Lightening Online

A few weeks ago, I became a Grandmother! To Kittens that is. The kids have been having a wonderful time playing with them and watching them grow and develop.

We tried to set up a lovely bed in the cubby for Charli to use when the kittens were born. Instead, she chose here:

Of course, they’re very safe from predators in that spot. Well, predators other than Farmboy who had to do some sneaky detective work to even find them. We moved them to our small garden shed and they were quite happy there.

Here they are at only a few days old:

I’m so thankful that they’ll mostly be going to family as it’ll mean we get to see them grow up. It’s hard not to get attached but 2 cats is really enough for us for now.

I’m off in another world watching the beauty of a waltz on “Dancing with the Stars” last night when my 9 year old calls out to me from the other end of the house. “Mum, can you tell Pip to stop barking?” Pip’s barking? OH NO!!! THE FOX IS BACK!!!

“Honey!” I call out to my DH. “Pip’s barking, I think the fox is back”. Naturally the MOTH (Man of The House) is where all men tend to be when there is a crisis - the throne room! Galantly he finishes “early” and charges outside to see if my babies are safe.

So much for the “mark your territory” theory!!! The fox is at the chook enclosure RIGHT where DH marked his territory just hours before!

Close inspection of the enclosure shows dig marks all along one side. Right where my darling had added concrete. Hah!!! We’ve outfoxed the fox. He can no longer find his way in *that* way - he keeps hitting a brick concrete “wall”.

In this day and age of tight gun laws, it’s not so easy for our “hero” to simply *deal* with the dratted fox. But the fox is persistent. It’s not going to be scared away easily. There he sits in the headlights of the ute, unperterbed by bright lights, a dog barking and a human interfering with his efforts to get to those chooks. He WANTS those babies. He NEEDS those babies. You can almost see the drool dripping out of his mouth as he stares at those young, tender, chickies.

The MOTH decides he’s going to go through the rigaramole of fetching his gun, even though he suspects the fox will be long gone on his return. Off to the shed. Find the secret hiding place for the key to the gun cupboard. In the dark of course. Get the gun. Find the secret hiding place for the key to the ammo cupboard (keys, cupboards, guns and ammo all have to be kept separately). Unlock the cupboard, get the ammo and load the gun. Yeah, it only takes about 25 minutes to grab the gun and do away with a pest on a farm these days. That’s assuming you don’t accidentally drop the key in the dirt in the pitch black and have to scrounge around on the ground looking for it. LOL.

“KABOOM!” (Yeah, the 22 doesn’t really make that sound but I used it for “dramatic” effect LOL). The fox is still there and the MOTH gets off a single shot before the fox darts away. There’s a slight “thud” so he knows he’s hit his mark. Unfortunately not enough to stop the fox running away, but likely enough of a hit that he won’t survive to return again. Maybe he’ll survive long enough to tell all his mates not to mess with the chookies cos they have one *mean papa*.

Awwwww……my HERO!!!! Daddy has saved the day!

Note: I do support the gun laws. I’m not a big fan of guns myself, even though they are a necessity out here in the *wild*. But I’d rather protect people above all else. And we do prefer not to leave an animal in misery. Even a blasted sly fox. But when it comes down to 8 chooks vs 1 fox, well, a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do. Whatever he can to protect his babies!

It’s a very exciting day!!!! We did get 8 chickens but I couldn’t get them all in the one photo. LOL. They don’t pose quite like my children do.

I was a bit unsure how I would feel having lost our old chooks just the other day. I haven’t even been up to the chook enclosure since that happened. And I was a bit reluctant to get too attached to the new girls. That lasted all of about, my first glance. LOL.

They’re very easy to fall in love with!!! Especially when they’re still at that “cute stage”. These are about 9 weeks old I think.

Here they are pecking at a few of our scraps. I could sit and watch them for hours. That’s not very productive though is it? LOL.

DH has put some more concrete around the edge of the enclosure so we’re hoping no more foxes will get in.

I was also told (I think it was by someone on the Aussies Living Simply forum) that male urine will help deter foxes. So I told DH he had to do his “civic duty”. LOL. Not sure if it *has* to be male but you sure won’t get me squatting out there!!!! LOLOL. DH seems to think it might be a bit of a “mark your territory” type thing. Not sure if he’s planning on obliging me or not.

So, not sure how long until these little babies will be old enough to lay. I’m guessing at least a month. We’ll have to wait and see. In the meantime they can get themselves nice and settled in to their new home.