Basically, Winter was Winter. We loved her as she was--quite seemingly dumb. This dumbness lead to many funny things, and a couple of dangerous ones. She was well--but different--the whole time we had her. Each hen has her own personality, and Winter was crabby toward the other hens. We don't cull because someone doesn't play well. Her body was very healthy the whole time we had her--up until the end. Because of the danger the "dumbness" got her into, we always expected her to be the next to go. She never was. We got most of our chickens as other people's cast-offs: old. Our flock is mostly 5-6 year olds. They were going to be food, but we took them and are allowing them to enjoy the rest of their existence. Winter was a little "stiff" in the mornings as old folks often are. I believe she was older than the other chickens, but she was not given to me directly by the people who had her. I have an Amish pen-pal, and wrote quite a lot about Winter in my letters questioning if it was age. My friend said it sounded most like she was quite old. I also checked with other chicken people, and researched in many books about her stiff gait in the morning. I figured it was stiffness because she wasn't like that all day--she had to warm up some. Our farmer neighbor thought she may be visually impaired because she had difficulty finding her way in at night. We had a couple of hens that liked to stay out late. Winter was the only one who had difficulty with orientation after dusk. She was well for 2 years. The last week and a half, there was a "change in status". She seemed tired. I watched her for a few of days like that, and she didn't deteriorate as such. One morning, another chicken went after her at the food trough, and she didn't look good to me that morning. I brought her inside, and started nursing her. She had 9-lives, so I figured I should feed her and try to bring her around. She rallied after a couple of days: standing up, eating, and pooping just right. She filled her crop up and everything. Great! I assumed she was on the mend, and we beat it. After a couple/few days of improvement, she took a turn, and I gave her a day to see if she would rally again. After a day like that (twirling, and responding to outside stimuli as if she were falling), I knew she was done. The farmer was unavailable that day, and took care of it the next. Time line: 2 years good. Some time as a stiff ol' girl that went away as the day passed, and a week and a half in "hospital" in my home. I am sorry I was unclear when I first posted, but I was so depressed my writing was confusing--I'll admit that. Having had 2 head injuries in my family, she seemed like something was wrong in the hind brain. I know that cannot be fixed, so we let her live her life as long as she got herself up, and ate, we didn't mind helping an ol' girl down out of her box each morning. She enjoyed being held and her time inside where it was warm. She never laid many eggs, and this summer it was only a couple--I think she was maybe 8 years old or something. I can say with confidence that it wasn't an organism. Nobody else has it, and it did not track as an invading organism. Also, had I continued to feed her--even in her dizzy state, I believe her body would have gone on, and on. She was physically sound. Her brain was out of order. Looking back, her stiffness may have been the beginnings of brain deterioration. Had a vet told me her brain was going months earlier, and said that she was otherwise sound, I still would have let her live as long as she was her crabby & dumb self. That was her "status". We use the dumb as a term of endearment believe it or not--that is why we can say it was amusing. I still would have let her live until such a time that the twirling came a long and her mind seemed completely gone. My time line may be of a day in either direction, but there was no cruelty or neglect. Our chickens are spoiled. Their house rarely even has an odor. Some of them step out of the flock and come to us when we call them by name. I do appreciate the input here that attempts to help find answers. I was wondering if this is something that occurs in chickens, or was specific to Winter either through stroke, injury, or old age. It would be nice if "exotic pets" covered chickens. It seems more to mean "tropical pets" rather than pets other than cats & dogs, and maybe the occasional bunny. As birds go, chickens are hardy, and you can work with them TO A POINT. Birds have a far more delicate constitution than dogs or cats, and (hyperbole here) if you look at them cross-eyed they can drop dead. If there were vets who would investigate chickens as pets, I believe the books on chickens would be much better. I hope everyone has a Happy New Year, and had a great Christmas. Robin

I buy peel and stick on labels at the dollar store and write the name and sometimes the color and height on the label and stick it on the cell pack or flat that I'm going to be planting in before I plant the seeds. I sit down at the kitchen table with the labels and seed packages before I go to plant and write out all the names so they are ready to stick on. I usually do this when I'm having my morning coffee. I use an ultra fine sharpie marker so that even if the label gets wet the ink stays. The labels stick just fine to any container and if I reuse the container I just stick another label over the other one or try to peel it off often without success You could really do that at any time and store the labels with the seeds so that when you are ready to plant you have them. I learned long ago that the memory is faulty when you are staring at a bunch of containers all the same. I used to keep a planting book but I found bundling up the seed packages and securing with an elastic with a slip of paper or label with the date works just as well. I sow all the seeds according to planting date so there are usually multiple sowings at once

Jenn, I have gone through this too, somehow something pulls me back into the garden though but not without a major change of direction (usually). The first time was after a blight struck the majority of my antique rose collection (I had hundreds) - only about a third of them survived. I began exploring Plumeria and acquired about a hundred of them - but then remember the freeze last winter? - many casualties despite being wintered under the eaves of the house.... Then the wind knocked down three dead trees that had served as supports for ramblers and suddenly I found myself with a blank canvas for another garden. I spent many happy hours pouring over books, catalogs and internet research in planning my new venture, an edible landscape including some trees to shade my house (I chose flowering Japanese cherries , Prunus mume and blireana). Next came acquisition and installation (luckily it was bareroot season), learning to graft, prune, train and trading scionwood - but as always the problems cropped up. Squirrels raiding the fruit trees and breaking grafts, flowering cherries barely growing let alone providing any shade at all and with energy to spare I ran out of room for any more. Now I am facing a move. My next garden will be planned around ease of maintenance. I vow to be a selector and not a collector but who knows if that will stick as I realize I have serial obsessions. My friend Tony Kienitz wrote a book on gardening in which he recounts a elderly man who limited his garden work to 20 minutes a day. It sounds like a good idea with the right garden plan and leaves time for other pursuits and interests of which I have many. Ed, I thank you for your article, I especially liked your observations on the parallels of marriage and gardening; I hope you have a happy continuity. Gardening is great therapy but it (in my case anyway) is solitary and can therefore be isolating. Too much of a good thing...well you all know the end of that sentence. As with everything else, balance is key.

To satisfy my own curiosity as what happened to your plants since I have two very large specimens Google was searched for possible answers. Texas Plant Disease Handbook Cotton Root Rot: Cotton Root Rot Disease Symptoms – Symptoms are most likely to occur from June through September when soil temperatures reach 28 °C (82 °F). The first symptoms are slight yellowing or bronzing of the leaves. The upper-most leaves wilt within 24 to 48 hours after bronzing, followed by wilting of the lower leaves within 72 hours. Permanent wilt occurs by the third day, followed by death. The leaves remain firmly attached to the plant. Affected plants die suddenly, often after excellent growth. Trees and shrubs may die more slowly. Roots are usually extensively invaded by the fungus by the time wilting occurs. Affected plants can be pulled from the soil with little effort. Root bark is decayed and brownish, and bronze colored wooly strands of the fungus are frequently apparent on the root surface. A RATING OF PLANTS WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR RESISTANCE OR SUSCEPTIBILITY TO THE COTTON ROOT-ROT FUNGUS I didn't find Aloysia virgata listed either way. Verbena is listed as immune or resistant Verbena, blue - clump + Dakota - garden - Vervain - European - large-bracted + narrow-leaved - nettle-leaved - Not sure how closely related Aloysia virgata is related to the above listed verbenas, but Wikipedia says that Aloysia is of the verbena family.