R.I.P. Fuzzy

We lost our rooster Fuzzy a couple of weeks ago, but I was way too emotional to post at the time. The original plan in the Fall of 2014 was to only have laying hens. But when we sold/gave away the other cockerels from our first batch of chicks, no one took Fuzzy so he just kind of … hung out … then suddenly found himself overseeing a flock of hens.

Fuzzy the Blue-Lace Red Wyandotte, sharing the best greens with Red.

We had a rough time when we first moved to Salt Spring Island. I adored Vancouver. And I really, really missed it. Getting the chicks helped cement us on the island, and – nine months later – when our landlords broke our ‘long-term’ lease, it was the chickens that helped us make the decision to stay, to find a place where we could house them on our own property.

Sometimes when I couldn’t sleep at night from the anxiety that surrounded that time in our lives, I would imagine the chickens cuddled up in their coop, sleeping peacefully and cooing softly to each other.

After a snowstorm and terribly distrustful of the chilly ‘white stuff’.

Fuzzy had been having trouble with his legs for the last two years, and the vet couldn’t figure out the issue. We carried him around a bit for the last few months of his life, just when he needed help or encouragement. Placing him with his ladies when they were free-ranging always made him happy. He loved giving them treats or finding them comfy places to nest, though they usually ignored him. He used to crow after us, calling us back when we dared to leave the property for a walk.

Fuzzy flaring his neck feathers at getting his picture taken.

The night before he passed, he tried to wander off after sunset. But we tucked him in the coop with his ladies and he passed way in his sleep.

RIP Fuzzy. Thank you for bringing so much light into our lives.

Avoiding Editing

I’ve taken my capacity to avoid editing to an entirely new level with Catching Echoes, Reconstructionist 1. A sampling of the avoidance techniques I’ve employed in the first three hours of my day are as follows:

Completely mapping out the ending of Dowser 9 in my head while taking a shower and blow drying my hair. I have at least four more books to write between R1 and D9.
Discussing the fine details of the song Michael is currently writing, including the musical ‘makeup.’ And, yeah, I know nothing about music. Not. A. Thing.
Making a wish list of small fruit I’d like to add to the orchard NEXT SPRING, including researching optimal growing conditions for a Meyer Lemon.
Social media posts. Including posting a picture of my cats on Instagram. Because what could possibly be a better way to waste time?
Listening to music to ‘get me into the head space,’ then writing large random chunks of Reconstructionist 2.
Coming down with a head cold. This is an amazing feat, because I never leave the house so I have no idea where I could have picked up a cold. So therefore, logically, it’s self-generated. Like a reverse superpower.
Blogging.
This post needs a picture, let’s see … hmmm … chickens?

So now that my shame is out there, and everyone knows the lengths to which I will go to avoid editing, I will now be forced to edit for the remainder of the day … and for all the days between now and my deadline to get R1 back to the editor.

Oh! But first, a hot chocolate. [That’s not an avoidance tactic, it’s a fundamental need].

10 seconds of chicken TV

Testing video on the new camera … this time in natural, low exterior light. 🙂

Then the sun set over the chicken coop …

… and all was lovely and well.

Sunset over the chicken coop, Dec 11, 2015 — – Margaret Avenue, December 11, 2015

Though, I wouldn’t complain about having more hours in the day devoted to writing. 😀

Happy December 1st!

It’s completely and utterly insane that it’s December 1st today … that it is late afternoon on December 1st!

I knew it was December 1st this morning because Michael woke me up at 4:30 a.m. singing Christmas carols. There is a ban on carol singing before December 1st in this household, which he finds fairly impossible to adhere to. He then put eggnog in his coffee, took a swig, and declared that he was going to put eggnog in his coffee for every 31 days in December.

Yes, at 4:30 .a.m. Though it might have been 5 a.m. at that point.

Then we drove onto a ferry in the pitch dark to take my dad to the dentist.

After a stop at Starbucks, where Michael drank a second eggnog latte and declared “no more coffee for me today,” we drove dad home. Unfortunately, he didn’t provide us with any drugged up footage liable to viral on YouTube. I gather they didn’t sedate him enough at the dentist. 😛

Then I chatted with Caitlin Davies about narrating the audiobooks for the Dowser Series. She seems lovely, and I think she will do a great job of voicing Jade. She is currently recording Dowser 1, which will be released on January 26, 2016. YAY!

In other news, the black printed, Attempted Murder T-shirt is currently listed as unavailable. Amazon Merch has gotten hit and is limiting orders. As soon as they get things sorted on their end it will be available again. All the other designs are currently available.

I See You (Oracle 2) is inches away from being uploaded, all ready to be released on December 17, 2015. It’s currently available for preorder, and if you’re on my new release mailing list, I will drop a reminder in your inbox on the day.

To celebrate December 1st, Michael strung coloured lights around the chicken coop run and lit our first fire in our little cabin. I’ll snap a picture of the coop when we head out to put the chickies to bed, then publish this post.

