Our Funny Farm

I think we have racist chickens.  Yep, it's almost for sure.  The bantam white silkies are like the KKK in our neighborhood.  They don't like to hang out with the red and black chicks.  So sad to see.  The silkies made a break for it last week and jumped the fence into the cow pasture next to us.  I put out an all points bulletin and the neighbors came running (what good neighbors).  I overreacted a tad, but they are like my pets now and I couldn't bear to see one of them hanging out of Mango's mouth (the hunter/gopher killing cat that lives next door).  More to the point, I didn't want to tell Grady that all of his fears were realized and one of the flock was dead.   I didn't have to spread that news, as my brother helped me get three of them over the fence and back in our yard and Steve found the last silkie in the early afternoon before G got home from school.  Whew!  

Later that weekend I went to water the garden and spotted a three foot long snake right next to the hose.  No time for pictures, but trust me - it was scary!  I know we have snakes out here, but I just don't want to see them.  I save spiders that I find in the house and relocate them outside; I don't like the smug satisfaction that Steve gets from killing flies and I just confessed that the chicks are like pets, so I know how it sounds...lame.  My brother killed it for me.  I felt bad, but not that bad.  

What I do feel bad about is that it is highly likely that Mama chick is a rooster.  We've had our suspicions all along, but Steve heard her trying to cock-a-doodle-do this weekend and she's just so damned bossy with the other chicks.  Not sure what we're going to do about this, but I promise not to treat her like the snake.

Our little homestead has a new name and we painted signage to seal the deal.  Poco Loco Farms.  There is a Southern California fast food chain called El Pollo Loco.  My mom used to call it El Poco Loco.  The chickens seem a little crazy too.  It all seemed fitting.  We're going to create labels for G's egg business using this name.  Hope it's not too offensive to all of the crazy people we know...?

On the last animal-related item for this post is the above shot of Grady in his new horse outfit.  A good friend dropped this off Friday and he L-O-V-E-D it.  She knows him so well.