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Thursday, June 16, 2011

hunkering down

In an effort to ward off the carnage that ensued the night before, we did a bit of shifting last night.  The bunny came in to sleep in a dog crate and our one last chicken was placed in the bunny hutch.  I was up with the sun this morning letting Goldie out of the hutch.  As we all know, the early bird gets the worm and she was not happy to be held up in that hutch one moment longer!  I will continue doing this arrangement until John is able to rework the chicken coop and we find a live trap to remove the biggest coon ever known.

Speaking of John...

He is my hero.  Even from afar he was busy taking care of this family of his.

I texted him after the run in with the coon at 4am.  By 8am he had a college age boy I have never met at our house, crawling under the beams and retrieving the carcass.  I couldn't bear to look, but he said it was bad.  Really, really bad.  This boy, he was precious!  Can I say that about a 19 year old young man?  Just don't tell him I said that, ok?  He showed up completely prepared to crawl under my house and come face to face with a beast.  And a completely gutted chicken.  As we were chatting, he mentioned that he was leaving for Columbia today to go work in some orphanages.  See?  PRECIOUS!


the kids were a rapt audience for Tyler.  and kept him busy with all sorts of questions about
Star Wars and Pokemon.  Two things they've seen  at the thrift store and are sooooo curious about!

After my new best friend Tyler removed the body, our friend Farmer Jason showed up to help out too.  He is super busy this week but made the time to stop by to check on us and see what he could do.  Here's my new motto:  a mark of a good friend is the willingness to crawl under your house and scoop up a dead chicken.  The end.




6 comments:

Hendrick Family said...

This is all so tragic! Poor chicken. Why can't all raccoons be like the one on that old show where that family lives in the woods and has a raccoon. What show was that?

Glad you had help. Let's find some lucky girl we love and introduce her to the guy who works at orphanages and will crawl under a house. He's a winner.

Michelle said...

Poor Blackberry.

Raccoons have to do what they have to do to live, but if you must kill one of my chickens, can't you at least take it elsewhere and eat the whole thing? The mess and wastefulness of it compounds the sadness for me, weird as that might be.

Hopefully you can find Goldie a new friend (try Craigslist) just as soon as the coop is secure again.

mandi said...

Michelle-
My sentiments exactly! Yes, Farmer J already told me that he has some chickens ready to come over whenever we have things more secure.

Amy said...

Oh, how sad, Mandi. Poor Blackberry.

MIss you fellas.

And am envious of Buddy's new bike! What thrift store here in SA? Laith is so ready for a real live pedal bike.

Amanda said...

Oh, Mandi!! I am SO SO sorry about your poor little Blackberry!!! :(. I'm glad you had help from such a sweet young man the next morning. My hubby had to do the same for friends on vacation this week... only it was their dog who had killed the neighbors' chicken, and dragged it into the house through the doggie door! Yuckie.

I hope your other chickie stays safe and gets someone new to keep her company soon. And I am so excited for you and the home study and progress toward adoption!!!!

Gretchen said...

We have lost a chicken each night for the last 3 nights at my father in law's farm. Sigh. We can't seem to catch the culprit, even on the spy cam.

I'm so glad you were able to catch your "criminal" and for a precious college boy who was willing to be brave.

By the way, I loved the name Blackberry. Might have to steal that idea. ;)