The Easter Eggs
Palm Sunday ended with a farm full of fowl. The Monday after came with grief. Jaken fed and watered our glorious pigs Monday morning and three hours later when our cousins took their daily ride they came upon the sweet pigs all dead. We had just moved them to the pasture so we could have all the farm critters together and they had seemed perfectly fine. Eating and drinking normally and walking around like they do. We noted the temperature would not get about 80 that day so didn’t see any concern with the weather as they spent last summer with us in much hotter weather. We thought all was well but apparently looks can be misleading. We still are not sure what the extra reasoning was. They all had bloody foam coming out of their mouth so we thought perhaps a bad bag of feed. We though maybe the sun exposure or something poisonous in the pasture by chance. We did our internet sleuthing and learned that grazing pugs on pasture recently inhabited by sheep can cause some sicknesses that kill quickly. There are a number of things it could have been but the moral of the story is bad things happen. You can’t avoid it. It’s a fact of life and something that you have to grown from. So we grieved for the sweet pigs, buried them where the passed, took the financial blow, and kept moving forward learning our lessons.
Just to be taught another one immediately when we got back to the house. I went to check the incubator since today was the new chicks due date to hatch and hadn’t heard the expected tap tap tap yet I realized there was no power going to it. I checked the plugs, still connected. I had seen just yesterday the temperature still reading good but at some point between then and now the outlet had tripped and all my sweet chicks never got the chance to hatch. It was a particularly frustrating thing as we had just buried our pigs and now I was having to throw away seven perfectly incubated chicks.
But if there is one thing I’ve learned in life it’s don’t let the bad things keep you down. So we took a step back, looked at the ranch projects on our list, prioritized what we wanted to get done, and promptly went to tractor supply and bought some Cornish straight run chicks. Then the next day went to a different Tractor Supply and bought some Dominique pullets. Because I just can’t stop keeping tiny, fragile, temperature sensitive creatures running around this joint. I got them some cages cleaned and set up in the well house with their heat lamps and reveling in their tiny chirps as they explored their new homes. Then I set the incubator up out there on the one outlet that has never failed me in my entire 28 years of life and got eight more eggs rocking and rolling.
After I got my fill of new responsibilities we took a step off the ranch for Easter. Saturday we headed to Jaken’s sisters house for grandpa’s birthday and had grilled burgers. Hope got to hunt some easter eggs out in the yard (I know internally she was asking why she had to work on her day off) and ate about a billion French fries.
Sunday morning we woke up and attempted to hoof trim unsuccessfully. We got two sheep done before Hope was OVER IT so we called it a partial win till next chance we get some time. We did our usual farm chores and Hope collected some eggs.
We got dressed in our Easter attire and headed over to Jaken’s mom’s house for their Easter event where Hope hunted some more eggs before coloring the eggs we had brought. She had a big weekend with eggs…and then she played with her cousins and took some crazy pictures before throwing her hat into the pool in protest. All in all it was a busy Easter weekend with very little down time but never forgetting the meaning of it all. Good Friday Jesus was crucified and died for our sins before rising on Sunday to continue to lead us in the way. We hope we are doing the Lord’s work by shepherding our flock and bringing our daughter up in a lifestyle much more connected to her faith and family. He is risen!
