One Spring Day

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Today I will be reading a story I wrote on Thursday - One Spring Day 

It was a beautiful spring day on the ranch.  I woke up, made a cup of coffee, and went outside to check on the sprinklers and turned on a few water lines. I noticed some sprinkler heads were clogged, so I turned off the line and took off the sprinkler heads and blew on them to try and get the earwigs out or used my pocketknife. I turned the sprinklers back on and headed down the hill.  I let Leo, Zach, and Charlie out of their pin for their daily run down the road. When we returned to the ranch, the dogs went into the run except for Charlie, he liked to lay on the porch while I worked in my office.  I went over to the chicken coop and counted them and let them out. 

Last night I was missing Gayle and the red head and this morning they are a no show.  I was a bit worried, but I had to get into the office and work. As, I walked up the hill, I turned around and could see the chickens sprinting across the pasture to the pine trees that lined the westside of the property. My two ducks were in an argument because the mallard male was hiding behind the water trough.

I came back up the hill and poured myself another cup of coffee and went into the office. I was terribly busy working on a contract to sell a large parcel to a Southern California development company and I had to make sure I dotted my i’s and crossed my t’s. I was on the telephone for a while before I realized I had not turned off the water lines. I walked out of the kitchen back door down to the deck and noticed all my sprinklers were just spitting water. There was no water pressure. I walked back into the house and turned on the kitchen faucet and found the same issue.  I turned off the water lines and sprinklers and ran down the hill to see if my water tank was empty. It was not, but no water was making it up the hill. I came back up the hill and called the well people. I met the guy at the main gate around 1pm.  I asked him to do whatever he needed to do to get the water up the hill and went back to work. As I walked up the hill, I still did not see Gayle my bantam or red head hens that were missing.

I decided to take my lunch. Halfway through my lunch there was a knock at the door.  It was the well guy.  He said, he had bad news. I said, OK.  As I took a sip of my water, he said, your bladder is blown. I looked at him dumbfounded and said, can you repeat that, again. I said, ma’am, your bladder is blown. He then said, follow me and I will show you. As we walked down the hill, he explained the bladder function. The well pressure tank uses compressed air to push pressurized water out of the tank and up the hill into your home. Pressure tanks have a diaphragm, also called a bladder, that separates a chamber of air from the water. As the tank fills with water, it compresses the air chamber. As we approached the tank, he knocked on the tank and it was (full) and it was waterlogged. He said, the tank should sound hollow above the bladder.  I said, I am learning something new every day.  I asked if he could take care of it today. He said, yes ma’am, I need to go back and pick up a tank. I said, great and I let him out of the main gate. Just when I went to close the gate, I saw my red head hen coming down the hill with 7 baby chicks walking behind her. Then I noticed the Gayle the bantam in the pasture with 4 baby chicks. My neighbor yelled over and said, oh my, you are a grandmother. I smiled, waved, and laughed. 

The well guy came back and finished the job. I paid him and he was on his way. It was getting dark and I went and opened the chicken coop. All the chickens came in except for the Gayle the bantam hen. I saw the baby chicks near a tree, and I looked up and noticed Gayle the bantam hen was perched on a tree limb. I told Gayle to come down and tend to your children. She did not. I sat there for about 15 minutes waiting. Still nothing. I walked over to the chicken coop and grabbed my new jersey giant and another red head hen and dropped them near the chicks. Within a few minutes, my mature hens said, cluck, cluck and opened their wings and became the stepmothers of the baby chicks. Meanwhile, Gayle the bantam hen was still in the tree. I closed the chicken coop and looked over at Gayle the bantam hen. She was acting like she did not see me. I came in the house and called it a night.

The following morning, I went down to open my dog kennel and Gayle the bantam hen was still in the tree but making weird noises. I decided when I get back from my run with the dogs, I will catch her with my net and put her into the coop by herself. We had a nice run and returned to the ranch.

I grabbed my ladder and the net.  I caught her on my first try.  Gayle was agitated and fought as I talked with her. I think she was crying. As I sat in the coop with her, I believe she had a condition called “postpartum psychosis.”  I heard some women go crazy, become depressed, anxiety, etc. after giving birth.  I guess chickens deal with this too? Gayle sure had the signs. I fluffed a nice bed for her in the corner of the coop.  I must have sat with her for about an hour.  Gayle just stared at me and made these weird noises.  I had to go back up and open my office.  So, I left Gayle in the coop.

That evening I went down to open the coop I found Gayle the bantam hen dead.  I think her little heart just gave out.  I picked her up and buried her in the garden.  I thanked her for the babies and promised they would grow up healthy and happy.  That night I sat quietly drinking a beer and watched the stars from my deck.

Let me leave you with this quote – in any given moment we have two options: to step forward into growth or to step back into safety.

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