Not year of the chicken....

When is it all going to end!! I guess we were having it too easy the other years. Because we aren't having it good this year.

Some of the fancy hens in their new digs.

First let me say that we had only moved the fancy birds in the new chicken palace. The brown comets were still in the temporary pen in the goat barn. It wasn't very safe for them but we thought they would be fine for awhile.  I guess I was wrong.....

We got home late one day and Dave and I were rushing to make supper.  We sent J. to change the water buckets and feed for the goats. We usually all go and do this together after supper.  But we wanted to go for our evening walk since we're doing good in our Biggest Loser competition.

J. had been gone about 10 minutes when I hear this unearthly scream coming from the barn.  Dave heard it at the same time.  We ran outside and J. is screaming at the top of his lungs..."A MINK! A MINK!!HELP ME!!!!!" 

Dave turns on his heel and goes to get the gun.  I run to the barn and close the door to trap him in.  If he escaped (the mink, not J.) we'd never catch him.  Meantime Dave comes a running with the gun. We shoo J. outside and Dave gets on the milking stand to get a better aim...or so he says. lol.  The mink was under a metal shelving unit.  So here I am with a long stick trying to shoo the mink from under neath.  The thing is screaming at me and they have a creepy scream.  It finally sticks it's head out and it's the last thing he ever does.  But I also go deaf for an hour.  Boy oh boy does a gun blast sound loud in a barn. Jeepers.

In the end we only lost 6 hens. It could have been worse if J. hadn't disturbed the mink.  He said he never heard anything until something ran in front of him. He thought it was a rat at first but then realized that it wasn't, it was a brown mink.  

And people wonder why I hate minks! Of course it just left the carcass there, killing for fun.  One of the hens seemed ready to kick the bucket, she had blood on her head.  But she ended up being fine after a few days.

I'm just so thankful that we sent J. out when we did. If we would have waited they'd all be dead!

I just thought I'd leave you all with photos of my darling husband eating corn.  I have never seen anyone eat corn like this other than in cartoons.  

First we start with a nice piece of corn.

We now have it half gone....one kernel...one row at a time. Not willy nilly like he accuses me of doing.

Gone! Not a kernel to be seen anywhere. How does he do it? Has he been talking to the cartoon characters to get pointers? Who knows! He says just lots of practice.

The goats really hate him when he does this, cause they get the left overs. With me there's lots. With him....notsomuch.

Have a Blessed Evening

Lisa