There are about a million things I love about Bernie. The fact that he very rarely complains about my chickens is at the top of my list. And I will be the first to tell you that my chickens can be extremely annoying. So, despite the fact that Jethro spends the majority of his day crowing from the hood of Bernie’s back hoe, and Bernie has had to put fencing around every living plant in this yard to keep the chickens from annihilating them, he rarely complains about my chickens.
But there is one thing my chickens do that is particularly annoying and, although Bernie only occasionally mentions it, I know it bothers him.
My chickens love to dust bath under Bernie’s barn shed lean-to. They. Love. It. And, in addition to covering everything under his lean-to in dust, they leave dust bath holes. Really big dust bath holes.
And they seem to especially love dust bathing around a couple of the support poles.
So, being the wonderful wife that I am and, knowing that the future of my life with chickens may depend on it, I volunteered to help Bernie remove everything from under his lean-to, fill in the dust bath holes, and cover the whole thing in gravel. And yesterday morning, that is exactly what we did.
As we began working on it, Bernie left to go into the garage and get something. A few seconds later he yelled “Penny – come quick.” I could tell by the way he said it that there was something he wanted me to see, so I grabbed my camera and ran over to where he was, at the back of the garage. And this is what he wanted to show me.
Another rat snake! And he wanted inside the garage – so that is exactly where he went.
He also decided to check out the under side of Bernie’s motorcycle.
And when he got tired of me following him around with camera and Bernie herding him with a broom, he slipped outside and headed for the woods.
Good bye, Mr. Rat Snake.
So, with a gratuitous shot of Bernie’s cute little behind…..
we got back to work fixing up his lean-to floor. After much shoveling, gravel hauling, and raking, it started looking much better.
And so, even though every single stinkin’ muscle I possess is screaming in agony, we finished re-doing Bernie’s lean-to floor.
Shhhhhh. Don’t tell Bernie, but the chickens immediately began checking it out.
When we came inside, Elvis and Priscilla were extremely interested to learn what we had been doing, and they hung on my every word as I told them.
And they agree that I am, indeed, a good wife.
Bee Free,
Penny
