Happy As A Rooster....

These days my darling husband is as happy as a rooster in a hen house, with no where to lay.  He's got his hackles up, flew the coop and is building a chicken coop so he can hang with some cute little chicks.  Since everyone in Panamá seems to have chickens, Clyde decided to do the same.  Perhaps this egg-celent idea was hatched while nesting with friends in Texas who already share their roost with feathered friends.  We enjoyed fresh egg on our face for breakfast each day while asking if raising chickens was all that it's cracked up to be?

My Version of a "chicken brooder"
Made these out of scrap wood

Here you can see the front screened part
and the covered rear part to hide in 

Here is the little door I cut out
for them to get into their hideout

I still need to put hardware cloth on the bottom
and chicken wire on the sides

then hinge the top



Most of the chickens struttin' their stuff here in Panamá seem to have flew the coop as free range birds.  We're really not sure if the locals feed them or if these birds just flock together, like birds of a feather do.  They eat grass, bugs and whatever else they find along with the vast tick population that eats for free off of our four legged dog friends.

So Clyde is running around like a chicken with it's head cut off, working on building a brooder before buying baby chicks from the local farm store.  But us city slickers know little about feathering a nest so we don't want to count our chicks before they hatch or put them all in one basket.  As the weeks go on we'll let you know if Clyde's ruling the roost or if the yolks on him over our new egg-citing adventure. 

After several weeks of not working out while in the states, we hit the gym this past week, and today I feel like someone's been beating on me.  But it's really not all that bad since after all, it only hurts when I move. 

Friday night we visited with friends over a bbq at our house before heading over to visit even more peeps.  We dragged our tired bodies home around 1am, then cleaned up some messes before hitting the bed by 2am.  Each hiding behind our own sleep masks, we managed to stay in bed until 10am yesterday which totally screwed up the whole day. After late nights out the following day is usually a lazy one, which  yesterday was for us.  An afternoon spent laying by the pool at the resort gave us our daily dose of Vitamin D before heading home.

A stop at a grocery store in Coronado on the way home made me realize how retirement to Panamá has changed me.  Eventhough we have more friends here than we had back in Texas, dressing casual with less makeup and my hair up has become ok with me.  Wearing a green, brown and white striped bikini covered up by a mismatched wrap, flip flops, and no make up with my hair in a messy updo.  Clyde looked at me and said "you can't go in the store like that."  "Why," I said.  "This is Coronado, a beach town and people will just think I'm coming from the beach."  After all I wasn't naked and everything was covered up. We didn't manage to bump into anyone that we knew and headed home for a simple dinner of sandwiches while watching a movie.  In the past I'd wear makeup and dress properly even when I was home alone, working out or whatever I was doing.  Perhaps retirement has made me accept the real me a bit more, flaws and all.  These days I spent much less time putting on makeup because it sweats off.  Blowdrying my hair much of the time has been replaced by airdrying or putting it up.  And clothing has to be light and airy, both easy to put on and take off.  Instead of worrying about the superficial things, I spend more time enjoying life, my husband, our home and the fact that I don't have to go to work. 

The distant sound of drums can only mean that there's a parade in our future somewhere, someday for some reason.  The local kids play drums and must be practicing for some holiday unknown to us foreigners.  Panamanians do love their music and typical weekends around here include an array of music shaking the cement blocks on the tiny houses of the locals.  As we headed out to walk the dog this morning, I danced past the neighbors house bopping along to a latin beat permeating out of their front door.

My happy rooster has stopped working on the chicken brooder for today.  He needs to get chicken wire and some other supplies before heading out to pick up chicks. The rooster may rule the roost but the hen rules the rooster, even in this hen house....along the gringo trail.