Alaska's Perks

The best perk of living in Alaska is not the wonderful weather, spectacular scenery, the annual PFDs, or the wildlife. The best perk Alaska offers is being close to family. I am still amazed  how God worked this out for our Air Force family, which was dropping children, one by one,  around the lower 48.

Monday, Stacia and I went to BreZaak's to watch Gideon and Bella. Bre had a dental appointment and then they went out for lunch. Josiah was visiting at the house - he, Michael and Alex dropped by as well. Josiah helped Stacia and Gideon make an awesome fort. The kids spent the rest of our time together playing in the fort!

Arielle has a great job working for a post-partum specialist. She works 3 days a week and can take Benny. They have discovered he does well for 2 days, but 3 days in a row is a bit much. Cory has been promoted to management at Freddies and is no longer able to keep Benny on Tuesdays. I get to watch him. We come upstairs in the afternoon and find other people to play with too.

Benny does his best to help Auntie with Hiragana.

He is Grandpa's shadow....

Monday, Michael and Alex had completely cleaned out the coop. They checked for holes, rats nests - anything to explain what happened to Trusty on Saturday. No answers. 

Tuesday morning I noted several of our chickens now have missing feathers - not just Rosie. Tuesday afternoon, Michael found two hens DEAD in the coop. Various parts of them had been eaten. It was gross and they didn't tell me until AFTER Bible Study that evening.  They did another complete sweep and search of the coop.  There are no prints in the snow (there have been in the past), no hair in the coop, no signs of a predator. They noted an aggressive Easter Egger hen had no missing feathers or wounds.....they isolated her. She is now living in a cage on top of my freezer in the garage.  We have lost 3 hens in 3 days. 

Our research shows this sort of injury (sparing you the graphic details and photos) is caused by weasels, mink, ermine or CANNIBALISM.  We suspect this hen has turned on her flock mates. We are watching to see what happens in the next couple of days. 

Yuuki is happy one of the humans have finally discovered the joys of resting in the sun. LOL 

For those who have asked....Yuuki is nearing 14 years old according to the vet. There have been several times we've thought the end was imminent - but she continues to rally. I do make all her food for her now - she can't handle the processed food from the vet or pet stores.