Chicken Tragedy

Warning: This blog post contains information and photos about our chickens being slaughtered and may not be for everyone, overall, I want this documented because I really do like my chickens and I was pleased with how my children handled it. If you want to only read happy stuff...scroll to the bottom and watch Edwin's chicken impression. 

Anyway, we had six chickens that we all loved! They all had names even though we couldn't really tell them apart very well, haha! They were awesome sisters and always stayed together. We let them free range our yard all day and they would generally stay in our yard or two of our neighbors yards who didn't seem to mind. They would always come back to their home base every little bit and once the sun was going down they would go into their coop. Pretty awesome animals. They were about 3 months old and they should have started laying eggs between 4-6 months.

 They had stayed safe thus far. We were working on a closed run for them but hadn't finished it since free ranging seemed to work for us and them. I let them out last Wednesday morning before heading out on some errands. It was after 10am so not even that early. I went to my friends house for a playdate for two hours. On my way home, I was driving up the gravel road to our house, I stopped abruptly when I saw this...

 I thought it couldn't possibly be our chicken. It was way farther than it had ever been from our house. But really, no one in our neighborhood has chickens that look like this. I got out of the car right there and inspected it. It was no doubt our chicken but didn't look attacked at all. And then I noticed another of our chickens on the other side of the road...

 I was so confused. We had been gone for two hours, they were far from the house and they didn't look attacked. I parked at our house and the boys were eager to help clean up the bodies and search for the remaining chickens. The boys immediately found one chicken still alive in our yard which was a relief but in our gut we knew that if the other chickens weren't with her, they would likely be dead because they generally flock together. We pulled a bucket and gloves over to the bodies. I was about to pick them up but then Charlie asked if he could. I was kind of relieved. Thank goodness for this farm-boy-in-training. The boys told me they were really sad but they were very realistic and eager to help clean up and search for the remaining chickens.

 

After an initial search for the remaining 3 birds we took a lunch break, put Edwin in bed for a nap and went searching some more. We also gave Trixie (our remaining alive bird) some extra love. She just seemed so lonely. We still had no idea what had caused the deaths. I was initially thinking poison or dehydration but it seemed weird to have 5 birds gone in such a short period of time.

 Charlie was fascinated with the birds body, at first I was hesitant about letting him explore it, but then I gave in as I saw how he was gently looking at all the birds features. (with gloves)

 I still didn't want to hold or touch the dead birds, so when Max got home he did a more thorough investigation and found bite marks in one of the birds.

 Shortly after dinner time, our nieghbor texted us this photo and mentioned they had seen a coyote out in the middle of the day. The mystery was finally solved. The coyote is looking at our coop in this photo.
 

So what we gathered is that the coyote attacked and one bird got away, but they coyote could only carry off three so two lay lifeless along the road. It still makes me shutter a little bit. And it just seems so wasteful to ruthlessly kill them all. 

The most heartbreaking thing was Trixie being all alone in the coop after spending everyday with her sisters

 She kept getting some extra love, so thankful for Gwenevere's love!

Daddy love! Yes, we are turning into crazy chicken people.

 But after two nights alone, Trixie needed some new friends! We found some people selling Rhode Island Reds (excellent egg layers) We got two that are only a few weeks older than Trixie so they should be laying eggs soon and Trixie doesn't have to be alone. And luckily they didn't peck each other to death.

 Trixie meeting her sisters and establishing the pecking order.

But we still wanted more than three hens....so....we just went and got 6 more chicks to start the process all over again...this time going into it more educated so we could get the most kid friendly and high egg laying chicks.

And baby chicks are just so fun!

Anyway, half of them are named so far but i'll spare you all those details so I don't reveal all my weird chicken quirks...yet. I know we aren't really supposed to name livestock because their life is so fragile but we just can't help it. And since the incident,  I haven't let the larger chickens out of the coop because of the creepy lurking coyotes and our closed run isn't done yet. And it's still unnerving that coyotes are roaming around in the daylight hours (or any hours) And that is where we are...we will soon have a closed chicken run and maybe even a fenced yard eventually!

Children's Museum

I had plans of going to the zoo and Children's museum a lot during the summer while Charlie was home. We went to the zoo the first week of Summer break and it was so stressful for me. My children seem to like to get separated from me and are oblivious to where I am. It made me not want to go to busy places with them for awhile. So the last week of summer I thought we should at least use our children's museum pass once, so we made it happen. Of course it was busier than ever and it was still stressful but the boys had fun. And it is exciting that Edwin can play more. And here are a ton of phone photos. 

"nose"

We were playing hide and seek tag in the maze...this is the boys hiding...

 And this is Edwin copying them after we found them.

Anyway, we're looking forward to more outings. And we are excited that the big boys have some different "no school" days so I'll be able to have some more focused time with each big kid at the zoo/museum.

