Covert Operations

You have read here before that we have a lot of early morning fog. You have also read here that we have an uneasy relationship with our chickens. You have also read here that I am an early riser. Put that together and you have.... I'm not sure.... a rug?

It's all very confusing but I think our chickens are up to something..... I mean like planting dynamite under our house..... or spying on human behaviour for aliens or something. Lately (since the bear attacked the chicken coop and broke down the fence that Hubby hasn't had time to repair because he is too busy working on plumbing) the chickens have been entering our territory. But not just coming up toward the house and checking out the joint but they have been acting suspiciously. This morning the chickens were up by the house when I looked out the window upstairs at 6:30 a.m. They were pecking the ground and obviously intent upon getting grit for their gizzards... or so I thought. When I came downstairs a few minutes later they were scurrying off down the path to the chicken coop. Now I know that they know I don't like them up around the house (they poop on the deck which gives me no small amount of misery)
This is chicken poop too close to my deck steps.


because I have thrown rocks at them when I catch them around the steps. I also know they know that I don't want them under the deck because they peck the styrofoam insulation which is just under the ground and wraps our crawl space and insulates it from the cold weather in the winter. (Yes chickens love styrofoam insulation..... in their gizzards!) But as soon as they hear me or see me they bee line it for the chicken coop and I know.... just know they are up to something!

Their little heads are popping above the grass turning this way and that way watching through the early morning fog, and they seem to be watching all the time for something that might come and attack them. Now what on earth could they be watching for?! Certainly not me (who likes to throw rocks at them to keep them away from the deck), and certainly not Tootsie (who is the most brilliant chicken herding dog you have ever seen), and certainly not Hubby (who steals their eggs each day), and certainly not Daughter #2 (who steals their friends away to another chicken coop to be saved from the axe... but they don't know that), and I doubt very much that it's the coyotes (that they can hide from in their really sturdy chicken coop) This is the sturdy chicken coop
and certainly not bears (that attack sporadically like the one earlier this summer)..... nooooo they can't be nervous about these things. What could possibly happen to them. I mean what do they think.... that they are going to get eaten?

And that noise they make when they lay their eggs.... I mean what's that all about? I'm sure they are making it look like the egg coming out of their wee butts is hurting when really what they are doing is practicing some kind of drill. They run away every time you go near them and their territory (which is the bush that grows around their chicken coop) looks like it is a mine field. There are scratch marks all over the place. I think they are planting mines and making it look like they are scratching for worms...... I'm sure they are up to no good!

So the thing is, with all this suspicious behaviour on the part of the chickens, why oh why did I choose chickens to be on my first hooked rug??? I have finally started hooking the rug that I bought while I was in Olds for the Level 3 of the Master Spinners course and so I chose chickens!!!!! I can't believe I did that. What on earth was I thinking? With all the subject material in the world that I could have chosen I can't believe I chose chickens. But I did....

Here's my chicken rug so far...



Here's what it should look like when done.....




I still think they are up to no good..... I'm just not going to tell them that I'm hooking a chicken rug... and let them get the last laugh... no way!