Time to start baking for Christmas! What are your go-to recipes this time of year?

Happy December 1, 2015. Christmas lights on the chicken coop. The imaginatively named, Swedie, a Swedish Flower Hen, attempting to head bed while one of the Black Copper Marans blocks her way into the coop (which you can see if you squint closely, though maybe that’s just me).

Bonus shot:

Fuzzy Cuddles in the rain with two of his girls, Black Boots and Yellow Boots, who are Black Copper Marans and lay chocolate-coloured eggs!!

ETA. I just caught Michael pouring himself more coffee and eggnog, so I guess his ‘no more coffee today’ edict didn’t hold. LOL

Sunset over the grow out coop

Tonight’s lovely sky. We are so blessed.

Good night all. Sleep well.

Chocolate before 9am

I was just sucking away on some deliciously smooth Boa Sentenca (Cacao Barry) while I cleared out my inbox when it occured to me that it might be a little early in the morning for chocolate, no matter how tasty. And yep, turns out it’s 8:56am as I type this blog post.

Chocolate before 9am is early even for me.

But I figure, since the fire alarm went off to tell us the power was BACK on at 4:40am, and I – ignorant of the time – remained awake and rewrote the entire ending of Dowser 6 while lying in bed, that it’s actually way passed regular chocolate-imbibing time. You know, technically.

Seriously though, why can’t I just plug a computer into my brain? I’ve known how Dowser 6 was going to end for a year now. And, though I’ve tweaked and fleshed out the idea over the last 12 months, the core ending remains the same. The frustration is that it’s still in my head, still haunting my early morning hours … along with my late evenings. To compound that frustration, I have a novel to finish (Dowser 5) and a novel to write (Oracle 2) before I can even crack the spine on a new notebook for Dowser 6 (beyond the pages and pages of notes and scenes I already have jotted down).

All I can hope is that the end result is worth the sleepless nights. For me and Dowser Series readers.

Of course, by then I imagine something new will be haunting me … from inside my own brain.

I guess that’s just normal around here.

Okay, well then. Back to work.

4-week old Swedish Flower Hen cockerel. For you. Just because. Now stop pointing that big red-encased iPad at me and get back to work! — 4-week and two-day old Swedish Flower Hen cockerel. For you. Just because.

First egg!

We moved to Salt Spring Island last September on an adventure. As this adventure unfolded, I decided I would like chickens for the garden … why not dive in? And, yes, going to the Fall Fair might have had something to do with this sudden desire.

So chicks aren’t particularly easy to source in the fall, but Heidi from Greendale Heritage Farms had some Black Copper Marans and Blue-Laced Red Wyandottes that she’d hatched for her own breeding program and decided to sell to us on October 16, 2014.

And so it began. From the little chicks we were worried about keeping warm during the ferry trip home to this:

First pullet egg from our Blue-Laced Red Wyandotte Splash hens. She laid just perfectly in the nesting box – first try! Though for some reason she removed all the straw first.

I admit I squealed a little and made Michael run back to the house for his phone (for pictures).

The flock. Two Blue-Laced Red Wyandotte Splash pullets, One BLRW Splash Cockerel, and two Black Copper Maran tucked in the corner.

And one tasty medium-soft boiled egg with a touch of salt:

Soft boiled egg

So that was today’s new experience. Life is ever changing.

Too much story…

There is too much story running around my head this morning … and last night all I could dream about was Jade and Warner and all the conversations they need to have or will have but there isn’t ever enough time for any or all of that because life is always happening … or the world is caving in.

Then there’s the new pieces haunting me … the snippets of a dream I had early this morning that my mind keeps trying to tidy up and make into a narrative, then make into a narrative that would fit into the universe of the Adept. Because otherwise I’m being a bad writer and allowing myself to get distracted from the work.

Yes, story is different than the work. The work – where my fingers should be curled around a shiny Parker fountain pen filled with green ink instead of tapping on my keyboard – is plotted out through Dowser 5, 6, and Oracle 2. The work is those three books, in which most of the story is pretty firmly set.

But the story – and my mind – is with Kandy in a side story I don’t have any time to write. And also it’s captured by this new idea …

Sigh.

The hot chocolate cooling beside me in my piggy travel mug might help bring focus.

And for you? While you patiently wait to see if anything coherent will issue forth from my direction in the nearish future?

For you, I insert a picture of chicks in a box.

These babies are now in their (much bigger) brooder in my laundry room. I’m trying to not constantly check on them, say every fifteen minutes or so. I have grave concerns that one will die from something I could have prevented, or they will eat each other.

Hmmm, this may be contributing to my lack of focus.

And I don’t like my office.

I might have to do something about that later … the office. For now I have simply moved into the dining room.

And the chicks will probably be just fine … if they don’t turn into cannibals the second I apply myself to the work…

ETA: these sweethearts are from Briarwood Poultry. We swooped over to Vancouver Island, had lunch with my Dad, and picked them up in Mill Bay. Five Swedish Flower Hens and six Wheaten Ameraucanas.