Lost Cause

Some days you just have to wonder "why?"  The front walkway was looking pretty good after the clumps of wild grass were cleared away.  Oaks have been busy covering the herb garden with a layer of mulch, but foot traffic (Bess and mine) kept the path open.  Yeah, and how's that workin' for ya?  Ginger and her two cohorts fly the coop daily and yesterday they ventured into the front garden.  I can't help myself; I love to look out the front door or windows and see chickens in the yard and hear them gossiping among themselves.  TG stopped by to give me an estimate on extending the water line to the trees.  I stepped out the door as he got out of his car.  He got as far as the walkway and said, "Wow!  Did the wind blow every leaf in the county here?"  The walk was wall-to-wall ankle-deep in leaves.  The little red hens had cleared the herb garden and scratched everything into the path.  Why do I try?

There is a success story of sorts, however.  The last few nights at bedtime, Miss Ditz has actually gone into the hen house with the flock.  It takes a bit of coaxing, and she's the very last one, but she does finally come into the pen to join up with the others.  It's not the safest thing to let the chickens free range during the day, but it was the nighttime that really had me worried.  It's been years since I've seen raccoons here, but I know they're out there.  Foxes hunt at night.  Even though she'd tuck herself in a corner on top of a bale of straw, I worried about this little girl alone in the dark.  I breathe a sigh of relief when everyone is tucked in.

Guilt ridden, I dusted.  Then I heard the tractors down the hill at Robert's for the grape harvest and watched the dust roll in.  It's a lost cause.