NCOT... How are you?.

Clo's rooster story is hilarious, and I welcome the visual of the pumped up rooster. Wow at the 30 minute chew out you got. Clearly, you're his territory...maybe one day he'll want to be friends insteas of supper.

q

This saga should have a wider audience! Youtube comes to mind...lol.
q

I second Serenity’s post on all points!!! 😀

That rooster..... He has sharp spurs. He tries to use them on short chubby people....and stray dogs. He got her daughter yesterday (the short chubby one built like me) with the spurs. I was hoping she was going to tell me they were having chicken dinner.... But no. Not happening. Her daughters love all the birds and she could not kill one. He's getting older.. over 5 or 6 years old... So I keep hoping he will slow down or eventually the coyotes will get him. But tonight she told me the darn things can live up to 15 years....

I've tried to go over there and make friends but he chases me all the way back to my house jumping and flying around my head. Thank God I usually have a sweater on so I can take it off and swing it at him. I guess I should be thankful my neighbor doesn't care if I super soak him or swing my sweater at him. I told her next time its a badminton racket or tennis racket. He's a menace. ಠ︵ಠ. I even tried the puffy Cheetos he likes so much. Going over in the car and trying to put Cheetos by where he struts around. He chased me back to the car, jumped up on my hood, pooped and then stared at me. Only when I started to back up did he get off the hood and eat the Cheetos I'd flung all over. Sigh.... Maybe I'll try it again.

I can hold the laying hens. They walk right up to me and want to be petted...or fed. It's that beady eyed mean little rooster. I'll keep working on it and keep my super soaker and badminton racket close by. LOL.

Thanks for the suggestions though.

Even typing this has got me chuckling. Hope you all laughed too.

NCOT, hope you respond soon and everything is ok.

Clo

CcinPA,

The girls are older. The one it went after is 17? Now. So not such small children.... But still.

We had to come back to Texas this week. That rooster made noises but didn't come over. I'm hoping the super soaker deterred him.

Cross your fingers!

NCOT--where are you?.

Clo

Clo—maybe your mouser will put that old rooster in his place! Hopefully not the other way around!

Okay I've read it. (And caught up on everyone else's posts too.) Ahaha, that rooster sounds like an absolute psychopath. I'm not a roosterologist, so I dunno why the bird is behaving like he is, but it does sound like he'd be a lot safer and quieter as part of a quality chicken stew or fried chicken. When I used to live in London (the north western suburbs), one of our neighbours kept hens and a rooster. I'd hear it crowing occasionally. Sadly one night a fox got into their enclosure and killed them all - the neighbours had to dig the fence much deeper next time. Anyway, if the situation gets bad enough, I can always ship over a fox from London to you... >.>

Don't see much wildlife where I am now, but occasionally driving home at night I will see a badger or muntjac (small deer). They are cute.

CC - The weather is mixed! We had a humid day yesterday followed by a thunderstorm. I've really changed regarding weather in the last few years. Used to enjoy winter and dislike summer, but now it's the other way round - I cannot wait for the interminable winter to end. It never gets seriously cold in the UK, but it's damp cold which really gets into your bones after a while. Plus my flat seems to have magical cold-retaining properties, whereby it will cling onto cold for weeks and lose heat about 5 minutes after the temperature has dropped outside. On top of that, the price of energy has risen drastically and is set to rise again in October: it's worrying. I'm lucky to have savings which many people don't have, but I feel like price rises and inflation is gonna eat away at them over the next few years. If ever I move (which I would really like to), I will definitely look for a naturally warmer flat. Sorry, all you asked was how was the weather, and I went on another lengthy spiel :-/

Anyway you've reminded me, I must book my second booster. I had Covid over Christmas so hopefully antibodies are still protecting me to some extent. Urgh, I just don't even want to think about Covid anymore tbh. I wish it would just go away for good :/

PS: Thank you everyone for enquiring after me. It doesn't solve anything but it does make me feel a tiny bit better. On Reddit (which iPoop mentioned), there is no community at all. I go there to scroll mindlessly; because it's so active, there's always another dumb post to read. But I never learn anyone's names, never get any sense of who anyone is as a person, the way you used to be able to on forums if you spent enough time on them. I really, really miss small communities like this one. In fact it's a testament to HW that it's survived at all; none of the other forums I used to be active on has.

Post Edited (NiceCupOfTea) : 5/19/2022 7:11:55 PM (GMT-6)

NCOT — My mother passed from dementia and it truly was the toughest 4 years of my life. I think we were lucky that her journey with it was not even longer but hers progressed very quickly and the last two years were truly hell on earth so I know how stressful it was just watching from the sidelines. I’m afraid there are no solutions other than to try to take care of yourself. Some patients become very fractious with dementia which makes it even more difficult. But there may be times where you can find some pleasant times with your dad as he begins to let you of whatever was guarding his emotions if that makes sense.

