Towards the end of May I was finally able to move my wife down to Texas. I wanted so much to impress her with a thriving, squared away homestead. Complete with a clutter free home and a swept out barn. Alas, reality once again kicked me in the twig and berries.
That said, after two hard days driving across the Rockies dragging a trailer and an elderly pug dog (not in Christmas Vacation style, mind you) it was really, really good to be home. The house still looked like a gypsy safe house, and the barn was worse. We settled in for the night happy to finally be in the same place together.
Around dawn the next morning Katniss started barking. Katniss only had two reasons she ever barked, the postman was dropping off something from Amazon at the door, or there were other dogs on the property. Eliminating FedEx making a pre-dawn drop off, I grabbed a rifle and headed out the door. The sound of squawking hens and barking dogs filled my ears, and I was sprinting out to the barn.
The four feral dogs, a bigger problem than you’d think, came tearing out of the barn. I missed both shots I took, made the rifle safe and went back to sprinting after the dogs. In the heat of the chase, and low light of the morning I forgot about the electric fence I’d started the week prior. So there I am, clad in boxer shorts, muck boots, and a rifle slung over me running full speed when I went ass over elbows in to knee high, chigger infested grass.
Two chickens had been more or less eaten and already dead. While another two were chewed up, both of whom would later succumb to their injuries. It was a tough day on the homestead. The two surviving Production Reds have thrived since, and started laying shortly afterwards, blessing us with around a dozen eggs a week since.
For those of you who wonder why the chickens aren't penned it comes back to two reasons one, the economics of how much less feed free range chickens require from me, and two how much healthier free range is for the chickens, minus of course the occasional feral dog attacks. :-)
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