In Keeping With the 2023 Theme

 

Something came up last evening and ate two of my chickens.  Whats worse is they did it before sunset too as I go out every evening at 8:00 pm (right now) and watch the flock as it puts itself into the coop each night. When I went out I even counted the two missing birds but by the time every other bird was in the coop those two were AWOL. I went out after the sun came up this morning and found the remains of my rooster but never saw so much as a feather from the hen. They were maybe at most 30 yards from where I was sitting and watching the nightly bed march too. I never heard a thing but there was a small out building in between my perch and the area I found the feathers in.

I have now lost more birds this year than I have in the last 20 years combined before 2023. The rooster has been with me for three years and was probably the best rooster I can remember in years. And a very pretty and gentle one at that. I am teetering on the edge now of just getting rid of chickens for good as keeping them penned up just has never been something either the chickens or myself really wanted to do.  I have always enjoyed letting the chickens free range and have not lost birds like this ever in all this time.

Whatever did in my rooster had to be fast and strong enough to finish him instantly or I would have heard a scuffle. They were also in a fenced area so a dog should not have been able to get in unnoticed either.

The wife is so devastated this time she has already announced we are done with chickens.

I guess I will see how these last four get along before I decide for good myself. I really don't want to have to pen them in as I have found that usually doesn't save em in the end around here either. Maybe the end of chickens altogether around here at this point.

While at work today I may have finally gotten an answer to a 16 year old question. Some new guy the trucking company hired was brow beat into bringing me a load but had no idea what he was doing. I felt kinda sorry for the guy so I helped him in the poring rain. In process I mentioned how for years all these trucks (which barely come with 10 miles worth of gas in em anyway -Important fact) are always out of gas by the time I get them, so much so they can't even unload them at times, and his company/coworkers always blame the railroad.

This is when this new guy informed me that when they set up a load they line the vehicles up and leave them running while they load em, also they often take breaks and even lunch with these cars running. He then said they had three trucks on the line for another dealership that had run out of gas while loading this morning.

Suddenly a light bulb went off in my head and all the out of gas vehicles I find just pushed off into the middle of one of my lots begins to make perfect sense. Even them being mostly F-150s adds up too as pretty much all all other vehicles come with 35 to 50 miles on them straight from the factory but NOT F-150's they start out with only 10.

Not only does this meet all the criteria but it fits the mold too. These delivery drivers are just running these vehicles out of gas while they sit and so they are empty by the time they bring em to me. Apparently it is easier to leave these vehicles running as they shuffle the load around I guess.

I then got a letter in the mail that my request for a property tax review has been denied. I know the market value from last year is way up and a lot of the new building they started locally is now sitting idle. So there is no way they did an accurate appraisal on January 1st until they see all the unfinished stuff from August 1st. They were obviously charging me for their eggs before they hatched. But of course I have no recourse now without legal fees being added.

AT least I got an acceptable lead on the the gas question after all these years. I often wonder why there isn't open conflict in this country these days as dishonest as it has gotten.

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!