Fury

I know that in my last post I talked about wanting to "go Terminator" on the guineas at 5:30 in the morning, but the truth is that I do love them and would never hurt them.

Today, as I was getting ready to go to Thanksgiving at my parent's house, some evil person hit one of the lavender guineas in the road. Aaron says he was just out of the shower when he heard the car, the thump and the car driving off. He recognized the car as one that drives on our street often.

I hate that the guineas go in the street. I have been trying to coax them to stay on our property- we have such huge empty fields, I don't know why they want to be in the street or cross to the neighbor's field. But they do. And they are stupid and hard to corral. Most people just honk at them when they are in the street, and that's what I would do. But this one supreme asshole couldn't even slow down or honk to get them out of the way. Where are you going at 10 in the morning that you can't take 5 seconds to slow down?

I am glad it wasn't one of the dogs. Aaron said that if it had been, Thanksgiving would have been delayed while he waited on the porch with his shotgun for that car to come back by.

Guinea Wake-up Call

For the past few days the guineas- all 18 of them- have been starting their morning sing-along at 5:30 AM. Ocassionally it starts at 5 AM. That sets off the ducks, which then wakes up the chickens and soon everyone is making annoying noises and the sun hasn't even risen yet. Eventually, just before sunrise, they all quiet down and I think, "Ok, I can get 20 more minutes of sleep." But no, I can't because that's when I start to hear Carl snoring. Remember Carl? FIV positive? One half of the Goon Squad? He, along with the other cats, lives in the barn. I've set up a bed for him in my gardening cart and it's as if the whole barn is an amplifier and he's right there in the room with me snoring his little heart out.

I love my animals but at 5:30 in the morning I often wish I could go Terminator on them all and just get a bit more sleep.

Anyway, here are some photos:

Happy Wiley getting some love from Aaron.

Carl kept sleeping in the duck's nest and they couldn't scare him off. I made a more appealing bed for him in my gardening cart. 

Carl just hanging out in front of my studio.

The Goon Squad naps under my new pine tree in the duck yard.

Sunset from the back field, next to the old barn.

Aaron playing around with the panoramic feature.

Atticus in the tall grasses.

My Barred Rock was the first of the Chicklets to start laying eggs. We now have 3 of the 6 girls laying.

The pretty chicken and Carl one evening. She was sitting next to him but stood up the minute I opened the door to snap this photo. We now call this chicken the Nipper since she nipped me on the hand pretty bad the other day.

On the left is the Barred Rock egg. On the right is  the Ameracuna. At first we thought it might be a duck egg because she laid her first one in the duck nest. But her second was in the chicken nest box, so we knew it was not a duck egg.

Wiley and Atticus at the front door waiting for Aaron to come home.

Our garlic beds.

Farewell

It is with sadness that I must report that my pet chicken Wanda One-Eye has passed away. As we all know, she was very old. And though I will miss her dearly, I am glad that her life ended in comfort and warmth with no pain.

Her decline began a few weeks ago. She started becoming disoriented and ornery and much less active. Yesterday in the late afternoon I found her in the coop with one wing spread out and face down. She was still alive, but not what I would call conscious. I picked her up and Aaron gave me one of his shoe boxes for her to rest in. I put down shredded paper/cotton bedding to keep her warm and placed her on a high shelf on my porch. I stayed with her and petted her and comforted her as best I could. She was gone by 8:30 PM.

We will be burying her in the yard and eventually I'll create a small memorial headstone for her. She was my friend and she made this first year on the farm really special.

I am very proud to remember that I rescued her from a small cage within the chicken coop and I am grateful to her previous owner (and her namesake) for not killing her because she was a damaged chicken. I will never know why human Wanda saved her, but I am so very glad.

In Wanda One-Eye's last year, she free-ranged all over the farm. She made friends with every human and animal she met. She even started laying eggs again and was an entertaining addition to all gardening activities.

I will miss her.

Best chicken EVER.