Disgusted and disappointed

You all know from reading this blog that I am an old hand at homesteading and living the rural farm life. I've got multitudes of animals and crops here. Monday I received my replacement order of chicks in the mail. Of course, par for my luck, instead of it being nice and warm like last week, it has to be 34 degrees and snowing! 6 dead chicks at the post office. Overnight to Tuesday, 11 more died. Thru the day yesterday, I lost 2 more. I about hate to go look at them this morning, the rest should be dead if my luck holds. This is the exact same tank, same light and setting I used last spring to raise 50 chicks at once I bought from Rural King. All lived and thrived. Brooding chicks isn't very hard, keep them warm and provide feed and water! Why are all my banty chicks dying? To add insult to injury, the door of the coop in the old barn where I was keeping the mature bantys blew down in the storm we had Saturday and they are all out. Yesterday I found the roo and 3 of the 5 hens but could not catch them. At dark, I could not find a single one. So, I may not even have any mature bantys now. I am down to 6 mature mixed laying hens now and hubby still hasn't brought home a single pallet from the coal mine for me to build the chicken house. We simply do not have the money to buy new lumber.

But on a brighter note, today is the first day since last Saturday that I woke up without back spasms! Still really stiff but not a single spasm yet and I've been up an hour!

The goats found freedom yesterday, they were running around in the barn lot. Still not sure how they got out unless they simply climbed out. They ran right up to me and followed me right back in the barn. They aren't quite gentled down yet, I didn't play with them all last week with my back misbehaving but they know who feeds them! The sheep is still alive, I moved him in the barn before the storm and realized we've not been feeding him quite enough. Under all that wool is a skinny sheep! So, his feed has been increased and we're aiming for 2 weeks to butcher. I need the time anyway to get my back going in the right direction....

At least the cheese wheels are drying a rind like they are supposed to. Something is going right!