Endings and Beginnings

About 1 month ago, one of our first chooks, a plymouth rock, died. She succumbed to a paralysis tick. It took till now for me to bury her. I had kept her in the deep freezer till a time when i felt right. It was a difficult thing seeing her die. She convulsed while i tried to remove the tick, quite a shock witnessing the true end to her life. I didn't think i could bury her straight away even though i have buried chickens before.

Today I was given that message by the universe that it was time. The message came in the form of a dead rat. It turned up strangely by the pool and had died some time today. He needed to be buried. I took him down to the corner of the yard and dug his hole and buried him. I realised then that it was time to bury the hen. She had no name for her, often it takes a few weeks to decide a name for them but we knew her only a short time. So I dug her hole not far from the rat. It took a long while to dig that hole and a lot of energy and effort. During this time my thoughts strayed to the significance of burying her and the significance of burying her along with the rat. Is there meaning in this? I'm not sure. I'll think some more on that. I said some words to send her off to where ever her soul may take her. fly free!

And then there are the promises of beginnings. Our broody hen has been sitting on 15 eggs for 12 days now. Just 9 days to go till we get to see how many hatch. My guess is for 8 little chicks which will be a combination of light sussex and polish, and maybe some wyandottes if we're lucky. Broody is doing a great job but i do think 15 eggs is too many. So heres to a great year full of lots of promise. The excitement of new endeavours both chookie and not chookie. I will show the dogs starting in March and i am making a lot of effort for success in other areas of my life.