Tag: great pyrenees

My Holiday Week in Pictures

~ Crystal Sands ~ 3 Comments

I hope you are having a restful holiday season. It has been quite the year for all of us, but here we are, figuring it out somehow, aren’t we?

It has been terribly, terribly cold here. We lost one of our young chickens, one of our two roosters, so that was a blow. I think it was mostly just unlucky genetics, but truly, it has been unusually cold unusually early here. I don’t think we have seen a December this cold since we started homesteading, so when we got baby chickens in August, we thought they would be plenty big before the bad cold hit. Of course, we thought wrong, and the cold has been hard on our little ones. They are fully feathered, but still.

The cold is hard on the young ones and the old ones. We mostly have the young ones and the old ones now, so Ron has been running the ceramic heater in the coop on the worst nights. I know you are not supposed to heat your coop, but we try to make careful exceptions to the rule.

On the bright side, it has been amazing for making ice lanterns, and I have made several. I have been using candle light both inside and outside to keep me in good spirits, and it has worked. I decided to take a lesson from the Nordic folk and just lean into the candlelight this year. It has been so helpful that I want to see if there is any science behind it.

I hope you are staying warm and cozy. It’s -1 here right now in our part of Maine, so I am doing my best. I hope you are doing your best wherever you are. I hope these photos make you smile. They are presented in random order with some random thoughts. I would love to see some of your holiday photos or at least hear some of your stories. Please share as well if you can!

I’ll start with Boudica. Here, she is asking me to come out to play in the snow, and I am telling her there is no way I am going out in that cold. I am telling her to come in the house and sit on the couch with me. She eventually came inside and slept next to me on the couch. She has been doing that a lot lately. Her tiredness worries me, but I am trying to treasure our snuggle time. She will be 10 this coming year.
I found out this year that I have a Jewish ancestor on my mom’s side, and I have always been so fascinated with Judaism and have studied a bit over the years. This year, I decided to try to learn how to celebrate Hanukkah officially, and my dear friend brought a menorah for me. I learned after this photo that you aren’t supposed to put all the candles in at once and that you burn the candles all the way down each night. I have much to learn, but this year, we celebrated Hanukkah, Yule, and Christmas, and it felt right to me. It seemed important to have all that focus on the light.
I was worried we were not going to have a Christmas tree this year. It was just a few days before Christmas, and I hoped a little tree from our property. It seems wrong to just cut down a tree for my own enjoyment, so I told Ron my idea of taking a tree from a patch of trees because they won’t all make it when they are too close. This tree has zero on the backside, but this side was perfect. I love her! We could not find a single tree stand for a live tree here in our part of Maine, so Ron bought a small bucket, filled it with rocks and water, and it worked! I was grateful.
The only perk I can see to this hard cold we have had this December is that I get to make ice lanterns. Aren’t they magnificent? If you live where it is cold you can make them too. I created directions for making them in the Winter Solstice issue of the journal.
I spent a good bit of this week making gifts for friends. This is one of the tiny Solstice cakes I made to share with others.
The tiny cake was inspired by this big cake. I make one every year and use the same snowmen candle holders every year.
I did my best at making a witch bowl candle, and it’s pretty good. However, I have much to learn. Hopefully, I will have them perfected by next year. They include oranges I dried plus cinnamon sticks, star anise, and whole cloves.
I also make these light balls made from Christmas lights and Solo cups. I gave this one to a dear friend to brighten her spirits. These balls of light are just lovely. I had hoped to make a bunch for our yard but rest took priority. Hopefully, next year, I can make more!
I made cranberry and popcorn strings for the turkeys on Christmas Eve. They loved them but not as much as they love Craisins (that’s a whole other story). The chickens LOVED theirs though, and that made my heart happy. The baby chickens were like, oh, we like popcorn!
This is my favorite stocking and favorite candle, so I felt they deserved a picture. Ron calls this candle my Ebenezer Scrooge candle. : )
It seemed proper to close my photos with one of Bairre on the couch on Christmas. He’s so happy when he’s on the pillows. Happy winter holidays, no matter what you celebrate, from all of us and Bairre. I hope you get some good rest like Bairre. He’s an expert at taking it easy.

