R. I. P.

Knowing the luck I normally have when I actually state my plans, and having 20/20 hindsight views, I can see now that saying I would spend time with my chickens over the weekend was foolish indeed. There is some truth to me having some time to spend with the chickens, but not in the way I would have wished. Sunday morning, the day I was planning on sitting outside for a while and feeding the silly birds, we had a visitor of the four legged variety. There is still some confusion as to whether it was a fox or a coyote (the neighbors say it was a fox, and what I saw looked like a coyote to me) that got into the yard and ended the lives of one unnamed Buff Orpington, and then later in the day... Brutus. My poor goofy rooster. I miss him and I am heartily tired of losing one person or pet after another. Needless to say what's left of the girls have been 'cooped' up for their own good. How often do YOU get to use a saying in its original context? I couldn't resist.

In the meantime, I am looking into getting some Dark Brahma chickens this year, and maybe few pairs of Pilgrim Geese, but I'm not sure about the geese yet. The webby foot creatures need more research before I go getting them. I'll put some pictures of the Dark Brahmas and the Pilgrim Geese. Dark Brahma chickens are just like the ones I have, except they have extensive penciling (see picture) and have almost no white on them at all. All the better for hiding from the big bad wolf's smaller sneakier cousins. The geese were something I wanted to get as an early warning alarm since we've had trouble with bears before and now the canids. These particular geese are one of the oldest breeds of geese in the states and originated here as an all around type of bird. The results were calm friendly birds, with quiet natures unless startled and the added bonus of auto-sexing. That means you can tell if they're boys or girls just by the color or color patterns. Males are white, or mostly white, while their female counterparts are grey with a little white here and there. I may or may not get them. We'll have to see.

Turning our attention to the work front, this has been an amazingly busy week! Tuesday was insane, but Wednesday really took the cake with a total of 23 people showing up for storytime. We had a blast. I'm not sure if this is going to become a regular event, or if this was a one time deal. If this becomes a regular step in their day, then I sure hope they give me some warning like they did this last time. Apparently a local preschool was doing some remodeling, and the power was being shut off for the day. Alice the Camel was a big hit, as was a book by Marc Brown called Pickle Things. They loved that too. I'll have to read that again, or find other books along those lines. It was all good... I hope. I didn't hear anyone complain about anything I did. The wait and see game again comes into play. My stomach is grumbling, so I'd better go eat something. Talk to you later. :)