Is Mars in Retrograde?

What a perplexing day!

Name an issue common among the under 4 crowd, and we've dealt with it today (all before noon): baffling sleep boycotts, potty training issues, tough discipline decisions, and strange health concerns.

Then I heard a brief radio report about mysterious bird deaths and suspicions of bird flu in Minnesota, and I started to freak out a bit. When we bought this house, with it's (relatively) giant backyard, I envisioned it as a sanctuary, or compound if you will, in the case of a bird flu outbreak or other catastrophic event. We can grow our own food here, walk (down a huge hill) to a nearby lake to filter water, and hunker down within our fortress-like fence.

Oh yes... I'm one of those crazies that read Stephen King's The Stand or Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower with a bit too much gusto.

When Maya was an infant, I used to spend the wee hours going over our emergency kit packing lists, reviewing my limited knowledge of survival skills, and identifying a time-frame post-catastrophe at which point we could migrate back to the family farm in South Dakota to begin rebuilding civilization. Just imagine Veblen as the new Delphi (belly button of the word, as it's known in Greece).

I'm talking sleep-deprived apocalypse planning, here. I've read far too much sci-fi, I realize.

Now these mysterious bird deaths are coinciding with a really frustrating kid day and the day we find the perfect 1-year-old Rhode Island Red chickens for our coop.

Can we really risk welcoming chickens into the compound amidst this mysterious bird ailment.

And, even more alarming, can I really seal myself into this compound with two children who are trying my patience with such intensity so early in the day?