Crazy bird on the loose!

On By stefrobrtsIn chicken tractor, chickens1 Comment

Big bird has gone completely off his nut for some reason. After the attack yesterday perhaps he thought he had won the battle and was feeling pretty proud of himself (in those two cells he rubs together and calls a brain). Today he sealed his fate.

I gave away the baby turkeys today. I was getting worn out keeping up with them, and I was concerned about what was going to happen when they outgrew the tractor, which was going to be soon. So I advertised them on the chicken list and a lady came over and gave me two bags of chicken feed and a bag of scratch for them, which made me happy.

Since she is a chicken expert, I mentioned what Big Bird had done and she said she would help me clip his spurs while she was here. So we went into the coop and he walked up to her and jumped up to kick her and she caught him in mid jump. We took him to the garage and trimmed his spurs and ground them down with the dremel. Did his beak too. Then let him go, and she thought that should have put him in his place a bit. After she left I went around back to put some scratch out and get everyone back into the pen area, and he walked up and kicked me, so I kicked him away. He picked himself up and came after me again! I kicked him away again, now in self-defense! And he jumped up and came after me again! That time I kicked him about five foot away and really knocked him for a loop, and when he got up he gave me the eye, but he finally walked away. I don’t know what got into him. So now I have a big bruise on my knee where he got me with one of his kicks!

I spent the day working outside the chicken pen putting chicken wire around the bottom so the chickens will be contained, and I’m putting mama hen and her chicks in there with the rest of the chickens, so everyone will be together. After dark I moved mama hen in, and moved Big Bird out. He was easy to catch because he was sleeping! I took him out and stuck him in the empty chicken tractor and that’s where he will stay until he leaves. He’s worn out his welcome, and we can’t trust him not to hurt someone. He’ll be gone by next weekend one way or the other.

Rooster attack

On By stefrobrtsIn chickens3 Comments


Poor Dave’s hand is wrapped up like a prizefighter tonight thanks to butthead Big Bird. Dave reached through the fence to pet the friendly hen and Big Bird ran over and jumped at him. He pulled his hand back not thinking he had even got him, and looked at it and blood was running all down his arm! The damn bird had poked a hole in just the right place, it was bleeding like crazy! We ran inside and rinsed it off, and he kept his thumb over the hole while I got a couple gauze pads ready. I got two of them over it, and he sat down on the toilet, then suddenly he took a header and was out on the floor! Scary! I kept pressure on the wound and he quickly came to again. Then he was able to hold it while I finished wrapping it. Glad I took those first aid classes.

Of course the urgent care place isn’t open today (you think they would have business on the 4th of July with everyone blowing off thumbs and whatnot), so we’ll have to go in the morning and have them take a look at it. Needless to say we are pretty unhappy with Big Bird. I’m going to have to find him another home, or he’s going to be dinner. Dave says he’s about ready to go out there and take care of him himself!

Update: Dave is fine. We went to urgent care this morning and they cleaned it out, gave him a tetnus shot, and some antibiotics since it’s a puncture wound. It’s actually surprisingly small, it must have hit a vein or something because it sure bled like crazy. But he feels fine and it looked fine, we just have to watch it and make sure it doesn’t get infected.

Sick as a dog!

On By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized2 Comments

Wednesday night I was sick as a dog for no particular reason. Dave and I pretty much ate the same things yesterday, with just a couple exceptions. He was fine, but I sure got it. It felt like a big hand grabbed me in the middle and squeezed, I got cramps, and all sorts of other unpleasant things happened. I have not been that sick since I was a little kid! And of course today I am just sore all over. Bleech!

Update on Saturday: Thanx for the concern. All better now, but I still don’t know what caused it. I suspect some oranges I bought, as I ate one without washing it. I thought that would be ok, because you don’t eat the peel, but if it had anything on the outside it would have got on my hands and on the part I ate. I juiced a couple yesterday morning and they had a funny chemical taste, so I threw them away. I have a feeling there was something wrong with that batch.

