My chicken run currently looks like a pillow fight gone horribly wrong. There are feathers EVERYWHERE!! You'd think some critter got in there, nope not the case. The weather is supposed to be getting cooler, the days are getting shorter, and my chickens have decided to get naked. Molt, it happens every year. The flock loses their feathers in preparation for the winter ahead. This yearly phenomenon also leads to some pretty silly looking chickens with feathers missing and scraggly bodies. The worst part is that egg production drops dramatically! Hens need protein to lay eggs and grow feathers, unfortunately, they can't do both at the same time. As the feathers fall the hens start using their extra energy to replace them. Instead of a dozen plus eggs a day, I'm getting four. Ugh!!
Life since at least mid-August has been a whirlwind, to say the least. That is when kiddo #1 moved two states away to go to college. Since then we've been adjusting to what I like to call the "new normal." Life without an extra driver is hectic to say the least. After years of putting a lot of time and energy into the boy's sports, in my mind, it's time to focus on the 3 girls. Kiddo #2 is playing rugby and kiddo #4 is back in gymnastics. Gymnastics is one day a week and close to home. Rugby on the other hand is two days a week with Saturday tournaments all over the great state of Colorado. Fort Collins by 8 AM is not my cup of tea!
In addition to new adventures with the girls. Hay Bales & Horse Tales, the Colorado Horsecare Foodbank's annual silent auction ramps up in September. Weeks of getting and entering auction donations filled my spare time until it our amazing event on October 14. Hay Bales this year was amazing!
Now, life quiets down a bit. The auction is over. The rugby tournaments are a little closer to home. I can finally take a deep breath and recenter myself.