Boudica Caught a Rat and Other News

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Well, Rooster lives, but I do not know how. Well, I do know how. Ron and I are feeding him. I don’t know if this is the right thing to do, because he is having a very hard time, but he seems to really want to keep going. He still has his spirit. He bawked at me a little bit today when I was in the garden picking tomatoes for the sauce. He wanted his own tomato.

When bit it into small pieces, so he could eat it. I cupped it in my hand, so the hens couldn’t steal it. And he struggled, but he managed to get it all down. We are having to carry him into the coop at night because he can’t make it up the ramp. And he made himself a little nest in the straw on the floor because he can’t get on the roosts.

Somehow, despite everything, he is managing to maintain his dignity. He still does everything, even get carried to the coop, with dignity. What are we going to do without him? I just cry every night, and Ron keeps playing his favorite music for him. Rooster really loves music.

And we both try to be so thankful we have had the honor of knowing this noble bird for the last nine years.

***I feel I should post a warning that, below, I discuss the death of rats. It’s a reality of farm life, but not everyone wants to read about the death of beautiful creatures. I don’t like it myself, so you may want to stop reading if you are against the death of rats. I can only tell you that we try everything in our power not to kill them, but they are overrunning most of Maine. Climate change is a part of it, but apparently, people have over-killed coyotes, who eat the rats, and well, you know how humans manage to mess everything up. ***

Boudica caught her first rat tonight! She has been after those rats for years. Years. They are quick, and she is old, which makes tonight’s kill very impressive. Those rats are magnificent, and I hate for them to have to die. However, we think the drought has brought them in like we have never seen in the summer.

About a month ago, we had some big ones running around near the coop, like so big I was absolutely terrified of them. So Ron got out his .22 and just shot at them for about a week in a row. He never killed one and just wanted them to move on. “Just make them feel unwanted,” he said. They did. We didn’t see rats for nearly two weeks, but then a new group moved in.

They were small and cute but were legion. They arrived just last week, and they were so adorable, but they were everywhere. They appeared while Ron and our son were on a mini vacation last weekend. Just when I was thinking how awesome it was that the rats moved on, I went out to the coop Saturday evening to bring in the food and water, and all I could see were cute little rat butts and tails flying out the door and under the nest boxes.

When Ron got home, he decided it was time to set the traps. He set them everywhere, and the first night, he got five rats. That’s a record. The next night, just one, which seems hopeful, although it could be that everyone who was left just got wise. Tonight, Boudica got one on her own.

Ron said she was near the chicken coop and made a super quick move and then just had one. Ron said she was so proud. This was a life goal for Boudica. I wonder how she feels now. Was it rewarding? Anticlimactic? I mean, she has been after a rat off and on for her whole 9 years. I wonder what she will do with herself now? Probably just try to get another. However, I did talk to her tonight when I put up the ducks, and she seemed quite pleased with herself.

Anyway, on the garden front, we are making the spaghetti and pizza sauce this week, and I am beat. I spent this weekend processing one big batch, and then today, I helped Ron peel the tomatoes on my lunch break from work, and then I have spent all evening with the sauce.

I have been back and forth to the kitchen while writing this. I am down to the first round of water bathing right now and am just waiting for the giant pot to boil.

How have you been? What’s up on your farms or homesteads?

Boudica is too good at her job…

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

I just spent an hour trying to get the ducks put to bed. They are so sensitive to routine that anything out of the ordinary causes all kinds of trouble. Every night, I have to come out of the same door with the same bowl with the same peas and say the same things and bend down carefully and then step away carefully or I have messed things and the ducks are upset.

Unfortunately, this is getting hard to do now because poor little Anna Maria. She is getting very, very blind and maybe a little senile. She is pretty old, and she had such a rough start in her early life that she seems older than our other ducks, even though she is the same age. She is getting lost a lot, and I have to help her find her way back to the flock at least once or twice a day.

