A better day...

I am hoping beyond hope that the scorpions have found other pastures (and other master bedrooms). After the pest-control guys left, there was one scorpion fighting for its life in a corner of our kitchen, which I put to rest with the sole of my shoe. I managed to swat him at arm's length, without hurting my shoulder this time. Then there was a dead one under the bed this morning-- I know it wasn't there last night because I have been checking underneath our bed every night for a week now. I'm guessing that it dropped down from the air-conditioning vent after lights-out and took its last breath under the bed as we slept. Thankfully, because of the bug-spray/Agent Orange stuff, this last scorpion didn't have the strength to crawl up under the covers.

This morning, my husband unscrewed all the air-conditioning vents and put thin mesh screening in those vents-- now even a tiny spider can't drop down from the vents, much less a King Kong-sized scorpion. (Perish that thought.) I don't know why those a/c vents aren't installed in the first place with mesh screening. This is Texas, for heaven's sake.... the entire state is built on top of ant hills, spider webs, and scorpion nests. (And who knows what-all else.)

Last night was my first full night of sleep in more than a week and a half. And when I woke up at 7:00 this morning, my legs were stretched out towards the bottom of bed-- gone was the scorpion-safe, leg-cramping fetal position. As I said, I have faith in the bug guys, and faith now as well in the air-conditioning vents. I would hope that I won't have to be waking up every hour on the hour to shine the flashlight over the ceiling and underneath the bed. (As my cousin F would say: Hope floats. (We don't exactly know what that means, but it sounds good.) We are also on a schedule now with the pest control company... they will be out here on a regular basis, and sooner if I call them. (I should put their number on speed-dial.)

The chickens came out of their coop this morning as if they have lived here forever. They ventured further into the yard, pecking away at the grass and looking up at the trees and out into the pastures. Gatsby (our outside cat) was out there watching them with us... and Gatsby was hiding behind my legs for quite some time. I think our friends are right-- Gatsby is a smart cat, and he knows he's outnumbered by those chickens, and they can scratch his eyes out in a heartbeat. I don't think he will be bothering them. Now we'll have to get our dog to stop barking every time she sees them. Hey!! You birds!!! You're in MY yard!!!!

My red hen, Dolly, was the first to walk back into the coop this morning and pretty soon, the rest of the chickens followed her. Dolly went right into her favorite nesting box and started to tweak and twist the hay in there, tossing out a few strands that she didn't care for, and then she sat down into the hay. Within half an hour or so, she was out of the nest and a fresh egg was sitting in there. All the eggs so far four of them) have been found in the nest with the fatter side down, pointed side up.

We decided to leave the door of the coop open all day now... the chickens are coming and going as they please.... they know how to get back in there for their food and water, and around dinner-time or a little bit after, they should take themselves back into the coop and then we'll lock it up for the night. We can tell that the hens are comfortable with us now.... if we go into the coop without some bread or vegetables for them, they will just stand there at our feet and wait. And wait. And wait. One of us will then go back into the house, get some bread for them, and then only after we have hand-fed them will they go about their chicken-business in the yard.

Their little chicken sounds are very comforting, all that cooing and clucking and clicking... hard to describe the contented little noises coming from them all. Jaye and Edie follow each other all the time, and even like to share the same basket-- it's a bright red one that I found at the resale shop-- they both love it, and the basket is big enough to hold them both. We're thinking that maybe those two chickens were in the same brood and were raised together... that would explain their closeness. It's funny, because Jaye and Edie are named after two of my aunts-- both of whom were born within a few years of one another, and my grandmother would say they were "always in each other's pockets."

Our neighbor D plowed a huge plot at the end of one of our pastures this morning, near our woods and close to the pond. My husband will buy seeds to plant there, and it will soon be a wildlife garden for deer, rabbits, birds, squirrels, and whatever else happens to come along through the woods looking for a snack. It's far enough from the house to keep the wildlife fed, but not let them come too close to the house. We will have to start shopping around for a golf-cart soon, so we can easily get to all ends of the property. It would make life a lot easier than walking from one point to another, that's for sure. I don't walk too far out into the pastures because I don't want to encounter any snakes.

I'm just about getting over the scorpions... and I don't want to start counting snakes.