So this is the end of the week. How’s your Saturday going? We’ve had an exciting few days and we’re glad it’s now the weekend. It’s nice that at this time of the afternoon most of the heavy work is behind. We’re hoping that things will be a bit calmer and maybe cooler over the next couple of days.Let’s start with Thursday afternoon.  I was on egg delivery and I was updating Sue on my progress when she sent a note that said, “Fire on Ash Canyon. George said something about voluntary evacuations.” If you know me, you know that wildfires trigger  an immediate fear response in me. So, I immediately scratched  my final deliver (sorry Holly) and came home. By the time I got there, it was mostly out. However, I had to check for myself, because I have to actually see it. See that it’s being taken care of. So, while Sue was pre-positioning cat carriers and gassing up the tractor, I drove up tot he shrine above us to see how things were being handled. The Fire guys were doing a great job and they were simply attending hot spots with a water drop. Our friends and neighbors, Elise and Lance sent me this video with the note: Crew is hard at work down the road! Your chickens are safe. She was right, but Sue was ready just in case. It was less than a mile away, so that is a bit close to be messing around with it. Always scares me spitless. Sue is a bit more pragmatic about it and tends to keep her head – maybe military training? I don’t have that. Anyway, below is the video that Elise forewarded to me of a helicopter water drop.

I am so happy that Thursday ended on a happy note. Then came Friday morning. Let me assure you firstly, it did not end on a sad note – it just started on an exciting one. I was making sour dough pancakes for breakfast when Sue came in the house and said, “Well, there’s a rattle snake in the dove enclosure.” Now, let me tell you – we worked on that enclosure quite a bit, adding welded avian wire and covering mouse holes etc. We thought we had done a really good job of making it snake proof. But, I suppose, mice will find a way – so perhaps the snake simply follows the mice. Regardless, we had to get the rattler out. Last year Sue bought a snake stick and we have a paid with a lid… we were never brave enough to take care of things ourselves last year, but Sue was ready to try now. She reached in for the snake with the stick, I held the bucket and the lid. We got him and moved him to a wash a long way away. The photo shows the west end of the snake headed east. We moved him early in the day away from people. Hopefully giving him time to find a good new home. Rattlesnakes have their place – just like every other creature; that place just isn’t in the dove enclosure.

OK, that brings us to this morning. Luckily nothing as exciting as the two previous days… but fun none the less. We started putting the solid cover over part of the coop run.  We only did half today, took us a few hours and we had to figure a few things out, but I think it came out really well! We had to shorten the panels a bit and we added stays to support the middle portions. The span was just too long to not put something. Luckily, Sue still had some 1×2’s in the garage. Eight was what she had and 8 were two more than we’d need. Sue also purchased a type of flashing, I’d guess you’d call it, to make sure the rain water doesn’t run down the front of the coop. It is made specifically to use with the corrugated panels. Worked quite well, Sue just had to snip some of the end off where the roof line got a bit too tight. We are hoping that the screws are enough to keep the panels from blowing off during the gales 🙂 . I really think that it’ll work out and the chickens seemed to be quite thankful for the extra shade. They were already taking advantage of the little bit that had shown up after we were done. Happy little chickens.

We’ll get to the remainder as soon as we can – or little by little. Whatever works. I still have to talk to you about the goose and other things. I’m sorry we didn’t get to that tonight. We’ll catch you up on everything, I promise! Until then, until next time, as always~
Thanks for reading.