This is no problem during the day, but when I am trying to put ducks to bed and need everything to happen in the “special duck order,” finding Anna Mara with a flashlight and then carrying her to the duck house is causes some problems.

Tonight, I could never get them back on track. I ended up leaving the bowl of peas outside of the duck house for in the morning and herding those ducks into the duck house against their will. I mean, I started this whole mess at 9:00 PM. It is now almost 10:00 PM. The ducks needed to get put up to be safe.

I realized as I was looking everywhere tonight for Anna Maria that it’s a miracle she is still alive. It is a miracle a predator hasn’t gotten her yet. I pray that doesn’t happen now that I speak about it, but having a blind duck who often gets separated from the flock is a big worry. Every night that I have to go look for her, I worry I won’t find her, but then I remember Boudica.

As long as we are home (and we are home most of the time), Boudica is working. She protects those ducks all day and into the night before I get them put up to give Boudica a rest. She has done such a good job that Anna Maria, our blind duck with struggles, is getting a little senile she’s so old.

I hope this doesn’t get too much worse for a while. I want Anna Maria to have a good quality of life. I think she does. She can find the little plastic swimming pool, and sometimes, when the other ducks are out and about, she just plays in the pool all by herself. I think she likes it. I don’t think she’s too lonely.

But Boudica is very, very good at her job, isn’t she?

A Boudica Update

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

I am working on a new post on bird flu, but I may not have it ready until Monday, as this weekend is a big weekend for our son. He has made the finals in a concerto competition, so I will be away all day tomorrow. My son is well prepared, and it’s such an honor to make the finals. He will get to play in a lovely space with an audience and a pianist. He will get to play alongside the best young musicians our state has to offer. I hope things go well for him. It has been such a journey for him with his cello this year. Because of the long COVID, he is having to learn his body in a way I didn’t learn until my 30 or 40s. It’s hard for a teen to have the patience to handle an illness like this and keep doing what he loves, which is all very physical. I admire him, and I am thankful he will get to play tomorrow.

But I digress…I wanted to write an update on Boudica because I mentioned she was having some struggles. I was trying not to worry but was a little worried about her. When Gus died in 2021, I was so physically heartbroken and sick, I worried about my health. Boudica and I are so close. We read each other’s minds all the time and have similar personality types. It’s so wonderful to have that connection. I want that for longer.

Thankfully, we got pretty good news at the vet. She is overall quite healthy, but Boudica has some arthritis. We are trying some natural supplements for her, and they seem to be helping. I have no words for how thankful I am to have a chance for more time with her. She is one of the greats, though aren’t they all?

Anyway, I got this great short video walking with her this week. She felt so good after the first dose of natural supplement that she was able to go for a short walk with me in the woods. I love walks with Boudica in the woods. By the way, the supplements that seem to be working so well are from a Maine company, Coastside Bio Resources. Our vet recommended this company, so I am hopeful.

I hope this video makes you smile. This is my amazing girl, being so busy on the walk. She’s very serious, always working.

And, this reminds me of a story Ron told me. Later in the week, Ron took both Bairre and Boudica on a walk when I wasn’t able to go. It got late, and they were in the woods after dark. Do you remember that story I told you about Boudica being like the wolf who knew about the dying bison two miles away? Ron and I have talked about this and try to respect Boudica’s opinion. Well, Ron said, on their walk, Boudica just stopped in her tracks and refused to go any farther. She never does this.

Ron said, after first, he made her keep going, but she took a few steps, stopped again, and gave him a look that Ron understood to mean, “there’s trouble that way.” We have a lot of coyotes in the area, so Ron decided to listen to Boudica. He turned everyone around and came home.

10 Below

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

When we woke up this morning, it was 10 below, and I was thankful Ron had decided to put the ceramic heater in the chicken coop last night. In general, chickens do not need a heat in the winter, but we have a “negative 7” rule that we just made up ourselves. If it’s below -7, we bring out some heat for the flock.

