Yay! The first fire of the year (yeah, I DO live in Hawaii)

but we're up the mountain (mauka) and it gets cold...for us.  Honestly, it is probably only in the 50's tonight, but my husband is making the fire.  That's cold enough to want one here.

I think I am going to have to put the sick hen out of her misery tomorrow.  I can't seem to find a website with a good description of what is going on with her.  She isn't eating or drinking.  I isolated her yesterday, and I gave the coop a good scrub down with bleach and water, and added some sulfa to the water of all the chickens, just in case.  I can't do a lot about the muddy mess the pen is in if she left infected droppings, but with so much rain coming down, maybe all infection will get washed away?! Or, at least, diluted.

We start a new term tomorrow at work.  I just got my rosters for the new classes.  I am in for quite a rough ride (so are the students, sigh).  It would be lovely to stay home and worry about mud and washed away gardens...teaching used to be such a joy, but I am getting very discouraged this year.  Maybe it is because I am sick....

Spent more than I should have at the feed store today while my son was in his religious ed classes.  I had my younger daughter with me.  She needed boots, and there were these adorable pink ones with horses....and then she promised if I bought her the 4-h book on dog training she would "totally" train our border collie cross.  She is such a little helper with everything, I couldn't resist.  The teens are growing up and out, and totally uninterested in animals or farming.  They help when asked, but don't go out of their way to look for opportunities. Little girl is at my side baking, feeding, gardening...I told her I would look into 4-h for raising a lamb (as if I need one more place to drive a kid every week)  I can drive 120 miles in a day if there are multiple kids in multiple sports. My 16 year old keeps reminding me "Driver's Ed, Mom.  It will solve all your problems!"

I need to redo my lesson plans based on the rosters of a couple of my classes.  I have to redo all my curriculum maps, actually, for three of my five classes.  Wish I got my rosters Friday, or the Friday before that - it is actually a lot of work.   I would never, ever do the registrar's job; I appreciate how hard she worked, but darn it, I am really up a creek tonight facing 7 am tomorrow.  Even sick chickens and acres of gooshy mud are attractive compared to that...