Sore muscles and fall chores

Saturday and Sunday both turned out a little more exciting than I'd planned. A little, not much. (Thankfully)

Saturday plan:
Rise early for chicken slaughtering @ friend's, taking 2 roosters along.
Meet husband/in-laws for lunch after finishing chicken processing.
Acupuncture appointment with the lovely Aileen Boyd.
Friends of the Library booksale.
Outdoor skate.
Bonfire.

Sunday plan:
Be lazy.

Actual Saturday events:
Late rise and departure for chicken slaughtering, taking all 3 known bantam roosters rather than the expected 2.

Constantly forgetting that the roosters were in a pet carrier in the back of the car made for some interesting moments when I realized that the thumping from the back was not my outdoor skates rolling around, but rather the birds re-settling themselves. They did not crow at all for the first 40 minutes of the trip, so that made it easy to forget they were there. When the crowing started up it was much more difficult to forget! It's a tad bit heart-stopping to suddenly have a rooster go into full crow in an enclosed space, especially after complete silence.

My late arrival meant that the chickens were not done before I had to leave for lunch. :-( All birds were fully plucked and ~1/3 bagged and cooling when I left.

Lunch concluded, I head on over for pokey fun. We decide that the sunshine is too precious to give up, so we set up outside on the porch. Sitting on a low stool with my knees soon full of needles, the sun and fresh air definitely feel good. After just two treatments, I'd lost the majority of the swelling and pain I've had for the past 8 years. I'd also regained much of the feeling I'd lost. I'll live with needles in weird places for a few minutes if it means I can finally be pain and swelling-free!

After the acupuncture appointment is done, I head on over to the Friends of the Library booksale. While completing a k-turn to park, I heard a very loud "CRUNCH" through the open window. Much swearing as I realize that I'd hit the front corner of a Subaru with the rear corner of my car, setting the dogs off inside. I get out and examine both vehicles, finding minor scratches on their bumper and a dented panel or two on my car along with scratches. *sigh* Start to write a note when the owner shows up with his bag of books from the sale and I explain what had happened. We exchange contact info. Eventually I head on in to the sale.(The book sale has got to be one of the most dangerous places to park in town with so many cars navigating the narrow streets around the FOTL warehouse!)

Receive text from friend saying they're heading over to skate. I finish browsing the aisles and finally manage to drag myself away with two bags full of books and sewing patterns (Stuffed animals for the niece and nephew!!). I will have to return during bag days with specific titles/authors in mind or I'll never get out of there.

Gear up and start skating laps, adding people each lap. I quit three quarters of the way through the first "fast" lap when my body strongly protested the unusual treatment. (My muscles are STILL sore from Thursday's practice!)

Head up the hill to the bonfire. Stay much later than expected. Many kudos to the host and hostess for throwing a great shin-dig.

Sunday morning I sleep through all feline protests of starvation and neglect, along with the pitter-patter of the excited pup's claws on the hardwood floors as she goes through her morning routine. Porkchop is quiet in his pen along with Goat, Serif and Sloppy Joe. If there is a rooster remaining in the flock, he's keeping quiet. The hens are quiet as well.

Eventually I make movements that indicate life still exists and Delicate Hubby asks if I'm interested in going to a gun show with him. I say "Sure" and we start making our way over to the show. After much distracted navigation, I eventually lead him to the proper building.

It turns out to be a small show. A cheese seller there has blocks of bacon cheddar, so once the gun show exhausts my interest (all of ~10 minutes) I head out to the car with a pound of bacon-flavored cheese and settle in with my textbook. That soon becomes a FOTL booksale book, which rapidly engrosses me when I discover that a friend's family is featured.

Back home. I start cleaning up the garden. Take down net trellises and pull up T-posts. Move stepping-stones of rocks and boards to the edge of the garden. Cut dead growth and use it to cover the perennials. I have a head of cauliflower that survived the goat/sheep's "help" in the garden. It's the first respectably sized head of cauliflower I've ever managed to produce and somehow I never noticed it amongst the celery and kohlrabi. This follows cucumber and broccoli for "first" times producing a vegetable. Pulling the wooden posts out of the garden reminded me yet again of my community plot 2 years ago, the produce of which was gorgeously photographed by a house-bound (and threatening to go stir-crazy) Kataclysm. :-)

While I worked in the garden, Delicate Hubby finished putting up the siding on our 12 foot x 12 foot goat/chicken/potting barn. (With Goat's help, of course. When she's not on the deck checking for dropped apples from apple processing.) After he'd gone back and forth along the building several times, I pointed out the single egg that was laying directly in front of the goat's door and along the main pathway. It was cold, so not super-fresh. Somehow both Delicate Hubby and the livestock had managed to avoid stepping on it in their numerous travels back and forth along the path.

Delicate Hubby eventually started to herd the sheep and goats back into the pen from their supervised lawn grazing. Soon I hear a "HELP!!" coming from inside the barn. Lesson of the day: Don't get between Goat and her grain. She will suddenly grow three feet in order to reach it.