Monday

A breathe easy day. No rush, no worries, no chicken chasing. Here's how it all unfolded:

After reviewing our options, and with the understanding that we will have rain and possibly storms tonight, Ed and I decided to keep the 4 new hens in the coop for the day and pluck the two old ones out for their usual bout of free ranging freedom. 

Peace is restored.

Honestly, I'm not sure that one or two days of confinement will do the trick for the new ones. Chicken memories are weird. Ever since The Raid of a few days back, everything is a little off in our coop. One of the old girls (Ms. no. 9), the one that used to routinely end the day in the coop on her own, refuses to go back there and instead finds night shelter in the garage. (That's the one for which we have to climb a ladder.) Her memory of that awful morning has created a new safer (according to her pea brain) place to rest. So the question is -- will the new girls remember the coop now as a safe place, where nothing bad happens and food gets tossed in by loving wonderful humans, or will they remember it as a place of confinement, best avoided at all costs because awful humans may take out the ax if you go near the place?  I'm hoping that it's the first and that training them to love the cozy comfy coop snuggles will create an image that they will conjure up come dusk. But who knows. For now though, I'm sure we want to keep them locked up. Freedom has to be earned!

All is thus quiet on the farmette lands. Because it is a more typical March day -- above freezing, with that chance of rain, I walk the flower fields and pluck some old spent stalks and inspect what's there and budding. And lo! What do I see if not the first crocuses of the year! A big Wow and Yay for that!

I wash up some gardening gloves for all future walks outside. There are always weeds to pluck and I noticed that those gardening hands of mine have to be more protected than in the past. Skin breaks, infections form. So I get my gloves in order.

And we eat breakfast, alone (meaning without cats), because the wise felines have decided that this kind of weather deserves respect. Perfect for prowling. So far, thank God, no bird hunting has occurred. 

I spend the morning on trip planning. I have one coming up and it requires careful advance work. I cannot tell you how happy I am to have a calendar full of reservations and ideas once I am in a new place, so that I don't have to frantically scour around for what's available. I have been warned by the hotels of my forthcoming destinations that I am traveling in the Holy Week before Easter (so you can guess it's a country that has a significant commitment to religious holidays) and that things will be crowded and booked up. Well fine. I can handle that. With advance legwork!

And then it's time to pick up Snowdrop. 

I wondered if she would feel that emptiness of her missing friend (the one who moved away this weekend). If she did, she did not show it. Kids flash quickly between emotions and Snowdrop is especially chill when she comes to the farmhouse.

We spend a lovely afternoon reading together.

In the evening --- well, it's Monday, so it's time for leftovers for supper. And a return to Loudermilk, our current series of choice on Netflix. [Yesterday, we had watched the next episode of Pete, the framer's YouTube video -- "Just a Few Acres Farm" -- which he posts every few days. It was, in my view, an especially troubling episode, because he took some time to reflect on how much venom and uninformed commentary there was these days, so that fringe beliefs get center stage as people feel compelled to express their contrarian views. I imagine he'd gotten the usual bunch of crazy commentary on his videos. I was sorry to see Pete so sad over this and I asked Ed if he thought we'd all turned meaner these last few years -- in our thoughts as much as in our words. His answer? -- No, of course not. Remember, we had a Civil War not so long ago... I suppose it's somewhat reassuring to know we've always been a mean bunch. I can only hope that we're all working on it!]

Flashes of thunder and rain outside. That's a good thing. Plants need the soak.Yep, a good old fashioned cleansing rain.

With love...