the heat

It has been roasting hot the past week or so, and the heat will continue. But the breeze does not let up. That is our saving grace.

We had to say goodbye to our Francesca. A raccoon or cat snatched her and left her beheaded beneath some bushes in the chicken run. It is sort of my fault because I left the coop open (even though the fence to the run was closed--and, I thought, impassible) because Francesca had been finding her way out in the mornings to peck about anyway, and I did not want her to be without water or without a way of getting back under cover should she need to. (Chickens are not so smart and just because she got out, she could not necessarily get back in.) She was a good head honcho chicken and I think the other two girls miss her. They seem a little less lively, a little less secure. I think she may have passed defending them. Mostly I don't really want to think about it too much. But I do batten down the hatches at night now, and the other two biddies are too chicken to explore as much as Francesca did. We will probably build a hyper-secure run (with a top) and acquire a replacement in the next few weeks. Aurora is convinced that it is a frog that got Francesca.

Anyhow. YAY OBAMA. Some good news. What a historical moment.