Tag: rats

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?

Late Fall

~ Crystal Sands ~ 2 Comments

I realize it is not really “late” fall. But I am looking out the window this morning at my maple tree friend, and all of her leaves are gone. Only the oaks still have their leaves. The yard is full of leaves, and the chickens are so happy. The love digging through the leaves.

It has been a strange fall in many ways. The weather has been quite hot by Mainer standards most of the time, with a swing into the chilly every now and again. Today, it is chilly. I think this one might stick. Ron has the basement full of wood and wood stacked near the garage for this coming winter. He is now on a mission to find wood for the coming years, and it seems like his work in that area never ends. We have had our wood stove since 2020, and so far, a storm brings down some tree some where every year in order to provide enough wood for the following year. It could be, however, that the strong winds have cleared out all they are going to clear out, so Ron is wondering if maybe we will have to buy wood to heat our home next year. We’ll see though. Who knows what the winter storms might do.

The chickens have mostly stopped laying. We are getting just three to five eggs per day, and we have feathers everywhere from the molt. I got this picture of Ruby the other day because she looks so cute. She’s still being her Ruby self. She’s very busy and still very vocal. The ducks had completely stopped laying last week, at least I thought. This morning, there was a single egg in the duck house. I was so happy because duck eggs are my favorite. Our plan is that we will not get ducks again after our flock passes away over time, but it will be tough to never have duck eggs again. We talked about how we could just buy some, but I have not seen anyone in our area who raises organic duck eggs.

I have been really busy wrapping up fall classes and processing more food from the garden. The long summer meant an epic tomato crop. I think I have made enough sauce for two years. I was gifted some organic grapes and made grape jelly. Ron planted a fall crop of greens, so today, I will be gathering spinach and lettuce and bagging it up to have it for just a little longer. A big freeze is coming tomorrow night. We have had a couple of light frosts, but the greens can handle that. Ron says they may not handle this one though, at least not the varieties he has planted. I guess it really is late fall.

Mostly, things are going well here on the homestead. Boudica and Bairre, our Pyrenees are busy and healthy. It’s cool enough that we can take them for walks every evening now. In fact, if Bairre doesn’t get a walk, he pouts and refuses to eat, so we are sure to walk. The evenings are just gorgeous, and the walks are good for my soul.

The only bad news is that after over a year with no rats, they are back. I just saw one last night, as I was getting the chicken food to put up for the night. Just a few weeks ago, I was feeling a little smug, thinking that being so neat and careful with the chicken feed has really worked to keep the rats away, but then I remembered that there is a garden full of food, our neighbor’s compost exists, and we had owls living right by the house last fall. I thought it was probably really just a matter of luck that we had no rats. I guess that was right. I am so bummed. They are beautiful, intelligent creatures, but they are so, so destructive. My teenage son loves the owls, and last fall, they hung out with him in the evenings. I told him I needed him to summon his owl friends. He looked at me like I was a crazy witch lady. I get that from him fairly regularly.

I guess that’s all the news for this morning. Stay cozy, friends, and stay sane. It’s a tough time for our culture. There’s a lot of instability. I am just trying to remind myself that, no matter what happens, it’s a good idea to keep learning to be self sufficient. In so many ways, it feels like we are on our own. In so many ways, it seems like we need to stick together.

top photo credit: Ronan Sands

The last post of 2022…life on the farm

~ Crystal Sands ~ Leave a comment

Day 236 of 365

Today, on this last day of the year, I can’t believe I am 236 days into this project. It was so hard at first to write every day, but now it just seems like the natural thing to do–and it helps me so much. Writing our farm stories helps me remember gratefulness. I am honored to live with the animals we keep, and I am grateful for the little plot of land we borrow from the Earth.

I wanted to write something wise and magnificent, something about the magic of life on the farm and the wisdom I have gained from humbling myself in the face of that magic. Instead, I have a story about rats.

Do you remember this fall when I wrote about the cutest rat in the world who had moved into our chicken coop? Do you remember how I said we were going to pay for our decisions later? Later is now.

We are doing everything within our power to keep every speck of food clean and picked up, but these rats are smart. They have learned to live amongst the chickens. Traps do not work. The rats have made friends with the chickens. This is new. They used to stay away from chickens–and us.

Tonight, I had an encounter with an adorable rat. If it is not the rat I saw making doe eyes at me this summer, it is at least a relative. I went to get the food and water and close up the chicken coop tonight, right before sunset, and I saw it–scurrying in its unnerving way.

I screamed. A few chickens responded, but they seemed to indicate I was overreacting. So I went to the front door of the house and told Ron the rat was in the coop–and it was just looking at me. Ron said, “oh, yeah?” and went on about his day, seemingly indicating I was overreacting.

