Stories from the Homestead
This morning our family finished breakfast, were engaged in cleaning up and putting things away. I decided I'd really like a cup of cappuccino before I got moving on making some salsa with some reduced tomatoes from Fred Meyers yesterday. Suddenly I heard a large bird, I mean really large hit the front window. I exclaimed loudly "what the heck was that?" Of course my husband Edward just answered "huh? What? I didn't hear anything" So I went out to look. Thank God I did. Poor Pot Pie, our newest addition who is one of the few that DOES NOT have her wings clipped was hanging out in a pot of dirt at the window. The poor girl was looking in with desperation, not realizing I was standing on the porch. I shrieked "Pot Pie sweety, what are you doing here?" At which point I grabbed her, began walking to the yard where the chickens and rabbits are when I then screeched with a chicken held to my chest "DOG!!!!"
Oh no. A dog was in the yard. And he was chasing the chickens. As I approached the yard I noticed the carnage, all the feathers everywhere. The poor girls scared out of their minds. Orange feathers, black feathers, gray feathers, off white feathers. Were there any of our girls left besides the one that I was holding? Pot pie has never been overly fond of me since coming to our home 3 weeks ago and I understand why but now she's clinging to my chest, knowing I'll help protect her from the dog.
With the teamwork of three, we did manage to push the dog out into a part of the yard where he wouldn't have as much access to the girls, however he did escape, sadly. We wanted to see who this dog belonged to.
I began surveying the damage. One girl hiding her head under a shovel, her poor bum feathers torn off some. I placed Pot pie back in the coop. I knew she was okay. There was a pile of chickens near the gate that we all come through when feeding them. I could see Lara, Sonya, and finally Chloe in a dog pile (or would that be chicken pile?). Poor Chloe was so frightened she was stiff.....but alive. Sigh of relief. So was Sonya. I was especially proud of Lara as she seemed to be using her body as a defense for the smaller two chickens. So that made four. Next the poor girl with the missing bum feathers. Is it Toriel or Liza? Blue bracelet, that means its Toriel. At first I thought her neck might be broken but she was hiding under the shovel. Lo and behold, as I moved the shovel and called her name she began to come back over to me. Thankful that she was alive, I picked her up, gave her a look over and placed her gently with her "sisters" in the coop. Okay that's five. So where are the other four? Another look in the coop made me realize I completely missed the other three hiding in there. Good girls. And Tess, she's learned from previous threats. Hide inside the coop if you want to live.
Okay so this means our baby, Piper, is missing. Now she's the only girl able to fit through the areas in the chain link. Since we didn't find her in the yard, this means she's outside the fenced yard. She's taken refuge somewhere else, especially since she isn't fully welcome with the other girls yet.
We began scouring for her, calling her name. She follows me normally like a little lost puppy when I do my chores back there so I know she'll most likely come to me when I call. Lo and behold I spotted her amongst all the foliage around the pond. She was hiding near the deck. Clever girl.
My son Nick took the initiative to crawl under the deck which scared her a bit more over to me, then I grabbed her from the other side of the deck. Sigh. All nine chickens, alive and okay. Some are missing bum feathers but otherwise none are dead.
Since raising livestock like our rabbits and chickens this has been a constant concern. Not so much for the rabbits as we built hutches that we knew would protect them from most threats here in the interior (bear, wolf, fox, hawk, bald eagle, dog, cat) but the chickens don't get that as much. We try to allow them to free range as much as possible so we always have this in the back of our minds, that we might lose another one, again, due to violence or illness. Its always sad when it happens as we get to know our ladies, their likes and dislikes, their personalities or how intelligent each one is, etc etc.
So now the ladies are locked up for now, in the coop. I'm sad to have to do that but I don't trust it now that the dog has figured out that there are chickens there. It was a smaller dog too so he/she dug its way under the fence to get to them. Frustrating.
The most I can do for now is have supervised outings possibly.
So on the upside of this crazy hour, I found some bears tooth (Hericium americanum) mushroom that has inoculated a birch tree. Nice! I've advised Edward to please leave that tree alone as much as possible. I want to see if we can keep getting mushrooms from it. These are edible mushrooms that supposedly taste a bit like crab or lobster. Going to try some tonight and see how it turns out.
