Ed and I are like two pseudo country people who have no stomach for country facts of life. No sooner have we allowed ourselves to relax about kitten safety, then we are back to worrying what to do with our chicken flock.
It's another bright, cold day. Lovely to the naked eye...
... though I'm sure predators are lurking in wait for the great release date of our girls.
We continue to have no good solutions for the cheepers because honestly, there are no good solutions. (Ed even sent an email to Vital Farms -- a producer of free range eggs, boasting pictures of happy chickens in fields of green grasses and wild flowers and asked -- how do you keep hawks away from your "happy chickens?" He got a long response, but there was no new information: fencing, dogs, roosters, eye balloons, people, bla bla bla. The usual.)
One option still on the table is to get a rooster. A friendly rooster. Personally, I don't believe such an animal exists, but Ed promises to give him up to an ax (we know someone with an ax!) if he should turn mean toward humans.
But a small part of us wonders if it's worth it. There are no guarantees. The woman who lives not too far away and is selling one of her roosters tells us -- "I just don't even let the kids name the chickens. I assume some will be lost to predators in the course of the year. They're chickens. End of story. Last summer, I lost a whole flock in two days to an aggressive weasel."
A weasel?? We never even considered a weasel. We watch youtubes of a weasel killing a rabbit ten times his size. It's brutal!
So maybe we're not cut out for this? But, we have these five girls who are antsy to get out. We continue to brood about our brood.
Hey, but the cats are doing well!
(Stop Sign patrols her territory...)
(Breakfast: calm, contemplative...)
In the afternoon, Snowdrop comes here after school and as always, she is the perfect distraction.
(Still prefers to skip the jacket on walk from car to farmhouse. After all, we got all the way up to 15F, or -10C today.)
Games: "Rosie goes to school..."
... and "bus stop." I know, it's a puzzler if you've not played it before. Usually we confine ourselves to the kitchen, which is The Original Bus Stop in our game, but Ed has a friend over to talk shop and so Snowdrop and I move our operations upstairs.
... and then downstairs to the sun room, where Snowdrop draws countless pictures of cows eating grass. It gets pretty creative here, in the afternoons.
Time for me to take her home... (Along with the cheddar bunnies. She wasn't done with her snack.)
I haven't had a chat with my older daughter without interruptions for a very long time and so we catch up tonight. And after, I go home and cook up a huge pot of soup.
So did you hear back from the woman with the rooster?
Yes, she sent photos.
We study the pictures. Nice looking guy. But what if there's a meanie behind those regal feathers? I swore I would never go the rooster route again. Yet, what if he really is a sweetie through and through?
It's another bright, cold day. Lovely to the naked eye...
... though I'm sure predators are lurking in wait for the great release date of our girls.
We continue to have no good solutions for the cheepers because honestly, there are no good solutions. (Ed even sent an email to Vital Farms -- a producer of free range eggs, boasting pictures of happy chickens in fields of green grasses and wild flowers and asked -- how do you keep hawks away from your "happy chickens?" He got a long response, but there was no new information: fencing, dogs, roosters, eye balloons, people, bla bla bla. The usual.)
One option still on the table is to get a rooster. A friendly rooster. Personally, I don't believe such an animal exists, but Ed promises to give him up to an ax (we know someone with an ax!) if he should turn mean toward humans.
But a small part of us wonders if it's worth it. There are no guarantees. The woman who lives not too far away and is selling one of her roosters tells us -- "I just don't even let the kids name the chickens. I assume some will be lost to predators in the course of the year. They're chickens. End of story. Last summer, I lost a whole flock in two days to an aggressive weasel."
A weasel?? We never even considered a weasel. We watch youtubes of a weasel killing a rabbit ten times his size. It's brutal!
So maybe we're not cut out for this? But, we have these five girls who are antsy to get out. We continue to brood about our brood.
Hey, but the cats are doing well!
(Stop Sign patrols her territory...)
(Breakfast: calm, contemplative...)
In the afternoon, Snowdrop comes here after school and as always, she is the perfect distraction.
(Still prefers to skip the jacket on walk from car to farmhouse. After all, we got all the way up to 15F, or -10C today.)
Games: "Rosie goes to school..."
... and "bus stop." I know, it's a puzzler if you've not played it before. Usually we confine ourselves to the kitchen, which is The Original Bus Stop in our game, but Ed has a friend over to talk shop and so Snowdrop and I move our operations upstairs.
... and then downstairs to the sun room, where Snowdrop draws countless pictures of cows eating grass. It gets pretty creative here, in the afternoons.
Time for me to take her home... (Along with the cheddar bunnies. She wasn't done with her snack.)
I haven't had a chat with my older daughter without interruptions for a very long time and so we catch up tonight. And after, I go home and cook up a huge pot of soup.
So did you hear back from the woman with the rooster?
Yes, she sent photos.
We study the pictures. Nice looking guy. But what if there's a meanie behind those regal feathers? I swore I would never go the rooster route again. Yet, what if he really is a sweetie through and through?
If the rooster doesn't work out, you can always sell him back. If you don't try the rooster, you'll always wonder if it might have been a successful solution.
ReplyDeleteYay for the happy cats! They're really growing fast. Is Whiskers still around?
Sandy
Yes, true... the new headache is how to feed the cats if the cheepers are on the loose...
DeleteSo fun to see Snowdrop without a coat after all those years she wouldn't take off her sweater!!!
ReplyDeleteIt's an interesting comparison! In reality, it's part of the same issue for her, I think. I haven't photographed this, but for Snowdrop, a perfect "child's pose" would include her arms drawn before her, with thumb in her mouth. The sweater in the summer was part of that safe snuggle and the jacket in the car is an impediment to it. Most of the time, I let her stick with her preferences on this. The car is plenty warm, the ride is short and the walk to the farmhouse -- peanuts. To her. I prefer being bundled up!
Delete