Lawncare

As I write this, Richard is on his way out to the front yard with his shotgun to kill a copperhead snake.


Ahhhh, life in Efland. Tonight Richard borrowed our new neighbors' riding lawnmower to try to tackle the 4 foot tall grass/weeds growing in our front yard. I was really worried that the jungle would be too much for the mower...and after a few rounds of the yard, one of the belts broke in the mower. Oops. So now, we are the neighbors whose dogs kill chickens and who destroy borrowed equipment.


So Richard gave the riding mower back to the neighbors and borrowed their push mower. Ha ha! Well at least we have a partially mowed lawn now. Which is a huge improvement! The house probably looks inhabited now, score!

Oh wait, you're probably asking yourself - their dogs kill chickens?! So, last Thursday around 3:30 Richard calls me at work to tell me the dogs have run off. Which isn't good because we've only been in this house for a few weeks & the dogs aren't used to country life. But the news got even better when Richard told me that they ran to our neighbors' house down the street and went after their chickens, killing one and mutilating another. The 9 year old boy who lives there scared our dogs off with a BB gun. Riiiiiiiiiight. So we don't see the dogs again until about 9:00 that night when Buddy somehow finds his way home. I immediately go into a panic, because in all of our dogs' escapades, they have NEVER been separated. So of course, Lil, in our minds, is dead. As I'm getting my coat to go ride around with my neighbor to find Lil's body, the 17 year old daughter of the neighbor whose chickens we recently murdered comes running up to my back door with Lil...soaking wet because it is STORMING outside. She had been driving her car when our dogs ran out in the road in front of her causing her to swerve off the road. The wonderful girl gets out of the car and scoops up Lil who is in the middle of the road having a seizure. Lil has no tags on, so Chelsea puts the strange, seizing dog in her car and heads home - realizing only as she passes our house that the dog in her car is one of the ones who she helped chase out of her chicken coop earlier in the day. So not only have our dogs killed this family's chicken but they almost killed the daughter, too. Oi! Thank goodness my mom was in town to take care of Mackey while Richard & I were panicking about the dogs. Geesh!

PS - Richard never found the copperhead after the initial siting...