There is always a risk of fire when you add heat to your coop, but we do not use a heat lamp and use an oil-based ceramic heater. On top of this, Ron places a cage he built over the heater, and it adds some security.

I have to say the chickens were quite happy with a little extra heat, and Saint-Saens and Betty Jr., both of whom will be 7 years old this spring, happily slept on the heater’s cage last night. I imagine our old chickens have aching joints like I have. All the old girls and boys–from Rooster, who will be 9, to Saint-Saens, Vivaldi, Betty Jr., Mary Jane, and Pumpkin, who will all be 7 or 8 this spring, had a little more spring in their step this morning when I delivered food and water to the coop.

It was miserable out there in that cold, so I did not open the coop to the outdoors until much later in the day today. Poor Tuesday was out of there when I opened that door. She doesn’t mind the cold, but she surely seems to mind being stuck with people.

I was talking to a dear friend from the south last night, and she is so worried about the terrible cold that has hit the entire south this week. She was telling me all of the extra things she is having to do to get prepared and keep her chickens and rabbits warm, and it made me realize just how much we have to do all the time, every single day of our lives, during the winter months here in Maine.

It is a lot of really hard work. Busting ice is so therapeutic mentally, but it can be pretty hard on my body. And I have been fighting with a frozen poop-sickle near the back door of the chicken coop for a week. I finally had to take a hammer to it. I have hauled frozen chunks of poop out of both the chicken coop and duck house all winter, and I can’t get the wheelbarrow through when there’s deep snow, so I have all kinds of cheats for keeping things clean for the birds, most of which are pretty gross for me. And the water! We use buckets to haul water to the chickens and ducks, and the ducks have to have their tubs refilled several times a day on the super cold days–or the windy days. And, of course, how many times this winter have I shoveled the chicken coop and swept the ramps. I want them to be as comfortable as possible.

It was so interesting to me that I am just in the habit of doing all of it and didn’t think about how much extra work the animals are in the winter until I got my friend’s perspective. We concluded our conversation on winter preparedness with her asking me how cold it was here. When I told her, she asked how in the world we lived here, and that made me think more as well. I love here, and I actually like the winter. But why?

Honestly, I have no idea other than I really like having all four seasons (though, okay, spring in Maine can be pretty short and messy), and I have some Scandinavian ancestry. Maybe that makes me like winter. Or maybe it’s this–and I just thought of this–there is something about being tough enough to survive it that makes you feel alive.

If you love Maine or the north and the long cold winters, I would love your perspective. Why are you here? What makes you love it?

And, if you are in the south, please take good care. I know you are not used to this, and I hope warmer temps return very soon!

PS Today, I had to take my son to his first day of early college and was away from the house all morning. I barely saw Boudica before I left. It was just morning chores, breakfast, get the boy out the door. When I got home, I went outside to let the chickens outside for a bit (well, mainly just Tuesday), and Boudica saw me. She came running across the property, and friends, she looked so magnificent in the snow. I wish I had captured it on video. The snow was dusting up around her as she ran across the chicken yard, breaking a new trail in the cold sunlight. Her face looked so happy to see me. When she got to me, I reached down and hugged her with all my might, and she leaned right into it, extra hard. She missed me and let me know. What an honor it is to be loved by such a beautiful creature!

On Boudica

~ Crystal Sands ~ 6 Comments

I think there is something outside, and by “something,” I think it might be a skunk. Boudica wants to go back outside, but Ron just made her come in the house because she was barking like a wild dog. The way she’s barking, we know something is out there, but she has a track record with skunks of late. She was stinky for weeks this fall. Another time, she didn’t really get sprayed, but it was a close call–and she was a little bit stinky then too.

She’s usually so level headed, but there is something about small mammals that makes her go wild.

I don’t know what I would do without her taking care of me. She is the first guardian dog I ever owned (and I hate that word for her), and I have been in awe of just how much she works, how much she knows, and how much she takes care of all of us. Sometimes, I think she thinks I can’t care for myself, and I am pretty sure she knows I would be lost without her. I hope that makes her determined to stay.

