We Have Eggs!

I always thought my girls were precocious but even this was a surprise to me.  On June 27th, Inez and Betty both laid their first eggs.  They are the two Barred Rock hens I have and it was quite amazing to me they both laid their first egg on the same day.  These gals were only 4-1/2 months old which is a little young to start laying.  The minimum is usually around 20 weeks but I guess they were anxious to get the egg rolling.

I awoke that morning a little after 7am to the sound of a very excited and loud chicken making very loud noises to the point I was worried something may be trying to get into their coop.  I sprang out of bed and looked over to the chicken yard but all seemed to be in order and there were no unwanted guests trying to get in.  Then it hit me...I remembered this very frenzied, loud, raucous, clucking/screaming noise from when I had chooks in Montana.  It was the very sound of egg laying!  Yes, these girls can make quite a fuss when they lay an egg and I guess the first one must really be something else because it woke me out of a sound sleep!

Anyway, now a few of the other girls are in on the fun and I'm now getting three to four eggs a day.  Out of 6 hens I should be getting six a day pretty soon.  I'm very happy to be finally getting fresh eggs because there is just nothing like a farm fresh egg!

Hiatus from the blogosphere

I realize it's been a while since my last blog post and there is a good reason for that.  First I apologize for the long silence and now the explanation.  I underwent hand surgery on May 11th (Right CMC Joint Arthroplasty with FCR Tendon transfer) to fix the basal thumb joint in my right hand and since I'm right handed, I have been unable to use my hand, hence no writing, shooting photos, cooking, fishing etc.  That makes me and my life pretty darn dull!  But, things are finally looking up and now that I am two months post op and I am starting to be allowed to use my thumb little bits at a time, I am starting to shoot photos again and now I am able to type.

Typing is quite difficult with a big hard plastic splint on your hand from your thumb to your mid arm.

So, I am back and hopefully with time allowed, I will have some new posts for you soon.  I'm afraid the fishing posts will still have to wait for a while since I still am not allowed to cast my fly rod just yet.  They say six months for recovery and a full year for full recovery.  It's all a little too slow for me but hopefully it will all be worth it.

I have now graduated to a small, neoprene flexible splint and this should be the last one I have until I am freed from splints altogether. I have another appointment with my surgeon on July 21st and we will see what he has to say.  The worst thing is I am still unable to use my thumb for pinching.

In short, they removed the trapezium bone in my thumb joint and at the same time, harvested a piece of tendon from my forearm that was not being used for anything in particular.  That tendon was wrapped into a neat coil and inserted into the hole where the trapezium bone was removed, so as to not leave a negative space.  The rest of the tendons were all re-attached and then I was placed in a huge bandage and splint to immobilize the thumb.

The tendons are the slowest things to heal and it takes a minimum of 10 weeks for them to heal over where they were reattached.  This is one of the longest things I've had to heal from...seems longer than my total knee replacement, but if it means I will once again be able to cast my fly rod with no pain, then it will have all been worth it.