Attack in the Night

No matter how "coon proof" one may believe an enterprise to be, we still get the occasional surprise. A couple months ago, when our cornish rocks (meat birds) were just 2 weeks old, one was injured while moving the pen across the concrete into the grass. I cleaned her up, bandaged her little foot as best as I could, and kept her separated until she was well enough to hold her own with the others. When we she re-introduced, she did fine and after only a couple days, I could no longer tell her apart from the others.
Until 2 days ago when I noticed one with a stubby toe laying down a lot. This tends to happen sooner or later because these birds are huge and bred to be quite lazy. But she was laying down and letting other birds walk on her. Yesterday I pulled her out, made our makeshift hospital pen with the baby gates and plywood and kept a close eye on her. We're slaughtering our turkeys in a week (obviously) so if need be, we could slaughter her at the same time. Though I'd rather see her healed and strong and live out her days happily scratching and clucking.
Her "hospital" was under our bedroom window and long about 3am, we heard the screaming. I flew out of bed and chased off a rather large and portly racoon. He had dug under the gate and managed to grab her neck. She was scratched, but alive. I re-inforced the pen, moving the duck baths to block direct contact with the ground beside the gate and added some rubber floor mats to keep her away from the edges. The coon came back around twice more, no doubt scaring her out of her wits, before giving up. She's hurt... pretty bad too. I think she's going to survive as long as I can keep her safe, but unfortunately, I don't think she'll heal up well enough to become a full-grown bird.
It bothers me when I'm not able to keep my animals safe. Just last week, 4 plymoth rocks (young egg layers) died in a single night. They had climbed inside the feeder... and then a cornish rock climbed in on top of them. The cornish, though the same age as the plymoths, are much bigger and the 4 little ones were suffocated. I think the hardest part of homesteading is dealing with accidental deaths. Slaughtering animals and finding one dead before its time are completely different experiences.

Thank you, Tracy

Thank you for the GIGANTIC avocado. Now that's what I call a MEAL!!!

Love, Aaron

The Prettiest Little Redneck

Isn't this just the prettiest little redneck you ever done see? For those concerned, the "firearm" is a pump-style air rifle, donated to the palace homestead by its former owner, my father-in-law. Not only was it unloaded, but it was un-pumped. I made the camo skirt for Gloria to wear to her cousin's "hunting dear" themed birthday party. The pink pom pom shoes were her own addition to the ensemble. The turkeys in the background are affectionately named Thanksgiving and Christmas.

This is Gloria watching the dairy goat show at the county fair. Lots of fun!

And again sporting her butterfly courtesy of the Child Evangelism Fellowship booth.

Firsts

A series of firsts

1) 5 years and 2 kids after running the Beijing marathon, I actually ran a whole mile today without ill effects. I had tried to get back into running after Gloria was born, but that didn't last long. Trying again now. I doubt I'll be running another marathon in the near future, but a half is within reason.

2) Aaron had his first extra-uterin camping trip last weekend. We had beautiful weather for 3 days and 2 nights at Faver Dykes in St. Augustine.

3) While camping, Randy and I left the kids with Grandma and Grandpa and took in a nature hike. It felt like our first time enjoying Creation without kids in tow. Our first home was "The Love Shack" (we were the 4th consecutive newlywed couple in the apartment) which was a cozy little garage apartment tucked back in the woods near the Doris Leper preserve. We took advantage of those trails in our literal backyard quite frequently. Thank you, Grandma and Grandpa, for giving us a little taste of our honeymoon again!

4) Aaron sprouted his first upper teeth... in the middle of the night while stuck in a tent at a full campground. Yeah, it wasn't a fun night. But the next night was great! He already had his 2 bottom teeth, but I couldn't ever get a picture of them.

5) We've had our first long beans (red-seeded asparagus beans). I'm now battling a second round of aphids. Persistant little buggers!

6) We have a first blush of blossoms all over the cucumbers and tomato plants.

7) The ducks have completed their first week of "freedom". We let them out to roam as they wish in the morning then shoo them back into the pen in the evening. They are already very well trained.

8) And again about Aaron- my big hungry boy fed himself for the first time today. He ate 2 whole bananas at one sitting getting about 90% of the little chunks I cut for him into his mouth. The rest made it into his hair, ear, belly button, and toes... yes, even his toes. No pictures- sorry.