Excitement in a country life...

We've never had so many interesting moments so close together. About two weeks ago we had a great horned owl trapped in our chicken coop at 4:00 am. We think he'd been trying to get them all night, and our big, bad rooster had been doing a great job protecting them- and keeping us up all night, too. In the end it got in and couldn't get out, and unfortunately we did lose one chick, but that's not bad considering the loss of 8 geese to owls last year. The owl was HUGE. I've never seen such big talons so close. He just sat on the roost while the rooster marshaled all the chicks and hens in a corner and made a huge ruckass (is that not a word?). We had to force him off the pole, and thought he would attack us. He didn't. Then we repaired the roof in the dark- it had been damaged by the terrible storms we had before. The owl had come in through an 8 inch by 8 foot gap (I measured). I can't believe it. I also can't believed that Ian climbed on top of the barn roof in the dark to retrieve the chicken coop's roof tin. I really can't believe neither of us took a picture of the owl- it would have been perfect. The light was on in the coop, so you could see him really well- such eyes!

Baby rabbits in the garden earlier this spring- I think I blogged about them already.

Several snake sightings in the yard, barn and orchard- rat snakes, garter snakes, and king snakes so far.

Lots of dog attacks on our chickens, so momma's been toting a gun- a little 22 cricket- it's the smallest we have. Elizabeth, Asher, and Gabriel are a little gun happy. Elizabeth can't wait till I kill something. I don't think she quite understands what that means. Anyway, I shot a dog two days ago. He's been around a lot, chasing chickens and the cat. He is a puppy, a chocolate lab. He's adorable and sweet, but he's hurting my chickens and digging up the flowers we planted around the porch. I've shooed him away over and over, kicked him, yelled at him, and hit him with sticks. He kept coming back. Wednesday I shot him with rat shot in the left hind quarter somewhere. He hid under my porch instead of running home. I pulled him out and beat him off to his house. He hasn't been back, but I'm so worried I really hurt him. Elizabeth was thrilled I killed him. As a side note, an older man rides horses up and down the street daily. He just happened to be riding by the driveway as I yelled 'get on home, go on.' He looked askance at me because he couldn't see the dog on the porch. When I shot the poor dog he spun like a top in the saddle. He didn't seem to be too happy. I hope I haven't scared him off, he seems like such a nice man.

Yesterday a peacock decided to live in our yard. I have no idea where she came from- I suppose she's technically a pea hen. She likes the bugs and flowers and the tall grass and the field full of weeds. She's tame and sweet. She stayed next to Ian for hours while he worked on the truck yesterday. She greeted me on the front and back porch this morning. I guess we'll keep her unless someone asks for her, or she flies off.

Then to add to our fun, we watched the cat play with a mouse in the driveway. School stopped so we could all watch fascinated as he batted it around, let it try to run a way, and then pounce on it again.

I can't think of anything else, but I know we have had a lot of close encounters of the animal kind lately.