Fisher, chickens, tomatoes & appetites

This morning when I woke up, I got right back to work canning tomatoes.  I heard a ruckus from the chickens & when I looked out the window I saw something dark chasing them close to the house.  I thought it was a dog, but it was shaped funny.  I thought it was a raccoon, but it was too big.  I yelled & clapped my hands and the thing stopped & looked up at me.  I said aloud, "what in the world is THAT?"  
Then it loped off-yes, I said loped.  It was a very strange looking gait-like a horse's slow lope & also sort of like an otter's gait on land. It also had a long bushy tail.  I called my dh & described it to him & he said it was a fisher.  So, I looked up youtubes of fishers & yes, it was definitely a fisher.  I didn't know they were around here & had never seen one before.  Apparently, they are quite vicious.  So, now we think we know what killed all our ducks & most of our chickens (about 20 of them).  It rips off their heads, takes the head & leaves the body.  Killing for sport? hmmm.  It never does come back for the body. So glad the dogs weren't outside at that time.
My son took a shotgun with him to do outside chores in case he ran into it.  He was going to take a 22, but my dh said that would only irritate it & then it would attack.  They are the porcupines only real predator, I learned.


After all that hullabaloo, I helped the older kids get ready & took them to church to meet the rest of youth group.  They went to a rollercoaster park for the day.  When I got back, I discovered that my remaining chickens (all 5 of them) were involved in a very serious crime.  They pecked several of my tomatoes...I should have let the fisher get them!  ;)


In other cute news, I overheard this:


My little girls were playing in a tent fort.  I gave them a snack of apple slices, raisins & nuts.  Alyssa (3) was really chowing down, so Susanna (6) said,
"Alyssa, you have a big appetite!"
And Alyssa said, "Yes, I do have a big apple slice!"
Appetite...apple slice...kind of sounds similar. lol

My life sure does give me a lot of writing material sometimes.  :)