Life and death

LIFE

There were 3 bright and lovely ripe strawberries in the garden today.

And the greenhouse is bursting with growth; happy, healthy plants, reaching for the sun.










DEATH

If I were writing this post first thing this morning, when I discovered two of our chickens dead (leaving only one), it would have been heavy with emotion. However, after a day spent by us both, toiling to make the chicken coop impermeable to just about anything without opposable thumbs, I am more philosophical. I do realize that for a biologist, I am shamefully "unaccepting" of death. Matt is much more realistic.

I was practically ready for a revenge killing this morning, which makes absolutely no sense. That said, my murderous feelings against what was probably a long-tailed weasel (since there were no signs of where the predator entered and exited) have long since subsided. (Weasels eat gophers, too, after all.)





After digging out about a cubic yard of dirt from the chicken coop floor today, we installed a layer of 1-inch chicken wire, stapled to the walls on all sides, with rows of fencing overlapping by about 3 feet. This may have been unnecessary at the moment, but we aren't taking any chances. Matt covered every gap or knot-hole (more than an inch or so wide) with wood. We also covered other relatively small gaps with chicken wire.

It's useless to dwell on this. We've issued a craigslist plea for a hen (retired, non-layer, whatever) to be a companion for the remainder. Once we return from a weekend away in mid-June, we'll be ordering a dozen or so hatchlings. We were confident before that the coop was secure, but we were wrong. If anything can get in now, I'm not sure what else we could possibly do.

I also managed to trap another gopher in the garden.

Apparently this whole venture is about life, and death. I guess I'd never thought of it that way before.

- Angela