FREEBIRD(s)!!

On Saturday morning it was rainy and gray, so I was browsing through the free section on CraigsList (big surprise there, right?) I didn’t see anything that really caught my eye, so I cruised over to the farm & garden. There I found a listing for free chickens! Four chickens to be exact; a Rhode Island Red rooster, a Buff Orpington who is probably a hen because she does not crow, and a pair of black silkies, rooster and hen. I called at once and spoke to the man, who said he was leaving for a few hours but would call me back later. So I gave him the number and waited. And waited. And waited.Finally I went outside towards the pond where we were going to see where we should put the fence for the ducks, when he called back. Of course. C and I loaded the pair of cages Mom brought the last time she came over and off we went to Sanford, an hour and a half away. A long drive, I know, but for around ten dollars in gas I now have four more chickens. The RIR rooster, who is a big, beautiful and very loud, has been christened Foghorn, the BO maybe-hen is called Goldie, and H named the silkie hen Fluffy, and I named the rooster Mr. Magoo, because the feathers on his head obscure his face. All you can really see are the blue spots where his ears are; even his comb is flopped forward over his beak. They seem to be adjusting well and both roosters have already made a play for dear old Lucky. Godzilla seems to have a crush on Goldie, but she has been very strenuous in rejecting his advances. Why a big white duck would want a chicken that’s bigger than him is odd, to say the least. The fellow we got the birds from was quite nice and even caught them for us, using a fishing net which I thought was a great idea. He had a pair of birds, a rooster and hen from the first batch he had ever hatched, that he was keeping and I have never seen chickens that small before. At first I thought they were very thin pigeons. They must have been some sort of game bird, because their bodies were sleeker and more streamline than the rounded teardrop of a normal chicken. They were quite pretty, he said the hen would let him pick her up and she would sit on his palm, but the tiny rooster was the king of the yard and would attack the other roosters if they were not penned in. I find the image of this rooster, who was maybe seven or eight inches tall, attacking Foghorn, who comes up to my knee, hilarious.We spent most of yesterday out near the little pond, setting up a enclosure for the ducks and a house for them. We get everything ready, even buying fencing, and finally rounding up the ducks, stuffing them all in the big cage, then wheeling them down to the pond with the wagon. They seemed hesitant at first, but once they got on the water they seemed happier. Then, after I left to go to the store, everyone else went down to see them and they had gotten out and were trying to get back into their old pen. We might have to sell them if they won’t stay down there, it just isn’t feasible to use a pool anymore. A small pool gets too dirty and the large pool is too hard to clean. I would rather focus on the chickens, anyway. The ducks are nice to have, but require a lot more work that I have imagined.

Photobooth

I want this. I want this SOOO bad. But I know it would be completely impractical, even if I did have the room (which I most definitely do not) but it would be so cool. I can picture it as a funky enclosed bed, or maybe a shower stall. It’s in the free section of CraigsList, my favoritest place to shop. Of course, the poster warns that it is extremely heavy and suggests hiring a moving company to come get it. And it’s broken, so it doesn’t take pictures anymore. You can get such random weird stuff. In the past two weeks I’ve gotten eight empty plastic buckets that once held kitty litter, and a hard-sided pet carrier that should prove more durable than the soft one I use now. I like wondering what sort of person would own something like this, not only own it, but hold on to it until it stopped working, then offer it (for free) to the first person who came for it.
Edit: Gah, the stupid picture isn't loading... Curse this machine and all things modern. I will try to upload later. Here's the link incase I forget.http://raleigh.craigslist.org/zip/1390116518.html