Clo — I think the barn cats are a good idea? I’m sure there will be enough mice etc running around to keep the chickens safe and the neighbor should have locked up that rooster long time ago. Although to be selfish I will miss your rooster stories if that happens! 🤣. We have a friend with chickens and ducks that brings us fresh eggs and my world what a difference in flavor. Eggs are my go-to food when my tummy is acting up so I know what you mean!! As an aside, Those friends butchered a couple of roosters a while back because they had too many. Fried them up but mostly then threw the meat out because it was so stringy and tough. So should you ever get your wish to cook that mean old bird 😈 be sure to do a slow boil to soften him up! 🤪

OMG!!! What a story!! There sure is no end to the drama around there!! Well come on, how could you NOT drive to the vet when everyone is crying and carrying on. That's the only thing you could have done. Maybe the silver lining is that, barn cats or no barn cats, they will keep that rooster locked away tightly now to keep it safe from the coyotes.

LOL... my husband loves the irony in this situation.

I'm telling you--I still don't like that rooster. I don't think a coyote attack is gonna change him.

My neighbor called to Thank me tonight and to tell me they are bringing him home on Monday after school. She also shared that she's going to be locking up all of her chickens and animals at night. Apparently the coyotes/wild cats (like a bob cat?) Have taken 3 of our neighbors little dogs in the last month. Just scooped them up and ran off with them. Yikes!!! Animal control is talking about catching the culprits and warned us to be aware of what was out there when walking around our farms..... Her daughters are relieved the rooster is going to live. The mother is having buyers remorse over the vet bill...

And I am thrilled that they are going to lock up the menace and his understudy so they can't get me.

But now wondering if coyotes eat little cats....hmmm. I will be locking them up in the barn nightly too.

I hope this true and funny experience makes you all smile just alittle.

Clo

NCOT, Thinking of you and hoping this shines just alittle light on your path. Hang in there my friend.

Everyone... I really hope you all got a smile out of this. Our lives are so complicated and can be full of dark and lonely periods. Sometimes the silliest things can seem to make my load lighter. I share my adventures and hope they are laugh worthy so perhaps they might brighten your day. I appreciate you all.

Post Edited (clo2014) : 5/22/2022 9:50:07 PM (GMT-6)

Hello folks. I'll update while I still feel a tiny bit better - it won't last...

I stayed at my parents' house for a few days. Helped my mum take some stuff to the dump and did a bit of shopping, where I bought a Lego bonsai tree >_>. (If you like, I'll post a photo of it when it's done.) However, I'm shocked and dismayed by how much worse my dad ha s got. I really shouldn't be shocked anymore, but I can't help it. My mum feels the same way. She is not normally emotional, especially about my dad, but during my stay she broke down and said she never thought she would say this, but she missed him. I knew exactly what she meant. Me and my dad didn't have the best relationship ever (he was a very difficult man), but I would still take his old arsehole self back in a nanosecond over... this. In some ways he is a kinder person than he ever used to be, but it still does not feel like him. For example, one morning I hadn't had any sleep and broke down crying in the kitchen. Not much gets through to my dad these days, but he did seem distressed by this and was trying to make me feel better, by patting my back. It was even starting to work until he called me his "dear cousin" - I didn't even know he had a cousin :/ (I know very little about my dad's family as he was born in America, he had no brothers and sisters, and all his close relatives died decades ago.)

He can't do basic tasks and even his speech is showing signs of breaking down. He gets very confused and sometimes cannot ask a simple question because he cannot think of the words. He tried to ask my mum something the other day, and said he couldn't think of the phrase. He was clearly struggling so my mum said "show me." He took us into the kitchen and pointed at some bread. It turned out he didn't know what to do with the bread that he'd been toasting for his lunch for years.

Then there was the time when he tried desperately to ask my mum to believe that he was who he said he was. I didn't get all of this conversation, some of it was nonsense. But the gist of it was that he wanted my mum and me to remember who he was and he said his own name a few times. It was clear that during this conversation he had some insight into his own memory loss and was projecting it onto us. Not in a horrible way; he was just scared.

I made the mistake of doing a bit of online research into Alzheimers disease. Not the best idea, as it petrified me and sent me into a deep depression at the thought of what is still to come. In a nutshell, there are 7 stages and, going from his behaviour, my dad is in stage 6. Incontinence apparently starts during this stage. He is still remembering to go to the toilet, but has stopped flushing it. He has also stopped brushing his teeth according to my mum. (He was obsessed with his teeth and would spend ages cleaning them, so that's not normal behaviour for him.)

