And Then There Were Eight...

Well last night was one of the worst experiences of my life. It was horrible. We've been having problems with our chickens dying in the night, while asleep in their coop and while in two different rooms in the barn. We just thought they were low on protein and eatting each other in the night. But it turns out that it was a opossum. The first night it happened we had them in the barn on the left, and when Spencer went to feed them in the morning, one was dead...all the entrails eatten as well as the head. So the next night all the chickens, on their own mind you, went to the other room to sleep. It happened again. So on the third night, they all walked down to their old chicken coop and went to sleep in there. It's animal proof. But us being as stupid and inexperienced as we are, just thought they didn't like the smell of the dead chicken lingering in the barn and that's why they moved. Well we had to go to Scouts last night, and it wasn't dark when we left, so they hadn't gathered themselves into the coop yet. So we decided we'd close it when we got home. Well we almost hit the stupid opossum right infront of our house. And I never thought they ate chickens. Although, now that Julia points it out, she did mention it to me a few months ago...but I must have forgot with the pregnancy. Well Spencer went out at ten-ish to close the door and heard the stupid creature in there, eatting one of the chickens. And besides, the rest had all scattered for safety because the door was still open. So he locked the dead chicken and the opossum in the coop and we prepared ourselves to do the killing. Because we then realized it had been him these last few nights killing our animals. And once he's found food, he'll keep coming back. And I guess with the warm bout of weather we've been having he came out of hybernation early and was hungry. We knew that by looking at him he didn't have rabies...but I'd rather not get bitten. Spencer had on steel toed boots, but I don't have any boots so he went in the coop. We rigged up a light, brought down the push broom that was really sturdy, a huge plumbing wrench and the ax. It would have been so much easier if we had a gun! But we didn't. And he was the size of a large cat, but with lots of sharp teeth and a nasty tail and a most wonderful smell that came with him, as well as all the dead chickens' guts. We let the light shine in there for a while because he's nocturnal and we knew it would affect his vision. Then Spencer went in and I held the door closed. He pinned it down with the broom, and then I took over. He was trying to find a good angle to chop it's head off, but it was in the corner and there wasn't enough room in the coop for a good amount of leverage, without hitting me. So we decided to suffocate it with pressure to it's neck. Well those suckers are good at playing dead. He wouldn't breath for a while so we'd let go and then he'd start breathing again. So finally we bashed his skull in with the back of the ax. But he wouldn't die. The poor thing. We really didn't want to hurt him, he just was an enemy and had to go. So we tried so hard to make it quick for him. Finally I just took the ax and kept hitting over and over and over and over in the head until he wasn't there any more. Then Spencer drug him outside by his tail and cut his neck with the ax a couple of times. Still, even though he was dead, he convulsed for a quite a while. It was horrible. I was really shaking bad. Spencer told me to go inside and he cleaned up the mess. So with the preditor gone, he had to find the lost chickens. They had all scattered and he could only account for five when he was done. But this morning they all showed up and were safe. So now we are down to eight chickens. I guess that was one heck of a learning experience.
On a happier note, here are a couple of pictures of Meredith the farm girl. She loves to wear other people's shoes...especially daddy's. And here is our recent translator in case you ever get to talk to her:
Daggy = Daddy
Mooeee = Movie
Mmmm = Me or Mine
Bettle Baah = Peek a Boo
Wa Wa = Water
Pesss = Please
Yank Yee = Thank You
Pop = Popcorn
Bebe = Baby
(Tounge Clicking) = Chicken
Upie = Open
Uuup = Up
Key = Monkey
Judle = Julia
She says plenty of other words, but they are all normal or close enough to the correct pronounciation. Well that's all for now, sorry it's such a morbid post.