thank god for laura...

or else i never would have gotten those classy chicks shut safely into their hen house for the night. they were bound and determined not to be shut in but in the end the humans did win that battle between the species.
now i am worried that because they were so upset that they might start picking on each other in there but better that then another encounter with the murderer who now knows exactly how to get into our chicken areas.

the hole that he ripped in the ceiling wire is almost 4 feet long and three feet wide..he actually could have also gotten into edwina's pen next because the rip in the wire is now that wide and went thru to both of their pens. laura said maybe it was this morning that it happened and he took off when he heard people arriving before he went into edwina's pen next.

i am just sick over quiet...he was supposed to be safe here for his entire life. in five years no one has ever broken into those pens before...what made this particular guy so freaking lucky and smart???

we have put edwina back with floyd and helga and jerome so they could also be shut safely inside at night. that raccoon will be be back again tonight because he now knows where he can get a fresh meal. we cannot take any chances until we can either rip off and replace that wire with the kind that he cannot tear thru or rebuild something entirely new.

replacing the wire will cost a fair amount of money that we don't have, the wire is almost $200 a roll plus it is labour intensive and that will cost even more. but i am also thinking of moving them right out of there and converting the old blind goat pen into a fortress of safety for our barn yard birds...in the end that will cost even more but it will be safer, nicer, bigger and more secure...plus we could put in a proper duck pond instead of swimming pools which is something i have wanted to do.

in the mean time...they will all have to be shut in at night and i have no idea how i will manage that on my own unless those classy chicks accept the idea that they do in fact have to go inside at bedtime...they are lovely birds but not very bright.

the rest of the barn bedtime went ok..it is nice to have help out there once in a while...and it was really nice that i came in the front door of the house and was horrified at the mess i had to clean up while laura came in thru the dog rooms and was horrified at the mess she had to clean up so we both only had to clean up half as much horrible mess as there really was.

and that was good too.