Dead Opossums and Candlelight

I've always said our chickens are, well, lacking in the brains department. They just don't seem very bright. There's one, though, who kind of always cracks me up. I can't usually distinguish her from the other buffs we have, except that she likes to fly the coop every. single. day. I refer to her as Ms. Sassypants. She just struts around the yard, doing her chicken thing. When I go down to feed and water them she calmly allows me to usher her into the coop like it was a part of her plan all along and she's doing me a favor.

So last night, we saw a trio of deer crossing the road in front of our house. I opened the blinds all the way, in order to see them better. About 10 minutes later a large bird flew right into the window! I ran over and saw Ms. Sassypants on the front porch. Thinking it was weird for her to be out at sunset, I hurried downstairs, threw on a coat and my wellies, and made for the front yard. I glanced over at the coop as I jogged by and saw that 2 other chickens were roosting on top of the fencing that surrounds their coop. I knew then that something was up, but I hurried to get Ms. Sassypants, first. When I got to her she was perched on top of the back of one of the chairs that sits directly in front of the livingroom window, peering in. She did't so much as flinch as I picked her up and made my way back to the coop. Ben had just pulled in and was standing in the back, waiting for me. I came around his car and saw what had all the girls in a tizzy; an opossum was crouched in the coop yard. I won't go into specifics, but we served him an eviction notice, calmed the girls down (one had been huddled in a nesting box the entire time) and praised Ms. Sassypants for her intelligence and bravery in coming to the big house to get help. I won't be so quick to belittle their intelligence from now on.

Thinking we'd had our share of adventure for the day, we were surprised when the electricity went out. Luckily, it was after dinner and all we were doing was watching Harry Potter for the millionth time. But when 10 minutes passed with no change, we knew it could be a while. We lit a bunch of candles, rounded up all the flashlights, and finally got to put Ben's new lantern to the test. Eventually, we realized there was nothing to do but head for bed. We made the boys a nest on our floor, read a story by candlelight, and settled in. Then the lights came back on.

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Oh, and next time, I'll be sure and light unscented candles. *cough* *gag*

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