Winter has been taking a vacation. For several days, now, the temperature has reached the 30s and 40s F. It is a welcome relief. We have these January thaws often; certainly not every year, but they occur often enough that we look forward to them. A cooling down is in the forecast and it may be below zero F this weekend.
I saw five swans yesterday. It was a surprise. I take it as a message. It was comforting to see them in the middle of Winter. I have never seen swans in the Winter before. I don't know of a body of water, around here, that stays open in the Winter. I have read about swans, hanging on through the Winter, in areas where a power plant keeps a large pool of water open. In any case, we know Winter can't last forever when we see five swans flying over the land.
We had a chicken incident last night. As I mentioned earlier, we converted our goat shed to a chicken coop and moved the birds a couple months ago. I have moved chickens from one place to another before. It usually takes a few days to get them acclimated. We might have a few persistent ones that want to go in the old location and we gather them up after dark, when they can't see well enough to run away. Usually, it is only a couple chickens, and we have to do it, only once or twice.
I have been letting the chickens out in a pen. With snow covering the ground there was no place for them to go. During this January thaw, large patches of ground opened up. I let them free range on Monday. Yesterday Morning I noted a few stayed out over night, no big deal, I thought surely they would follow their friends in the evening. So I let the other chickens out to free range. Last evening at five, they were not congregating around their coop. I discovered about twenty chickens around their old coop. I tried to herd them over to their new coop. Huh! Have you ever herded chickens? Their old coop is in the pasture with the sheep. Of course, the sheep were curious and had to horn in on the herding business. I went and got Jamie to help me. Even with two of us, we couldn't get the chickens to move in the right direction. We waited until after dark and gathered about ten of them up. They were roosting in an ancient, fallen Box Elder and on the window sills of the old coop.
We gave up. There are about ten more out there. We will have to catch them tonight. If it is dark enough the chickens can't see well enough to run. The ideal situation is when you can see them and they can't see you. We have to be careful not to shine the flashlight on them. We hold the light, to the side, just so we can see them well enough to grab them. I am too old to run down a scampering chicken at night; especially when the ground is strewn with old tree branches from that Box Elder. We hope the moonlight will be bright enough for us to navigate, but not bright enough to let the chickens run.
If it wasn't for Brer Fox, Brer Coyote and the Great Horned Owls I would leave them out for a few nights. They would be easy to catch when it snows again and they do want to be in with the rest of the chickens. They are just obsessively focused on their old coop. I have never experienced chickens be so obsessive before. I hear rumblings about Mercury Retrograde.
Life on this planet can't help but be an adventure. We think we have mastered all we have to learn and then a new phase of learning makes its appearance. We know it is possible to be at peace and project peace, no matter what turmoil surrounds us. If we have the intent to evolve, the lessons will come to us, if we like it or not. It would be nice to learn all the current lessons and then be on a plateau of peace and quiet for a time [years].
Most of the folks reading this have made the intent to be unconditionally loving beings. Time is speeding up and vibrations are high. We are in a hurry to see what the world would look like without our egos. What would we see if we gave up all judgement? What would it be like to know oneness? What would it be like to give up all our defenses? What would it be like to know no fear? We we will find out. We will know Unconditional Love.
On the journey, we do have these pesky lessons.
Love and Peace, Gregg
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