It has continued to rain here, we have had about 10 inches of rain in a little over a week. Louisana has been hammered with a lot and flooding...historic amounts of rain, some are saying it ended up being around 30 inches! I have seen pictures of the devestation...so many houses flooded, coffins floating in the streets, highways underwater. People with no place to call home any more. They speak of the Cajun Navy helping rescue so many people from their flooded homes, these are people with boats, just helping to save lives. I think the death toll is up to thirteen now. It is sad to watch, but the people helping each other is amazing.
We had been dry for quite awhile, so no flooding here. Even though we have gotten a lot of rain the earth has absorbed most of it now. The creek was dry and I can here it running from the house, but it has not left it's banks. The lower part of the yard has had a little standing water, not much. I got the yard mowed yesterday before the rain started up again. It had gotten pretty high and the younger chickens were hard to see in the tall grass. When I was done with the mower, the chickens, ducks, geese and turkeys were having a field day...running after grasshoppers! It is funny to watch them taking them away from each other and running with them.
All the rain has been bad for my garden, my watermelons were starting to rot, I picked most of them. My Brussel Sprouts have pretty much been eaten by ants and started turning black. My pepper plants have gotten out of control, my Habanero plant is probably four feet tall and at least that wide. My Bell Peppers have gotten so heavy that they have been breaking the branches, as is my Broccoli...most is split and some has died. My tomatoes are pretty much just vines laying everywhere now. The rain came down so hard it basically beat up the plants. I need a break from gardening...changed my mind about a Fall garden. I have so much to do before winter I need to concentrate on getting the poultry yard ready for it. The Farmers Almanac is predicting a cold wet winter for us, so I have to prepare for it early. We already have cooler than normal temperatures and more rain...August is generally the driest month here and we already have ten inches of rain for the month...it is not over yet either.
I have several chickens with fowl pox now too. It is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes, it causes little scabby raised bumps on the chickens combs, waddles, ear lobes and around the eyes. Some of my chickens have them bad and I have no be hen you n the house that can't see out of either eye because of them. I have been having to force feed her, she will drink on her own if I set her in front of the water bowl and push her head down to it and wet her beak. She won't eat if I do that though, so I have been prying her mouth open and feeding her boiled eggs. I am not sure if she will make it, she is a sweet little hen and I am trying my best. The pox on her eyes is awful, I have been putting a Vasoline and Sulphur mix on her and tried putting Teramycin in her eyes, but you can't really tell she has eyes any more. The eye area is very swollen and the pox are black scabby looking spots...I am hoping to dry them out enough to scrape them off and get at least one eye open, so she can see to eat.
Wish me luck, I have several more chickens on the porch that have a more minor case of fowl pox...but it seems I notice more popping up on chickens in the yard, the more it rains.
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