Finally Some Major Rain!!! Back To Work, At-Home Treatment of Sick Chickens, A Perfect Salad

From Ktvb.com weather

Finally Some Major Rain!!!-
We have had a lot of "split storms" in Boise recently The way things are laid out here, we get a lot of storms that make a V in the valley. When they hit here they tend to split to the west and east and miss the middle of the Boise valley. Where I live. It stinks. Lots of rain in the mountains, foothills, east to Twin Falls, west to Oregon. Zippo here. It has been so dry and smoky here! Finally on Wed. we had a little rain in the morning, and a major thunderstorm came into town about 6 p.m. Lots of much-needed rain was expected in those few minutes, but we only had about 15 minutes worth. BUT in the middle of the night we awoke (about 12:30, I was sound asleep!) to a MAJOR thunderstorm, with tons of lightning, and a long lasting downpour. It even shook the windows. Happily it also filled up my 55 gallon rain barrel:) The air smells really wonderful since then, with deep blue skies. I'm sure this helped with the forest fires.  I checked with the news and we received between 1/2" and 3/4" inch of rain. It was such a great relief, settled the smoke, pollen and gave everything a good drink!!! We haven't had to water since then...

Back To Work-
Sadly my stay-at-home summer is coming to an end. I'm back to "work" on Monday. I've gotten lots of projects done this summer- deep cleaning closets, eBaying/Craigslisting extra items, painting, gardening, thrifting, you name it. I still see all the undone projects, but I have to remind myself there are these things called weekends! While I am extremely grateful for being employed, and all the benefits that go with it, it's a very stressful work environment. I work with about 85% high poverty kids, which gives me a very complicated student body to work with. Lots of behavior management, in a kind way:) Anyway, it's back to school for me. You'll see a few less posts, but I'm thinking about y'all!!! And wishing I were home. Let's see there's canning coming up, freezing, drying.....

At-Home Treatment of Sick Chickens-
I've written about my Chicken Hospital set up before, and I had to set it up again this week. I went out Thursday morning to find a droopy combed, very lethargic chicken. Ellie, my sweet old retired hen. I've never seen a droopy comb before, and her coloring on her comb was off too, purplish. She seemed fine the day before. I brought her in and treated her for worms, and hydrated her. Worms are a common culprit here. I wormed the whole flock. Yesterday morning she was wheezing a bit so I suspected an infection. I had Tetroxy HCA-280 soluble powder on hand, but she wasn't drinking much. She's ate yogurt with wormer, but was still really droopy. I kept her inside the rest of the day. She's a real sweetheart so I hoped to be able to pull her through. I got her to eat some soft bread yesterday morning, then I gave her some watery homemade applesauce with the Tetroxy, and more later, which she ate. I washed her bum for good measure:)  I brought her in last night, repeated and focused more on the antibiotics. She seemed a little perked up. I just didn't want her to get more dehydrated. Today....

She's much better! This morning when I went out she was much perkier, tails up, alert. I brought her in again, since she's been out (it's mild) and she gobbled up her sauce. I gave her more diluted, homemade applesauce with Tetroxy, with some rolled oats. Comb's still a bit down, but that's ok. Long live the Internet! I get so many free resources there, and it's great in an emergency. I now keep a full-blown emergency chicken kit on hand. Good to have since things can happen quickly, can't afford vet bills, and stores might be closed. Here's a good article if you're scratching your head what to do for your birds- Caring For a Sick Or Injured Chicken 

Ellie free ranged a bit this morning after her meds, and she was much more alert and curious. I think she'll make it!!! We'll be cleaning the coop as well...

Her younger sisters, ready to lay soon!!!

A Perfect Salad-

Fresh from the garden- Swiss Chard, tomatoes (3 kinds), cukes. Add some leftover romaine- it's what's for dinner!!!