I'll spare you the picture. You'll thank me.

This morning, while hanging up clothes, Genie flew the coop. Luckily I was right there, but Gunner got to her first. With a NO! and a sharp hand clap, I was under the impression that my dog listened really well. Genie was caught, and put back into her fenced-in-dog-free-yard. Now, see, every time I go in there, I count them. 12 on the RIR side, and 11 on the Aracuna. Hmm. I had 15 and 7. That's not enough. So I went in and separated them out. They are so funny--they're really friendly and curious. Nope, something was wrong. 11 and 11. I asked Eric if he counted this morning, when he did chores. Nope. :) Must be a girl thing. So we walked around, knowing that there should be something. We found a few feathers just outside the RIR side. Bummer. One down. Well, several hours later (just a half hour ago) I went back outside to bring in the clothes (I had 4 loads on that umbrella clothesline!!!). Kodiak and Gunner have been acting really lazy and lethargic. Then Kodiak groans, walks over towards the tall grass, and throws up. Well, it was more like a hairball, but for a dog. I was curious, as it looked kind of pointy, like she's swallowed a bunch of feathers. *frown* It really looked like feathers in a big wad. No. Really? No. *uh* So, of course, I had to take a closer look. There was some yellow-ish stuff in the middle, so I grabbed a stick to poke at it, and under the feathers, were 2 chicken feet curled up. Ew. It was... gross does not begin to describe. So I went back, finished folding up the laundry, and just before I came in here, Gunner hocked up something. I didn't get a close-up of his, but hey, at least they shared.

We're back!

Well, having been on vacation for a week, putting the chickens outside the day before, we were blessed to have the neighbors be as wonderful as they are! I think they do it so they can ride the 4-wheeler, but I really don't mind!!! Everything went really well. We have the chickens outside, all except the 3 roosters we're not quite sure what to do with... guess we'll be having fresh chicken this year! They are quite comical-they're learning to crow. The hens and their roosters really like it outside. So much, they are disinclined to have us tote them around. The picture is of Ben taking two of them out to their new home. He's getting so BIG!!!

The wind seems to have hurt the corn crib a bit, but Eric's been out stabilizing it again. We're starting to wonder if it's not meant to come down! The goats have had free range the entire time we were gone, and seem to really like it. Now that it's sweltering out, we take them fresh water in the middle of the day, too. And, now we can start getting ready for winter. Does it ever stop? Nope? Okay. :)

Dogs, cats, and fish are all doing really well, too!

And now, I need to refresh waters and bedding!!!