Friday, April 19, 2013

"Clever Girl..........."

While researching the behavior of my snake eating chicken (see Rikki Tikki Chicken),
I stumbled upon the fact that the center of the Mexico Flag is an eagle eating a snake.



Interesting enough......

But apparently, all kinds of birds and chickens have been doing this for centuries while I casually saw my chickens as harmless egg producing pets.

NOT freakish, pre-apocalypse, flesh tearing, run for cover, dinosaur birds !!!

It is terrifying and................ INCREDIBLY AWESOME !!!!!!!!!!

Jurrasic Park needs chicken cameos as they pan the woods looking for dinosaurs.

Scientists have been saying birds are 'descendants' of dinosaurs for years

But of course.
How could I have been so skeptical ?

Birds learned how to eat all kinds of nasties as they watched the dinosaurs from up on the branches and it shot them up the evolutionary ladder from weird tree hugger, to a survivalist group.

They could eat the icky stuff and then fly away while dinosaurs just watched, or drowned or got smashed by asteroids or stuck in a pit.

Chik-fil-a needs a dinosaur mascot and dinosaur playgrounds.

I need a dinosaur tattoo.

And Mexico has been celebrating this evolutionary miracle for years.
And I let it go unnoticed.
I am ashamed.

Zilla (who is practically named after a dinosaur) was just carrying on traditions handed down for millenium.
I am so proud.

Yet what happened along this evolutionary path that said "lizardy, nightmare inducing, massively muscled dinosaurs should change into small tweeting fluffy-feathered birds" and that "snakes......... welllll...... they are fine just the way they are"?

As I ponder this I will continue to enjoy my egg laying, food producing, lap roosting, yard birds
and wonder why I have never once had a desire for snakes to follow me around the yard, sit in my lap or become a casserole.

Hmmmmmm............Change or don't change.

Who really is the clever one ????




Thanks for reading my blog !!













Tuesday, April 16, 2013

To Be or Not to Be.........

This blog almost was NOT to be.

What are the odds of finding deadly poisonous things repeatedly in broad daylight?

Pretty good at my house I reckon.

When I first built the chicken coop last year,I was quite worried that weasels, raccoons and foxes would dig under the chicken wire and get my girls as they slept.

So I collected rocks from our yard, as big as I could manage, and put them around the base of the fence.

So far it has protected the hens quite well.

For ME....., it has been like a bad dream.

I have shredded my hands. (gloves are for babies)

I have pinched my fingers. (working in the daylight hours is for babies)

AND I have gotten stung by a scorpion. (I screamed like a baby !)

I was so mad, I can't tell you, but I also learned to check EVERY single rock.

Needless to say after the scorpion bite, I picked up NO MORE ROCKS for months.

Well it was lovely today and I thought I would finish around the coop with a few more rocks.

The FIRST one, the VERY FIRST ONE I pick up, there is a 2 inch scorpion waiting..... SERIOUSLY ???? !!!



Thanks goodness this was one was not mean and just scrunched up and tried not to see me.

So says I, surely that is a fluke.

The next rock could not possibly have another scorpion under it !

So I turn it over..... do a visual,...... and CRIMINITLY !..... there is NOT a

scorpion..... but a BLACK WIDOW SPIDER !!!

And she runs at me !!!!!!

I know all you animal lovers will cringe when I tell you that I smashed her with another very small, unscary, insect free rock from close by.

Because a human can only take so much.

And after all, scientists estimate that there are 200 million bugs for every human, so I don't think my ecosystem will collapse from her death.

The problem here my friends, is that quite possibly I don't have enough insect eating yard birds !!! (wink, wink)

No really, I'm good.

All is as it should be................. except under rocks !




Thanks for reading my blog !!!



Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Rikki Tikki Chicken

I am writing this blog late in the evening even though my brain doesn't run on all its cylinders after nine o'clock at night.
Because tomorrow is a busy day for me.
I will be having a physical for the first time in 12 years.
Sheesh. What a baby.
I fear that I will hallucinate due to the fact that they don't let you eat for what seems like a week before the appointment and the starving, swirling, dizziness of it will make me believe that the story I am about to tell was only a dream, a memory from a cheesy 50's horror movie or induced from a starved brain trying to imagine fresh food...
any food.

So I must retell it now so you will know it really happened.

It was a dark and stormy night.....................just kidding.......... Here goes:

When it gets dusky outside, I do alot of evening chores like walking dogs, collecting eggs, feeding deer, pulling weeds, moving rocks, that kind of thing.
It really amounts to doing anything that keeps me outside till I can't see.

The hens always mosey towards the coop, scratching and checking stuff out in the garden, basically doing what I am doing, in chicken version, till they can't see.

I noticed Zilla scratch and then run, so I had to see what was up, because she obviously did NOT want to share !
I ran and so did Red..... after Zilla.

Low and behold it was a snake. An earth snake (which I adore and protect normally). It is about a foot long and as big around as a fresh green bean.

Zilla is trying to eat the snake while running from us while I'm trying to get my camera phone out to take a picture, not run into stuff or step on the chickens, keep Red away and tell myself this is actually happening !

Every time Zilla stops to re-adjust the snake, I move in for a picture and Red moves in to try and take the snake.

I now have to chase Red away, keep an eye on Zilla and try to take a picture cause no one will believe me.

This makes Zilla run faster, scare the snake more, which then starts wrapping itself around her head, face and neck.

The scared snake eating chicken runs even faster, cause how many times does your food become an accessory and I now have to get this under control.

Red is chased by me, into the hen house and locked up.

I run back to Zilla and start snapping pics like crazy while

Zilla relaxes, drops the snake, watches it curl into a couple of knots, pecks at it, picks it up, drops it again and now I think it needs to be rescued.

As soon as I reach in to grab it, Zilla picks it up and in 3, yes THREE gobbles the snake is inside the chicken.

I had NO IDEA !!!!

A wiggling live snake !

I have pics to prove it and my dizziness has not set in yet !






This is right before she read my mind about a rescue....and ate it.

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your feedback, your sharing
and/or your following !!!

Monday, April 8, 2013

'I will take the egg to Mordor.......'



Easter was a fabulous event at my home, with a house full of people and apparently not enough activities.

This 'Hobbit' was created after a botched, but delicious deviled egg attempt.

Too much pickle juice,
too much paprika
and too much table chatter
meant that the egg had became a perfect canvas.


Frodo: Go back, Sam. I'm going to Mordor alone.

Sam: Of course you are. And I'm coming with you.

Good times. Good times !!!