The Adventures of the Guinea Fowl

As you know, Monday we had a big snowstorm. I let the guinea hens out of the shed, and if you remember, they flew to the truck. From there they went to the roof.

PLAN A: We tried throwing snowballs at them, to get them off the porch roof. The snow wasn't wet enough for snowballs, so we tried throwing cups of water at them (PLAN B). Here's Noah, leaning out the office window tossing water at them. They weren't bothered by it.

PLAN C: was to shoo them away with a broom. Here I am holding Noah by the ankle (so not to lose him) while he leans out on the porch roof to shoo them away. They didn't care.

We now had 4 guineas on the porch roof during the snowstorm.

PLAN D: SQUIRT GUN! Noah had great aim, but they didn't care. Now we had wet, freezing guineas up on the porch roof.

PLAN E: I grabbed a long board from up above the garage, and Noah proceeded to force them off the roof. This would surely work.

We got excited when they started to flutter, they would surely fly somewhere else!

Uh oh - this guinea didn't care, and the others took cover further up on the porch roof, tucked into a corner where they would be sheltered from the wind. I tried to lure them to me with guinea feed, but they wouldn't budge.

It was getting dark now, and it was still storming. We just couldn't get the guineas down from the roof. They are use to sleeping inside the shed, in a custom made, secure area, with a heatlamp, food and water. It was going to be a cold night (15 degrees), and I was worried they wouldn't make it. We really tried.

The next morning, I peeked on them, and they were still there; well, three of them were. My brothers-in-law came by to plow snow, and knew of my guinea dilemma. (DH was out of town). One of them came upstairs and scooped them towards himself, and grabbed them and carried them downstairs, and put them safely in the shed. One flew away, into the trees. Another brother-in-law took a big net, and caught that one. At the end of the adventure, we had three safe in the shed, and two still at large.

Later that day we saw where the other two were (they survived the cold night too), but they were so high in the trees, we couldn't get them.

Two more days and cold nights passed. Single digit cold nights. Well, good news! TODAY (Thursday) the two last guineas flew back to safety and warmth. This morning I let the pups out to potty and play, and I stepped down off the porch to go give fresh water to the 3 guineas, and to be sure they had food. One of the guineas flew right down to me, and followed me into the shed. Phew! I could hear the other one somewhere in the trees, but he wouldn't come. Later in the afternoon when I got back from picking up Noah from the bus, the last guinea was in the shed, waiting to be let into the secure area, for warmth and food.

YES! They were all chattering, happy to be back together at last. I don't dare let them out now! I will wait till DH comes home, and let him deal with it I guess. Those guineas kept me busy this week!

Wordless Wednesday

Sophie gets a time out, & I need a vacation.

As you all may know, I'm a mother of three; home full-time with the toddler and pups. I know if the puppies are quiet, I'd better check on them and find out what they are chewing on. My instincts are usually pretty good on this. I'm frequently hearing a strange sound, and asking someone in the family, 'check and see what the dogs are chewing on'. It's just what I do. I'd like to think I'm on top of things around here. When I leave the house I'm always telling Paige, make sure you know what the pups are doing AT ALL TIMES. Yes the pups have done their share of chewing, but I have saved many things from destruction by catching them in time.

Same thing goes for Miss Sophia. She likes to get into mischief when no one is watching. Every few minutes I'm searching her out, trying to find out what she's doing. When I ask her, 'whacha doing?' I know I'm in trouble when she answers "I don't know..." I don't know, means MISCHIEF AND I DON'T WANT TO TELL YOU THAT MOM!

So, about 1/2 hour ago, she was quiet. I quickly went searching. She was getting into some lotions/makeup in the girl's room. I quietly tiptoed out of the room back into the hallway, and asked, 'What are you doing Sophia?' to which she gave her reply of "I don't know..." and then she quickly closed the door that she shouldn't have been into. I then went into the room, and she was very hurriedly starting to play with her make-up, that she is allowed to play with. I asked again, "What are you doing?" She replied, "Playing with my make-up". I let her know that she was caught - I had seen her getting into the other things, and that wasn't okay. She said "Okay, I won't do it again Mom."

Not 5 minutes later she was quiet again. Back in I go, to find her creating this mess.

This is Paige's make-up chair, soaked in liquid foundation.

Puddles.

Smeared and running.

Thankfully it wasn't all over the carpet.

This is Sophia in time-out.
(notice the foundation on her face & clothes)

PUPPY POWER

Isn't this a beautiful tree topper? Yeah, mine used to look just like this. I got it at Mandy's Moon. Now it looks like this:


See the guilty party looking out the window in the background? This happened when I was sick. DH had taken the kids to see Bee Movie, and I went upstairs to take a nap while I had a quiet house. I heard a noise downstairs, and when I went to check, both pups were laying down, napping too. All was well, or so I thought... When DH and the kids got home, our tree topper was in Diesel's mouth. I think it fell down from the top of the tree when they tried to pull a bow or ornament off. :(


Then there's this:

Yeah. My new LL Bean boots. Do the dogs have plenty of chew toys you ask? Oh YES. PLENTY. But, I heard a sound... a sound that was different. I got up to see what it was, and found Diesel going to town on my boot. He snagged it from the mud room floor. I had slipped them off and left them to dry, and he just couldn't resist.

So... if you answered boot and tree topper, you were right!

DOGGIE DAMAGE - Dare to guess?

Winter Wonderland & Poor Guineas!

This picture may look black & white, but it's color. This is what we woke to, and it will snow all day into tomorrow morning. There's lots more snow to come. Schools and many other things canceled around here, it's pretty quiet. Noah's ready to head out and do some shoveling, and the pups are running around like crazy in the snow. I hope the 'Let it snow' song is a decent one, I cannot hear it. Since I got my computer back, I have no sound. I'll have to see what I can do about that!


I let the guinea hens out this morning, and they flew right to the rack on DH's truck. They've been there for awhile now, they just don't know what to do with the snow.

When we go out to shovel, we'll have to shoo them off the truck. They might as well go back inside the shed! There certainly aren't any ticks or bugs to munch on all day outside. Poor guineas!



I just heard a noise outside the office window. There are three guineas perched on the porch roof below my window. Where the other two are, I don't know. Noah tried to throw a snowball at them, to get them down, but the snow is light and fluffy and it didn't work. I must go find a way, I don't want that to be a habit for them!

What's Up?

• I'm back.
  
  
• I picked up my computer yesterday.
  
  
• Files were corrupted, new external drive is failing.
  
  
• They re-loaded computer with what info they could get (not all), but now I have to put all my software back on (big pain). I'm happy though.
  
  
• Ankle is feeling better. Since I was off my feet for a couple days w/pneumonia & bronchitis, it helped my ankle.
  
  
• Meds are gone, I'm feeling a lot better.
  
  
• Right now DH and oldest girl are in a warm place (84 degrees today), and I woke to 15 degrees. Above pic shows you the storm coming tonight and all day tomorrow. DH is glad he's somewhere warm. We're in the 12-18" range. The snow is so beautiful, I guess it will be a white Christmas.
  
  
• Had to leave church early today, Noah couldn't sit still, and Sophia couldn't be quiet.
  
  
• Christmas tree is up, and pups are eating ornaments and bows from it.
  
  
• Chinese tree topper now has no arms and lantern is gone. (pics to come)
  
  
• Picked up frozen piles of dog poo from lawn before the snow hits. Did you know it doesn't even smell when it's frozen? Pretty cool, eh?
  
  
• I wonder what the pups will think of all the snow that is coming...
  
  
• School will be closed tomorrow.
  
  
• I'm back.