Shaving cream

Miles will soon start preschool at the same preschool Charlie went to two years ago. Charlie has been preparing Miles by telling him all the fun things he will get to do. One of these things is water day at the end of the year where they have a pool with shaving cream. I had also been wanting to blow up our pool one more time and clean it out before storing it for the dreaded winter. Thus...inspiration hit. We were on our way to a doctor appointment and I bribed my children. I told them if they were good listeners at the doctors, I would get them each a bottle of shaving cream on our way home. It worked like a charm. Luckily we ended up doing this while Edwin napped. it was super slippery and Edwin probably would have been injured. The boys had fun for the most part except when it went it went in Miles eyes. He needed to rinse off in the shower about 3 times but then went right back at it...filling his eyes with shaving cream! So there's that!

Day Trip for Grace

My brother's family just moved and we are so excited that they are a whole hour closer to us. they were previously in the Tacoma/Seattle area, and now they are in Eugene! Maybe not a huge difference but it seems so much less daunting to just take a day trip to see cousins!

We made our first visit this last week to celebrate Grace's 7th birthday and to check out their new house. My photos are random. But Whatevs

We left early in the morning, my boys were so excited that it wasn't even hard to get them to wake up and get dressed! Whew...(I'm dreading pulling them out of bed for school) Anyway, We arrived a bit early so I let them get some wiggles out in the open mall area before taking them into the painting pottery place! I was a little worried about taking my 3 bulls into a china shop so to speak,  so we waited until the last minute to go in.

Thankfully the pottery shop had a toy baket that Edwin was pretty interested in for awhile while my big boys worked on their projects.
Everett! He used to cry when I looked at him! I'm so happy he likes me now! At least tolerates me!

My boys made ice cream bowls, apparently there are no photos of Miles or the birthday girl. I told you the photos are random. 

Edwin was losing it and needing a nap so we left before the others were done so we could take a drive and Edwin could sleep. We explored James and Elizabeth's new neighborhood, eventually when Edwin's brothers woke him up, we got out to play in the front yard...and put the kids to work!

My boys were in heaven. They love their cousins and look up to them so much. 

 We ate lunch, and birthday brownies, took out a dementor pinata, and opened gifts. Each of my boys had picked out a puppy stuffed animal for Grace. And then there was tons of playing inside and outside and I even got to visit with James and Elizabeth for awhile. Can't wait to go down again in a couple weeks for their new baby boy to be born!

Nothing can Stop the Baertleins

Charles,
I found myself able to spend some much needed one on one time with you this afternoon while your brothers slept. I wanted this short moment to be special so we jumped on the trampoline, you spent some time jumping with Siuma since your old mom can’t jump as long as she used to. When Siuma went home we did some weeding, watered the garden, and then went to pick blackberries. We protected each other from the thorns and spider webs and found lots of “jackpots.” When I found a group of berries covered by a web I said the web wouldn’t stop me, to which you responded. “Nothing can stop the Baertleins!” I loved that! I love the important roles you play in our family. We continued to pick berries and discuss the upcoming changes, mainly soccer and 1st grade. You mentioned you were nervous. We talked about your amazing talent of making friends wherever you go, and being a good friend to anyone you see, and how that skill will always help you in school and sports. We walked back to the house with our berries and found one of your brothers had awoken. Charlie, it was a short and simple time we were able to spend together today, but I can see that you have so much good in your strong small, creative, and energetic body. Sometimes I don’t know how to help you direct your energy and excitement for life. Sometimes I forgot how willing you are to help and how you are just waiting for guidance! You are an amazing child with so much to contribute to this world. Thank you for teaching me to be a better friend, and to not be afraid of spider webs, as to reach for my goals because “nothing can stop the Baertleins!”

Love,

 Mom

18 month Edwin

Edwin turned 18 months this last week and I never took "official" photos for him because life is busy. But I still want to document him at 18 months. (as if I don't have enough photos of him, hah)

He is a happy child, from the moment he wakes up until the moment he realizes he's tired!  He is an amazing sleeper. He has been sleeping until 9ish all summer and this last week he has had 4 hour naps. Apparently he's growing. My kids are all actually amazing sleepers. I don't say this to brag, I just never want to take it for granted because I know how important sleep is for sanity. And I'm incredibly grateful that I have this moment in my life where we can all sleep great!

He is my most timid child. He takes awhile to warm up to others! This doesn't stop him from running away from me in public places, but he does return to me as soon as he spots a stranger. I guess this is kind of good.

He LOVES animals more than any of my other children seemed to at this age. He has pretty good chicken and puppy impressions. He really loves to make people laugh, especially his brothers, I feel like I'm raising a bunch of clowns! I blame Max.

Speaking of Max....Edwin is the biggest Daddy's boy ever! All my kids like Max better than me, and I don't blame them. Haha! But Edwin is quite vocal about being in Max's presence whenver he senses that Max is near!

He is selective with his speaking. He has a bunch of words that he will say. (down, car, chickie, uh oh, owie, bike...etc.) He has many more things he says that we don't really understand. But he communicates incredibly well without being able to speak much and he is demonstrating his incredible understanding when we talk to him. This age really blows my mind with how much they are able to learn and develop.
(not that I compare my children but I went back to my blog post when Miles was 18 months and he was chatting up a storm, interesting how kids are all different)

Anyway, this age keeps us busy as I always have to keep a close eye on my busy climber of a son, but he is well loved in this family, and we're glad he's ours!

And here are photos of him leading up to his 18 month day!