Not Foxproof!

So...I went to check the fox trap before bed at 9.00pm and saw two pairs of eyes shining in the torch light from the bush near the 'chook' pen. It seems that we have at least two foxes on the prowl.I was still awake in bed at 11.00 tonight and heard a hen cry out from our 'chook' pen. I was out of bed and dressed in seconds, waking Will in the process. Running up to the pen I heard further commotion and knew that whatever it was was still in there. As I got to the pen and shone the torch in I could see it was a youngish fox up in the coop. I couldn't understand how it got in but kept the light on it as it ran backwards and forwards in the coop as I unhitched the netting from the doorway. Once in I stuck my head in the coop and roared "GET OUT!" at the top of my voice. I was so angry in that moment. The fox completely ignored my instruction and continued to run back and forth at the back of the coop because I was now blocking its exit. It was then that I saw Yudhisthira was dead on the floor and there was also a dead guinea fowl. The fox was out of reach but would have grabbed it if I could.Will arrived a little bewildered as running up to the pen he had been hit full in the face by an escaping guinea fowl.The fox was now cowering in one of the corner nesting boxes. I called to Will to grab it."But it might bite me!" he said. He had already suffered a guinea fowl assault.I have been busy the last few days building a 'holiday pen' for the birds when we go away and had left some stuff outside the pen."There are some gloves out there somewhere put them on."The fox was still in the corner and when he was ready Will lifted the nesting box lid and grabbed the fox. He pinned it's head down and I left the front of the coop to help him. He had his phone in his mouth with the torch light on so I took that out of his mouth and held open the nesting box lid open while he carried the fox out and we put it in the fox trap. It never made a sound. Not even a "Sorry."We went back in to check the birds. As well as the two deaths Pacha was missing and another of the guinea fowl. We hunted round outside but could not find them. We removed the two dead birds and I checked round the pen to try and find how the fox had got in. I found a 6 inch hole in the netting. The flippin' fox had chewed its way in!I sewed the hole up with twine and fastened the door up again. We carried the fox in the trap down to the house. I will post a picture of the prisoner tomorrow."What are we going to do with it?" Asked Will."Could we stick it's head on a spike on the pen to deter other foxes?"I wasn't being serious.No, Will is going to take it tomorrow morning and release it far, far away. It will get away with murder.Poor Yudhisthira! He was sold to us as a hen but turned out to be the best rooster you could ever wish for. He was always watching for danger and finding food for his hens. I got to know all the different calls he made and what they meant just like his flock. He survived his first fox attack last year when the fox that was carrying him off dropped him as I gave chase. We only have Arke left of the original first six.We might eat the guinea fowl but Yudhisthira will be buried with honours in the Pen of the Fallen, alongside Iris, Hecate, Quilla, two of the Mu Sisters and Amé.One fox may be gone by tomorrow but there is another that maybe carried off Pacha and knows it can chew its way in again. Damn! And I thought I'd made the pen foxproof!We go away on Sunday to Canberra for a week with Phoebe and Deranie. I hope my new 'holiday pen' can keep the birds we have left, safe.

Attack in the light?

So...it was a very strange night last night. There was a foreboding atmosphere about the darkness which made us feel very uneasy. It didn't stop Will from falling asleep though so he didn't hear the alarm call of another hen. I got up thinking it might be one of our hens but they were all ok. When the fox first attacked next door one of their hens must have escaped out of the shed and later in the night the fox returned and found it.There was also a strange, regular, deep rasping sound which Will heard before drifting off which he thought might be a Koala. There were a few other unidentifiable noises that did not help with the atmosphere. Eventually I too went of to sleep. Will was up at 4.00 and off to the Cheese Factory and I fell back asleep and woke at 7.15. I could still hear the deep, rasping sound so got up and went to investigate it.I followed the sound through the bush behind the dam and down the hill to the kiwi fruit orchard. Whatever was making the sound sounded like it was distressed or trapped but I was wrong. Will was wrong too. It wasn't a koala....It was a stag who was bellowing in the middle of his herd. I didn't manage to get a picture of him before he and the herd disappeared into the bush.I let the 'chooks' out before heading off to work at 10.00. I got home about 1.30 and Will was already home. He said that he couldn't find all of the birds. Yudhisthira was outside the house keeping guard over Pacha who was hiding under a cupboard at the front. Sheng-Mu was laying low in one of the nesting boxes in the pen. The Guinea fowl were huddled around the back by the old pen and Arke and the as yet un-named black hen were missing. We did find a clump of black feathers by the dam and everything seemed to point to another fox attack but during daylight.Something had definitely spooked the birds as they were all acting strangely all afternoon. I felt bad that I had let them all out in the morning and felt that I shouldn't have after the events of the night before but Arke and the un-named black hen turned up again just before sunset as they wandering back out of the bush. It was such a relief.We have re-set the fox trap...

Attack in the dark.

So...just as we were going to bed we heard a commotion next door from our neighbour's chooks. We texted them but got no reply and when we heard further commotion we went to investigate. The chook pen door was open, there was one hen on a perch, a dead rooster on the floor and another dying hen lying next to it. There was another hen alive but laying low in the outside pen. We rang the neighbours who were in bed and told them the news, shut the door and came home leaving them to sort it.On the way back to bed we went and checked our own chooks. Scarily the rock and log that hold down the netting at the door had been scraped away. I remember closing it firmly at sunset. Luckily all our birds were safe. We think the fox might have got in but was distracted by the food scraps we had thrown in the pen.We have placed a heavier rock at the door to hold the netting down.

A Room with a View.

So...we have finally finished fitting the upstairs panoramic windows...

Light show.

So....after weeks and weeks of dry weather last night, at about 11.30, we watched a storm approaching us in Blue Moon House. The lightning was constant and we heard the thunder approaching for at least 45 minutes until it was over us. Before it arrived we decided to head back down into Frogknot to sit it out because the lightning seemed to suggest that it was a particularly  intense storm when in actual fact it turned out to be pretty much a damp squib. It was over and gone in about 15 minutes with a short 3 minute burst of heavy rain and then just the drip, drip, drop of April showers.We went back to Blue Moon and to sleep.At 1.55 am we were woken by another aproaching storm. The lightning was less frequent than the previous storm.It never ceases to amaze me how fast these storms approach. I doubt you could outrun one in a car.This second storm had much more substance and we got a fair bit of rain with it. One bolt of lightning seemed to hit very close by as the crack of thunder was almost immediate and shook our little house. It was all over in about 45 minutes but in all we had 13 mls of rain.Everything has been so dry, the grass was crunching underfoot and the leaves on the trees were all shriveled. It was a welcome relief.One thing not so welcome is the effect the rain appears to have had upon one very noisy cricket that started to chirrup after the first shower. It continued most of the night and is still at it tonight. I think I prefer the monotony of the distant yapping thing to this cricket's rhythmic trilling.It's like someone's unanswered mobile phone going on for hours and hours and hours......