A Sunday morning in Charlottesville

Because sometimes a perfect morning is exploring downtown with a new friend (and photographer)... This girl right here! I'm so looking forward to shooting together with her, and seeing how she lights her own business on fire! Thanks for letting me take your oh, so pretty picture!

Be sure to check her out :-D Emily Marie Photography

PinWheels, Chickens, and Bicycle Tassels

*Preface: This post has nothing to do with photography, other than that it has photos in it* ;-)

Upon first glance, a post about chickens, pinwheels, and bicycle tassels don’t seem to fit in the same sentence. But I promise, it will all make sense very quickly. Let me explain with a little backstory.

This past June, a box arrived via the Post Office with 16 precious little bundles of fluff. A big reason for me moving out of Northern Virginia was so that I could have some space to breathe and raise some chickens.  So when that box arrived, I was over the moon excited! These little loves of mine. I've been with them since their day 1 (or 2-3)

 Fast forward to present day. Life is not always peaches and cream. In the past half a year, I have lost 50% of my girls. I realize that they are chickens, but they are mine. They are my girls, and I want to protect them, keep they healthy, and eat their yummy eggs. So yesterday when I pulled into my driveway after work, I knew something had to change. You see, when I pulled in yesterday, I noticed a big, black mass huddled in one corner of the chicken enclosure. I then noticed Velvet and the girls huddles against the opposite side. As I walked towards them, the red shouldered hawk flew away. At least I knew what did it this time.

First, I was really nervous that my poor Hazel (yes, they all have names) was still alive. I quickly assessed that that was not an issue ( I did NOT want to have to do that dirty work.) My nervousness quickly turned to concern for the remaining 8. By farming standards, my predation has been pretty low. But I don’t care. These are my girls and I don’t want any more of them to become supper for someone else.

Enter the pinwheels and bicycle tassels. Last night, I ran to Wal-Mart to see what I could find in terms of warding off predators of the avian variety. I first considered netting, but with the size of the fencing, that wasn’t going to be a feasible option. I had heard that shiny objects confuse predatory birds, and makes them unable to hone in on a victim. I’m sure one of my biology/zoology friends will have something to say about that, but I figure it is worth a try. So, I went home and created my “anti hawk” contraption. I now look like I live in West Virginia (sorry if you're from West Virginia.)

The girls aren’t too sure about it. Velvet has been crowing non-stop, warning everyone of the scary new objects.

These little ones are precious to me, and I figure it’s worth a try! I’ll update you all on whether this works or not (time will tell)

 

 

And one more for good measure. My Velvet is now a feathery beach ball! (I'm 5'8 for scale)