You've heard that old adage probably a dozen times in your life in Western society. It means don't count on things to go as planned.
Often, I have a student or acquaintance ask me the meaning of such terms they've heard. It's usually easy to give an example in life for them to understand the meanings.
Today, well this past month and honestly years now I have found this one often the most bitter pill. You make a plan, you buy 10 chicks and then you get food and a hen house and you think hey in a short time, im going to have eggs, then I can sell those eggs and buy more chickens and a bigger henhouse. Then if I get a rooster; you need those, well then I can let those hens sit on eggs and hatch chicks and put them out in the garden and well I can sell those chicks, let them grow and eat them or sell their eggs..dreams. We all have them. One part of my journey here was knowing that life here hadn't changed much. People still farmed and lived off their land and their animals. It's getting fewer but I hope that people will keep these ways. While the West is trying to go backwards, here is saying, "we want that".. But the reality is you've got the better deal and you just don't know it.
So let me go back to my story. My reason for writing today. I keep promising myself im going to blog more. But still waiting on my PC to be repaired for one. But let me tell you this months story. My daughter Aieysha has her dogs and we got to point where she finally had two good quality breed females. A stud male when we needed him and we last summer had a grandson to our oldest female Desdemona. Her name came about after reading Othello with a college student of mine. Well if you know the story Desdemona is a white woman who meets and marries a Moor, a black man. Well our Desdemona was black. She was a beauty and full of kindness. She only wanted to be loved. Few years ago we bred her for the first time and got a nice litter of puppies. All but two were black. A male and female. The male Rollo went to a great family and we see him often. But Winnie, oh she was beautiful. Gorgeous color and all those Labrador folds of skin you would think she was a Sharpei. But she was just like her momma, just wanted loving.
Aieysha and well all my kids are currently in USA with their dad. The girls went back to get papers and get a GED so they could do more things in life. Aieysha wants to be a vet. Since we came in 2012, its slowly became a reality and she is getting her certifications so she can study here and open a much needed clinic out here and be an extension to training of young vets as well. So while she is away, my sil and I are here with her children and tending our animals.
So back to the counting chickens part..well I cant count the number of times we made plans and things went along fine them bamm, we lost so much. First winter here we had a female deliver 20 pups and it was a storm and no power and she labored two days and her kennel was outside and well in a matter of days, I buried all 20 pups. It was hard but by then we were use to losses and we just kept moving forward. Well last month, Desdemona was fine I had taken her out and walked her and the next afternoon my sil found her dead. We think a scorpion bite. It was an extremely hot early spring day so we couldn't take time to wonder why and the flies were coming from all over..so we buried her and then the hardest was calling my daughter. I couldn't. I let her husband tell her. We cried..
Well last week I noticed that Miss Winnie was looking a bit fat. They had been eating and not getting runs as much so I thought shes just fat..get her out and let her run. But nope, she was pregnant. Now dogs are nearly halfway through a pregnancy before they really show signs and you cant really tell on ultrasound unless you got a good machine. Aieysha plans to get one as it will be needed out here since we are rural. So we took her to a clinic and the guy had an old machine. Scanned one side and said 5 pups and maybe 10 days til delivery.
So we began to prep the birthing room and her welping box and make plans for any day. Night before a heavy storm rolled in and the weather dropped and we decided to put her early in her room just so she wouldn't chill. We should have had a week still to go. But we all know storms can cause animals to go into labor. Sure enough the next morning she was panting..moving around in her box. Vomiting a few times, all of which is normal. So we prepared to be on labor duty. We had a power outage half that night until early morning but she was fine. In the morning, I looked in on her and her heavy panting had relaxed. Ok so maybe we got a few days still. Every few hours one of us would check on momma Winnie. I began my dinner and a neighbor had offered a meal for my sil and the kids. So I cooked and broke my fast and was eating my dinner. Not quite done and my granddaughter comes to the door. Grandma, Winnie died..just like that. It took me back over 25 yrs to the day a neighbor boy died..his sister when I asked how her brother was today said with a voice I will never forget, "Oh he died last night". She was maybe 5, and her brother had been born with a birth defect.. Since birth they waited for him to die..he was 10.
So I told her NO, don't say that! No, daddy is teasing..the puppies are coming and maybe one has died..I hurried next door to her room..no..I was wrong..Winnie had died while we ate dinner. But wait she has puppies..
My sil suggested it might be too late, I had only felt one moving earlier which I thought odd as with her last litter I could feel lots of wiggles..we quickly got supplies and we made an incision on her side. Now here is where life here makes this easier..while the west puts meat in pretty packages, here often you find the shop has animals waiting.. No pros or cons its life as it has been lived for millennias..the meat in our shops were killed that morning. But this isn't some animal you never saw until that moment..this is a newborn pup I held myself and gave breaths too just a few years ago..this was a dog who was as we say, part of our family.
But we knew we had to hurry if we had any chance to save even a few babies..one by one we pulled out puppies.. And each life had passed..12 pups..not 5. A few were black in the sacs so I think that they had died and she had gone septic..her last pregnancy we had a few that were stillborn.
After we delivered the last puppy, I cried..not even one. The kids had been there. They sat on a couch holding one wrapped in a cloth. We try to let them live in the reality of farm life.
I cant count the animals we've lost in the time we have been here. We rescued hundreds by now. Few make it and we find homes or like our cats they become part of life here on the farm..but its those you spent effort on. Not the day old chick you bought that you found, but the one you break out of its shell and get a hen to accept. Its the lamb whose mother died you feed for days, to find sleeping in death under a tree. Its the puppy who is sick from parvo as its still not well known here and few people know about shots to prevent..its not the dog hit by a car, broken legs and hip. Its not the sheep you raise only to lose from pox a few yrs later..with two babies too.
I stopped counting chickens..
