feel comfortable enough for Vick and I to spend a little time going to do some fall fest things and we can still easily be ready before the snow flies in late fall. So…… as it stands right now…… we are ready for a weekend of partying & good times with our family!       Whew!!!        About time !!!!