Sunset, Chick rescue, and oranges

 After a brilliant sunset, darkness fell on a moonless night.  We decided it was time to rescue the chix in the barn that the ravens were picking off.  15 chicks down to four.  The previous hen who hatched in the barn lost a dozen as she tried to transport them to the safety of the coop.  Grace and Sarah and I took Turkey on the mule to the barn.  We put plywood over the area where they had been nesting in the insulation and they trusted us somewhat since we have been bringing them food and water each day,  so it was relatively easy to catch mom and 2 chix.  I thought I had all four but soon realized two were not in the bag.  We established the three we had in the safety of their new home with in the coop with lots of nesting material, chick feed and water.  We returned for the other two who now, being almost 3 weeks old and having successfully warded off Raven attacks, gave us a run for our money cleverly evading capture.  We got the first one but heard no sound of the second fearing it was lost or captured by a cat while were were gone.  After reuniting Mom and chic #3, we decided to make a third trip to the barn just in case.  There was dead silence and we were very sad till Grace moved the hay bale and the little black chic ran out.  This one was the most clever and even three of us could not corner it as it darted in and out of corners.  Finally it ran outside the barn and played dead.  Grace spotted it in the dark and scooped it up but dropped it back in the barn.  Sarah was able grab it a few minutes later and held it firmly next to her heart till it was reunited with Mom in the coop.  Of the 45 born in the last month we have only 13 safely in the coop where they will stay till big enough to free range safe from Ravens.  Now the ravens are catching and feasting on squirrels.

This morning we enjoyed fabulous sweet orange juice from the oranges we picked yesterday. We breakfasted under the thatch by the pool.

I write this looking out my window as Grace and Sarah plant eggplant and two kinds of squash while constructing a chicken proof netting out of baling twine over the garden area.

Life is Good.