OK...it can all stop now, I surrender, I swear I do (my week plus)

Okay...here is the rant an update but basically...it can stop now!

This past week plus has been one of those periods that you just wished never happened or that it would at least slow down!

First, Cheyenne aka DD, has been sick, fine, sick, fine, sick, fine and etc. So, there have been trips to the doctor, antibiotics, trip to the doctor, more prescriptions and well...you know the cycle. End result...a nasty cold which she is hopefully, nearly over.

I have been fortunate enough to not catch the silly thing

Having the new puppy, it has been running back and forth outside because puppies have the bladder capacity of a thimble. LOL

I have been integrating my two flocks into one space which has had its own "moments". They have been in the coop together since October-ish but have a chicken wire wall separating them. So, these well defined boundaries have been opened up and the tussles commenced.

For starters, one group (the youngest) has a rooster in it, the older girls hate him. He immediately tried being "the Rooster" with them and ended up getting his tail feathers spanked. Those girls (Biggie Girls) have no desire or need for him...a fact they made quite clear by beating into him. I sat him down and tried to explain that he has 19 girls of his own and it was best to leave THOSE 10 alone...but he does not listen.

So...that has all pretty well worked itself out with very little feathers lost or blood appearing. However, he has been unsuccessful in convincing the biggie girls that he is a good guy so he just stays clear of them.

Then the usual...puppy meets raccoon outside the coop, raccoon totally freaks out and takes off to run and runs smack dab into a 55 gal drum...I mean turned, bolted and splat. It took him several minutes to recover and I am sure he left with a major headache and a dislike for the thought (much less taste) of chicken. I admit...I was laughing so hard, trying to hold Casca but wanting to just howl with laughter that I had to sit down.

Then the scarey part. Someone (probably DH or Roomie) left the large garage door partially open...(about a 2 foot tall opening all the way across it) and that is where I store the straw, food and scratch for the chickens. I go walking into the garage at one OMG It Is Early hours (5:30 ish) to find a visitor in my garage. I entered through the human door on the side of the garage, closest to the house, fumbled with the light switch a few seconds, waited for the lights to kick on and hear this horrid noise as I close the door.

The noise was one I have heard before but never that close and never that angry. It was enough to make heart pound and climb into my throat. I do not normally walk into my garage armed but I should have that morning. Backed into the corner not more than 30 feet from me is a very unhappy mountain lion

I literally froze where I was, hand on the light switch other hand on the door knob and started to try to gently open the door when this thing barked/yelled so loudly it echoed across the whole property...my neighbor 4 acres away heard it inside her house. This lion had several bloody spots on her and was clearly in pain and frightened...no more than I was of course.

My mind began thinking...what do I do? she can catch me before I get out the door...even hurt. I am not armed. DH is still sleeping and will not hear me yelling for him. blah blah blah. Then I remembered...my husband had one of two way radios we use for hunting on a charger in the garage...on a shelf about 5 feet from me.

So, I slowly moved toward the shelf and she is watching me extremely weary and cautiously...I reach the radio and pray that DH still has the other one in the bedroom...not in the livingroom or somewhere and I key the thing...and say in a whisper...

"Honey...wake your ATT UP....I am in the garage with a mountain lion."

"Honey....WAKE UP (a little louder and more frantic)"

"Honey...OH HELLO (a little louder) mountain lion....garage....me please"

she starts slowling coming out of the corner she is backed into and I keyed the radio and snarled a bit loudly....

"BILL GET YOUR ATT UP NOW BEFORE YOU ARE WIDOWED...WAKE UP NOW!"

He responds in a sleepy voice..."Why are you yelling at me?" my response came very sarcastically yet quickly....

"Because there is a mountain lion with me trapped in the garage and it is about to eat me and guess what....I dropped my life insurance policy so I am worth more alive this week...MOVE YOUR ATT!"

He bolted through door, armed, stark naked and shot her. He looks at me and says "You cancelled your life insurance policy?"

I said "NO you jerk but it made you move your butt didn't it?"

So, apparently ms. mountain lion has gotten into with another lion or several dogs. The wounds looked canine to me and DH but we are not experts. She wandered into the garage and was laying on the straw licking her wounds when I walked into the garage. From the looks of the wounds, she would have eventually healed up if she did not die from an infection...they were deep puncture type wounds and one really large flap type wound. Poor girl but it cannot be helped. We took the body to the rangers and they will do whatever they do with them.

So...in between all that excitement, I have been beading and beading on Suede. His face was done and re-done and re-done several times, and I finally was happy with it and now have moved onto the dark blues on the neck and such. I will post updated pictures later today or tomorrow.

So, alive and well here and back to a normal routine...I hope!