So today I made my first official egg sale. I met a gentleman in Bend and sold him a carton of 18 eggs for $4. Of course - I threw in an extra carton for good measure... Why not - I have so many right now that we are out of space in both refrigerators and there is no way I'm going to buy an extra frig just to store eggs! I mean - for that kind of money I could get another fancy little chicken coop and another 50 chickens or so... And yes, friends, that is truly how my brain works these days.
I still need to make about 20 more chicken coats. They wear them on their backs to prevent them and their coop-mates from eating/picking all of their feathers off. For a few, I'm a little late. Poor Big Mama looks like a nearly bald chicken. It's not pretty. It's on the edge of frightening when you stare at her long enough. I thought about isolating her in the brooder in the garage until she fills back out but chickens just hate to be alone and they already pick on her so much - I'm afraid I'll never be able to get her integrated back into the flock.
She's one of my favorites. Big Mama, The-Little-White-Hen, Blackie, Blondie and Zoey's Rooster are my only chickens with names and they are my favorites. They are also some of the rougher looking birds right now - I think maybe because they are the most gentle and get picked on the most. Maybe when it gets a little cooler I'll move a couple of them inside the garage together to regrow their feathers and fatten them up a bit. There's an idea...
I'm not looking forward to my return to work tomorrow. Yes, I love my job but sometimes work really feels like work and I don't feel caught up with anything around the house. I signed up for a bunch of extra shifts in the next couple weeks, too. I guess that is what I'm really dreading. It's not really the extra hours - it's the lack of rest in between regular shifts and extra shifts that kills me. I mean - I see most of the people on one of the worst days of their lives. You get enough of those in a row and the mind begins to crave Farmville. Point - click - point - click... You get the idea.
Ironically, I do get more regular sleep while I am working, though - so that's a plus. I don't think I've had more than 2-3 hours of sleep in a row for the past 4 days - except for Monday. I fell asleep around 6 am and Jeff woke me up around 8-9 that night. I probably could have slept nearly 24 hours straight. That's the way it works... Someday I might change things but for now it's a necessary evil.
