Long Winter, New Job, and First Year With Chickens

 My 4th winter in Minnesota has been brutal, and much closer to the North Dakota winters I remember growing up.  The snow never seemed to stop, and the Polar Vortex made me rethink the notion of not heating the chicken coop.  My Barred Rock, Florence, got frostbite on the ends of her comb, so now the tips are whitish gray instead of red.  And poor Georgia - she lost her back toes to frostbite.

During the Polar Vortex I noticed a spray of blood on the plastic surrounding the run, and blood running down the wall underneath the roost.  All the chickens seemed okay, and there wasn't enough room in the run to check them out more thoroughly.  Weeks later, as I was in the run refilling their food, Georgia jumped up on the roost, looked at me, and walked over so that her head was on my shoulder.  It was then that I saw the source of the bleeding - her back foot looked like it had been chopped off, and it was bleeding profusely.  I sprayed it with Vetricyn, and hoped for the best.

The next day at work I was telling the provider and nurse (eek - I work in healthcare now!) Georgia's sad tale, and they immediately said to use DermaBond (actually Gary said to use Super Glue, but I've learned that it's almost the same thing).  There just happened to be a tube of it about to expire, so was sent home with it.  That night Georgia subjected herself to the treatment, and all has been well in chicken land since then, and Gary the Chicken Doc got a dozen blue eggs as a thank you.

About my new job: technically, I'm a patient registration rep, but in reality I'm the office manager, registration, urine drug screening collector, breath alcohol tester, hospitality, cleaner, and sometimes triage.  I work in a small walk-in clinic, so there are only 3 of us working on a given day.  Ten hour shifts with no lunch (we can eat, but can't leave, so we usually eat a few bites, tend to a patient, and come back for more, sometimes several times).

I love most of the people I work with - without any one of us, the clinic has to close, so we truly work as a team.  And work is good for me - I've lost 10 pounds eating mostly salads for lunch, and get a lot more exercise than a job at my computer.  And some of our patients are so interesting to listen to - I seem to learn something new every day. 

The snow is finally starting to melt, green clover is visible in places, my chickens are laying, and I have tons of compost in the chicken run, just waiting for the garden. 

All is well with my soul.