A Chicken Miracle!

Well I've experienced a chicken miracle!  In my last post I mentioned we had a new pet chicken that I named Dumplings.

 So you know how it goes....once you get one pet others follows  One of our therapists offered a hen house and three more hens.  She told me one of the chickens had seemed to have hurt her leg.  I saw the chicken when we went to pick them up and she was alert and eating but limping.  Well once we got them home, that chicken continued to get worse.

Jon & I had to go out of town for a funeral and before we left, I noticed Dumpling had the same symptoms!  After looking it up I guessed they had Maerk disease-it's fatal in chickens.  Some birds are vaccinated against it in the egg before they are hatched or immediately after.  I could only guess the other two girls were from a breeder that did that.  While we were gone the sick chicken died and Dumpling got worse.

In the scheme of life I know a chicken's death is NOT a big deal!  In fact in the scheme of MY life a chicken's death should not be much of a big deal as I have so many things to deal with.  But I've enjoyed Dumpling and her funny little non chicken acting self since she was hanging out at our church & I hated that there was no treatment that could be done.  But it just made me very sad and I felt guilty bringing the sick chicken home although it really just looked like an injury.

Anyhow I had to go and do errands last week and in the course of my day I had to drop off our church's end of the year paperwork to our church's accountant.  He & his wife just had a big scare with the health of their son and they had anointed him with oil and prayed for him.  They were testifying to me about the good report they'd gotten from the doctor.  Believe it or not I had felt "impressed' to anoint the chicken with oil and pray for her too (I know I sound FLAKY!)  but I went home and did it.  The very next morning Dumpling was walking normally!!!!

The girl on the top left is Ginger - then Dumpling is on the right looking at the camera.  The little fluffy one is called Frenchie but I usually call her Fluffy LOL

I don't understand this but I'm grateful to the Lord!  I'm going through some major trying times on several levels and for some reason this was just "the straw that broke the camel's back for me"  It was affecting me too much! I'm grateful to God for healing Dumpling and giving my heart a little boost!  Certainly naysayers could say I misdiagnosed her but I'm pretty confident i did not, Maerk's causes something like a palsy and lots of shaking.  That's what Sunshine ( the one who died) ended up doing.  Dumpling was doing the same thing and could barely stumble even a few steps.  It makes my heart happy to see her running towards me every day:)



Changing the subject.....A friend of ours gave us some glass art and we finally got it up on the porch.  I just love it!  Of course I'm sure it will have to be taken down next summer for a hurricane or two!

Jon and I have a goal of going to all the State Parks in Florida.  We keep a park pass and love going to some close by but we are expanding out!  On our way up to the funeral we stopped at Rainbow River State Park.  It was gorgeous and just right to spend a couple of hours walking around

Then we went to the Devils' Millhopper Geological State Park which is a huge sinkhole.

Sinkholes are so scary to me.  We have friends who built the most amazing house right on a sinkhole.  They have a balcony that is over it.  It's gorgeous but I couldn't sleep at night if I lived there.  We noticed right outside the park, there was a housing development.  You couldn't give me a house in that development!!!  Living in Florida means we all live over potential sinkholes and that is so scary to me!!!  A few years ago just maybe 25 miles south of us a sinkhole caved in under a house and swallowed a man, they never could retrieve his body!!!  That just freaks me out!  So Sinkholes are one of my many fears...another fear is finding a snake in my toilet at night LOL  what can I say I live in Florida!

So anyhow I'm grateful for all the good things in life and how God can give us a little encouragemnet in dark days.  If you think of me say a little prayer- I could use it!

Happy New Year 2020

When I was a little girl I couldn't imagine that the world would last to the year 2000.  I remember counting up my age and realizing I'd be 35!!!! in 2000- what horror! I'd be ancient..... well now we are at the beginning of 2020 and it's surreal.  Also as a young girl I'd listen to my grandmother and great aunts talk about WWI, the Flu Epidemic of 1918 and the 1920's as if it were yesterday now I'm living  100 years after those events.  It's freaky!
So today I bought a new road atlas and a 2020 planner.  I LOVE having a real road atlas in my hand when we travel.  Sure we have GPS but sometimes it's wrong and sometimes I can figure out a better way on my own.  I LOVE reading maps, I've tried teaching my older boys to love maps but they just relay on GPS.  I have a strange skill, I can see a map in my head - I can't explain it but I can usually guesstimate how to get somewhere and usually be accurate.  Let's just say I'm the only one in my family who has that skill LOL   That skill was pretty fine tuned all those years ago doing home visits to all my folks on probation!  That was "back in the day" when you carried maps around and cursed the idiots who built roads around lakes and had 3 different names for one street!

And a year planner is a MUST!  I have to SEE it all written out- I've tried putting stuff on my phone but I hate it!  Tomorrow I'm putting in all the appointments etc into my 2020 planner.  That's a job I'm looking forward to doing.





Last night we welcomed in the new year with a bonfire and friends.  Both our older boys had plans so that was a little different for our family but it was fine.

 Yes I have on PJ pants, socks and flip flops!

Perfect fire

Sarah started the year out by swinging for about 3 hours:)






So y'all know our church is in the country...?  Well a few months ago our neighbor's chicken would come visit me every time I was at the church.  She'd come running to me- so cute.


This was her Christmas service picture

She'd jump in our van

So our neighbor let me have her!

Shad made a dream of mine come true!  He bought and built me a chicken coop.  We plan on buying a few chicks in the spring.

Molly is very interested in her new friend

Actually Molly is on guard duty tonight.  She generally sleeps in her crate on our front porch but until we get stronger locks on the cage she's pulling guard duty in her crate near the coop with the door open.  She was crate trained before we got her and she loves her crate.  It is like a security blanket to her.  

By the way, the chicken is named Dumpling.... after my signature dish!  But don't worry this Dumpling is just a pet!  Growing up we had a huge hen house and many chickens for years.  There were a few personal favorites, one little Banty hen that must have lived 15 years, I remember her most of my childhood.  Our chickens were somewhat free range before that was a thing but they did roost at night in a huge hen house.  Today I tried to explain the hen house to Shad & he couldn't believe anyone would have that many chickens and such a big place for them to live in!  

One curious thing I remember was the eclipse of 1969- our chickens all went into the hen house to roost like it was night time  that really stuck with me.  

Well this year and decade had a funny beginning but here we go ...hold on!  The future is scary to me, I guess you know when you are getting old because when you're young, the future is your friend, you're so eager for the next life experience...NOW at my age I realize  the next life experience might not be something I want!!!  I'm praying that your family and mine have a healthy happy new year and new decade.  I'd love to go a decade with no serious medical issues for anyone in my family!  Quite honestly we've had a share of drama in the past decade- high highs and very low lows...let's just stay with things nice and boring!