A Chicken Story...The End

So six months ago we entered the world of chicken farming (much to my dismay) with five chickens.  Soon the boys were gathering eggs every day and I was getting used to the squawking going on in my back yard.  The birds turned out to be an adventure for us all.  Jonah learned when NOT to put his hand in the nest, and I learned that snakes like to eat eggs.
We did not have any luck hatching out eggs, so our neighbor gave us her biddies to raise.  That turned into a disaster...so we decided that we would just keep gathering our eggs for our own consumption and be satisfied with the five little chickens we had.
Today when Joe went out to take care of the chickens, he found that something had killed all five of them.  He thinks it was another snake.  I think I am ready to move.

I Hate To Alarm You, But...

There are some conversation starters that really make you want to run for the hills.  My husband is the master at them.  He usually says things like "Well, do you want the good news first or the bad news first?"
With words like that I'll take no news!
Today was even worse than usual.  Joe got home a few minutes before I came in with the boys.  As I struggled into the house (out of the pouring rain) carrying two children and a bag, he greeted me by saying, "I hate to alarm you...but I need you to look in the red bag outside the back door."   I glanced out the door and saw my onion bag sitting on the back steps.  Before I could ask why my onion bag was outside, it moved!
Joe's next words were, "Now don't get upset."

WHAT DO YOU MEAN, DON'T GET UPSET????

I'm telling you, he really is not good at breaking bad news.  Turns out there was a three foot long SNAKE in the bag.  Unfortunately that was not the part that Joe hated to alarm me about.  The alarming part was that he had caught the snake IN MY BATHROOM!!!  Seriously? 

Now that I think about it, I guess there is not really a good way to break the news to your wife that you just caught a snake in her bathroom....

Snakes

This is not what I wanted to see on my back steps this morning. I guess the snake season has officially begun.
Anna had been sitting on six eggs for a couple of weeks and this week something ate all six of them. Hopefully this was the culprit and we are not still looking for another snake! I guess I will have to wait and see if any more eggs disappear.

Moth Balls

So we haven't gotten a goat...yet. Joe's remedy for the snake problem was to put out two boxes of mothballs all around and under the house. I must say, it is not a pleasant smell. Any other (non smelly) tips for keeping the snakes away?

Twelve Rattles

And no I am not talking about baby rattles. I am talking about the number of rattles that were on the HUGE rattlesnake coiled up under my picnic table this afternoon. The really bad part is that the snake was only about six feet from my back door. We all had been out several times this morning walking back and forth right where the snake was coiled. Joe didn't see it until about his fifth trip. When he came back in the house to get the gun, he was as white as a ghost. I think he realized that if the snake had struck Noah, there would have been no chance of Noah surviving. With the size of the snake, we just would not have been able to get help in time. I am now paranoid about even allowing Noah to walk to the car. I think we may all have to invest in snake boots. Our other option is to get a goat. Has anyone else heard that goats keep snakes away? I have heard that many times and I think it may be worth a try. As for right now, my kids are once again confined to the house.

Snakes, Snakes, And More Snakes!

Two weeks ago Joe killed a big rattlesnake by the pond out back. Last week he killed another one on the path that leads from our house back to his shop. They creep me out, but at least I know that those two won't be bothering me anymore. My concern now is the snake that is living in my Shopper box.
The Shopper (a weekly sales paper) is delivered to a plastic mailbox without a door that is mounted a few feet from the real mailbox. For weeks now I have refused to get the Shopper out of the box because I saw what I thought was the beginning of a bird nest inside the box at the back. For those of you who aren't aware, I sort of have a small bird phobia. I just knew that if I pulled up to that box and rolled down my car window to grab the Shopper, a bird would come flying out of the box and into my car causing me to first pee my pants and then suffer cardiac arrest while the bird flew around trying to peck out my eyes and the eyes of my children.
Joe finally got tired of me asking him to go get the Shopper for me and decided to remove the nest. What he discovered was a nest of some sort along with a very large newly shed snake skin. My skin wants to crawl off just typing those words. So for now, though the threat of a bird is gone, I still will not be getting the Shopper out of the box. Right now I don't even want a Shopper box!
For as long as we have lived here, we have never had a problem with snakes. Now it seems as if they are everywhere. I think it has to do with the fact that the goats in the field next to us have been replaced with cattle. I have heard that snakes will not come near goats for fear of getting stomped. Maybe I should get a goat...that's an idea I have been playing with for a while now anyway, but I'll leave that for another blog.

Country Living

I picked green beans out of the garden this morning. I got about ten gallons. As I was snapping my beans this afternoon, I couldn't help but appreciate where we live. It makes me feel so good to know that I can pick vegetables out of the garden in the morning and feed them to my family that very same night. How much fresher can you get than that? It is also good to know exactly what chemicals were and more importantly were not used on them. I am able to freeze or can my excess vegetables to sustain us all year long and I am able to make all of Jonah's baby food just as I did with Noah. Not only is it good for them, it saves tremendously on the grocery bill. As I was sitting here contemplating how country life just has to be the absolute best, I got a phone call from Joe. He and Noah were on the tractor in the backyard by the little pond. Joe told me to get the rifle and bring it to him quickly. They had spotted a large rattlesnake sunning himself in our backyard. Now I didn't mind looking at the snakes at the zoo this weekend, they were safely ensconced in glass cages, but my backyard is a different story altogether. Noah and I were just out there last week pushing Jonah around in the stroller and searching for blackberries! As you can see from the photo, after a few shots, the snake was history. Sorry for the gore, but no one was getting close enough for a picture until I was absolutely sure that thing was dead! When all the excitement was over and I finally got back to snapping my beans, it was with a little different attitude. I guess there are drawbacks to living in the country. Very creepy ones at that. Even so, I would not trade it for the world!