There is something not right with her, and she has an appointment with the vet in a couple of weeks. It’s the earliest appointment they had. I hope it’s just arthritis, but it’s been a year since her last check up. I know a lot can go wrong in a year.

She’s also been extra close to me for the last couple of months. I have been extra close to her. At night, when she is finished working on the farm, she will sit with me on the sofa while I grade essays. I pet her often and try to massage her legs where they might hurt. She has been slower to get up, and we decided we should probably not take her on long walks anymore until we figure out what is going on.

As I type these words, I am so scared, and I both want her vet appointment to hurry and get here and also to never get here. I want to know it’s just arthritis, and hopefully, the natural meds I bought for her will be all she needs. But, of course, I am so worried there is something bigger wrong. I won’t think about it right now though. My heart can’t handle it.

Still, Boudica’s slowness reminds me that she won’t live forever. She will be 9 years old this year, and I know she’s getting up there. But since she was about 2 years old, we have been cooking for her, so she has eaten really well most of her life. I learned some years ago that the Great Pyrenees, who still live in the region where the breed originates, live several years longer than the Great Pyrenees in the U.S. Some of it could be genetics, but breeders speculate that it’s commercial dog food shortening their lives. In the Pyrenees Mountains between Spain and France, the dogs are fed the same food the people eat, and they live longer.

So I am going to be hopeful, and I felt like sharing with you some of my favorite things about this amazing girl…

  1. She wakes me up every morning with heavy breathing in my face. I always give her pets and then tell her I need five more minutes. I don’t know if she’s really gone five minutes, but she goes away and comes back a short time later. If I start talking to her, I get the Pyr Paw, which kind of hurts, so I get out of bed.
  2. The Pyr Paw is famous amongst Pyrs. When you pet them, they pet you back, but they don’t have as much control, which means sometimes you just get bonked. Boudica has bonked me so many times, but only one time did she make me cry. She felt terrible, and when you cry, Boudica has to get right in your face to check on you.
  3. Boudica is a magnificent livestock guardian dog. She understands aerial predators, and not all livestock guardian dogs can do this. Big birds are on her list, and she will chase them away. The only bad thing is the dove who visit our feeders are a little borderline for her, and she sometimes chases them away for good measure.
  4. Boudica does a lot of things for good measure. She is so much like me and is a “better safe than sorry” kind of person. She worries about things and is cautious. We are sisters. We are soulmates.
  5. Boudica loves organic shredded wheat cereal, like loves it. When I have cereal for breakfast, Boudica gets a bowl, and somehow, no matter where she is or what she’s doing, she knows when I am getting cereal.
  6. And speaking of knowing, Boudica knows things. For years, I wasn’t sure if she just had an amazing vocabulary or if she was reading my mind. I now know she’s reading my mind. Temple Grandin says animals communicate telepathically in pictures, and I have come to understand what this means. Boudica also knows when things are about to happen–and that’s something I can’t figure out. But when my son used to be in the local orchestra, Ron would take him to rehearsals every Thursday night. I would stay home with the dogs. I started to notice that Boudica would start barking several minutes before they would pull into the driveway. I finally started timing her. When the barking would start, I would note the time, and I learned she was barking 3 to 4 minutes before they pulled into the driveway. I decided to time myself driving home and realized it takes about 3.5 minutes to get to our driveway once you turn onto our road. Our road is long, and it’s about a mile and half from the turn to our house. Boudica knew when they turned onto our road. How? I have no idea. But, one time, I was watching a nature documentary about wolves, and I saw a female pack leader, who was leading the pack on a hunt, suddenly stop in her tracks. She stopped the whole pack right in the middle of a hunt. Two miles away, there was a bison dying of old age, and she changed directions and led the pack to the bison. Two miles! Those are some superpowers. Boudica has some of those.
  7. Boudica is a great teacher. She trained Gus how to be with the chickens and ducks, and she trained Bairre. We help her, of course, but she did most of the work.
  8. She is getting a little grumpy in her old age, and since I am in menopause, I understand this deeply. We are grumpy about the world together. Both of us are frustrated by people doing things that just do not make sense.
  9. She has been like a third parent to our son. Truly, she helped raise him. When he was little and would go outside to play on his own, Ron would tell her to “watch the boy,” and she would never leave his side. Now, when our son leaves to go on walks down the road, she barks at him when he heads out, griping at him for leaving her jurisdiction. She watches the road until he returns.
  10. She’s so soft and fluffy that I could snuggle her forever. I have tried many times to get her to sleep with us at night, but she just won’t do it. Ron says it’s probably too hot for her. She does sleep in the coolest spots in the house. Of course, she doesn’t sleep, sleep. She works. I have heard her sleep, sleeping during the day though, and she has the cutest snore you have ever heard!

