October 1, 2007

smell...............!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 I smell bad.. and I had a bath late last night. Why? My chickens were making a ruckus and we went out and found and shot a skunk which had just killed 2 of my chickens. I knew my flock was getting smaller and smaller, but was attributing it to a hawk I cannot do a thing about currently.

It was shot as it was coming out of the chicken house with a chicken. I have been getting lax about closing them up at night since a bunch of them are latecomers to roost for the night. With all the snows and rains we have been having the last couple of days, the front part of the chicken pen is a quagmire. I took my first head count of my flock since I have been home and I am missing about half. I will not have the birds for my freezer that I thought I would.

2:09pm Update

I still smell. Well sorta. I went into the mudroom this morning and discovered my mistake of NOT chucking the leather gloves into the back of my truck with the skunk in the garbage bag. I cannot smell it mostly anymore.. but I get a whiff every now and again and then think maybe it *IS* on me yet. 

I went to take the garbage and a few other things, then stopped off at Amy's to pick up her garbage since I was heading to the dump anyway. I was also picking up my organic potatoes and carrots from the potato lady today,, but went to drop off the garbage/skunk/dead mangled chickens first. 

I get to the potato lady's farm, she leans against my truck, as farmers do to shoot the breeze, and she says "Whew.. did you hit a skunk?!?!?". I said "no.. we had to shoot one last night". Then she said something, I said something, she didn't hear me and so I quipped that I had him in the passenger seat buckled in. At her horrified look and her exclamation of "YOU DIDN'T???!!!".. I had to laugh and then tell her it had indeed been in the back, but had gotten rid of it and I hoped my spuds and carrots did not pick up the residual stench. 

I get back home and the poor barnyard still smells like fresh skunk. The remnants of it spraying I suppose. I back the truck next to the root cellar and offload 400 pounds of red/white potatoes and 200 pounds of carrots. It is nice I can pick things up again after my injury as it was barely a chore, last year, I would not have been able to do it.