A Nice Summer Evening

The other night Casey and I were stacking hay in our hay loft.  Our neighbor saw us and came over to help.  That’s what I love about the Midwest.  People lend a hand without being asked, and without asking for anything in return.  We have had an abundance of eggs lately, so we gave him some farm fresh eggs and then sat on the flat bed trailer talking and drinking lemonade.  Everyone was outside, including Guinness, who was stalking the chickens.  With Guinness outside, Sam was busy patrolling the area and ran interference when Guinness was ready to pounce on a chicken.  After several unsuccessful attempts of slaying a mouthwatering chicken (thanks to Sam), Guinness just laid down in the grass and observed…probably imagining what he would do to those chickens if Sam wasn’t there to keep him in line.  I love watching our animals and their interactions with one another whether it's Remi pinning her ears at the chickens who are wanting to eat some of her food, to Guinness intently watching the chickens, to Sam keeping Guinness from attacking the chickens, we stay pretty entertained.  Come to think of it...the chickens are usually at the center of whatever kerfuffle arises at our place.  They are moody creatures, very particular about their pecking order, and have to know everything that goes on througout our tiny little farm.  Even when Casey is working on the lawn mower, he usually has chickens all around him, hopping on and over him, curious about what he is doing.  When we pull into the driveway, they come running up to the car to see if we have anything interesting for them.

On this particular evening Casey was a little curious about what I was doing, laying on the ground and snapping photos with my camera, but he also knows that I always am looking at the world with some sort of art project in mind, so he just smiled and shook his head.   Here are some of the photos I snapped:

Guinness thinks he is so sneaky, silently
watching the suspicious chick in the
doorway of the barn...



One of our growing chicks and
frequent victims of Guinness's
stalking attempts



Fortunatly, there's Sam.
He takes his job seriosly and
keeps Guinness from pouncing...