Another Unplanned Pregnancy, Fire Across Road and Death

January began with a cluck. A filthy hot day (3rd Jan) I was sitting at the computer when I hear loud cheeping coming from the vicinity of the hen house. Except this was a newly hatched cheeping and my other chicks were a couple of months old at the time. Went out in the scorching sun and discovered Kit sitting next to a tiny black chick. Picked it up and wandered 50 feet into the paddock where I had thought I'd heard cheeping a couple of days before coming from the other side of the woodshed. Sure enough I discovered Lara the black hen sitting under a mess of old bikes. When she saw the chick she called while it ran madly towards her. Thinking that was sorted I went back to the computer. Half an hour later I heard more loud cheeping coming from the hen house. Back out and discovered Kit watching a pale gray chick wandering round. I collected it and took it to Mum. Obviously she'd become thirsty and hungry from sitting on her eggs and gone to tank up at The Big House and the chicks had followed her and got left behind. The next morning Lara appeared with the gray and two black chicks so I put them in a cage to keep them safe from predators.

Meanwhile Ella's eight chicks were growing well although unfortunately a large proportion turned out to be roosters. Very funny to watch her try to brood these huge babies when she could only just manage to cover two with her wings. Even she soon tired of this and in mid January went off the cluck and back to the flock. Meanwhile I became close to one speckled baby who enjoyed sitting on my knee, arm or wherever she could perch. Well I hope it's a she although I did catch her trying to crow one morning. At the moment she's transgender.

The 15th January was another scorcher. My garden had given up and turned brown. It was windy. So was I. Mid afternoon I glanced outside and everywhere was bathed in an eerie orange light. When I went near the windows I could smell smoke so panicked and rushed out to rescue my underwear off the line as there is nothing worse in life than smoky knickers. Stig the goat and I went to the front gate and across the road saw a haze of smoke with four helicopters and monsoon buckets trying to put out a grass fire. My landlord's son rode over on his bike to say that the neighbour had been combine harvesting when the tractor hit a stone and the fire started. All in all 120 acres were burnt and it took the fire brigades of Tikokino, Onga Onga, Waipawa, Waipukurau and Hastings (forty minutes away) to put it out. I spent a nervous night wondering if the high winds would reignite it. Next morning heard the fire sirens again but they were only dampening down smoldering areas.

The same day I'd found a Sheltie dog for free on Trademe. Rang the owner who told me she and her husband were re homing him as they wanted to go out camping more. I said I would take him and she said she would talk to her husband about bringing him across from Wanganui. To say I was excited would be an understatement although his name (Buffy) did give me cause for concern in a household of Demelzas, Baldricks and Stigs. Wednesday morning the owner emailed to say that she had decided to give him to someone else as they didn't want to drive over. Didn't even give me the chance to find another way to get him. This was all the more painful as an hour before I'd learned that my mother had died during the night. So the following week was spent with high emotions as we attempted to give Mum the proper send off.

Monday the 24th January was her funeral in Napier. My cousin Elaine and I drove up on a wet and nasty morning and had lunch with my brother, his wife, birth mother, brother and partner and sister. After the funeral at St John's Cathedral and a quick cup of tea Elaine and I came back down to Central. Next day I was back in Napier for a doctor's appointment which has resulted in an emergency referral to the rheumatology clinic at the Regional Hospital as the GP thinks I have an extremely rare auto immune disorder which only affects two people in Hawkes Bay. Guess that explains why I have felt like crappier than usual for so long. So if I have two rare disorders I guess that just makes me more exclusive. And interesting in a wane, windswept sort of way. Although I really feel as if I've been hit in the head with a frying pan with the events of the past month I try to be grateful for all the good things in life while trying to make sense of all the bad.