Monday, August 22, 2022

Not Much

The only thing I took a picture of today was of two vultures in a dead tree against a blue sky and it's not a very good picture and also, people tend to hate vultures. I understand that. They represent death, don't they? And they are not attractive birds in the general sense. But I am grateful for them and they are, of course, a vital part of the eco-system. 

It's been a fine day. I went to town and got my hair trimmed- first time in over a year. I loved seeing our Melissa whom we all love so much. She is the sweetest woman. There's hardly any difference in my hair at all. I literally just asked her to cut off about five inches and she did. I wear it up almost all the time because I can't stand having it on my neck. 

I think we are down to four hens and one rooster. We caught yet another possum last night. This could well be the end of my chicken-tending, y'all. I refuse to keep chickens just to feed a fox and I have no interest in keeping them cooped up all day, every day. 

I think this is about all I'm going to talk about today. I've got to make dinner. I had three phone calls while I was in the beginning stages of writing here this evening which is about three more phone calls than I usually get in a week. It's not fair to make Mr. Moon wait until he's starving to eat supper. And I really don't have much to say today anyway. All is well except for the fox and hens situation. 

I'll be back tomorrow, hopefully with something more interesting to relate. 

Until then...

Love...Ms. Moon

24 comments:

  1. oh my! I am so terribly sorry to hear that your flock has been thinned down to 4 hens and one Rooster. How sad and how frustrating. My heart goes out to you. You probably dread even going outside to take a head count. I don't blame you one bit. Wily and naughty fox. Nature can indeed be cruel
    Susan M

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    1. Well, as Ellen pointed out a few weeks ago- nature is just nature. Not so cruel for the fox! But yes, definitely for my chickens. It's so sad and frustrating. You nailed it.

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  2. I love the work vultures do. Where I live with many highways and traffic as well as a lot of wildlife, we'd be done for if vultures didn't clean up roadkill for us. They're nature's sanitation department.

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    1. Absolutely they are! You know, there's part of me that would welcome a Tibetan "sky burial" for my own body. What a perfectly reasonable way to deal with a human corpse.

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  3. Like you, I also didn't feel much like blogging this evening so I just made a short post about a painting I remember, So sorry about the chickens. It must be heartbreaking.

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    1. Ah- that skating Reverend. You know, I really enjoyed seeing that painting.

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  4. I'd love to see a vulture. We don't get them here. A quick google search to clarify that Australia doesn't have them (I'd hate to be wrong) tells me that a kettle of vultures is a group in flight, a committee is a group resting on the ground or in trees and a wake is a group feeding.
    Fox is cunning devil. I hate the idea of him/her winning.

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    1. We have "vultures" here, we call them politicians (*~*)

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    2. I can't believe you don't have vultures in Australia! What animal cleans up the dead things? Those words for different sorts of vulture gatherings are wonderful! Really, they are the undertakers of the animal world.
      And River- yes. Politicians definitely have vulture characteristics.

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  5. Drat that fox. I hope a miraculous solution is found to save the flock.

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    1. I'm not counting on one at this point, Jill. This is so depressing.

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  6. I certainly understand your sentiment not to replenish the flock if you don't isolate that fox. The loss of innocent living things is so sad!

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    1. I think the dang fox must have an entire family to feed. I mean really. This is so ridiculous. All these years without one and now this.

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  7. Didn't sound good to me, but my MIL swore she cooked possum( bbq 'ed it), when her 10 kids were small. They😱 all lived..
    Anyway, I reckon desperation and hunger ,an abundance of possum, (and 10 kids and the old man she married!) make us see things in a whole different light! I 've never partaken, myself! 😉

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    1. Oh yes. People surely did eat possum. I have a friend who was invited to eat a possum dinner with folks and she did. I hear it's a very greasy meat. Needs must, right? Ten kids. Wow.

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  8. O I think I'd rather eat possum than vulture!

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  9. Five inches?? That's not a trim, that's a cut. A trim is a half an inch in my opinion. It will be a very sad day when you give up your chickens and have to buy eggs from the store.

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    1. Well, my hair was down to my waist so five inches wasn't that much, really.
      I have thought about the pain of having to buy eggs from the store. It hurts my heart to think about.

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  10. I'm sorry this fox is so wily. (Which makes me wonder if it actually is a coyote? But you've had wildlife camera pictures of it, right, so you know what you're dealing with...)

    Before giving up chicken-tending entirely I wonder if it's worth it to bait the trap with a live chicken, as you've discussed. It will stress the chicken but that seems like a last-ditch effort that might actually capture the fox.

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    1. Definitely a fox. Yeah. We've got the proof on film. We've discussed doing the live-chicken thing but we'd have to get a chicken from somewhere else because we can't bear to use one of ours as bait which is sort of ridiculous because they're all going to end up as food for that dang fox.

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  11. Are the hens being taken at night? How is it getting into the hen house? Damn fox.

    When I start wearing my hair in a bun I know it's time to get it cut.

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    1. Not in the hen house. I think they're getting taken right at dark before they go into roost. Or maybe even during the day.

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  12. Gosh, that's too bad about your chickens. Can you bait the trap with store bought chicken or do they only go for live chickens?
    One Google suggestion was to get a llama!! Your grands would love that!! :)

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.