Mrs. Murphy's Law

If something can go wrong, it will, when Mr. Murphy is out of town.

This has been what is going on:

Thursday afternoon: Go outside to find something killed one of my chickens. Get rid of carcass.
Friday afternoon: Pick up youngest from bus. Find out he definitely got my cold.
Friday night: 103 temp. Advil and fluids, and I keep a close eye on him. Make goodies for eldest child.
Saturday morning: Visit with eldest son and his friend. Drive to town for large live trap.
Sat. night: Set trap. Catch cat. Put cat in dog crate, reset and rebait trap.
Sat and Sun: Son's fever hovers between 100, to just under 102. Continue with Advil and fluids.
Sunday morning: Get up to find trap empty, food not eaten. Leave trap as is. Let cat out of crate. Catch cat. Release cat from trap after 4-5 hours.
Sunday night: Put cat in crate. Set trap.
Monday morning: Trap empty. Let cat out of crate.
Monday morning: Son's temp 103, go into work long enough until second wave of adults gets there, then split. Take child to Dr. Spend 3 hours in Dr. office, to find out he doesn't have strep, but will most likely test positive for Swine flu.
Monday afternoon: Drive home, drop child off, go back into town (closest town) to pick up Tamiflu perscription. Spend $85 on copay. Buy 5 gallons of apple juice. Ship books at Post Office for Hubby. Go home. Make bed, clean up kitchen, relax (Ha!)
Monday night: Go outside to set trap. Find different cat acting very weird. See big bloody poop/guts hanging out of rectum. Forget the trap. Get dog crate, wash it out, put blankets inside. Put sick cat in crate, call sister and cry. Sister meets me at 24 hr. vet. Spend evening with sister at vet, trying to decide whether or not to put cat down or do risky surgery for half wild cat.
Midnight: Sign paper to put cat down. Cry. Go home with dead cat. Cry. Let dogs out, check on sick child.
Tuesday morning, 1:30: Email Hubby. Go to bed.
Tuesday morning, 2:00: Get up with dog, go outside.
Tuesday morning, 6:30: Get up, take shower. Check on child. Tell him cat died. Go to work. Text oldest that cat died.
Tuesday afternoon: Go home. Check on child. Dig hole and bury cat.

What Did I Catch?

I was excited this morning to go out and see what I caught. I even woke up early, and thought I might go out to see. Ohh, I should get a life, huh?? Anyway, I decided that maybe it would be better to wait, since the sun wasn't up yet, and the creature I am trying to catch is nocturnal. Although, if I am honest, it was mostly because the sun wasn't up yet, and it's Sunday, and my bed was really warm. But my excuse, at least at the time, was because it was still not light enough, and there was enough night left to catch something. So I went back to bed. And back to sleep. Well, I went back to sleep as soon as the dog figured out it is Sunday and I was sleeping in. But anyway, when I finally got up, I went out and this is what I found:

Nada. Bumpkis. Nothing. Zilch. Failure. My trap was a big, fat, zero. It looked the same as when I left it last night, except, of course, last night it was alot darker than this morning. So, what to do now? I let Speedy out of the dog crate, where I had locked him up last night so he wouldn't get into the trap. Of all the cats we have, he's the only one that needs to be protected from himself. Why is that? Anyway, I went to get Speedy, and then followed him to the chicken pen, and the trap. And, then, this is what he did:

I'm not surprised. Nobody is. In fact, that is so not surprising, that when I talked to Hubby about getting this trap, and setting it, that he told me "if" I happen to catch a cat, which what he really meant was, when I caught Speedy, to put him, cage and all, in the shade and let him stay caught for a few hours so he doesn't like the cage, and will stay out in the future. So, that's what I decided to do. I let him eat more of the food:


Pretty soon, the thing will trip and he will be caught inside.

Soon. Very soon. It can't be too much longer now.......


Ok, we're down to the last of the food..... he's licking the bottom........ it's going to close........ anytime.......

Uhhhh, yeah. Right.


Can you believe this? He backed up, nice as could be, right after he ate all of the food. Then came over to me. The little turd!

So now, this is what the trap looks like. I think I might need to rethink this whole thing...........

It's Set and Ready To Go!

Today I went to the orchard store. I went to get one thing. Hopefully the one thing that will save my chickens. I got the biggest, baddest trap I could find. Here it is!


This thing has two doors! Nothing but the finest, all for the convenience of the prisoners. I can set it with only one door open if I want, or I can set it with both doors open. Tonight I decided to open both doors. You know, for the convenience of my prisoners. Here it is, all set, with both doors open, and the big clump of canned cat/dog food in the middle on the trip plate.


Hmmm, now that I am looking at the picture, I realize I forgot to tie a rope onto the handle. Oh well. I don't really want to venture outside now. It's too dark, and the Boogie Man might get me. Anyway, here's the little buggers I'm trying to protect. They're in bed now, roosting and ready for me to leave. You see the one on the right? He's telling me to leave. "Get out of here," he says. "Be gone."


Yeah, now he's crowing. At night. They're all brain surgeons, I tell you!! Not a dumb one up there.

