"I'd horsewhip you if I had a horse." - Groucho Marx

I do wish Stamina would move back home. I so miss her.

We're in town on Tuesday mornings. Pam has women's Bible study and I run errands. This morning that included getting a gas powered string trimmer to clean up the jungle growing around the fruit trees. On the way home we stopped to get more nails and to reserve some chicks.

After lunch I worked on the barn extension. I got the rest of the siding put up and the roof sheeting installed. But at 83 degrees it was just too hot to put down black rolled roofing, so I'll do that tomorrow when the high will be 68, and that at 4 p.m. Then I can take down the interior wall and turn it into a half-wall with a gate. At that point Sundae will have a "birthing suite" ready for her.

With the high temps the last couple of days I figured I should water the fruit trees. Alas, the irrigation pump doesn't, so I did it with a hose from the side of MoHo. Tomorrow I'll take the cover off the well and see if I can spot the problem. I don't *think* the water level can have dropped that much already.

I finished The Count of Monte Cristo. It's a VERY long book, a very complex plot with a long list of principle characters that can be tough to keep track of, but well worth reading, or listening to in my case. I wish I could discuss it now with someone who has also recently read it because it raises some interesting questions about key issues like justice, revenge, love....

The F1 season is in Monaco this weekend. That's a lot more interesting than the Indy 500. It's the difference between a winding course on the narrow streets of one of the most upscale cities in the world and a big oval.
Go fast, turn left.

Back to the chicks.
I ordered 10 Rhode Island Reds, all pullets although there's a 10% chance that a cockerel sneaks through. Between hawks, disease and AWOL the eight pullets we started with a year ago is down to four laying hens. That gives us an average of 2 eggs a day, not enough to meet our needs. And the hens' production seems to be dropping off, to be expected in their second year.

We need a larger flock. I could raise the chicks in a separate location and add them to our current flock after they're mature (otherwise they'll get pecked to death). But chicks make a lot of dust that gets all over everything in the area, and we don't have a place where we can have that. So we made the decision to "off" the current hens and raise the chicks in the coop. The chicks come in to the feed store Friday so I have to dispatch the hens, thoroughly clean the coop, and get it set up for chicks before then.
In case you're wondering, a hatchet and a stump. I've got both.
We'll have to get store eggs until the new chicks start laying (mid-fall), but we're doing that now because we're not getting enough out of the hens.

The question: what to do with Lucky. He's a good rooster in that he's not at all aggressive.
He's a bad rooster in that he's not at all aggressive. That is, he should protect his hens, and he doesn't. He should go after a hawk and keep track of the flock, keeping them near him.
So, to I dispatch him, too? If I do I'll either have to hope that one of the 10 chicks is a rooster that slipped through inspection or get an aggressive rooster off Craig's List. Rhode Island Red roosters are mean and are usually not hard to find. And we don't need one right away because the chicks will be closed in the coop for the first 8 weeks or so.

Life and death on a farm. The circle of life. You either have to be able to do it or waste a lot of time and money.