Massacre at the Farm

This week, Myron finished all the stone work and re-chinking of the logs. He is completely done. Hooray!

Ghon survived the Black Thursday/Friday madness! Hooray!

A neighbor's dog killed 9 of our chickens and our rooster. Say what?

Rest in Peace, Bullseye.

About a week or so ago, Ryan was hunting on the hill, rather, attempting to hunt. He later called Ghon and told him that a dog had been zig-zagging over the mountain and through the trees, always in hot pursuit of deer. Much earlier this year, we had lost the majority of our chickens due to a dog of the same breed. We were on alert.

As a side effect of his holiday schedule, Ghon was unable to hunt on Thanksgiving, which is usually an annual event. Despite getting home late last night, he hit the tree stand this early this morning. I missed the texts, but several angry messages made their way through. Ghon had a shot on a 6-point buck, until the dog showed up and spooked the deer. He raced by several times. Ghon left the woods without a shot.

After home for a quick breakfast, Ghon took Jonathan along for manly errands, and Genevieve came with me for our shopping. On the way out, Ghon started introducing himself to our farmhouse neighbors. Ghon found the folks in the first house friendly - and knowledgeable about where the dog lives. Seems this dog is outside all the time and allowed to run free. Another dog in the home is more of an indoor dog, and contained by an electric fence.

Ghon went to the house and found a dead chicken in the front yard. There were feathers abound. Ghon knocked on the door - and no one answered. It was then that Ghon realized that the chickens were gone. His intent was to warn the owners about hunting and trapping on our property. Now, it was game over.

After slight encouragement, Ghon called the Sheriff's Department, who then contacted Animal Control. The officer talked to Ghon, got the scoop, then provided our options. First, we could press charges for the murder of our chickens, go to court and prove to the judge what happened and potentially be reimbursed, or two, have a warning issued to the owner, and if the dog came back, we could take any course of action we see fit.

Ghon chose option two.

The officer contacted the owner, issued the warning, and notified the owner that if the dog came back onto our property, that it could be killed, at no penalty to us. At that point, charges would be filed, and we still could end up reimbursed for our losses. The owner indicated that it would be contained, but according to the officer, seemed ambivalent to the entire situation.

Ghon has since notified Tim and Ryan, that the dog was fair game.

Let's hope that dog stays far away. Our smaller chickens, in their own separate enclosure were unharmed. But they don't lay eggs.

Once the call was made, Ghon and Jonathan had a little one on one time. They went to Gander Mountain, the local sportsman store, swung by Ghon's old store, and had some lunch together. Genevieve and I did all the grocery shopping, along with Pop. Ghon headed back to the woods for a little evening hunt.

The plan had been to start preparing the support timbers so we could relay the floor. I even picked up the finishing nails and nail set kit for Ghon to use. The kids and I grabbed dinner and headed to the farm, but Ghon had headed home. No work tonight. But it's getting closer!