I wish I could think of more. I wish I could think of some way to convey how magnificent she is, how special she is. But you probably know. You probably have a friend like her who is also magnificent and special.

Boudica has been one of the best things to happen to me in my life. I have to remember how lucky I am to have the time I have with her. I don’t deserve her, but I swear, I try to, every day.

My Good Friends

~ Crystal Sands ~ 4 Comments

I am sitting in the floor right now, finishing up last-minute work with my students before the new week begins. I am sitting in the floor instead of on our sofa because Bairre wanted my spot. I didn’t have the hear to tell him no, so I got up and went to the floor and took this picture of him. Isn’t he beautiful? Isn’t he spoiled?

It’s okay though because I am now closer to the wood stove. Though the dry heat seems to wreak havoc on my skin, I adore the fire. So does our kitty, Betty. She is right next to me, and she is doing the cutest thing ever.

She is on her back with her paws kind of in the air. Every now and then, she literally kneads the air. I love her little pink feet. Betty loves the wood stove more than I can express. I love her and love the fact that she gets to spend her winter days by the wood stove more than I can express.

We had a tough week here. Mostly just parenting stuff, and then there’s the big stuff that looms. Reading about the fires in LA, well, you know how it is. It’s just hard to see it all happening exactly the way scientists said it was going to happen. It’s like the knowing and not doing anything about it is just salt in the wound. I can’t imagine how devastated the poor people and animals are who live there.

And parenting is such hard work, but I swear, parenting a teen is the most work. It’s like, you can start to see where the holes are, and you are trying desperately to patch them before your teen is grown and on their own–and it’s too late. .

But progress on the parenting front was made, and I have good friends for support. Boudica just came up to give me kisses. Then, she gave me the Pyr Paw and very appropriately typed a B on the keyboard. I’m so thankful for these animals. It’s okay if there are holes in their raising. It’s okay that Bairre is a little too spoiled.

In fact, it’s magnificent that he’s a little too spoiled.

The First Snow of the Season

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

Last night, we had our first snow of the season. I didn’t think I was ready for it because it has been so warm. I always feel like I need a little lead in to that first snow, but the snow came whether or not I was ready. Today, I started the part of the year where I really earn my breakfast.

I shoveled out the chickens while Ron did the driveway.. It was during this process that Ron discovered the heavy, wet snow had brought down a tree–on the fence in the chicken yard–that he just finished rebuilding last weekend! Oh, that man was grumpy. I didn’t even try to comfort him because I felt there was no way to offer comfort for something like that. He was going to have an epic day of work repairing the fence. I just told him I was so, so sorry for him and kept shoveling. Indeed, he had a really rough day. Poor man!

I shoveled out the ducks too, who were far more thankful than the chickens. A few chickens came out, but mostly looked at me from the coop wondering why in the world I had let it snow and ruin their day. I shoveled thoroughly some little paths and areas for them, but it would be several hours before the chickens accepted the reality of the situation and decided to come outside.

I told them it would probably melt soon anyway.

On the bright side of the morning, the snow was beautiful to me. When the white first comes, I always treasure it. And, truly, a Great Pyrenees is happiest when it snows. I got this picture of our little (big) Bairre today. Isn’t he beautiful?