So I went back out the coop, determined to at least be scary to the rat, so it wouldn’t try to get food while I was gathering everything up.

I stomped. The rat did not move.

I banged the wall it was near. The rat just wiggled its nose (the cutest little nose ever, I might add) and looked at me.

“You are cute, but you can’t stay!” I told it. They have eaten several holes in the coop that Ron has had to repair. It didn’t budge.

So I got brave. I went over right in front of it and kicked the wall above its head. The pink nose was still there. I saw some eyes.

At this point, I was very worried about how bold this rat is. I turned around because I heard something behind me. It was just Arwen. She was sleeping on the floor tonight, which she hasn’t done in forever.

“You should get up off the floor, Arwen. We have rats right now.”

Then, from behind me, the rat ran right across the middle of coop, right past Arwen. Arwen was unfazed, as if to say, “Oh, that’s just Jerry.”

Two things are going to have to happen. I think we are going to have to get a new, special feeder for the chickens, and as soon as it’s spring time, Ron and I are going to have to re-work some of the coop. For now, I am both worried about the rats and completely impressed with their brilliance. They stash food during the day and have adapted to living like chickens.

I guess speaking of humbling myself.

***

Happy New Year to all of who follow this blog. Thank you for being on this journey with me. I hope you have a wonderful new year full of love and wonder and good farm food!

photo credit: Tim Zankert, Unsplash

The Cutest Rat in the World

~ Crystal Sands ~ 4 Comments

Day 148 of 365

A few days ago, Ron saw a rat run into the chicken coop right through the front door screen. I was devastated. We haven’t seen a rat in the coop for nearly a year. We have been religious about bringing in every bit of food every single night all year. Just a few weeks ago, when I was giving my talk on chickens and sustainable living, I was asked about rats. I told them we hadn’t seen any this year, that we had been diligent, and I knocked on wood. It didn’t work.

Ron hates trapping the rats. We never use poison because of course not. But they have eaten holes in the coop and done some pretty major damage, so we have used traps, the snappy-death kind. We hate all of this. I have great admiration for rats. They are wicked smart, I know, but they are too resilient, too clever, and can thrive too well on a farm very quickly. When we see rats, we know there are so many more we are not seeing. And, until yesterday, Ron was always willing to “take care” of the rats.

Yesterday, things changed.

You will not believe this, but the rat in this picture is nowhere near as cute as the little rat who lives under our coop. This is just the closest I could find. But note the chewing on the wood in the picture. Sigh. photo credit: Joshua J. Cotten, Unsplash

Ron said he was putting on his boots in the garage, and he felt someone watching him. He said he had a sense it was a rat. He turned around and from the little porch from the coop, there it was–a little rat, just staring at him. Ron said he and the rat made eye contact and the rat sat there and looked at him “for a long time.” As Ron was telling me this story, my heart sank. I knew where this was going, and I knew there was going to be trouble for it.

“I can’t kill that rat,” Ron said. “We have to let it stay.”

Obviously, this was a worry to me, but things got worse. Last night, Ron told our son the story, but our son asked questions and got a little more information.

“We stared at each other a long time, and the rat asked me if it was okay to stay,” Ron told him.

“What did you say back?” our son asked.

“”I gave it permission.” Ron said.

As I listened to this story, my head dropped into my chest. What are we going to do with rats who have permission to live under the coop? What destruction is going to ensue? What kind of hypocrite am I that I don’t want the rats here but won’t deal with them myself and expect Ron to have to do it. He loves all creatures too. He doesn’t like hurting animals.

As I went to sleep last night, I was fretting about rats.

This morning, I came home from a grocery pick up, and when I got out of the car to grab the bags of groceries, I swear, I felt a stare. I looked over, and there, next to the little porch of the coop, sat the most beautiful rat I have ever seen in my life. It’s eyes are big and doe-like. I am pretty sure it has long eye lashes. Its ears are perfect. It has the cutest face I have ever seen. And that little rat just sat and stared at me. I couldn’t help myself, after a bit, I said hello to it. It didn’t budge. It just kept staring at me. It meekly scooted back under the coop when I finally went back to my task with the groceries.

I deeply understood Ron’s decision to let the rat stay.

When I came inside the house, I told Ron and our son the story of my encounter with the rat. Ron seemed pleased I understood his perspective now. Our son asked if we were being hypnotized by this rat. He was joking, but I am wondering.

At any rate, we now have the most adorable rat I have ever seen living under the coop. I have no idea how many friends and family members this little rat is fronting for, but I assure you, we are going to pay for this decision later. I have no doubt about this. But, my goodness, what choice do we have?