Happy New Year!
2014 was amazing. We're looking forward to 2015!
This past week we continued to grow our fruit tree orchard by adding three peach trees. Adding that to the two Montmorency cherry trees, two apple trees, two pear trees, two plum trees... we have a veritable cornucopia of fruits.
We also got 2 grape vines to replace some of the muscadine vines that were wiped out by last winter's cold (and, apparently, our failure to cover them well enough).
I have one very sad item to report for last month.
We've had one Ameraucana chicken for several years now. She survived many wild animal raids during our time in Joelton. After one particularly brutal raid that wiped out 3 other hens, leaving her the only one surviving, we dubbed her "L.S.C." (Last Standing Chicken). Alas, while we were in Colorado she finally was snatched by a possum. I had moved the pen up close to the house since I couldn't open and close it while we were gone, hoping that the proximity to the back door would keep the wild animals at bay. That didn't work as planned. The pile of feathers was practically on the back porch
J, of course, was heart-broken. At first she said perhaps Elise (as her name eventually became) left because she was mad at her. When I presented the evidence of her demise, she was angry with Eric (the rooster) because he didn't fight the possum. I had to explain that possums raid at night, and unfortunately they eat roosters as well. It took her a little while to come to terms with it, but I think she handled it pretty well.
We're hoping that we can keep Eric long enough to get some chicks this summer. In the meantime, we've been keeping them all closed up at night to prevent any further tragedies.