The End of an Era

On By StefanieIn Books, Chickens, Politics, Quotes

Well friends, we reached the end of an era on Monday night with the death of Mrs. Dashwood, last of the Dashwood flock.

After nine and half years it started to seem like she would just keep going and going and going even though she had clearly slowed down considerably from her younger days. But Monday night when James went out to close the chickens up in the coop, Mrs. Dashwood was sitting in the run. She didn’t get up when James went in, didn’t protest when he pet her, didn’t complain when he picked her up and put her inside the coop. She didn’t appear to be in pain, just slowly fading. 

In the morning she was dead, lying where James had placed her the night before. 

I was already at work and James was on his way to work, so he put her body in a big bucket, secured the top, and put the bucket in the garden shed to keep her safe until the evening. We buried her with gratitude and kind words beneath the elderberry tree in the chicken garden with all the other dead chickens—and I wonder why the elderberry is such a vigorous tree! 

Ethel and Sia were in the run and had a clear view of everything going on. With only the two of them now, Sia has pretty much stopped picking on Ethel. Instead of sleeping on opposite ends of the roost at night, they now sit side-by-side. Instead of Ethel waiting for everyone else to leave the coop in the morning so she doesn’t get pecked, she is first to jump down and walk out the coop door.

Was Sia’s big adventure of a week ago too much for Mrs. Dashwood’s old heart? There is no telling. But I miss her happy coos and her crooked foot and her magnificently fluffy butt. 

black and white barred rock chicken with a fluffy butt scratching in the dirt
A Diva with the fluffiest butt

The two Nuggets are four-years-old. They will likely be with us for a few years yet if all goes well. Yesterday we covered over the collards and cabbage and opened the main garden gate much to their great delight. When I let them out of their run, Sia was screeching her complaints that it was the middle of the afternoon and how dare we keep them from being able to wander their garden? But as soon as I called them to follow me through the gate to the big garden, Sia’s complaints turned into happy coos. Not quite like Mrs. Dashwood coos, but she did make me smile because I’ve never heard such sweet calls from her before. It is unfortunate that Mrs. Dashwood didn’t live long enough to have one more wander in the big garden. It was gorgeous yesterday and she would have loved it.

Why did the Nuggets have to stay confined to the run until the afternoon yesterday? Because we can’t trust that Sia won’t go adventuring if unsupervised. James and I attended a No Kings rally on the other side of the lake near our house. 

We had been trying to figure out how to fit in all of our errands early and get to the huge rally in downtown Minneapolis. But then I learned there was a rally within walking distance in my very own neighborhood! Problem solved. 

We walked over and stayed for around an hour and half. My neighborhood turned out! People lined both sides of the busiest street in the area for about 5 or 6 blocks. It wasn’t the thousands who turned out downtown, but we had a couple hundred. Signs and flags, blow up costumes—unicorn, T-rex, giraffe, shark—and someone wearing a fleece frog costume with others wearing frog hats or carrying frog stuffies. People in the cars driving by honked, waved, and stuck their own flags and signs out of car windows since they were clearly on their way to the rally downtown. 

One guy drove by with his arm out the window, hand high and flipping us off. We just cheered louder. He couldn’t ruin the day or the party atmosphere. 

The day was jubilant and uplifting and everyone was excited to be taking part. When James and I decided it was time to walk home, the rally was still going on. We could hear if from our front porch 2 miles away! It felt great to take part. And while protests alone won’t change anything, it is encouraging to know there are so many people in my city, state, and country who are not okay with our president and what he is doing. I have to trust that they, like me, are doing what they can to resist authoritarianism. 

  • woman in yellow jacket holding a protest sign that has the head of the Statue of Liberty and a big foot stepping down on top of it with the words don't tread on me
    It was windy!
  • Man in a yellow jacket and a blue hat waving and holding a protest sign that says make good trouble
    James keeping the message simple
  • vie down the street of cars driving by and protesters lining the sidewalk
  • view of protesters lining the street waving American flags
  • protesters on street corner one of them is wearing a fleece frog costumes, others are holding signs and waving flags
    Not quite Todd the frog, but the spirit is there

I know last week I said I’d tell you about some of the really good books I’ve read recently, but with all the things I am pushing it off again. I will give you a great quote from one of the books that I just finished reading this afternoon, Theory & Practice by Michelle de Krester.

The story is told from the point of view of a woman who is writing her master’s thesis on Virginia Woolf. It takes place in the mid to late 1980s when theory was taking over English departments everywhere. I remember those days well since that is precisely when I was in college studying English and eventually writing my own master’s thesis. It’s a fantastic book that marvelously pokes holes in academia and in theory, because, of course, theory is not practice. Real life often doesn’t match abstract theory, and theory can be used to turn “texts” into something they are not and never intended to be. Highly recommend the book.

