A Reward For a Job Mostly Done

Ain't they sweet
For Hick's Oldest Son's treat
I ask you very confidentially
Ain't they sweet

Ain't they nice
I hope HOS wins once or twice
I ask you very confidentially
Ain't they nice

While Hick was away, I fed the goat and mini-pony and chickens and guineas and turkey. I also gave them water, toted in a heavy bucket. I did not, however, go into the goat pen. Their food troughs are wired to the fence, and I can pour their sweet feed over the fence with a scoop. They don't need much. Their water bucket is in the corner where the goat pen shares a common fence with the chicken pen. Since our chickens roam, their pen gate is left open, and I walk right in and pour the bucket of water through the fence.

Not all chickens roam.

We only have four left, you know. And three are roosters. You might think the hen is just faking it to get the roosters off her back, but Hick discovered her in the goat shed, sitting on some eggs, right before he left. She's vulnerable like that. So he boarded up the goat shed (to about waist height) where Billy the goat and Barry the mini-pony stand during a rainstorm.

"Tough," said Hick, when I said they would get wet if it rained. "They know other places to go. They can get under the BARn lean-to. I've seen them over there before. I'm closing up this shed, and HOS will come down and make sure she's got food and water, and see if the chicks have hatched. You don't have to go in there."

Billy has a bad butting habit. He's never butted ME, but he DID try to take a bite out of my hand when I went to pet him last time Hick was gone and I had feeding duty. Barry just turns his rear and kicks. Mostly at Billy. But it wouldn't be prudent for me to get all stove-up, and be laying in the goat pen for a week with Hick gone.

I'm not too sure about the quality of HOS's mothering instincts. I DID see him here one evening while I was feeding. He went in and peered into the goat shed. "It's hard to tell if there's any chicks. It's dark in there, and she's black, and I can't see what's under her."

"We'd hear them if there were chicks. We can hear then all the way over on the porch."

HOS and his wife and her cousin went down in the woods to hunt for mushrooms, and I do not recall seeing HOS give that chicken any food or water. So I asked Hick when he got back if someone was supposed to be feeding and watering that hen.

"Oh, HOS was going to do that."

"I didn't see him do it that one night when he checked on her. You should probably go look. I don't want to think that she starved to death."

"She could get out, Val. There was an opening she could fly out, to get food and water. But I left her some inside."

"Well, those other chickens went through a lot of water. Unless the dogs were drinking it instead of their own water."

"Huh. I just sent HOS a text, and he said she wasn't eating or drinking. I'll go check." He was back shortly. "She's fine. Still sitting. Her water is half empty. I told HOS her water sure did disappear for her not drinking it."

Maybe HOS fed and watered on the days I didn't see him. He WAS there checking on that one chicken on one night, anyway. Usually when Hick is gone, he makes HOS feed and water all the animals, and check on ME. And when we go to Oklahoma, HOS feeds the dogs and cats, too. I always give him some money for his gas and time. Although now, with him living right up the other road, he just rides our 4-wheeler down, and it takes about 15 minutes to do everything.

Hick said I didn't need to give HOS anything. I thought I should. So I got him some scratch-off tickets.

Give a man money, and he can eat for a week if he shops at Save A Lot. Give a man lottery tickets, and he might not eat at all if they're losers. But for a brief moment, he has HOPE, by cracky!

HOS doesn't know he's getting anything. He probably won't get them until Friday, when he's off work and Hick is off work and has time to deliver them. I hope HOS wins a fortune!

____________________________

BREAKING NEWS!
6:47 p.m. Backroads time

The chicks arrived sometime this afternoon. Hick sent me a picture this evening. We are the proud new parents of six chicks: three black, three yellow.