life, death, chickens
To those of you (most of you) who are not on my facebook or a contact on my flickr, I wanted to share that 2 of my 3 chickens were killed last week by predators. I had been saving up a lot of beautiful pictures of them and didn't even have a chance to share them before they were killed. They had only been outside for one week from their brooder. It is my fault because I had not yet built a decent coop for them, but had built a wire enclosure with an open wood shelter, and it had been so warm outside at night I left them inside it, thinking they were safe. Well, wild animals are hungry and resourceful and one afternoon I went out to check on them and there was only one left :( You could see where the "scenes of the crime" had occurred due to the explosion of feathers in two different areas of the enclosure. These chickens were fully bonded with me, stayed near me in the garden, climbed on me, slept on me, flew to me. Most people would not understand just how much loss I felt because they think they are "just chickens" and are not aware of the personable and intelligent nature of these animals. I raised them from babies and was very attached.
I got on with it though, forgave myself after about a week of beating myself up about it (which was the hardest part) and promptly bought another older chicken buddy for my oldest one until I could get 2 more babies. I pick them up on Friday - I waited until I could get a certain breed, a light brahma - and will assemble the coop and new enclosure with the help of friends.
As for this past weekend it was pretty great, had a birthday party for my good friend-slash-temporary-roommate Mike at my house on Friday. It was a really great party! Saturday my friend Brie made us brunch and then we went shopping at Ikea and Target. Then I took photos with my friend Adam in the park and we all went to karaoke at the Alibi (I love that place). Sunday I went to the gym, slept, went to a bbq and caught the fireworks downtown which were awesome! The best part was everyone's shining smiling faces in the crowd. Portlanders love their holidays. Yesterday I had lunch at blueplate, got sized for a sports bra at nordstrom (my bra size is so big it's depressing), watched Pushing Daisies, and went to the gym with Mike. And today I sit in my office, hating being indoors on such a nice day as today.
I'm still way behind on all this picture posting business, here's a set from our first real day of summer in Portland, about a month or so ago.
