Accidental Homesteader
…a funny thing happened on the way to the bar
The Pod Project
I’m going to take a little detour today…
Good morning friends! I need your help sharing an idea. Some friends and I have created The Pod Project, to help facilitate free distance learning in community resources like churches, libraries, and rec centers for students who need our support during this crisis. We provide a portable model that individuals and organizations can use to establish learning pods where students feel safe, supported, nurtured, nourished, and ready and able to learn. Will you please check out our webpage and share this post? There are so many empty spaces, let’s match them with kids who need our help! Thank you.
The Pod Project
Everything is fine.
Sooo… our thermostat tried to kill us. We are fine. The house is fine. The animals are fine.
The reason I start with everything is fine is that a few years ago my neurologist’s nurse called me after an MRI to say that there was an occlusion on my brain scan. Well, that can’t be good, right? So I proceed to sob incoherently in my car for ten minutes in the parking lot at work.
Phone rings, it is the neurologist apologizing profusely for her nurse who (a) wasn’t supposed to be the one to call me, and (2) who decided to read the MRI and tell me what she thought of it. I had no occlusion, nor anything else wrong with my brain.
At some point it became funny, and I started to tell my friend, without the initial disclaimer. After calming her down, I promised to always start with “I’m fine.”
So… back to the thermostat. I was working upstairs and hear my beloved scream F#&$! I come running down and hear “FIRE!” Wait, what? He asks if I smell smoke.
Not until I got fully downstairs. Then I smelled electrical fire. Now at this point I should mention we are in a 120 year old farmhouse, so it isn’t out of the realm of possibilities.
We call 911, and gather the kittens to wait outside. They do not like kitty jail. Soon the sirens can be heard.
We got lucky. They had their scanner thingy that checks for heat. We smelled it before it did anything bad. Bonus… no asmonia, so no COVID-19.
It was the thermostat, with a spark, in the dining room.
Now we have fancy pants thermostats that can be changed from a phone. And caused quite stir on our local Facebook group.
Chicken Report
So people ask how many chickens I have. I usually say around 40, which is as it turns out is low. We have several cohorts of chickens.
What Did I Miss?
I’ve been down for the count for a bit. Had some gall bladder issues, and the broke up with it. Better now.
Coming soon, some cooking stuff and some solid chicken content.
Even More Peeps
So far Summer has hatched three eggs… although the last one she didn’t sit on them much. It was warm enough in the coop to incubate.
New Peep
The time has come! Summer’s eggs (and some others’ eggs) are hatching.
She ended up with 12 eggs.
One hatched, probably yesterday.
11 more to go over the next week or two.
Broody Chicken Update
Last time I reported that Summer was sitting on five eggs. She now has at least nine. We are looking at a hatch date anywhere from the 14th through the 21st at this point.
Her back is a little worn because of the affections of our roosters.
Coop Dreams
So in my earlier post, I couldn’t find the book with the plans for our original coop. Our library is a shambles.
But, I spied with my little eye a yellow spine.
This had really good plans, and they were adaptable.
The chicks are all installed in the new place, and are pretty happy.
