Neighbors helping neighbors acquire material items in the country

When you live in the country, it just isn't as easy to get stuff as in other places. But in the country where I live, neighbors all pitch in to help one another.

For example: Last fall, we had huge plumbing issues. The nearest Loew's is about 35 miles. Sadly, we lacked a single plumbing part to replace the burst pipe, so the phone tree kicked in. It turned out that our neighbors down the way had PVC and CPVC parts (or rather "white shit" and "yellow shit," as Gary likes to say). As luck had it - they had the part we needed and we ended up with working plumbing sans the 70 mile drive.

Now, I am working on a project in the big city of Houston and can get anything at almost any time. While home for a visit, I talked with Liza about how dirty my house gets in the Holler. I have to vacuum everyday to have a hope of keeping up.

HER solution is the "no shoes" rule. But her challenge is that people who visit feel exposed without slippers in her home. As luck would have it, I had to buy slippers here and found Japanese ones for $1 a pair at the Welcome Market.

Tonight, I head out to get Liza a treat:


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Awesome Instructional Video: Baby Chicks

Free Exotic Chick

Well, we took the leap. In May, we will get an overnight deliver of chicks from McMurray's Hatchery. The best news? Along with our 30 egg and roaster birds, we get a free exotic chick. I am truly hoping it does not turn out to be a really mean rooster who terrorizes the cats.

Now, we spend our days researching brooders. The people before us left all sorts of chicken stuff around, but I think a nice new brooder is in order to avoid disease. This little article is really helpful.