His car is just sitting in the driveway; he is never going to drive that car again. Nor is he ever going to watch another YouTube video. He lost interest in all his other interests years ago, but the one thing he did carry on doing was watching YouTube. I doubt by the end he was taking anything in, but at least he would try. Now the computer hasn't been switched on in weeks.

There aren't words with which to describe how much I hate seeing him like this. I suppose eventually I'll get used to it, but I don't want to get used to it. I just want my dad's suffering to end, not for him to end up in a care home unable to talk, walk, sit upright, smile or even swallow.

Anyway, I'm sorry for being so depressing. I do feel a bit better today - it is absolutely amazing what a bit of sleep can do. For the first time in months, I had an uninterrupted night's sleep last night. It is making me look more forward to the surgery than ever. Of course the difficult thing there is, I know I won't immediately be better, but in the long run I hope I will be.

@Clo - I am so sorry about your mum. I don't know what I'll do when my one goes - can't bear to think about it really. Funnily enough, I was listening to my mum on a voicemail recently and wondering whether I should keep it. I didn't in the end, as the voicemails will be lost when I get a new phone anyway. I've got plenty of photos but no videos. I've never been a big video person, but as my parents get closer to their end of their life, I am starting to think I should get a few video recordings of them. It's too late to capture my dad as he was, but my mum still looks and sounds much the same as she always has done.

I love the sound of where you live. It probably isn't really, but it sounds positively idyllic. I used to live in the outskirts of London, where, funny enough, I had more access to the countryside than I do in this crappy small town that I'm now in. We lived on the edge of a green belt with a lovely ancient common, a priory, etc. Plus my parents had a massive garden. I still miss that house and garden.

I'd love to try those freshly laid eggs too! You can't buy really fresh eggs in a supermarket and there aren't any farms near me.

@FlowersGal - I'm sorry about your mother too. I wouldn't wish dementia on my worst enemy - I'm not just saying that either, I mean it. Horrendous disease. And it's not as bad as it could be for us, because my dad hasn't actually turned spiteful, mean and paranoid, like so many dementia patients I read about. If anything, he is meek and mild now and I do hope for his sake and my mum's sake, it remains that way.

@clo - Had to laugh at you driving like a bat out of hell to save the rooster from hell. But I'm kinda glad it survived. Can't blame coyotes for just trying to survive too, but on the other hand it does sound like those hens will be a lot safer locked up in the barn at night. I'm not sure about cats. I suspect they would be a lot better at avoiding predators than hens would - well in England at least, cats never seem to get eaten by foxes, and we have enough of them (foxes I mean). But some people still want to keep cats indoors because of all the birds they kill. My mum had to stop feeding the birds in her garden because the neighbours' cats would just get them. I did suggest buying lion poop online as a deterrent, but my mum was not impressed by that idea >_>.

NCOT, thanks for the update. So sorry you are having to go through all this. Your relationship with your dad sounds like how mine was. Both my brother and I have psychological scars from our childhood. My brother & I were once close but now we are basically estranged because although he will rant about how my father was, he has basically turned into him. But my point was, it is still emotionally conflicting - I cried at his funeral and get sad when I miss the rare "good" moments I had with him.

My mother I was VERY close to. She passed away 12 years ago and I still miss her every day. I strongly encourage you to record even a few small video clips. I have mounds of photos throughout the years but thankfully I do have a couple voice recordings plus a few video clips. Watching a video and hearing her voice is a whole different level compared to photos.

Ok, I was sure I posted a lengthy response and it isn't in here.....

I really am sorry that you are going thru all of this.

about your Dad. I won't sugar coat it. You and your Mum are going to be walking down a pretty tough road. I too think you should see if you can get in some talk therapy - maybe for your Mum also. And maybe you could research getting a "day nurse" or a "day helper" that comes in and helps you all with baths, meds, maybe giving you some time off and away???? On my Mom... Music would reach out and bring her back alittle bit from that confused place. I played her favorites a few times a day and classical music during the other times. I also posted pictures up all over with her and everyone in the family with notes under it. I also made a picture book like that She would look at the book frequently. Support groups for both you and your Mom will help you both if you think you can do that. Some people just can't do it - and that's ok too.

It's beautiful here... But... I am not a farm girl. The things I have experienced out here have been true adventures. They aren't funny when they happen but later on I laugh myself silly. I do things that sometimes make things even more difficult.... Like enticing the calves that come to my house to follow me back to their pasture by feeding them carrots....but then... They started coming over daily for treats. My neighbor had to explain it to me. I just thought they were out adventuring. Lol..

I tried Fox urine for the birds around our porches. It did not work. They still were determined to build nests in our porch. We had to put up bird netting. The fox urine... It did smell horrible though. It took a couple of weeks to go away. The mint oil I put on top of it just made it worse..... Not a farm girl... Lol.. I can't imagine how much stronger lion leavings would be.🙀

Clo