Return of the Kayaks

This has been such a rainy, cold summer so far that the kayaks have lain dormant in Toni's yard until today. We finally took the giant plunge, so to speak, and took them out on Boyden Lake. It was great to be on the water again.

There has been an unfortunate chicken event since I last wrote. A Racoon got into the chicken house through the door I was making to expand their space. Luckily Diana was spending some time in her house and heard the noise. I slept through the whole thing, including her phone calls to alert me of what was happening. She and Jim chased the racoon away, but it had already mangled one of the chickens. I can't believe that she is still alive, but she is. She has been bitten to a bloody pulp. Part of her rear end is actually missing. Yet she is still walking around, eating and drinking. Jim thought she was beyond hope and should be euthanized, but I couldn't do it. She is isolated in the cellar trying to recuperate. If she were with the others, they would cannibalize her.

The familiarity of the event was all too evident and upsetting.....how often I have tried to make life better for my chickens and ended up killing them instead. How I didn't foresee preditors getting through the new doorway I can not fathom. I covered it so they couldn't get out, but didn't think beyond that. If not for Diana, they would all be dead. It remains to be seen if Petunia survives.

Needless to say, I am abandoning my expansion project.