Week 12

Here I sit using index finger to type out this week's post.  My old computer is just about done.  Today it is so slow that it took 30 minutes to load the photos I took this past week.  When I tried to go online it was a five minute wait.  I just don't have the patience for that today, so I ran outside in the fading light and snapped one photo with my phone.  

I realize this week the computer isn't the only thing that has failed.  

Body Failures:

Mark broke a tooth.  Then ran into trouble when It broke again while the dentist was extracting it.  Three hours later he left with three stitches and a very sore jaw and now five days later pain is intensifying.

I woke up yesterday with a sore throat and 4 pounds heavier.   Don't even tell me it's just PMS.  Period! I've had monthly water retention before, but this is plain weird and I look weird too.   

Yesterday we had our first grand parent scare.  Little Graham had a febrile seizure.  Our daughter had them too, so we knew it probably wasn't anything, but we still waited on pins and needles till the "alls clear" text came in.

Animal Systems Failures:

Our recently built chicken run was found faulty when a few hens learned to spread their wings and fly. We nipped that in the bud by snipping off their flight feathers.

Our new pigs aren't gentling as fast as I thought they would and consequently are still penned up.  Then they got itchy.  A quick look online and I decided they needed a mud wallow, so we increased their pen to include outside space and made them content.  Apparently they use mud to suffocate any small critters that might decide to set up house on them. 

Things that worked out well: 

We are pleased though at how fast these pigs are growing, especially Rosy.   A neighbor gave us this humongous round pig feeder with a dozen little doors for the pigs to eat out of.  Having a constant supply of food and no competition seems to have increased their growth rate. 

Speaking of great neighbors.  Another neighbor and friend hired Mark to help part-time with his earth moving construction business.  Mark is having a ball.  Great camaraderie and he gets to drive equipment without having to pay the fuel bill.  He says he feels like he did when he was a kid on the farm working for his dad; lots of fun and not the worry of your own business.  

Hopefully, I'll have time to get a new computer this week.  But, just in case, I'll carry my phone to get some pics  of the place. Besides the few minor problems of the week, things  are looking good.