Rough Morning

Wow, it's been a rough morning already.  Lydia and I went to let out the chickens and found a dead one in the tiny yard.  I later discovered the hole in the fence through which a fox, raccoon, weasel, etc got in and killed that pullet as well as another one that it dragged off.  Then Malachi and Lydia were picking up chickens, as usual, when they started yelling for me again.  One of the pullets was ripped open underneath by the predator, so we isolated it and gave it food and water for now.  I'm not sure what to do with the injured chicken at this point.  It may get better, as it seems to not suffer from any organ/muscle damage, but the open gash can't be good, so it may be better to kill it.  For now, it seems relatively comfortable and secure, so decisions can wait until Nathaniel gets home tonight.  Won't he love that.

The kids are sad about the chickens, but they are handling it pretty well.  We actually just culled 4 roosters Sunday, so we were down to 22 chickens, but that's still plenty.  The fact that we have so many still makes it a lot better, and they have checked and decided that little Puffy is still alive.  Fat may not be.  Lydia was going to check, but with the hurt chicken, I never heard if she decided that Fat was alive or not.  I don't really want to ask, since she is likely to just decide that one of the other barred rocks is Fat, if I don't bring it up.

We also had to go to the vet for Katie's check up.  The van is acting up; the automatic door on the passenger side is beeping.  Nonstop.  No matter what I do.  Even when it is closed tight.  My head is still slightly ringing from that trip to the vet.  And naturally, Katie needs new eye drops, because now her bad eye is not producing enough tears, but she doesn't have any new scratches or infection, so that's great.

But now we are home, and the kids are playing with our homemade play dough.  I love when they play all together happily.  And Katie is sleeping by my feet.  The weather is pleasant, and I'm going to work in the garden a while.  We bought some broccoli plants for a fall crop, and I need to plant them.  The seeds for cucumbers and peas that Elijah and Lydia helped me plant last week are growing nicely.  So I think the day is only going to get better.  :)