I’m rich! Again. For a little bit. And a general update.

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

It has been nearly two weeks since I have written, and I think this may be the longest I have been away from this blog since I started it. I have started and stopped many posts, but life gets in the way of my writing, as it does, but it has been doing so especially of late.

I love little Luna to the moon and back, so much so that I am going to have a hard time letting her go back to flock when the snow melts. It’s going to be a process, but she has healed so well that I think she should be able to go back to her people. I know it’s best for her. She needs to hunt for bugs and play in the mud, but I struggle with a possessive kind of love. Life keeps teaching. me, but I am a slow learner. Anyway, she’s a lot of work though, and I think my Luna work has taken up the nooks and crannies of my life when I used to be able to write.

Of course, all of that could just be an excuse. I think I have some writer’s block too. I think I’m struggling with the “what’s the point of all of this anyway” kind of writer’s block–the disillusioned kind. It feels good to be writing tonight though, so I’ll tell you what all has been going on.

First of all, I’m rich with eggs again! The light comes back so quickly here in Maine, and we went from getting 2 to 3 eggs per day to 12 to 14 eggs per day in no time, it seems. I feel so rick when the eggs come back. We have eaten eggs for breakfast and dinner, and I even had enough to sell my first carton last week. It was so good to see my favorite egg customer again. I love that she loves our eggs.

The hens are doing well. The three roosters are still getting along. Rooster is hanging in there, still enjoying his retirement. Mary Jane is doing so well that I found her on the top roost again last night. This morning, however, she was wise enough to not jump down on her own, and she waited for me to scoop her up and put her on the coop floor. I guess neither of us wanted a repeat of her leg injury. Thankfully, tonight she was in a nest box, which is not up nearly so high.

Ruby is still doing her Ruby thing, though she’s had some struggles this winter. Petty’s babies are kind of a gang, and they like the driveway, which has always been Ruby and Juliet’s territory. Well, this little gang has been mean to Ruby and Juliet and running them off. I’m probably going to have to do something about this because I watched out the window yesterday and poor Ruby just went from one chicken to another who was mean to her. It was like she couldn’t get away. They don’t hurt her. Thankfully, our flock isn’t like that, but they make it known that she is an outcast. They don’t like her nervous energy perhaps.

People like certainty. I am uncertain about everything. I think chicken’s like certainty too. I think Ruby and I are too much the same.

In sadder new, we lost a dear friend to a tragic accident this weekend, so we have been in some mourning. Also, yesterday, on our evening walk, a dog off lead came up to us, and Boudica turned into a werewolf. She is so, so, so strong and so fierce. I have a fairly seriously pulled muscle in my shoulder thanks to that little scene. I kept her away, but it took literally every bit of strength I had in my body. I am in quite a bit of pain today, so it was a rough weekend. It was hard to do the morning chores this morning.

The seeds we ordered have arrived, and we are planning the spring. I just have to order the Oxheart carrots still. Oh, and we ordered some cherry trees and two more pear trees. I have decided after having my own canned pears all winter that I cannot live my life going forward without my own canned pears.

Finally, I am ready for the winter to be done with us. I know we surely have at least a month or more to go, but we are getting close. I think, maybe, I see some buds coming on my Maple tree friend.

She watches the skies.

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

This morning, we had a near death experience with a hawk. I did not see it, but we clearly had a hawk come in and make a try for one of our chickens.

Ron and I were playing cards while drinking our tea and coffee. The morning chores had been done a while. It was raining, so Ron said he was surprised when Boudica didn’t want to come inside. He said she looked like she meant to work this morning, so Bairre came in the house after chores but not Boudica. We were just about finished with a long game with our cards when Boudica started going off in a big way.

I didn’t run since it seemed like she was barking at the woods and we have good fences, but I did stop what I was doing and head outside. The stress of the situation hit me as soon as I got outside and heard everything. I couldn’t see the chickens at all, which was a big worry, and the birds in the trees were making very weird noises. It sounded like distress. That sound, coupled with Boudica, who was completely freaking out at this point because she was in a different fence and couldn’t get to the chickens, put me to work.

