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!!!

Celtic Festival & Highland Games, Independence Days Challenge, Fall Is Coming!

                                                          Scottish Hammer Throw, 16 lbs.
Celtic Festival & Highland Games-
Being part Scotch and Irish I love bagpipes, and things Celtic. Every year I seem to miss the local Celtic Festival and Highland game.  Luckily I got a postcard and marked it on the calendar! I mean- who can't love a man in a kilt throwing telephone poles? These are called Heavy Sports.

Scottish Stone Put, 16-22 lbs.

Turning The Caber, pick up, then throw & flip it over

We wandered around and listened to several live bands and watched the dancers. I bought tea and scones to take home from-

 I had English style fish and chips, wonderful! Made to order, cod, thin crust, great fries. From a local food truck -

Dave had a Scottish beer, not bad considering I don't like beer. I bought a lovely traditional Scottish pin made of pewter and glass beads-

Lots of dancers, some with wigs that almost fell off. Pretty funny!

        The famous Boise Highlanders marching band, wonderful formation and music!

A wee one with her foam sword, too cute! The photo doesn't do her justice

While there was no Haggis for sale, here's a recipe if you're strong of heart and bowels!

1. Plant Something-
Nope.

2. Harvest Something-

Eggs, compost, collard greens, kale, lemon cukes, tomatoes, peppers, yellow squash, eggplants, basil, herbs. Cooling of but veggies still going well.

3. Preserve/Store Something-

Canned goods for fall. Wine for a nice special something.

4. Manage Reserves- Get a Good Deal/Barter/Stock Up/Prep-
Did a little inventory of the freezer, to see what's there. Helps with menu planning. Stocked up on supplements and vitamins at Costco.

5. Eat the Food- Try New Foods/Recipe-
Bought a local Papa Murphy's pepperoni pizza, then took it home slathered it with my fresh basil, tomatoes, and goat cheese. OMG, it was wonderful! Had leftover roast beef, so I used it for hot sandwiches, grilled with cheese and horseradish. Delish!

6. Build Community Food Systems-

Selling eggs, got some free melon from a friend. Bought some homemade tamales from a woman who sells them at our office. I got pork, pretty good, made traditionally from scratch.

7. Recycle/Re-Use-
Got some free software from a pal. Did more thrifting today. Bought a new cotton fall sweater, and a like-new, blue cast iron oval dutch oven. It has a World Market stamp on it. $6.00 at a thrift store. About $65.00 online. Kind of matches my round one! A knock off of this Le Creuset-

8. Skill Up-
Learned how to alter wedding dress straps! Went to a local wine shop with my daughter to expose her to some choices for her wedding. I learned some things myself while there.  I bought a bottle of an Australian wine- Nugan Estate Pinot Noir 2010 for a nice dinner. The sales lady raved about it, and not bad at $14.00 a bottle. I'll save it for our anniversary maybe. I used to be a bit of a mini wine connoisseur in my 20's then along came marriage, kids and I lost interest. Didn't have the disposable income either. I'd like to start having a glass once in a while, maybe. I know from personal experience it's way too easy to start self medicating with alcohol. A close family member was a severe alcoholic, and so I rarely drink. Learned about Scottish heavy sports, oh my!

9. Regenerate What is Lost/Salvage Something-
Learning how to re-do some work related paper work.

Fall Is Coming!
Finally! We hit the mid 40's the last 2 mornings. Go out the polar fleece jacket, and put an extra blanket on the bed. Getting some fall work clothes out of the spare bedroom closet. Starting into high's in the 60's with rain off and on. They're talking about the first mountain snows too. Nice yesterday, mid-80's. High 70's today, then 60's tomorrow. What a relief. Time to drag out some fall decor and get ready....

Nature Winding Down, Falconry, & Baseball

Nature is Winding Down- The days are so short now, the leaves finally starting to fall and winter is in the air. 60-ish today, but it's not going to last. High in the 50's then low 40's by Friday, with lows in the 20's. BRRR. Our tree in front of our house finally changed colors! It took a while, and 3 days later all the leaves are on the ground. We put all our backyard stuff in the shed prepping for the weather change. Kind of battening down the hatches. After seeing the big October snow storm back east the last two days, makes me glad I pay attention and watch the weather. Some people just don't. Sometimes they pay for that. I have been cleaning and filling my oil lamps for winter too. I like to keep them in case of outages and they add a nice ambiance-

I inherited one of the little oil lamps from my beloved aunt, and found an exact match (except for the chimney) on eBay! They're from the victorian era.

Next weekend we will get the chicken sun room set up and the girls tucked in, weather permitting. It will be fun to see how they use their new digs. Only one laying still, I think the other two may wait til spring. Time will tell...

Falconry Display Today- Every year the internationally famous Peregrine Fund World Center For Birds of Prey does an "October Flights" display. My husband is a regular volunteer there, and I have "bird sat" some of the birds for public display, and cleaned cages. Today was a great way to see the birds out flying on a beautiful fall day-

All the birds flown are unable to be in the wild, due to imprinting on people. Many were found abandoned or were part of a breeding program, and would not survive in the wild. Here's a nice shot in their garden pond area- 

World Series Baseball-  I'm not a big sports fan, with too much commercialism, a general lack of ethics and the "tits sell beer" mentality. And don't ask me about the BSU Broncos- I am SO sick of the team. Being in the wrong league, it's win, win, win. Give them some bigger teams, well it wouldn't be pretty. BUT I do follow the World Series every year, just the finals. It's great to watch the two best baseball best teams in the U.S. play each other! When I watched last Thursday's Game 6, well, it was the best game I ever saw. Ever. Sheer perfection, edge of seat tension til the last second. Wow!

Congrats to the Cardinals!!!