That there be me. Out of shape. Ol' puffer fish. Dehydrated in an hour.
The sun is shining and the humidity is probably around 85%. It actually feels like summer, now that is is only about 20-some days from the first day of Fall.
Anyway, my roughly two-hours of out-door "work" completed, I'm now washed and guzzling water...oh, and blogging, of course.
We got another twenty of my birds moved from the over-crowded brooder to a tee-pee shaped tractor (it's a repair/redesign of one of last year's). We moved 40 into a hoop-shaped one last week (?), and Daddy is working on another tee-pee tractor for some more of the birds. He may have it done soon, so if he does, I reckon I'll go change my clothes again and head out.
Once we got done moving them, Daddy herded the remaining chicks into the run and shut them out of the brooder while I went to go grab my respirator and gloves. When I got back, we took the tub out of the brooder coop and I collected the necessary tools (wheel-barrow and pitch-fork) to remove several inches of very...soiled straw--which I then trucked over to the garden and continued to build on one of Mama's...um...hoogule beds. (It's a German word I think, and I know it's not spelled right. Anyway, it's essentially a lasagna bed.) That was roughly three or four trips.
I had to get another bale of straw out of the barn...and I must give myself a pleased pat on the back, because this is several times recently that I have managed one of those bales by myself (however heavy they are; up-ended they are nearly as long as I am tall....okay, by 8-10 inches. It's fairly convenient for me to prop my chin on one, but not very comfortable). By manage, I'm also including the gymnastics it requires to get the thing out of the barn--which includes: throwing it into the back of a pick-up, tossing it back out of the pick-up, wiggling myself and bale around/over a John Deere's front wheel, squirming between a door jam and truck hood, and finally tossing the thing either on the wheel-barrow or a wagon.
Oh yeah. And I just got an adjustment this morning. :P
Well, anyway...by this time I was rather warm and beginning to get both a head-ache and a jaw ache. I've noticed recently that when I get hot and begin to get dehydrated, I get this head-ache that crops up. The jaw-ache...that's from the respirator, weird as that may sound. (It's happened every time I wear the thing for over just a few minutes.) My heart was pounding pretty good too, but that never has been overly unusual when I'm over-heated.
I scattered the straw about and then went to let the chicks back in--as they were obviously wanting to get into the shade of the coop. However...Dopey and Dumb-bell were jammed up in dangerous positions with Greedy and Eager and Pushy and Whiney and Squawk-box and Noisy all piled on top. (Those names do not actually belong to any one bird, in case you were interested.) I had to be gentle and not-so gentle to finally get the gate open as the birds kept jamming themselves into the way. Pick up, toss, pick up, toss. Repeat. "You again? I just tossed you three feet to the right." Sigh. Grunt. Sweat dripping of my nose, rolling down into my mouth. Respirator smashed against my nose; teeth hurting. "Finally! There now, get out from under my feet, you goof-balls. Oh, am I standing on your toe? I'm sorry. I can't feel things through these boots."
By now it was time to feed them again, so I tromped up to the house, after putting a few things away, and collected a full feed bucket and an empty one of a bigger-size. It's time to up the feed quantity again. I split the feed three ways, trying to be fair with it. It'll be time to feed again soon, so maybe I can get something useful done in the meantime.
Adios Amigos!
The sun is shining and the humidity is probably around 85%. It actually feels like summer, now that is is only about 20-some days from the first day of Fall.
Anyway, my roughly two-hours of out-door "work" completed, I'm now washed and guzzling water...oh, and blogging, of course.
We got another twenty of my birds moved from the over-crowded brooder to a tee-pee shaped tractor (it's a repair/redesign of one of last year's). We moved 40 into a hoop-shaped one last week (?), and Daddy is working on another tee-pee tractor for some more of the birds. He may have it done soon, so if he does, I reckon I'll go change my clothes again and head out.
Once we got done moving them, Daddy herded the remaining chicks into the run and shut them out of the brooder while I went to go grab my respirator and gloves. When I got back, we took the tub out of the brooder coop and I collected the necessary tools (wheel-barrow and pitch-fork) to remove several inches of very...soiled straw--which I then trucked over to the garden and continued to build on one of Mama's...um...hoogule beds. (It's a German word I think, and I know it's not spelled right. Anyway, it's essentially a lasagna bed.) That was roughly three or four trips.
I had to get another bale of straw out of the barn...and I must give myself a pleased pat on the back, because this is several times recently that I have managed one of those bales by myself (however heavy they are; up-ended they are nearly as long as I am tall....okay, by 8-10 inches. It's fairly convenient for me to prop my chin on one, but not very comfortable). By manage, I'm also including the gymnastics it requires to get the thing out of the barn--which includes: throwing it into the back of a pick-up, tossing it back out of the pick-up, wiggling myself and bale around/over a John Deere's front wheel, squirming between a door jam and truck hood, and finally tossing the thing either on the wheel-barrow or a wagon.
Oh yeah. And I just got an adjustment this morning. :P
Well, anyway...by this time I was rather warm and beginning to get both a head-ache and a jaw ache. I've noticed recently that when I get hot and begin to get dehydrated, I get this head-ache that crops up. The jaw-ache...that's from the respirator, weird as that may sound. (It's happened every time I wear the thing for over just a few minutes.) My heart was pounding pretty good too, but that never has been overly unusual when I'm over-heated.
I scattered the straw about and then went to let the chicks back in--as they were obviously wanting to get into the shade of the coop. However...Dopey and Dumb-bell were jammed up in dangerous positions with Greedy and Eager and Pushy and Whiney and Squawk-box and Noisy all piled on top. (Those names do not actually belong to any one bird, in case you were interested.) I had to be gentle and not-so gentle to finally get the gate open as the birds kept jamming themselves into the way. Pick up, toss, pick up, toss. Repeat. "You again? I just tossed you three feet to the right." Sigh. Grunt. Sweat dripping of my nose, rolling down into my mouth. Respirator smashed against my nose; teeth hurting. "Finally! There now, get out from under my feet, you goof-balls. Oh, am I standing on your toe? I'm sorry. I can't feel things through these boots."
By now it was time to feed them again, so I tromped up to the house, after putting a few things away, and collected a full feed bucket and an empty one of a bigger-size. It's time to up the feed quantity again. I split the feed three ways, trying to be fair with it. It'll be time to feed again soon, so maybe I can get something useful done in the meantime.
Adios Amigos!
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