Cheesehead interlude

So can you guess/remember where I spent this week?















One more hint:


Madison, the capitol city of Wisconsin, America’s Dairyland! They take their dairy products very seriously in Wisconsin. There’s also quite a movement to celebrate local food and farms. True, Madison already has a good reputation as a hip college town, but I was impressed with the amount of local “fine dining” touting local ingredients, and of course, a lively farmer’s market. Liz would be proud!

I was attending a serious international scientific conference for work, but I still managed to feel a bit of the thrill of travel, had a few fun conversations with people from around the world, ate veggie sushi, etc. I DO love to travel. I also caught a sudden, severe summer cold right before leaving, so had to pace myself… but was well provisioned by the homeopathic, natural remedy-stocked Community Pharmacy.


WF stayed home to tend to the critters, mainly the rooster. Things looked pretty bad for a while, and WF was close to ending it all for Mr. Rooster. But then antibiotics were tried, and he got steadily better. Rooster is running around now with the hens, actually mostly recovered! His crow is deep and a bit hoarse, but he’s getting around, etc. We’re not entirely sure what it was, but the suspected culprit is aspergillus, perhaps present in low levels in the litter. Rooster spent 3 days literally “cooped up” while we were gone a couple weekends ago, so perhaps got too much at a time? More to worry about, but we’re thankful that he’s better and no other chickens are showing signs of it now. Big coop cleaning in the near future…

The chicks are doing fine, still growing fast. A few things have changed in their situation: more soon! The poultry pageant definitely continues. It’s good to be back home, but trying to keep life and chores and recreation in perspective… even work travel is good for giving fresh eyes!