Our chickens that we lost this past week.
Monday, September 18, 2006
Sunday, September 17, 2006
When it rains.....it pours
That's how life has been at our house this past week. It started out good, on Tuesday I went with John to his first PTO meeting. When we got home, I realized when I got home that the reluctance I was feeling might have a different reason. Hubby was putting the birds to bed when we got home, but he couldn't find one of our first and oldest hens, Thomasina. He was furious with some of the roosters because they had her so frightened aand harassed that she was hiding from them. So, since he could not find her, he left the three of them out of the pen for the night. The next morning one of the roosters could not be found and Thomasina was also still missing.
Hubby's 56th birthday was on Friday. On Wednesday, we drove to Cameron, Texas to pick up an order of Delaware chicks. They joined our week old "Rainbow Pullet" group from Meyer Hatchery. Because we had so many roosters, the plan was to buy more girls to keep the boys happy and also to sell farm fresh eggs. They are all adorable. That night, Hubby found evidence of the demise of Thomasina and Salvador Dali (formerly Dahlia, until he underwent a sex change).
Saturday, we celebrated Hubby's birthday and had a really good time. When it came time to put the chickens to bed, we couldn't find Willie (a gold laced Wyandotte, aka Rockstar). Hubby found him a few minutes later. He'd been killed and it was still light outside. It made us rethink what had happened with Thomasina. Maybe she was actually attacked instead of hiding from the boys.
This morning, we patrolled the area to see if there was any evidence of problems from the night before. As I was rounding the corner, I found Mr. French (Buff Orpington). It was a terrible sight. I won't go into what it looked like. I let the birds out, then couldn't find one of the ducks. So I looked for her, and finally found her. But, about 30 minutes later, Hubby found the body of one of my favorite girls, Lacy (gold laced wyandotte). Lacy was low girl on the totem pole. She was just starting to finish feathering out, it had taken a long time. She also like to ride the backs of the sheep and spent a lot of time in and around our garage. She will be sorely missed.
Well, the day just got worse and worse. John woke up feeling bad, so it was an at home day for him. I still don't know what was really bothering him. Around 12:00 noon, it started raining and rained off and on for hours. The ducks have a new pond behind the barn that they can actually swim in, pools of water everywhere and mud like quicksand. To top it off, the pen that we've been keeping the chickens in (a large dog kennel with tarp) is collapsing under the weight of the water on the tarp. If we have any more rain tonight, it might be totally collapsed tomorrow. Because of this, we spent over an hour running around in the rain, through the pools and quicksand rounding up chickens to put them in the barn overnight. Most of that time was with just about 3 or 4 chickens. Have you ever tried to run or walk with mud over the top of your shoes chasing a wet chicken. We're lucky that neither of us fell in the mud.
So, this was our week and our day. I sure hope it drys out some tomorrow.
Have a good week!
Hubby's 56th birthday was on Friday. On Wednesday, we drove to Cameron, Texas to pick up an order of Delaware chicks. They joined our week old "Rainbow Pullet" group from Meyer Hatchery. Because we had so many roosters, the plan was to buy more girls to keep the boys happy and also to sell farm fresh eggs. They are all adorable. That night, Hubby found evidence of the demise of Thomasina and Salvador Dali (formerly Dahlia, until he underwent a sex change).
Saturday, we celebrated Hubby's birthday and had a really good time. When it came time to put the chickens to bed, we couldn't find Willie (a gold laced Wyandotte, aka Rockstar). Hubby found him a few minutes later. He'd been killed and it was still light outside. It made us rethink what had happened with Thomasina. Maybe she was actually attacked instead of hiding from the boys.
This morning, we patrolled the area to see if there was any evidence of problems from the night before. As I was rounding the corner, I found Mr. French (Buff Orpington). It was a terrible sight. I won't go into what it looked like. I let the birds out, then couldn't find one of the ducks. So I looked for her, and finally found her. But, about 30 minutes later, Hubby found the body of one of my favorite girls, Lacy (gold laced wyandotte). Lacy was low girl on the totem pole. She was just starting to finish feathering out, it had taken a long time. She also like to ride the backs of the sheep and spent a lot of time in and around our garage. She will be sorely missed.
Well, the day just got worse and worse. John woke up feeling bad, so it was an at home day for him. I still don't know what was really bothering him. Around 12:00 noon, it started raining and rained off and on for hours. The ducks have a new pond behind the barn that they can actually swim in, pools of water everywhere and mud like quicksand. To top it off, the pen that we've been keeping the chickens in (a large dog kennel with tarp) is collapsing under the weight of the water on the tarp. If we have any more rain tonight, it might be totally collapsed tomorrow. Because of this, we spent over an hour running around in the rain, through the pools and quicksand rounding up chickens to put them in the barn overnight. Most of that time was with just about 3 or 4 chickens. Have you ever tried to run or walk with mud over the top of your shoes chasing a wet chicken. We're lucky that neither of us fell in the mud.
So, this was our week and our day. I sure hope it drys out some tomorrow.
Have a good week!
Sunday, September 03, 2006
Labor Day...a year ago
Wow, its hard to believe that last year on Labor Day John picked out a beautiful little kitten at Petsmart. If you go in my archives and look at September 6th, you will see a photo of him on the day we got him. He has turned into a beautiful loving cat with two major flaws. He puts Count von Jausenclaus to shame in the jaws and claws department. He ambushes us on the stairs, attacks us when we go to pick him up, and poor Tiger gets jumped every time he sees him. But, we all love him to death. And I think Tiger even likes him when he isn't jumping on him. I am posting a photo of him and Tiger from one of the rare times they actually slept close to each other.Other updates:
John's first day of PreKindergarten
August 17th was the first day of John's K4 class at a local private school. He goes on twice a week, and they are providing a Kindergarten curriculum. He has to wear uniforms, so I'm posting a photo of him in his daily uniform. They also have a dress or chapel uniform which consists of a white shirt, tie, red knit vest and blue pants. I'll post a photo of it when he wears it for the first time, which is on Tuesday.John's first day of PreKindergarten
Swim lessons
We also had our first round of swim lessons. John did well, even went down the slide twice on the last day into 12 feet water. But, he 
needs to work on some things, including his concentration and paying attention. Here are a couple of photos of him at swim class and with the slide. We also bought one of those Easy Set pools at a discount and put it up after his swim lessons. He was delayed in being able to use it because he developed Scarlet Fever right after the swim lessons ended.Coop is under construction
Well, we finally are going to have a more permanent home for the chickens. Hubby has been working hard at it, but with the heat we've had the past month, it has taken longer than expected. But, the door and ramp went on today. We just need to finish the interior wallboards, paint and trim. We also have to figure out the best way to treat the floor. I took a number of photos of the chickens, ducks and geese today and will post them in photobucket, hopefully tomorrow.Here's the link for now. http://s38.photobucket.com/albums/e128/jausenclaus/.
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