So much for that...

The WL/EE gave up her nest in yesterday's pouring rain and thunderstorm, so she was sitting on the eggs in the coop when I locked up last night. This morning she was sitting with the rest of the flock on the roosts waiting for me to get up and open the door. I'm waiting to see what getting poured on does to her broodiness.

Missing Chicken Good News and Bad/Good News

I got home from vacation Saturday and went out to check on the chickens and let them out. So of course I did a head count and another to come to only 7 birds. And guess whose is missing one of my WL/EE hens. Strangely it always seems to be hens that go missing. So I look around hoping she just got left out and roosted in a tree, but no such luck. So I kept an eye out for her hoping she would reappear.

So these morning I walk outside and hear clucking from a bush and think "I didn't leave anyone out?!" , so I head over and catch a flash of white feathers moving away from me. I follow around the bush until I got a semi-clear look and see it's my missing hen! I head out let everyone else out knowing there is no way I'm going to catch her and hoping she will join the group and maybe go back in tonight.

Feed and water Kernel and check on the others food and water, then head back out to see the formerly missing WL/EE with the birds who have headed out and see her puffed up to beach ball size and clucking at anyone who gets close. I knew the behavior insistently she is broody as can be. Which no madder how badly I want more birds my mom has banned  getting or hatching more. So I keep glancing outside to see if she is going back to a nest and the last place I saw her is right by an area I've seen them in before which is a little path they made going in to a hillside covered in weeds and thorns. The next time I looked she had disappeared.

I checked out the hillside and there is no way I can get far enough into the hill to check for a nest. So basically I'm going to see what happens, if I can catch her I will lock her up and brake her of being broody, if not I'll see if she can make it about 17 or 18 more days to when about the hatch date should be.

I'm back!

I was on vacation this past week and but I'm back now and will do an update shortly.

Dead of Night: A Zombie Novel

Dead of Night: A Zombie Novel  By: Jonathan Maberry

 

I received this book through the first reads program on goodreads before actual publication, which is October 25, 2011.

This book was Hannibal Lecter meets Zombie Apocalypse, well maybe not Hannibal Lecter but creepy serial killer. This story takes place in a small Pennsylvania town (which kind of creeps me out, I live in PA) and starts when the body of a serial killer wakes up and eats the mortician. Cool, huh?

Our main character is a cop/ army veteran with some issues, but I loved her all the same. Yep our number one zombie killer is a woman, a kick-ass woman. She can shot and argue with the best of them and is in no way the damsel in distress. But our story starts when she wakes up late for work and her and her partner's first call of the day is to the local mortuary....

At parts of this book I was laughing and at others about to cry. I loved and yet found it corny that our serial killers mother's name is Clarice. I wanted to cry at the end at the decisions they where forced to make. I found it odd that none of this people had never seen how (movie, books, etc.) to kill a zombie before and it took them forever to figure out how. Random fact the first mention of the word zombies in this pre-release edition is on page 155.

This book had a few issues that I hope they catch before publication, like the Hannibal Lecter reference at the beginning of the book was worded oddly. At the end of this book I was left wondering is this really the end or is there going to be a sequel? But over all I really enjoyed this book and will be seeking out more zombie books.

Berries

What do you guys want to hear about?

I haven't posted much lately because honestly, I don't know what to post about right . I can tell you the apple trees are full of small apples or I need to harvest the wild berries (their either black berries or black raspberry) or that while Carmel's nose is healing up, Spot reopened his ear (again) and Rex hurt his one ear or that I need to harvest peas and yank up the vines to plant more for a try at a fall crop and probably a hundred other little things. But none of these things seems big enough for their own post, so what do you want to hear about? Anything is open I just need some ideas, if you want to hear about the plants, the garden, the books, the cats, or the chickens tell me!

Everyone layed Today!

Kernel's New Home....

Kernel's Old Home....

Carmel's Nose

Coops

My coop made out of OSB and it turns out anything and everything from rain to raccoons can destroy it. So it is currently patched together with spare bits of wood, metal sheets, and a little bit of wire:

 

But the current plan is to either buy a pre-made coop or a shed to turn into a coop to replace my fail of a coop. I'll keep you all updated on the new coop.

Fireworks

Happy 4th of July!

She is alive!!!

I went to let the dog out and the chickens came out from under the deck and the BA/EE is with the flock! She looks like she doesn't have any injuries, but I'll check her out tonight when she roosts.

Good Night, Crappy Morning

Due to more broken and stolen eggs, I set the trap last night at dusk and awhile after dark I heard metal hitting metal (I had put my broken cage next to it so they couldn't reach in and get the food) so I went to check it out and found a trapped raccoon . After seeing that it looked fine for the night, I decided to wait until morning due to the fact I can't shot a 22 and hold a flashlight at the same time.

So this morning when I woke up I grabbed the gun, shells (bullets), and a trash bag and headed out to the coop. And found part of my traps bottom ripped out, the raccoon gone, and my beautiful BA/EE hen is missing and thought to have been killed.