Life and Death on the farm

It has taken me a few days to be able to really write about this. The raccoon Rob shot? Well his big brother came the next night and killed every last chick. Karma? Maybe. More like the nature of things. That does not make it easier. All my beautiful girls, dead. If it was Karma, it was on overdrive...or on this case, overkill. But you know, the world continues to turn, the sun to rise, the rain to fall. Friends, some whom I don't even know, are filling the hold. A Neighbor is giving me a pair of Banties, Ok, so Banty eggs are not my big brown lovelies, but an egg is an egg. And she is bringing us some ducks, Moscovies, the scourge of Florida, but apparently much desired in other parts of the country, like here. And a friend of hers has a hen gone broody, and will give us the chicks when they hatch. But I still mourn, and will mourn, my sweet girls.
We are also seeking Guineas...there are ticks and bugs and all sort of delicacies here for them. Rob is going to build a new coop, right off the back, going out from the door that leads to nowhere, and making it lead to somewhere, and this way *I* will be able to care for them and keep them safe. I DO feel guilty, I kept getting the urge to open the bedroom windows that night but it was cold so I didn't. If I HAD, we would have heard the ruckus and might have been able to save at least some of them. The raccoon pawprint Rob found was 2" wide and 3" long...had to be at least a 50# critter. It even tipped over the big rabbit hutch. The rabbits survived but all escaped, so we have free-range rabbits now. I REALLY need to learn to listen to my voices.
Mercury is Retrograde, cantcha tell?
And there is even more life growing...KaliKa is pregnant. the kittens Phoenix had are now almost 8 weeks and Chizzle will go to his new home on Friday. Misty purred for me this morning, and the other one, Freya, we've had to rename Loki, since She is a He.
Happy Forth of July, everyone.