Preditor/Prey

I went out to the chicken pen this afternoon to feed, water, and talk to my little creatures. Do you know what I found?? Feathers. Lots of feathers. Not attached to chickens, either. That normally means that some poor defenseless chicken has given his (or her) life for the benefit of some wild creature. Not that I have anything against wild creatures. Far from it. I love wild creatures. Just not when they chew on my babies. And if I am correct, these wild creatures that chomped on my chickens last night were raccoons. I'm not fond of raccoons. If you have ever seen a raccoon up close and personal, you will know they are not a pretty sight. They've got some gnarly teeth, and are uuuuugly!

Of course, I walked around the inside the pen, and found what I was afraid of. There was a feathered, wet carcass of a young chicken. Not a pretty sight. It was one of my roosters I raised this spring from an egg one of our older hens laid. I was sad. I know I have lots of chickens, and it was a rooster, but really! What a horrid way to die. I want to rip to pieces that raccoon that ate him. I'm normally a peace loving woman, until somebody messes with my animals. Then I want to rip them to shreds. I would go into greater detail, but I like to think this is a family friendly place, so I won't. Course, I guess this is a family friendly place because there's only one person that reads it, and she's family! But I digress.

So what's a girl to do when the He-Man Dude is gone, and chickens are dying? Ahhh, enter if you will, to the 21st Century! I sent a text to my hubby, and he suggested replacing the batteries on the hot wire, then check the wire all around the pen. And go into town tomorrow morning to buy a live raccoon trap. (They are bigger than cat traps.) Luckily for me, I have D batteries in the frig! So off I go, and replace the batteries on the charger. Then I went inside the pen to check the wire. This whole time, of course, I have been talking to my chickens, and they are acting like they want me to get off their turf. I was almost finished walking around, and I saw Speedy, our biggest cat, outside the fence. He was acting funky, so I just kinda watched him, and still worked at the same time. Pretty soon, he hops up over the chicken wire and through the bigger hog wire, and into the chicken pen, skipping the whole hot wire thing completely. Uh oh! Maybe it wasn't the raccoon!

NOW what's a girl to do?

Packed and Ready To Go!

It's time for the last hunting trip of the year. Well, aside from duck hunting. There's always duck hunting. And goose hunting. We can't forget goose hunting. And then there is the pheasant hunting. But I'm not talking about bird hunting. I'm thinking about the trip to go elk hunting. This is the last one this year. And Hubby is ready. His bags are packed and he is ready to go. Want to see?? Here's the front seat. His hat is ready to go.



Here's the back seat. Room for one person.




And here's the rest of the stuff in the back.



I think they should have everything they need.

Back Among the Living!

Well, I have been out of commission for a few days. Ok, then, more than a few days. I am no longer horizontal, and went back to work yesterday. It was a long day, and that's a whole other story, but I made it all day. And now I feel SO much better! The world is a wonderful place again, and I am enjoying the first rain of the season. Maybe this weekend I will make sweet rolls. Pumpkin ones! I got a new recipe when we took our field trip to the pumpkin farm, and have been wanting to try it out. I will let you know how that goes.
For now, I am off to get ready to go to work.

Ahhh, Field Trips!

I LOVE fieldtrips. Yes, I know how much work they are. Yes, I know how much extra time we spend with paperwork, and scheduling. I know there's alot of extra time spent making sure we have everything we need, from the right lunches, and loading the ice chest, and getting the "just in case" stuff, like the first aid kits, and gloves, and things to keep the kids busy in the car, and.....and......and. But really, folks, Field Trips!! If you have never accompanied a group of kids to a place outside of the daily learning environment, you have not yet lived. It's one of the things you should do. Like, put it on your bucket list. I insist. Humor me. You won't regret it.
Why am I saying all this? Thank you for asking! Friday we took a field trip to the local pumpkin patch. I brought along my trusty camera, and then gave it to one of our wonderful, lovely, patient, amazing teacher's aid. My only instructions to her? Have fun! She took a photo class last year, and I knew she likes this kind of thing. She got some really cute pictures.

We saw animals in the petting zoo. Here's a little goat looking back at us.


And we saw scarecrows.......




And more scarecrows.........




We saw pumpkins. We saw lots and lots of pumpkins! These in the picture are really, really big. We also saw some teeny, tiny ones.

There was a train ride that we all went on. It was the highlight of the trip! It went all around the pumpkin farm, and we got to take a quick little tour of the whole place, from the comfort of our seats!



And we weren't the only ones with this great idea. There were lots of other kids that were able to visit the pumpkin farm. This is where everybody got to pick out their very own pumpkin. Believe me, there were tons to choose from. There was everything from little round ones, to tall skinny ones, and everything in between. There were orange ones, there were green ones, and there were lots that were a combination of the two.

All in all, we had a great time. We will help the kids carve the pumpkins in the next few weeks, and we'll make toasted pumpkin seeds from what they take out of the insides. There will probably be some pumpkin bread, or pumpkin cookies for snacks this month. Going to the pumpkin farm is the first all day field trip we take as a class. What a great way to start off the school year! I think we all will be looking forward to another trip next year.