They come in 3's

Omg what an exhausting weekend. So my plan was to study this weekend..I had intended to just bury my nose in the books and Stephen had agreed to take on all the little monkeys for the weekend, so it all seemed I had a green light to just focused on ME. Until.....lol

I went to feed the chickens and noticed one of them was limping, actually only walking on one foot. I thought Id take a closer look, so I brought her inside and put her in a dog kennel  so I could keep an eye on her in the house. So I'l pause here for a sec for all of you that are saying,
"Your keeping a chicken in the house??!! Gross!" and to those people I will say this:
Have you met me?! LOL..Seriously though, had I left her out there with the other chickens she runs the chance of being beaten up even killed if she shows weakness. Ever heard the expression "pecking order"? Its orogin refers to chickens.
So We have her in the house, watching her trying to see of we can nurse her back to health.
THATS ONE

Saturday early afternoon, my cousin had came by with her two boys and so it was a bit like romper-room:) and of course after a while of playing ..we hear:
little foot pattering on the hardwood floor
followed by giggles
followed by a loud THUD
followed by screams
Juan comes running into the kitchen with his little hand grasped over his forehead, blood pouring out from between his four year old fingers. 
We rushed off to childrens hospital.
As they held him down, they started sewing him up and he starts screaming and it just about broke my heart...ugh
The other part is that Juan has had two other head  injuries in Oct last year and Dec. which resulted in 10 stitches. All three of these things were really normal kid stuff expect for the fact that Juan has a pre existing condition. He has had brain bleeds in the past due to the fact that his skull is a little bigger than his brain, so when he takes a tumble or is too rough, it has been known to bleed. All of this is because his birth mother used a lot of cocaine and alcohol while pregnant with him. So, as you can imagine, whenever he so much as bumps his head, my heart stops for a second.
The good news is that it looks as though he is growing into his head, and Dr's say he is well on his way to growing out of this condition..for now, however..it's hard, until he's "out of the woods"
He received 16 stitches this time.

THATS TWOmeanwhile back in the E.R..
My cell rang. Stephen was helping hold Juan down so I left the room to answer it.
It was our friend Patti, who is also the person who keeps our horses at her farm.
She said that our thoroughbred mare, Stella, was laying down in her stall and not eating. I called the Vet to meet us out there  at the farm. We left right from the hospital
So it turns out Stella had colic, and was a little dehydrated. So she's gonna be just fine. I was freaked out though, because I didnt know what was wrong with her. The Vet gave her two injections, and took this loooong clear tube, stuck it up her nose, and down her esophagus and pumped a bucket of water into her stomach. She said sometimes horses dont drink enough when its cold out, so..no real serious harm done..just a little unexpected dent in my checkbook for that after hours vet visit.
THATS MAKES THREE...lol 

Everyone is going to be ok (though the jury is still out on Hennrietta the chicken)..this summer we are looking forward to riding Stella, and also saddle training our new Icelandic horse, Gretchen. ..and , *keeping fingers crossed* Juan having had experienced his last head injury.
Its strange..ALL our kids have had a shitty start in life, and both horses were also rescued.
They have a lot in comon in that way.
Stella was a race horse. She had been run so hard and for so long; mainly because she made a *great deal* of money for her owners, but when she got too old for that , she was put out to pasture to be a brood mare. By the time we found her, her feet had grown over and her horse shoes were way too small and she was so thin you could see her ribs. Se is much better now. She's filled out, and her feet and healed. Its so nice to see her just be able to be a horse :)
Gretchen was owned by a woman who had advanced MS.  She had recently been convinced to move here from Michigan by a man she met online, who put her in deep debt then left her. She had to move from her home, and she left the horse behind.
Gretchen was left here with no other animals and no people. The Realtor was feeding her. Shes only 4 years old and just needed some TLC...I think we all did.
xo
Donny