Walk around Battle Ground Lake

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, hiking, petsLeave a comment

I took Barclay for a walk around the lake on Tuesday. I wanted to go somewhere cool and shady where he could jump in the water if he wanted to. That was the perfect place to go! But there were a lot of people there, even for a Tuesday. Luckily most of them were in the wading area, and so we only ran into a couple groups on the lake trail. One couple looked like they were on an expedition, and they were from out of town so we chatted for a bit, talked about what other stuff there was to see in the area. It’s funny to see people outfitted for a long hike on the lake trail, because it’s really just a stroll, and it’s less than a mile total. Though sometimes I have gone with a full backpack just to get in shape for carrying my pack. So I suppose then I look silly too 🙂


It’s hard to get Barclay to sit still for a picture – he wants to go go go! There’s so much to see!
Like baby ducks!

We stopped and waded around in the water a bit here and there. I just wanted to make sure he stayed cool. He doesn’t know if he can swim yet, so I want to encourage him to play in the water whenever we get a chance. One of these days we’ll have to get him out into water where he can paddle a bit. I think he would enjoy it.

Barclay and Jack

On By stefrobrtsIn barclay, jack, pets1 Comment

Barclay and Jack were playing hard the other evening, and what great expressions they get on their faces. They look so fierce! If you didn’t know they were playing you’d think they were trying to kill each other! It’s just great to see them playing, they are best buddies 🙂




Turkeys are out, chicks are in

On By stefrobrtsIn chicken tractor, chickens, turkeysLeave a comment


The turkey poults have made the big move from the protection of the heated brooder to the cold harsh reality of life in a chicken tractor. I was worried about them the first night, and for some reason, just because they are turkeys I guess and not very bright, they chose to sleep on the unprotected end of the tractor in the grass instead of the sheltered end with a perch. But they survived, and by the second night they had figured out how to snuggle up together on the perch.


In the other tractor is black mama hen with her NINE chicks! I thought there were only eight, but now that they are running around more we counted nine. I would love to let all these little guys loose to run around the yard and scratch in the fresh grass, but the cats would go after the chicks. So everyone stays safely in the tractor.


As you can see from the little feather-legged chick in front, we have two cochins in this brood. I hope at least one is a hen!

The hawk

On By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized1 Comment

Yesterday was hot and the air was still. As I was driving home I passed a big meadow along the road, full of dry, yellow grass and ringed with fir trees at the far edge. My eye was caught by a glimpse of something brown against the dark green trees: a large hawk, floating lazily over the field in big swooping circles. As I got closer I realized there was a boy at the edge of the field, clearing weeds along the road. He had a wheelbarrow full of weeds he’d already cut down, and was taking a break, leaning on the handle of his pitchfork with his hat tipped back, also watching the hawk.

Scenes like this are one reason I love living out in the country.

The Lawnmower rides again!

On By stefrobrtsIn lawnmower2 Comments

I’ve once again gotten the mower running. It had thrown a belt, the tranny was acting up, and it was making a horrible metal-on-metal noise which made me very uncomfortable last time Dave used it. I thought for sure it was time for a new mower. But we stopped and looked at them at Lowes the other day and the cheapest one equivalent to ours was still $1000!

So I pulled the deck off and found a brace under the deck had rusted through on one end and gotten bent in so one of the blades was brushing it every go-round. So I removed the brace, replaced the belt, sharpened the blades, greased whatever needed greasing, and put the deck back on (with Dave’s help, that thing is a bear to wrestle around). He took it for a test drive and mowed the grass along the road and it did fine, and didn’t even make any funny noises. It still needs to be hooked up to the charger before it will start, because I think I burned out the charging system last year when I hooked up a battery backwards, but other than that, it sounds like it might just make it another season.

I’ve got to get out of this place!

On By stefrobrtsIn Uncategorized6 Comments

Another beautiful sunny weekend (our weekend is mid-week) when we should be out camping and hiking, working on the boat, fishing, or doing other fun stuff, and instead we are weed-whacking, cutting down blackberry vines, mowing, and digging up our patch of invasive bamboo. And repairing that damned rider mower again!

We have been talking lately about getting a smaller place where we don’t have three acres to maintain. I’m ready to go now!