Maya and "Lemon"
"Rosie" the hen died last week. Nova found her on the floor of the coup after she didn't come out in the morning with her friends. All five were amazingly healthy up to now, laying eggs even through the cold, dark winter.
The big fear was that "Rosie" had succumbed from some contagious chicken disease. After all that work and care and love, how heartbreaking to lose them to some mystery illness!
Amanda tried to get professional advice, but there aren't any "poultry vets" in the Methow Valley. The ranch doctors doctor livestock. The small animal vets doctor dogs and cats.
I suppose chickens are considered somewhat disposable over there. In Seattle, you can bet there are bird vets happy to diagnose your pet chickens (for an exorbitant charge.) Anyway, the worst didn't happen, and as of now, the hens are all fine. They are funny, winsome creatures with much personality. When you come out the back door, they come running like seagulls begging for kitchen scraps.
We're looking forward to our upcoming weekend trip to Twisp. We haven't seen the family (off a computer screen, that is) since last October. Incredible. We haven't visited inside a house, sat around a table, or even celebrated a holiday together since Christmas 2019. The awfulness of the past 16 months for so many families hits me like a rock sometimes. But when all is said and done, we're still here and healthy, the only thing that really matters.
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