I ran toward the front, forested part of the chicken yard. I couldn’t see anything in the trees, but only a few people were in the coop. I figured everyone had to be in the woods.

When I got there, about half the flock came out running, some went to the raspberry bushes to hide, and others ran all the way to coop. I knew the situation must have been bad because they were all making terrified noises. Even Mary Jane, who was running by the way, was making the strangest noise I have ever heard her–or any chicken–make.

As I made my way into the trees, more chickens came out, and then I heard movement above my head. I saw a gray hawk fly out of a neighbor’s tree that is right above our chicken yard. It flew back toward my neighbor’s house. I am about 90 percent sure it was a Cooper’s hawk. It’s almost always a Cooper’s hawk in our woods.

Then, I started hunting. Ron came outside, and I filled him in. “Boudica is amazing!” he said.

“It’s the truth!” I replied.

I kept looking, and, eventually, Ron came to help. We both agreed that, surely, since I had seen the hawk, that it didn’t get anyone; still, I would feel better finding all of the littles. They are all nearly grown, but Tuesday, Wednesday, and Lenore, are still pretty small and could easily be carried off by a hawk. I will never hatch fall babies again. It’s warm enough now in Maine to do it, but they are pretty little still during hawk season. They have an extra risk.

I could find all of the littles except for Tuesday and Wednesday. Lenore and Annie were in the raspberry bushes, and Clara was in the coop. I found poor little Jacqueline out by herself by the front fence, trying to get into the coop the wrong way. She was completely panic stricken, so I reached down to just pick her up and carry her to the coop. When I did, she reacted violently. Her little head turned around, and she got me and my robe with her beak. She mainly got my robe, but it still hurt. She was just about to get me again, when I started talking sweet to her. She released her vice grip on my robe, and I felt her feet relax. That poor little baby had been traumatized. Because she was completely alone, she may have been a target, but I am not sure. I just know I have never seen a hen that traumatized.

I was still looking for Tuesday and Wednesday when I found Piatigorsky hiding so still in the bushes in the woods. She must have had a close call too. She was so still, I thought she was dead at first. I had to say her name three times before she moved. I reached in to pick her up, and she just buried her head into me. She is still the sweetest girl, and I am so glad she is okay. Next, I found Faure in a similar situation, but she didn’t want me to pick her up. I did have to walk her to Ron, who then walked her to the coop.

Ron and I continued to communicate as we gradually found people. Still, neither of us had found Tuesday and Wednesday. Ron told me to try to coop one more time and check the nest boxes. When I did, I found Wednesday. I was so happy to find her but then also a little more worried that there was no Tuesday. The chances of a hawk getting away with one baby in the time it took me to get out there was not zero.

Ron and I kept looking. We made our way back into the woods that we had already searched and searched when Tuesday came walking out of camouflage it seems. There she was, the cutest little thing I have ever seen–only aged a few years after that much stress. She stayed right with us as we walked her back to the coop.

“We had better go thank Boudica extra hard,” Ron said, and I agreed. We both made the biggest fuss over her, and she was so proud. I cannot express the depths of my gratitude to her in words, but I think she felt it. It is a gratitude I felt in my chest and in my bones this morning.

“She watches the skies,” Ron said. “It’s remarkable.”

I agreed.

It is humbling beyond all measure to be in the presence of such greatness. How lucky am I to have Boudica as my dear friend and partner on this homestead?

*It feels important that I add a quick note at the end of the story about Boudica and her magnificence. Boudica is a Great Pyrenees, a Livestock Guardian dog. She was not born knowing how to protect our flocks. She learned. It is a myth that you do not have to train LGDs. Great Pyrenees are the smartest dogs I have ever encountered. They have been bred for thousands of years to have strong critical thinking skills and to think for themselves without humans around. They learn so quickly, but they do have to be taught. Far too many Great Pyrenees are surrendered to shelters because people do not understand this.