Chickens 101: Mckinney Tour de Coop plus

Saturday the kid and I volunteered down at historic Mckinney Chestnut Square for the Tour de Coop event.   We worked the  pre-paid, volunteer and cash line selling tickets, T-shirts, and bags.  I sent the kid to one of the classes they offered on chicken doctoring and my future vet came back with a list of items we need to purchase for the health of our flock. 

 After our shift was over we took the tour of some of the coops. 

This amazing old barn is right in historic downtown Mckinney.   The house is old and beautiful and the owners have redone the structure while keeping the charm of the old barn.  

And they have several farm friends! 

And lots of amazing statutes. 

I loved this egg box.   In fact I told my husband I want one.  We don't have a place for it but it's awesome! 

I also want one of these giant Roos for our backyard.  

I loved how they used this one on top of an old tree stump.  

They even had a live band.  

The next stop was a cute little backyard coop with lots of pretty egg layers! 

I love how the coop looks like a gazebo. 

We had a chicken that looked just like this hen but we lost her about 6 weeks ago.  

Her hens lay beautiful eggs and this made me want a Maran and Olive Egger to complete our own color extravaganza! 

Our final trip was my friend Susan's adorable coop with her spoiled hens.  This is a huge coop and she has 3 ladies currently and is raising a few more babies to complete here flock. 

She has Engliah Orpington hens which are huge birds and just beautiful.  

After we finished the tour I came home and spent some QT with my flock.  Sadly, we lost a duck Saturday night to my dog.  She got too "friendly" and then not friendly with the bird.  I was and am devastated.   We are going to be rethinking our approach on this.  After 6 months of her ignoring the birds this setback was heartbreaking.  Still I have had the dog for over 6 years and she is a good dog.  She just can't seem to overcome her instinct to hunt.  I can't have her killing my flock so it may be time to limit her to zero unsupervised access and static coller 100% of the time and build a dog run.  

Inspired by all the amazing coops I started repainting our own coop to look like a barn theme.  

The duck coop is the small one in the right corner.   I did some research on plants that I can add to the coop area that not only add beauty but function and I have a game plan now. 

We will be adding butterfly bushes and climbing roses to the coop to break the sight lines of any overhead or on the ground predators and to give the flock extra shade. 

I also plan on adding in some additional sand as time and money permit to profit even more dusting areas for the flock.  They currently use our old tree stump that they have managed to hollow out and our fire pit. 

Something strange happened Sunday.  We had chickens laying eggs all day.  I heard and saw them laying but when o went to collect the eggs that night there was no eggs to be found.   I am thinking we were hit by a brazen thief because not only were we in and out of the backyard all day but 3 of the dogs were too. (Killer was in quarantine and only allowed out when supervised). 

Z is for

I am late posting this blog.  It's been a long day some good and some very bad.   

This one is short.  Z is for zombies.  That's what I feel like right now after this last month.  It has been a crazy month.  I left a job of 14 years and started a new one where I am working 4 times as hard and longer hours.  

Z is for zombie.  I can't get enough sleep to feel like one of the living and my weekends are filled with doing all the things I don't get done because I am gone now from 7am to 7pm. 

Z is for zombie.  That's me. 

Happy May people.  This challenge has been fun and challenging.  It's header than you thing finding time to write and read blogs.  I have enjoyed all the blogs I have visited so much!  Thanks to the A to Z challenge for making me think! 

Yogurt Shop Murders

Courtesy Austin Chronicle  Sarah Harbison 15, Amy Ayers 13, Eliza Thomas 17, and Jennifer Harbison 17 

December 9, 1991 Austin, Tx: 

Shortly before midnight on December 9th an Austin police officer responded to a fire call at the I Can't Believe It's Yogurt Shop.  When the fire was extinguished the bodies of four teenage girls were found bound by their own cloths and shot through the head and at least 2 of the girls were raped.  Three of the bodies were piled one on top of the other and the fourth victim, Amy was found a short distance away.  There are a ton of rumors surrounding this case, which I won't go into.   

Over the years there have been multiple arrests and a few convictions but all have been overturned for lack of evidence.  There have been multiple confessions but none have been legitimate.  

This is a case that continues to haunt Austin, the capital of Texas and a college town.  Years have passed but nobody alive during that time has forgotten.  The girls were last confirmed alive around 10 that night when the yogurt shop was closing.  

Oddly, I got off work that night late and passed that shop on my way home.  I spent days afterward trying to remember if I saw anything as I passed the parking lot, to no avail.   I was a 21 year old college student at the time and will forever be haunted by this case and how close it was to my apartment.  The shop was just 5 minutes from where I lived.  

There were patrons in the store who described 2 men who sat at a table and were apparently the last ones in the shop before the shop closed.  Those men have never been identified.  Were they the murders?  What do you think? 

XXX

I swear to you I had the hardest time even starting this blog.  I have no extraordinary x word.  In fact I am extremely blank when it comes to x words.  I tried extra hard trying to think of exactly any exciting word that fit the bill and nothing. Except x-factor,  x-files x-rays, xylophone and xylitol but seriously how am I suppose to write a blog about xylophones?  Exactly!  

Oh, X you expect me to ignore you, you unusual and extremely, extra special, extraordinary little letter you.