Under Attack!

What a day this has been!

You know how some days start out on the wrong foot... well... this was one of them!

I have to pass by this tree every morning to visit my chickens.  Today... I happened to see a very eerie looking sight as I passed by the tree. That should have been my first warning...



I was on my way to let the chickens out this morning, and looked up and saw this face staring at me.  Good grief!  I don't get into all the "spooky" stuff that goes on in this month, not at all.  But I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

Anyway... I continued on my way to the chicken coop to let out the chickens for the day.



As a side note... do you notice anything different about my chicken coop?



It took a lot of creative work mostly on my husband's part this past week to put this rustic chicken run together for our chickens.  Part of our plan to simplify life is to use what we've got on hand. So, this chicken run was built using trees from our property that my husband sawed into planks!



He even put up a dusk to dawn motion sensitive light for me too, to hopefully scare off any predators that might think they could get into our chicken coop!

But I digress.  Back to my story. On my way to the chicken coop, I passed the tree and saw a scary face in the tree, and then continued to enter my chicken coop to let the chickens out for the day.  As I stood there, and talked to them as I always do, Rudy, our rooster, came out of the coop and just stood beside me, and then suddenly he turned, and fluffed up his feathers, and put his head down and flew at me in attack mode.  Completely caught off guard, I lifted my foot to keep him from clawing me, and he fell over.  And the war was on.. between him and me.  I was talking to him, telling him to quit, saying no, and go away, and such... and he would not quit.  He had me backed into the corner of the outdoor run.  So I thought to try and get inside the chicken coop and close the door between him and me, and see if he would calm down if there was a door between us.  As I darted into the chicken coop, I wasn't quick enough to get the door closed (it sticks), and he came in too.  Both of us, in the coop, with him in full attack mode.  I opened the door and ran out, hollering for Annie.  She was nowhere to be found.  I looked for a stick but couldn't find one.  Meanwhile, Rudy continued to hop, and fluff his feathers up and come at me with his feet.  I continued to back away from him, talking to him, and I remember at least 5-6 times having him hit the end of my shoe, and continuing to come after me.  I cannot understand it. Finally Roger came running over and got between the rooster and I.  Annie, however, was on the porch looking at me sadly, as if to say... "why Mom, you know I'm not supposed to be around the chickens, and I'm just being obedient".  Roger, on the other hand, hopped between the rooster and I, and then my daughter heard the commotion, and came outside with a broom, and chased him off.  Whew!

I've never been so glad to close a door behind me in a long time!  After I got inside, I began to think about what could have caused the attack, and I still really don't know.  Thankfully Rudy doesn't have full grown spurs yet, so he didn't hurt me.  Yet.... now, I've got to keep my guard up around him.

My husband said if it happens again, we may be eating rooster soup.  I hope not.  I really love my Rudy, and don't understand what happened this morning, but hope it was just a misunderstanding. At any rate... I'm going to keep a stick close by now, just in case!

And since it was such a beautiful day, Annie and I took a walk.  I noticed that the tamaracks across the street were beginning to turn their beautiful yellow shade.  My grandmother always said that when the tamaracks lose all their needles, snow usually comes within a few days. I've found that to be quite true. But no talk of winter today!  I needed to be outside to enjoy the beautiful fall weather, and settle my mind, after the unsettling morning!

Such glorious shades of color!

Is there any prettier month than October?  I don't think so.  I'm rather partial to fall!

As Annie and I walked, it felt wonderful to let the warmth of the sunshine and the joy of the crisp fall breeze fill my heart to the brim with its pleasures!

Annie always finds something to intently look at.  I pay close attention to her, because she sees and knows things that I can't.

She is a happy girl today, to be out on a walk exploring all the nooks and crannies along the road as we walked.

Back at the house, I notice that our resident bluejay was hard at work feeding the chickens.

Oh - you didn't know that bluejays feed chickens?

Our bluejay is so big that he can't stay on the feeder long.  And he is only looking for sunflower seeds, and the rest of the seed falls to the ground.  The chickens have learned that when the bluejay visits the feeder, it is a free-for-all for them below with the seed he knocks off the feeder. Stinker!  He is costing me a lot of birdseed!

But, luckily for me, I get to watch the bluejay and the chickens as the feeder is right outside my window, and they are quite entertaining.  Rudy was too busy eating chicken feed to bother with me as I watched them.

Back behind our house, the beautiful mountain ash has turned its leaves a golden shade of orange... oh how magnificent all these colors are!

We don't have many trees that turn brilliant colors here, but the few that do, certainly make things beautiful!

Can I say it again... I love fall!

My little pumpkin, the only one that grew for me this year.  I've got it in a place of honor with some fall decor :)

And I just thought I would show you the happy moment this past week when one of my new girls laid her first brown egg!

So far, it seems we have two of our baby chicks that are now laying brown eggs. I hope the rest start laying soon!

Goldie has no intent yet, it seems, of laying eggs.  She likes to follow me around the yard, and climb around on the furniture if I am sitting outside reading the newspaper.  She is the sweetest of all our hens, and I hope that she takes no lessons from Rudy!

Well, as if my day wasn't eventful enough, can you believe that the "attacks" weren't over?  Do you notice how some days things just are like that?  The craziest things happen for no good reason!

We had an unexpected visitor from the county tax assessors office pull into the driveway to take pictures and measurements of our new little home (I had no idea they were coming).  Roger didn't get the memo that you are supposed to be nice to these kinds of people.

As the two ladies got out of the car, I told them to watch out for Roger, as he likes to nip and play. Then without any warning, Roger darted over to one of the ladies and nipped her right on her ankle.  At first we just thought it was a warning nip.  But then the lady looked down at her foot, and she was bleeding!  Oh my!  Roger bit the tax lady - not a good thing!  She had a Band-Aid in her car and put it on the bite, and got the bleeding stopped.  She was rather upset about it all, and I certainly can't blame her.  I asked her if she ever had this happen before, and she said "never".  Uh Oh!  Please pray that the situation with the bite will not result in any further action by them in a negative way.  I scolded Roger, and he knew he had been very bad.  However, he is a funny little guy, and why in the world, out of all the people who come to visit our house, would he bite the tax assessor???  Roger, oh Roger!!!

Well, that ends my story for the day, and I do hope it is finished!

Oh.... and just for the record....

I am not going to look at that tree tomorrow when I pass by it... lol!