Do we have a visitor?

About 6 weeks ago we added chickens to our yard. Hoping for better luck this time around ... so far, so good. (Don't mind the fact that the temp hasn't even dipped into the teens yet for more than a few days.)

Jari built his dream chicken coop. Dream might be pushing it, but he built one he had been wanting to build. It is relatively small and will be portable. Move from one spot in the yard to the next come summer.

At some point we are hoping to see eggs. That is the main goal. The even bigger goal would be keeping the birds alive long enough to have a possibility of seeing eggs.

In the meantime, the coop leaves us shaking our heads quite frequently. Before the days starting getting much shorter we just had a heat lamp in there for the feathered friends. Now they have several lights. One a timer to give them 12 hours of daylight and stimulate that marvelous egg production. Every day the heat lamp would be off. Yes. Off. He would go down and turn the bulb 3 turns and on it would magically work again. Every. Day. A new heat lamp resides in the chicken coop and it is working fine. My question was this. How on earth does a light bulb unscrew itself every day?!

Yesterday the washer and wing nut were both gone off the top of the feeder. Both. Gone. We really don't think our feathered friends are that good!

Either someone really doesn't like our poor birds or maybe the wood we used to make the coop with was from some other worldly inhabited place. I don't have a clue. It is just downright strange. Or there is always another possibility. We just have the smartest chickens ever.

Thank goodness we are no strangers to the strange.

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It is Friday morning again. Another Friday. I really like this one.

Yesterday was my lovely day off for the week ... a great way to spend Veterans Day.
Kids were off school and able to sleep in. As for me ...

* The alarm still rang at 5:15 for a 6:30 staff meeting
* Day Off School = Dentist and off we went for 10:00. I think I could really like the
   dentist. I sat in the waiting room for 2 hours and read my book. I should go again ...
   just to read. I didn't have to pay them anything yesterday. Therein lies the reason for
   my joy. Had they told me what I owed them instead of say "we'll just send you a bill",
   my mood may have taken a dive.
* Target. Tia is a teeth grinder. Yuck. The sound is horrific. I did it for years myself
   and wore a mouth guard. Our insurance doesn't cover them so off to Target to buy
   one that you can form fit yourself. Will see if it helps.
* Anna did all the driving ... and I only grabbed on to a grab bar once. Just kidding.
   The roads have been blown clear by the beautiful wind and she did just fine.
*  In the past week when the whipping wind was feeling downright cold, I had visions
    of a move to Tahiti flitting through my head.
*  Grabbed my egg cartons, my dryer lint and my dental floss ... and started filling a
    bag for dipping fire starters.
*  I think I managed 2 loads of laundry.
*  Sweet and sour meatballs for dinner. Not. The pineapple was gone. That's what you
    get when you don't look in the cupboard first and someone likes pineapple around
    here. Maybe next time. The meatballs were good. They just ended up with gravy and
    potatoes instead.
*  The camera ... my boys are using it. They have their orders. It must be back in my
    hands by Saturday morning. I need it.