Almost There....

What an exhausting bear of a week. This one should be slightly less intense (a '7 1/2'vs '11' on the 1-10 scale), and then the worst is over. Until January, anyway. Thanks to all who posted words of encouragement; it was much appreciated. My job isn't one I would have chosen had I known then what I know now (a serious lesson in 'be careful what you wish for'). I'm grateful for a decent-paying job with health benefits and generous vacation/comp time, but weeks like these are a challenge physically, mentally & emotionally. Do you ever multi-task to the point you think your brain might break?! Anyway, I'm on the downhill part of the terrain, and that's a good thing.

On the home front, we helped our neighbors relocate all their chickens (some of which were originally ours from last year). We kept two of them & brought them home Friday night. Yeah, that went pretty badly. Not one of the group was happy with the arrangement, and yesterday one of the newbies kept winging it over the 7 ft fencing to go back 'home'. The people buying the neighbors' house wouldn't be too happy about that since they'd been adamant they didn't want the chickens. Our three hens haven't figured out that flying-the-coop thing and we don't want them to learn, so we had to make a quick decision. Called the guy who took the others, and he was delighted to add two more. So we are officially at three chickens, and will be keeping it that way for the Winter. Come Spring, I'd really like to find a couple of Australorps to complete our flock; our current trio is comprised of Red Stars.

 I confess we've only named one of them (Tutu; can you pick her out of the crowd?); hoping Fall will allow us time to get to know them a bit. No eggs yet, which is frustrating! The overnight guests each laid one, so we are leaving them in the nest box a few days as inspiration.

Linda's at it again, this time fostering a mama and four tiny babies. Her owners moved out of their apartment and just left this beautiful creature behind. The kittens are about a week old, and well, mama may be sweet but she got around...definitely more than one daddy here! 

And before anyone asks, no...we will not be keeping any of this crew! Really. I mean it. Pip is a handful, and a delight. This morning we had coffee in bed (with the windows open, letting in the fresh, cool full-of-Fall-promise air), laughing out loud as the Pipster raced around the bedroom chasing & bringing back crumpled post-its and playing with toes under the blanket. She's thinks the dogs exist for her. Yeti just sighs and Lola is bemused, as you can see:

We also have a rescue caterpillar, because...why not? Meet Spicey, the Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly-to-be, who came with the spicebush we acquired a couple of weeks ago...

It's an exquisite day, with dramatic clouds casting mood shadows on the mountains.  The chickens have the best view on the property (although they're too short to actually see it):

Have a magical week!