What now??!!

Ah, the country life.  Serene sounds coming from the garden and surrounding areas...beautiful vistas from the back deck...abundant vegetation growing prolifically in the garden and beyond...the scents of nature and the scent of perfumed roses...  Yeah, this is not my scenario at all, is it?  I must spend a few moments on the negative...sort of venting...

The country life indeed.  Serene sounds?  Well, now that the rooster is gone, the sounds are less irritating.  The chickens are still quite loud with their clucking and squawking.  Also a fun  noise is when they are let out and start pecking at the cat food that Ninja hasn't finished.  But sounds aren't that bad.  Beautiful vistas from the back deck?  Well, if you count the monster mansion next door (very pretty, but in the way of my mountains) and the awful looking solar panels.  I have narrowed my "window view" considerably and if  I crane my neck just so, I can still see the awesome tree out by the fence and the surrounding land.  I have to ignore the dead vegetation that frames my views with utter brown-ness.  Bleah!  There is an abundance of vegetation, but like I mentioned in the prior sentence, it is turning or has turned lovely shades of brown.  The scents of nature?  I can do without some of those, thank you.  Dear lord, this weekend produced a scent of nature that I never want to come in contact with again.  I have to back up a bit...Last Thursday, a skunk had obviously traveled through our yard leaving a lovely odor for us to enjoy.  After a quick check that none of the animals had been the intended target, I went along my way and dismissed the incident.  In fact, by the time I left for work, the scent was pretty much gone.  Saturday morning, husband went out to shoot some doves.  He called on his way out and said not to let the dogs out in the yard, as there was a skunk in the front yard.  He wasn't sure if it was resting or dead.

Hard to tell from this angle...

Fair enough...I know better than to tangle with one of those things.  When I left the house, I saw the skunk.  I drove as close to it as possible and noticed at that point that it was clearly dead.  Bugs and things all over it.  Ew.  I let husband know and he said that he would take care of it later.  I figured all was well since the thing was dead.  We all got home, and decided to eat and watch some football.

Several hours later, I went outside to get something from the garage.  As I opened the slider, the most vile and disgusting smell hit our noses.  Another skunk??  Nope...apparently when these creatures die, their stink sack is able to still function somehow.  The whole yard smelled like skunk nastiness.  Time to put the body in the dumpster.  Hoooooaaauuuuggghhhh!!!  What an unpleasant task that turned out to be.  Thankfully, the garbage has been picked up and the awful smell has gone away.

On a much more positive note, it seems that both of the "pretty" hens are laying eggs and both of the Leghorns.  I can't tell which of the other newbies is laying, but there is a sweet one that lets us check under her everyday.  There's a new coop mama in the house.  Woot woot!

I had something else that was positive, but I can't think of what is was...another post on another day...