How is it that they are smarter than I am?
As you can see I built a two level coop with an attached (enclosed) run and have built a much more klugy run along the side of the house, which is what they were escaping from… Since improved with stakes (so I hope).
I have been waiting patiently through the Fall and Winter for the beautiful Spring weather… Now that I have a concussion, I have been told to take it easy for no less than five days.
No tennis, skiing, biking, etc. I just may start wearing a helmet at all times. Actually, since I already do for skiing and biking, maybe I can pull it off while playing tennis as well.
Last night, I worked late. And since it was a day of hard work and some accomplishments, I was thrilled when my girlfriend called me back and agreed to meet up for a drink. As I walked to the bar, I realized my cell phone was in the car but figured it wasn’t worth doubling back for.
I WAS WRONG.
I got to my car at the end of my evening, checked my phone and found EIGHT missed messages. I sat and listened to the four voicemails, which went something like this:
1. Nathan Kaiser – hang up.
2. Unrecognized # – “Hi, this is ______ from Amy Yee Tennis Center. I’m calling to let you know that an ambulance is coming to pick up your husband, Nathan Kaiser.”
3. Nathan Kaiser – “Hi, this is ______ from EMS. I’m calling from the ambulance to let you know that your husband here, and we’re taking him to Harborview.”
… I don’t remember the rest of the messages. I pulled out and hauled ass to Seattle’s one-and-only trauma center, cursing my decision to leave my phone in the car. Why the hell would they need to take Nate to Harborview?!?!?! There are other ERs in the area for less traumatic…
As I crested First Hill, Nate’s sister called. I answered the phone asking, “Are you with your brother?!?” Unfortunately, she wasn’t but she’d learned about his situation over Facebook. FACEBOOK! And she reassured me that if he’s well enough to post to Facebook, he’s not in dire straights.
Only my husband would post his condition to his Twitter, which updates his Facebook. Nate’s 900 followers on Twitter and 1000 friends on Facebook knew he was at Harborview before I did. Nuts.
I got to the hospital and found Nate like this:
The ER, Nate and the neckbrace
Turns out, Nate and another sailor collided heads during one of the sailboat races on Lake Washington. He ran off the sailboat to meet my grandfather for a game of tennis, but didn’t realize he’d been really injured. After losing the first set, he walked up to his opponents to shake their hands and call it quits–he was dizzy and couldn’t focus his eyes.
As he walked off the courts, he didn’t hold a straight line. They decided to call 911.
After much examination, Nate was diagnosed with a mild traumatic brain injury, a concussion.
Doctors examining Nate. "You should wear a helmet next time."
Consultation before his release. Glad it's almost over. It's midnight.
The doctor ended the exam with this comment, “Maybe YOU [meaning special-case Nate] should wear a helmet while sailing.”
In his few hours in the ER, Nate received a rabbinical blessing (one of his tennis opponents is a rabbi), a kiss from his wife, and a visit from his father who landed at SeaTac just in time to check his Facebook and learn his son was in the ER.
Thanks to everyone who sent well-wishes.
He’s a bit out of it, but doing better. And he’ll be fine. I’ll leave you with this embarrassing picture and a few classic lines a la our friend Eric:
"Mars, please stop taking pictures."
Hope it finally knocked some sense into you.
Perhaps it improves your looks.
Thankfully it was a head shot and nothing precious…
And from Nate’s bro, Clayton:
There remains nothing harder than the Kaiser cranium.
It’s been AGES since my last blogpost. So long in fact, I no longer recognize the interface for our blog!
So, just to get things jumpstarted, I’m posting a story forwarded to us by a good friend. I know, it’s a cop-out. But hopefully this will begin a weekend of posts and amusing stories about our lives these past few months.
Eggy the Queen Chicken
BETSY TAYLOR
Published: Today
UNION, Mo. (AP) – A sport utility vehicle loaded with 1,200 baby chicks in cardboard boxes pulls up to the Clearview Feed and Seed store, where customers come to pick up their peeping, cheeping poultry orders on a recent spring day.
Poultry dealers, chicken feed businesses and self-proclaimed “chicken enthusiasts” nationwide report city slickers and suburbanites are showing greater interest in raising small flocks of chickens far from the farm.
Store workers whisk boxes from the vehicle – where the heat is cranked up to keep the chicks warm – and gently sort the downy birds born at a hatchery into smaller containers. Temporary color-coded dots on the chicks’ heads help employees divvy up individual orders.
Mostly farm families wait to pick up the chicks, but mixed in with the veterans are first-timers like Justin and Stacey DeWeese, both 25. They collect a box of 30 chicks they plan to raise in suburban St. Louis.
Motivated by the taste of farm-fresh eggs and a desire to try something new, the couple built a coop at a friend’s house and researched how to care for a flock. Stacey said the couple wants chickens “for the eggs, to watch them play in the backyard.”
And to “kill the bugs,” Justin added.
Clearview’s manager Karen Ruck said about every 10th person who calls to inquire about ordering chicks says they’ve never raised chickens before. She hears from suburban moms who want a few hens to teach their kids responsibility, and new gardeners seeking birds to go with their attempts to grow backyard vegetables.
Livestock feed and pet food maker Purina Mills is seeing double-digit growth for its small, 5-pound bags of all-natural poultry feed marketed since 2003 to people who raise small flocks for eggs or as companion animals.
Backyard Chickens, a Web site that began to help city residents raise chickens, says its community of about 27,000 people is growing rapidly, with about 100 new members daily.
The Web site’s owner, Rob Ludlow of Pleasant Hill, Calif., attributes the increased interest in raising suburban chickens to three factors: their relative ease of care as pets; increased interest in getting food from humane, local sources; and a desire by some to produce their own food in tough economic times.
“With the way the economy is going, people like the idea they can have access to quality eggs and meat right from their backyard, if they need to,” Ludlow said.
But, he added, “It’s actually a misconception that it’s cheaper to raise your own chickens for the eggs and meat.” Chicks cost about $2 to $5 each, plus chicken owners have to pay for a cage or coop, a chicken run and a feeder and waterer.
Raising a couple of chickens isn’t without challenges. Disputes have surfaced in cities and suburbs over concerns the chickens will reduce property values or that their feed could draw rodents.
Some communities ban chickens or just roosters, mainly because of their early morning crowing.
The DeWeeses said they planned to raise their chicks in Valley Park. An official for that St. Louis suburb said that chickens aren’t allowed within Valley Park’s city limits; they are permitted in the nearby unincorporated area.
Nancy Hermanns, owner of Country Feed and Pet Supply in Bend, Ore., said many communities, however, are rewriting their rules to allow residents to keep a few chickens.
Her business has been holding seminars about backyard flocks – where they serve deviled eggs. City dwellers often come in armed with chicken research they’ve done on the Internet and need to be steered toward more suitable birds. “The pretty ones aren’t always great egg producers,” she noted.
Ludlow with Backyard Chickens added that some first-time chicken owners get in over their heads, and turn to online communities to find them new homes. But, he said, many urban and suburban chicken owners, including his family, enjoy the experience of having the birds and value them as far more than a food source.
“The line of demarcation between eating your chicken and not eating your chicken is if they have names,” he said. “We have no problem eating other chickens, just not our own.”
Two of our "Ladies"