A Quiet Morning

Today was the first morning in weeks that I didn't wake up to Rambo's crowing.  Yesterday saw the inevitable, yet unpredicted elimination of one of our two cockerels.  As a result of our move and subsequent chaos, we were even more hands-off with this batch of young birds as we were with last year's. Having two boys in the mix exacerbated the effects of minimal human interaction.  That means we have a flock of nine practically feral chickens on our hands.

I wasn't home at the time, but Naomi was inside the chicken run, getting ready to herd some chickens around out to one of the tractors to prepare another garden bed (I can't wait til we have less lawn and more edibles!) when Rambo slipped between an open gate and started attacking our other birds.  That was the last straw.  He was too vicious to stick around.  We were already in Fabio's corner when it came to who would stay and who would go.  We had just been waiting for some sign that having two roosters was too much, or Rambo did something like what he ultimately did yesterday.

I've been wondering if given the chance, Fabio would step up to the top of the pecking order, and let his soft, undemanding, and pleasant crow be heard.  Today wasn't the day.  I'll be listening over the next few mornings to see if he pipes up more than usual.

Rambo was a beautiful bird, but as I told him a week ago or so, looks aren't everything and he needed a nice personality, too.  Regrettably, I don't have any photos of him.  Next spring I'm sure there will be other contenders, and until then, we'll see what kind of man Fabio turns into.

Updates and Observations

It rained HARD today.  It was the first time it rained in weeks.  The sky was really ominous for a bit, and we saw over two dozen birds of prey of some sort circling around too high up for us to identify them.  We put out every water-holding vessel we had and hoped for the best.  Our collection exceeded our expectations!  It only took about a half hour to fill all our tubs and trash cans.

Our only source of outside water has been straight from the brook.  That's not really a problem, but it's not convenient.  It requires walking all the way down to "the point," squatting down, and filling the buckets with silty water, and occasionally, minnows.  I only seem to be able to get the buckets half full because the water's been so low.  It's also been hell trying to get anything to regrow where they dug the yard out to put the new septic tank in.  The clover and buckwheat I put down shouldn't have any trouble germinating now.  I'd really like to have more than just grass. 

We're making progress on putting in the permanent chicken run.  I want to move the coops and the tractors out of the way temporarily while we finish.  I can't wait to be able to get those birds into the tractors and move them around.  It's amazing how much grass (clover etc etc) they've eaten, trampled, and matted down.

I figured out where and how the seepage in the basement happens.  It runs off the little roof of the hatch door, dribbles down and leaks between where the block and the stone foundation meet.  This can be easily fixed with some catchment, well placed plants, and a little back-filling.  Also, I couldn't believe the amount of water that pooled up off the left side of the front door.  Definitely need to do something there.  The driveway also totally filled up to an incredible level, cascaded over the side yard, around the back of the garage, and into the wetland soil, totally recharging the water level in the wetland area.  Where the brook and the little stream meet up (the point,)  the water level was all the way up to the grass.  I got soaked every time I walked out the back door from the sheet of water coming off the roof.  The carpet in the breezeway seemed to stay dry, so I'm still not sure why it has water stains.  Also, the chickens seemed to be happy with their tarps covering their runs, because they were all outside during the storm and weren't miserably huddled up like the used to do.

In the end, everything was back to normal.  The brook is filled up again, and gurgling away happily outside.  And a tiny bit of sun even peeked back out around the clouds.