Foxes and nose tonsils, when small things cause big problems

We have had an exhausting week over here at Betsy's. See this cheeky minx? You would never guess that she is recovering from an operation yesterday. Adenoidectomy to be precise. Or for those who have no idea what adenoids are, I like to call them nose tonsils. Useless bits of tonsilly like things that if they are behaving you would never have any reason to know about them. In Liongirls case, they have been harbouring bacteria for about 5 months such that she has been requiring back to back courses of antibiotics, snoring, night waking and being generally less than princess like in her demeanor.

 So we spent an epic day at the hospital yesterday (picture amusing a grumpy, woken too early toddler who is hungry and thirsty for about 2 and a half hours in a confined space with less than adequate entertainment- and that was BEFORE  the operation).
I took the day off work today to care for her. She has bounced back so amazingly speedily that our day involved op shopping and babycinos. Now we are looking forward to the inner princess appearing and her very dark black under eye circles disappearing.

And, the day before the operation, knowing the week ahead of us, we awoke to discover this.

A sea of feathers under the trampoline, black, white and brown ones. Our three gorgeous girls, all dead, killed by a fox in the night. I am still in a state of disbelief. That there are actually foxes in inner city Brisbane, and that I am probably responsible for not checking that the door was bolted shut properly. We are very thankful that we discovered the poor headless chickens before the kids saw them. Roboboy is sad but not devastated, and Liongirl has no idea. I have had to borrow eggs from the neighbours and the yard is very quiet.

Just a little reminder for everyone to check your chickens and tuck them in,  to count your lucky stars if you have healthy children and if you have children that have seen the inside of a hospital be amazed at their ability to just get on with it and not dwell on the difficult bits.

Chooknosis via YouTube

Today was spent upholding all our chook maintenance duties. When we bought the new chooks, the man at Brookfield Produce offered to clip their wings. We declined, having no idea what this involved and thinking that it could only be a bad thing to do to the girls.

However since they have been spotted CROSSING  the road ( don't even start on the Why would they jokes) and flapping their way into several neighbouring properties, we decided it was time to curtail these extreme free range forays. With a little wing clipping, courtesy of a YouTube tutorial.

After being side tracked by a whole series of crazy animal  footage including a cat that uses the toilet, and toilet paper, we set to work. How on earth did novices get anything done in the days before YouTube I ask you?

The above photo is courtesy of Roboboy as I was holding the poor bird by the ankles while Legoman did the wing trim. It doesn't hurt the chooks at all (just the indignity of it all), more like a haircut really. We trimmed the ends of about 8 front wing section feathers and this should stop them being able to fly over fences.

Catching the wretched birds was more the issue and resulted in  a comedy sketch involving 2 grown men, 5 boys and a toddler all haring around the yard with nets for about 40 minutes. Liongirl then set out to collect all those gorgeous feathers.

This was part of a bigger plan to curtail our girls general free ranging, partly from a safety issue and partly for the preservation of our grass. Our gorgeous lush lawn has large sections where it has been pecked down to bare dirt and so we decided to create a large chook run for the girls during the day, and we will let them out to free range after school pick up only. This way our garden gets a weed, our grass gets a rest, we should not be stepping on chook poo with every trip to the washing line and the girls still get to roam for a few hours every day.

So, we headed off on a shopping trip for all the essentials and Legoman set to work at record speed. This is the prairie near our back fence that will become the day time hangout for the girls.

Nothing like watching a man thumping in star pickets with purpose designed tool.

And that smirk of all round satisfaction. At this stage it is all progressing so rapidly he is feeling like a regular genuine handman type of which he is generally not affiliated.

Look at this- an almost complete chicken run. I won't labour the point but the chooks did escape underneath the wire less than 30 seconds after they were popped into the run. Details, Details according to Legoman who will be tweaking this design flaw in the morning.

And with all the work completed, surely it was time for a little fun courtesy of YouTube. Ever wanted to hypnotise  a chook ? Legoman is now the Yoda of chook hypnosis. There is the chook lying on it's tummy following your finger technique.

One hypnotised chook.

But for extra impact, the hypnotised chook on it's back, legs in the air, is sure to draw a crowd.

The neighbourhood boys are desperate to come back and take MasterClass from Yoda. Lucky there is a whole second week of the school holidays left. Expect the whole set, in a row, legs in the air before the week is out.