Saturday, September 11, 2010

Thirteen cannibals

Well, not quite like you'd think, but it's such a good title, I have to use it!

Thursday when I did my nightly count I only had 13 hens. I walked the whole back pasture area, in the dusk, looking for an errant chicken or a pile of feathers, and NOTHING. My husband consulted with his co-workers and they all say a giant golden eagle probably snatched a hen and shared several "eagle ate my chicken" stories. I have seen the giant golden eagles over in Spanish Springs, but I haven't noticed one out here - but that's probably where the hen is. Oh well :(

Yesterday morning I called one of those "I will haul your scrap metal" ads from Craigslist. The guy and his son came last night and took the three empty 55-gallon drums and all the fencing I've ripped down over the last week, and they drained the old solar hot water heater. Woops, I didn't even think to check if it was empty! They will come back today or tomorrow and take the water heater. I know I could've taken all that to a scrap dealer myself, but right now my time is more precious than the little $$ I'd get. And I'm so happy that that part of my junk is gone, not just hiding out of sight!

My husband pounded t-posts while I was dragging fencing to the garage area. Lytha, I am more impressed than ever by your fence. Ours will not look as nice. We will leave it at that, ok? But we've got one side mostly up - waiting on the brace kits for the corner.

Then we had the other half of a roast chicken for dinner. (Now you see where the title is going!) And yes, I fed the carcass to the chicken this morning. It's cooked, so I can't feed it to the dog, and it's good protein, so.. yeah. Cannibals. My hens think it's tasty and I'm glad it's not going to waste!

I'm going to get a cord of firewood today. Hopefully it won't be cold enough to use it for a couple more months, but you never know.

9 comments:

  1. As their numbers dwindled from 50 to 8, the remaining dwarves grew suspicious of Hungry.

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  2. @dp: hot tea. all over my screen. your fault.

    WV: sluoust
    sound effect word, describing the noise I made when spraying hot tea all over my computer screen.

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  3. my man asked, "did you tell funder to wait for the rain?" meaning that made it so much easier for us. that, and having practically no rocks out there.

    thank you for the compliment but remember it took us months. sometimes we could only do one or two in a day cuz that exhausted us.

    i'd like to see some pics of your progress!

    ~lytha

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  4. I'm loving your "nesting" stories. Nothing like a new place to live and doing the whole homestead thing :)

    Sorry about your hen though!

    `E.G.

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  5. Sorry to hear about your hen! Poor girl... Hopefully the rest of them stay safe and sound.

    I had a "fixer upper" of sorts when I lived in VA and I simply loved cleaning it up. There was a ton of junk leftover from the previous owners and I made many trips to the dump... but loved every minute of it.

    Sounds like you are having just as much fun. :) Can't wait to see pictures as it progresses!

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  6. DP, you are a wicked woman.

    Lytha, it might rain in March! Probably not before then... just sunny skies then snow. And I don't have rocks either, just sand. They're not THAT hard to pound, not as hard as clay with rocks. I will try to take a flattering picture of my (husband's!) progress ;)

    EG and i2p, I am having a ton of fun. So much to do - so tired - but having so much fun!

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  7. Did you check all the nooks and crannies in the area? We had one of our hens disappear last week, only to rediscover her a few days later when the rooster chased her out from her hiding place under a pallet with wood stacked on it. She was sitting on eggs!

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  8. Chickens eat ANYTHING. Used to get scraps from a catering business. Bread, veggies, meat... Oh, and they LOVE baby mice! yum-yum-yum

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  9. do I have the only hens who DON'T hunt mice? I wanna refund!

    wv: habbils
    "we eat hamsters, not mice"

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