And now the quote. Paula is our narrator’s thesis advisor, the feminist in the English department. 

Paula had chestnut ringlets like a character from Jane Austen and big blue ponds for eyes. Nature had designed these things to deflect male attention from her bloody teeth. She feasted on raw patriarchal stupidity.

Heh. I love a good feast on patriarchal stupidity.

Take care, keep well, find joy, and resist fascism like it’s 1939.

15 thoughts on “The End of an Era”

  2. Gaaaah, how is it I was worried about Sia like two days ago, and now Mrs. Dashwood is gonna go and do us dirty like this??I did see on the news when Trump claimed that the protests weren’t very big, and that the people there did not represent America. It’s so wild to me that a person can’t understand the freedom to protest as being EXTREMELY American. They certainly don’t protest in a lot of places in the world for fear of execution, but I think that is what Trump is going for…. Also, I’m curious about the new journalist protest for which everyone left the Pentagon. I suppose I don’t 100% understand it yet, so I need to check out some news articles.

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    1. I know Melanie! Mrs. Dashwood as a surprise. She’s been chugging along so ell that we just thought she’d keep going and going. And she did until suddenly she didn’t. Very glad she went fast, a slowly dying chicken is distressing for everyone.

      Well you know, Trump can’t understand that he is not beloved by all and so, in order to save his ego he has to say that those who don’t love him are un-American. As for the Pentagon, the journalist who left were all the ones who refused to sign Hegseth’s document pledging to report only what he tells them they can.

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  3. So sorry to hear about Mrs. Dashwood. She was a lovely chicken.

    So glad to hear about the number of protests and the numbers at the protests! I could also hear the local one from my house for hours after it was supposed to be over. About 900 people turned out (in this small town in a “red” state).

    I laughed out loud at the bit about her teeth!

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  4. I’m so sorry about Mrs. Dashwood, Stefanie. She lived a great chicken life!

    Hell yeah for the super local protest in your neighborhood. I wasn’t able to attend a local one but the one in Knoxville numbered over 8000 participants!

    Anyone who feasts on raw patriarchal stupidity is having a belly full these days!

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  5. Oh no, I’m so sorry to hear that, Stefanie. You’ve made those chickens into such vivid characters for us over the years, so Mrs. Dashwood will be missed by blog readers all over the world. I don’t know much about chicken life spans, but nine and a half years sounds like a good innings, and she certainly had a much richer, happier life than most.

    Thanks for the photos and updates from the No Kings rally. I think those protests are so important, not because they’ll change anything directly but because of how they’ll fire up so many people to fight for real change. Feasting on raw patriarchal stupidity sounds like a good start.

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    1. Thanks Andrew! She was a great delight that’s for sure. All the Dashwoods were and I am grateful to them for sharing their lives with me. 🙂

      People I know are still talking about the protests and how much fun and energizing they were. I am hoping the energy carries over into upcoming elections and continuing actions.

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  6. So sorry to hear this! Although she certainly had a nice long, cozy, well-fed chicken life! I lost a chicken earlier this year and it was sad, although not unexpected (mine are 7 now, I think!). I hope the other two adjust well to being a smaller flock. We were under the weather and had to cheer on the protests from home, but we were so glad to hear that even in our small town, a couple thousand showed up to flood the streets! Very inspiring. ❤

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  9. I am trying to catch up on all the posts I’ve missed in recent months, and for some reason, instead of starting where I finished off I chose this one and what a wonderful one it is:

    1. Well, sad too, because of Mrs Dashwood but wonderful because I found this one and can now stop worrying that I’ll read this news every next post I read if I’d started where I should. And wonderful because of that tree they are helping keep strong.
    2. Wonderful because of this “And while protests alone won’t change anything, it is encouraging to know there are so many people in my city, state, and country who are not okay with our president and what he is doing.” I write weekly to my Californian friend and keep asking her for glimmers of change. She and her daughters took part in Californian rallies.
    3. And, wonderful because you mention Theory & Practice. I am so glad you liked it. I’m not sure everyone got – or if they did they didn’t say – the whole think about theory being so far apart from practice, more often than not and the complex fallouts from that. I also adore that quote you chose. Why didn’t I choose that one? Feminism and Austen all at once!

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    1. The chickens will keep the elderberry tree well fertilized for years even after they are no longer scratching around beneath it 🙂

      So happy to hear your CA friend and daughter took part in the protests there. Millions turned out across the country.

      Theory & Practice was really good and so much shorter than I expected, but she managed to pack in quite a lot. There were lots of good quotes in the book making it hard to choose!

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