How do you deal with stress?
I would like to say I deal with it well—but I guess that depends on who you ask! Duste gets the short end of the stick when I am stressed because it usually comes out on her. For the most part I try to control my response to stress. If it is something I cannot do anything about I try to Breath and Let it Go. If there is something I can do about it, I try to fix it so I do not run into that situation again. Work stress, I think, is the worst. Work is something most of us HAVE to deal with, like it or not. It is my experience that you are not always going to get along with everyone at work all the time, especially when you work with all females. So, I do my best to deal with what I can by keeping my head down and my mouth shut, most of the time. Trust me that was not the easiest lesson to learn. Something in my character is always telling me to share my opinions and thoughts about everything with everyone, this is not always a good thing as you can imagine. That is why my childhood was so difficult, that is why life was so difficult.
Something clicked when I was in my mid-twenties that just made things make a little more since to me. I was making things more difficult than they had to be. I did not have to live, act and be the person everyone else wanted me to be. From that point on, I have simplified my life. Keep the things that make me happy; do away with the things that caused me mostly stress. This was a few years after my grandma passed and shortly after my grandpa that I learned life is too short to be miserable. If I do not put myself first no one else will. A few relationships ended because of my decision. Some I am trying to rebuild to a comfortable level, some I have chosen to do without. You cannot believe how freeing it was to make that decision. I am free to live my life and free to be me!
Recently my stress has revolved around a hawk! Yes, a hawk of all things. I used to love watching hawks as the soared through the air and even when they caught something to eat. Some say seeing a hawk is good luck. Well not if you are a poultry owner! It is bad, very bad!
I have had my four chickens a year now and never had an issue with hawks. Last week I added two 3 month old ducks to my flock. Two days later a hawk landed in a tree above our heads undetected. As he made his way down the tree closer to my chickens they noticed him. We happened to be sitting under the tree getting better acquainted with the new arrivals when we heard the hens make the strangest noise. Duste and I both noticed the hawk at the same time and she scared it way. It was so startled it almost hit the side of the house as it flew away. Since last Sunday our lives have been turned upside down. Anything and everything that can be done to deter a hawk we have done. We are also outside with the girls the entire time they are out—that is 6 hours after work, in the heat, watching the sky and walking around. We have not been able to relax since and my house is proof nothing else is getting done. All this stress because of a bird; a bird I am legally not allowed to do anything about.
I am told this is a stress that will always be. Hawks are a natural predator of chickens and ducks. Not what I wanted to hear. I am not giving up, there has to be a solution! So far we have been 4 days without a hawk sighting!
But the good news is my new ducks are doing great! They seem to like the hens more than the hens like them. We are still working on a few issues but overall they are getting along and doing well! In about 3 months from now we should be getting eggs from them as well!
Life is stressful right now but life is good and we are making it the best life we can, for each other and no one else!
