Our introduction to keeping chickens, the high's, the lows and pics of our journey.

[Fancychooklady]

Hopefully no one was hurt.

One thing I find terrifying, is people who are too old to drive still going out in traffic. I saw a 80 year old man last summer, who had gotten confused, and turned the wrong way on a road with 4 lanes going in each direction. Luckily no one got hurt, but it was a close call. When my grandmother was still alive, she was issued a 5 year driving license when she turned 80. Her car was a 1986 Fiat Uno, no power steering or break servos. Fortunately she understood that she wasn't fit to drive it anymore, so I took her around when she needed to do something. But it's a very high threshold for doctors to not give the green light to pensioners when they need a checkup to renew their licenses. My sisters boyfriend manages a car repair shop, they had repaired the bumper of a car that had some scratches. A week later the same customer came back complaining that they had done a dodgy job. Good thing they had pictures of the original damage and could show that it had been 10 cm from the spot that was now damaged, the man was just driving into something in his garage repeatedly.

No just the newspaper dispenser. From state to state we have different rules. Here I think it is 75 then you have to have an annual Dr certificate. Last year an older man here drove the wrong way up through the mountain at a 100 k with the chicane on his left. An ambulance followed him flashing their lights and trying to get his attention to no evail. He eventually hit another car, head on at 100 k , luckily the ambulance was there. Surprisingly no one died.
And of course we all remember little Sophie. She was run down in her sleep time at pre school by an elderly driver that was disorientated. After having both legs amputated and 2 years of therapy she was run over again , by another elderly driver , when crossing at a pedestrian crossing with her career and companion dog . Unfortunately her dog died, but Sophie the battler is still with us. Ahh the world is full of sadness, but then there are miracles like little Sophie.

 

[vehve]

Quote: That is one unlucky girl. Hopefully she's doing better, and a shame about the dog. Those are priceless, the amount of time and work put into them is enormous, and they truly help people.

Here you only get your license renewed for 2-5 years at a time after you've turned 70. I don't know how many doctors have the guts to deny them what often is their only means of transportation though, outside the population concentrations in the south and along the coast, Finland is a pretty sparsely inhabited country.

Sophie's bad luck reminds me of a man in Finland. He's been hit by lightning 8 times during his life. I would not go camping with him.

 

[Fancychooklady]

This is a link to Sophie's story.

http://dayofdifference.org.au/about-day-of-difference/sophies-story/

 

[vehve]

This is a link to Sophie's story.

http://dayofdifference.org.au/about-day-of-difference/sophies-story/

It's nice to see that great tragedy can give birth to good things too. Her parents seem to have put in a lot of effort to see that others in a similar situation will have an easier time coping with it. Inspiring.

 

[ozexpat]

Oh no, now I hit a soft spot

I'm sorry Oz, I didn't mean to offend the southern hemisphere.

But you must admit, for most people a warm July is the norm, and I think even of the people living south of the equator, the greater part are so close to it that they don't really experience a significantly colder cold season.

Backwards implies a negative connotation and thus some form of inferiority. Opposite would be a better choice of words

Populated land masses in the southern hemisphere are closer to the equator. Australia has a good chunk of its land mass in the tropics while the only state of the US within the tropics is Hawaii and its barely below the 23rd parallel.

The majority of Australians, however, live well below the tropics and have 4 seasons. Many of those have had pipes burst in winter but "most" people from the Southern Hemisphere think you must be nuts to live in snow and profoundly cold winters.

 

[vehve]

Quote: Hmm, interesting thing about languages. To most native English speakers backwards would probably have a slight negative ring to it. In Finnish, there's a difference between something being backwards (takaperin) or the wrong way around (väärinpäin), and the latter would have more of a negative charge to it. But yes, opposite might have been a better choice of words.

And yes, we are a bit nuts. A lot even. (Even though I would argue that living under a UV raygun can be seen as slightly alarming from the perspective of someone who gets sunburns in February.) Rolling in the snow naked in -20 deg C is pretty fun straight out of the sauna (although I require a certain amount of grain based fermented beverages before doing that). People who swim in a hole cut into the ice I can't understand though. During my military service, part of the training was a hypothermia test, where we spent 10 minutes in 6 degree water clothed. I don't think I've ever been as cold as that. After getting up, we had to run 3 kilometers to get the blood flowing, and then change into dry clothing. It's a freaky feeling when you're used to using your fingers for opening a backpack. At that point I just had two massively clumsy clumps for hands which I tried to maneuver the closing mechanism with. My fingers were completely useless.

Luckily our pipes seldom burst. We've learned to insulate them and dig them down deep enough. Our waterline is about 2 meters below the surface. The bursts usually happen inside buildings that aren't heated in winter.

 

[vehve]

Oz, this was a pretty interesting representation of population in the world by longitude and latitude.

http://www.example-infographics.com/world-population-by-latitude-and-longitude/

 

[Wrightsx4]

Wow you've all been busy while I was gone camping! I did a quick read through - I was a little disappointed about our cool weather while camping but feeling so thankful after seeing Fancy's pics!
Ben - I have a silkie mystery as well. She/he is 11wks old and I'm leaning toward pullet but I thought our last one was until he crowed. They are so difficult to determine. I hope yours is a female - here's mine.

This one reminds me of the ostrich (emu?) pic Ben posted way back when...

 

[vehve]

Haha, looks like an ostrich. Cute. (But still they are feather dusters. Bad Felix. You are not getting a Silkie. No.)

 

[scottcaddy]

Haha, looks like an ostrich. Cute. (But still they are feather dusters. Bad Felix. You are not getting a Silkie. No.)

But, my dear Felix, you 'NEED' a feather 'duster' after all they are very good little broodies!!

Scott