Peafowl

OK, I am working full-time again and I absolutely do not have the brain capacity to manage a blog and everything else.

That said, what's going on with me? Well, I have been trying to build my peafowl flock but it's just not in the cards.

Indira, my peahen, still wanders around, but my peacock has been killed and my peachicks have ended up as snake food, save for one little guy. I started with 5 chicks and I only have one left. The snakes have been feasting on my chicks.

Rat snakes seem to be the predominant species around here, although I've seen indigo and coral here from time to time.

This morning, I checked on my last 2 peacock chicks around 6 am and by 7 am, when I was ready to leave for work, a rat snake had killed and half eaten one of the chicks. The shovel made swift work of said rat snake.

I am sooooooo pissed. I am trying to figure out what to do, but, seriously, I have never had this much trouble with snakes before!

Lord knows I've raised plenty of chicks around here, but this is the first time I've had the snakes come out and kill them so aggressively! I wonder if it's the drought that's finally driving them to do this.

Anyway, I am really mad.

Pottery

I enjoy pottery. I enjoy pottery that I know someone made with their own 2 hands. My neighbor is an artist, print making is her specialty. This is the second year that she and I and another friend have gone to the annual "Art of the Pot" here in Austin, where artists display their wares and demonstrate their craft. It is a lot of fun.

Below are some of last year's finds:

Just the bird cups and the elephant at the front of this photo.

TV

OK, I' m a little behind on my TV shows. I'm about 4-5 episodes behind on "In Treatment". But, I just watched "In Treatment" week 4 Oliver. Oh, my goodness, I love this show. I love Gabriel Byrne and I love the writers! I don't know what else to say. He is such a superb character!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dead Chicken

Woke up, let the chickens out of the coop but one didn't leave. She was one of the americauna chicks. Older now, about the size of a bantam chicken. This, of course, is sad, but also concerning. The chicken looked wet and slimy from the top of her head down to the bottom of her neck. Yes, it looks like a snake tried to eat her but she was just too big.

I've fortified the base of the coop and I'm going to put up additional screening. I hope that helps. Poor thing. When chickens are asleep, they are "sitting ducks". It's kind of like being under anesthesia.

Evan and the rain

It rained!!!!!!!!!!!!! OMG, we need rain! Evan got a super cute pair of rubber boots and umbrella from his Nana and they finally came in handy!

Beautiful Morning

I woke up to a beautiful moon this morning. I believe it's jupiter that is sitting just below it. The pictures don't do it justice. It was lovely.

Easter Egg Hunt at Home

This year Evan really "got" the Easter Egg Hunt, as I told in my previous post. At home, we did another hunt for him on Easter Sunday. It's so funny, though, b/c he lives in the moment, so each egg had to be opened as soon as he picked it up. As you can imagine, it was a slow process...

And Scott, bless his heart, tried to get a few cool things for the eggs besides candy. He got some cute little stretchy bunnies, little stretchy animals, little spongy animals that come in capsules that enlarge in water, AND...fireworks! I say FIREWORKS b/c they were little flammable bottles where you pull a string and that triggers a "pop" and flings streamers. They're more like caps for cap guns, in that they have a tiny little gun powder charge that goes off and shoots whatever is in the bottle. It smells awful, just like fireworks, and scared the crap out of Evan.

I didn't want to spoil the day, so I tried to act cool, but inside I was going, "what the hell?!" You gave my child fireworks? The label said in all caps "FLAMMABLE" and "NOT FOR YOUNG CHILDREN". Fortunately, Scott circled back around and said he didn't realize what they were and was surprised b/c he bought them at WalMart in the "holiday" section. He thought the bottles were like the eggs you can buy where you crack them open and there's confetti inside--no explosives, very low-tech. No, Scott, next time bring your reading glasses and read the label.

It was funny b/c Scott pulled the string on the first one to show Evan how it works. It went "POP" and Evan looked and then said say in his little-bitty voice, "That's scary, daddy!". The intonation was so cute and yet, so matter of fact.