Okay so that all being said, time for me to end this for now. I have fresh salsa, zucchini pickles and kohlrabi slaw to make and then can, greens to pressure can, and then I'll have to go out and help the guys with the cutting, splitting and stacking of firewood. Autumn is just around the corner.
Oh no. A dog was in the yard. And he was chasing the chickens. As I approached the yard I noticed the carnage, all the feathers everywhere. The poor girls scared out of their minds. Orange feathers, black feathers, gray feathers, off white feathers. Were there any of our girls left besides the one that I was holding? Pot pie has never been overly fond of me since coming to our home 3 weeks ago and I understand why but now she's clinging to my chest, knowing I'll help protect her from the dog.
With the teamwork of three, we did manage to push the dog out into a part of the yard where he wouldn't have as much access to the girls, however he did escape, sadly. We wanted to see who this dog belonged to.
I began surveying the damage. One girl hiding her head under a shovel, her poor bum feathers torn off some. I placed Pot pie back in the coop. I knew she was okay. There was a pile of chickens near the gate that we all come through when feeding them. I could see Lara, Sonya, and finally Chloe in a dog pile (or would that be chicken pile?). Poor Chloe was so frightened she was stiff.....but alive. Sigh of relief. So was Sonya. I was especially proud of Lara as she seemed to be using her body as a defense for the smaller two chickens. So that made four. Next the poor girl with the missing bum feathers. Is it Toriel or Liza? Blue bracelet, that means its Toriel. At first I thought her neck might be broken but she was hiding under the shovel. Lo and behold, as I moved the shovel and called her name she began to come back over to me. Thankful that she was alive, I picked her up, gave her a look over and placed her gently with her "sisters" in the coop. Okay that's five. So where are the other four? Another look in the coop made me realize I completely missed the other three hiding in there. Good girls. And Tess, she's learned from previous threats. Hide inside the coop if you want to live.
Okay so this means our baby, Piper, is missing. Now she's the only girl able to fit through the areas in the chain link. Since we didn't find her in the yard, this means she's outside the fenced yard. She's taken refuge somewhere else, especially since she isn't fully welcome with the other girls yet.
We began scouring for her, calling her name. She follows me normally like a little lost puppy when I do my chores back there so I know she'll most likely come to me when I call. Lo and behold I spotted her amongst all the foliage around the pond. She was hiding near the deck. Clever girl.
My son Nick took the initiative to crawl under the deck which scared her a bit more over to me, then I grabbed her from the other side of the deck. Sigh. All nine chickens, alive and okay. Some are missing bum feathers but otherwise none are dead.
Since raising livestock like our rabbits and chickens this has been a constant concern. Not so much for the rabbits as we built hutches that we knew would protect them from most threats here in the interior (bear, wolf, fox, hawk, bald eagle, dog, cat) but the chickens don't get that as much. We try to allow them to free range as much as possible so we always have this in the back of our minds, that we might lose another one, again, due to violence or illness. Its always sad when it happens as we get to know our ladies, their likes and dislikes, their personalities or how intelligent each one is, etc etc.
So now the ladies are locked up for now, in the coop. I'm sad to have to do that but I don't trust it now that the dog has figured out that there are chickens there. It was a smaller dog too so he/she dug its way under the fence to get to them. Frustrating.
The most I can do for now is have supervised outings possibly.
So on the upside of this crazy hour, I found some bears tooth (Hericium americanum) mushroom that has inoculated a birch tree. Nice! I've advised Edward to please leave that tree alone as much as possible. I want to see if we can keep getting mushrooms from it. These are edible mushrooms that supposedly taste a bit like crab or lobster. Going to try some tonight and see how it turns out.
Okay so that all being said, time for me to end this for now. I have fresh salsa, zucchini pickles and kohlrabi slaw to make and then can, greens to pressure can, and then I'll have to go out and help the guys with the cutting, splitting and stacking of firewood. Autumn is just around the corner.
Please follow me at my new site Bells of the North Homestead. All future articles will be posted there where I will also have much more new content. Hope to see you soon!
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