NOOOOOOOO....

sooooooo... we came to the end of spring break & i was EXHAUSTED!!! mike said i could have lie in on sunday ~ hallelujah!!!

when i got up mike walked through the door & said he had bad news. my stomach plummeted below my knees... i had put mr diggins (our rabbit) in his outdoor home last night, he stayed the winter in the basement, so my first thought was that something had eaten him :(

mike said that something had got into the chicken coop & eaten 5 chickens ~ including my beloved & oldest chicken mary poppins. farm life... the number of chickens we've lost you'd think i'd be immune... but these were my old girls, my originals, my pets, my friends... mary poppins was magnificent ~ a blue orpington.

i don't name them anymore unless they have or do something that makes me ~ like crow, she's looks like one & used to fly up to your shoulder.

i put off going to the coop... in the end mike said i should just go & it made me very very sad seeing all those feathers.

we have tried all sorts of things to keep the predators away, decoys, strings, balloons with eyes, shimmery tape, wind spinners... we must have lost over 40 chickens in the last 1 & a half & i say enough is enough!!!

i started looking for a livestock guardian dog (LGD ~ a dog that adopts the animals it lives with & protects them from predators. they sleep outside & are proper working dogs.

one of my facebook friends with LGD experience found me one on craig's list & i have been going back & forth over email for quite some time with the current owner.

this is an older dog probably between 6 & 7, experienced with goats, sheep & poultry. PERFECT! i would love to adopt but i need to know what i'm getting involved with & need a dog that knows the ropes already. plus to be quite honest i feel like i am adopting this poor dog... i will be the third owner at least...

this dog is called lucas... which i wasn't too keen on for a dog... so after some thought i decided we will call him george lucas... i nearly fell off my chair when the owner sent me an updated photo ~ the jpg was called george lucas!!! he is already named that!!

so tomorrow is a VERY exciting day in the ellery household ~ the boys & i are going on an approximate 5 hour road trip to vermont to pick up george lucas & bring him on home!

so exciting!!!!