Friday, May 05, 2006

Armadillos

We have decided that armadillos are not to be scorned, as are the racoons and possums. They eat bugs, and altho they make little holes all over your yard and garden, I have the reassuring feeling that because they were there, there are now several less cockroaches and waterbugs on the planet.

I came out the door of my studio the other night, and quickly stepped back in. There was riotous leaf-disturbance going on in the bush to the left of the door. I called Mona.. she came over to me, and gestured that she wanted to play. CANT YOU HEAR? There's a monster under the bush! What animal in its right mind would concentrate so hard on getting bugs that it wouldn't hear me talking to the dog? This thing was practically under my feet! And what was with the dog! I eventually called Bud, the old black lab. He took off after it, and when it popped out of the bushes, and beat a hasty exit down the driveway, I called off the dog. He came back dejected, but the thing looked to me like a half a watermelon running down the driveway, cut the long way. Half a football. Somewhere in that range. At least I knew the monster was an armadillo.

I'd seen him 6 months before, on a night like this, balmy and nice. My husband had seen him in the driveway and called me out, to stand like a wall, while he tried to catch it. I did my job, he flushed it out of the bushes, and the darn thing ran right between my legs. It was trying to see who was chasing it, and truly, they must be not all there, cause it went slow enough for me to have grabbed it. I had no intention of picking it up, but did touch it, and what a hot little football it was. His temperature was like a dogs, must have been 102, I had expected, i don't know, maybe snake-ish, with that hard shell.

Next time I just might get the nerve to pick it up. (Just to say hi, then let it go) I might just have a formal introduction to the dogs, with firm instructions not to chase or bother. They do really well with the chickens!

Wednesday, May 03, 2006

MyChickenSpace.com



This was a gift from my friend Smartypants

Raccoons had learned every which way to enter my chicken coop. I put rocks under the footer board, they jimmied the handle and opened the door. Possums learned how as well, so we were actually, with 13 chickens, having to buy eggs! Sacrilege!

That Christmas, my mom gave me 5 Pottery Barn Buckets, and I decided to fill them with hay and seed them each with an egg and let the chickens find them. I set them up on the passthru to my kitchen on the back porch, and it's not as messy as you'd think, the chickens only go there now to lay eggs. The other stuff they do, well, they dont do it when they're going to lay an egg. The chickens are now safe to lay their eggs and I have eggs by the back door!

My standard poodle Mona has taken to guarding the henhouse at night, so damages have been cut there as well.

I took a picture of this, and posted it on a message board, and this is what I got back from Smarty. Thanks!

Monday, May 01, 2006

What I'm working on




I'm supposed to be making this into a birthday card.
I'll post it when it's done.