The Great Rat Shootout of 2010

It was finally time to move the chickens and ducks into their new chicken house.  We had been noticing that we hadn't been getting as many chicken eggs as we thought we should be.  Upon further investigation we uncovered a rat problem.  We could tell that they had been burrowing under the old chicken house and were stealing the eggs.  Obviously, you never have just one...no, they had found the motherload and invited their friends!

We had to move the old chicken house before we could build the outside run for the new house. We knew that when we did this we would have those rats to contend with.  So, we called in the troops....Ryan's brother, Evan. 

This turned into quite the little project for these guys.  They were like two little kids plotting out how this was going to 'go down'.  First, we moved the chickens and ducks into the new chicken house.

Then, they decided that Ryan would lift up the old chicken house with the tractor and Evan would shoot the rats.  They originally decided on using my pink pistol for the job. 

Although Evan does look like a real stud with my pink gun, it didn't get the job done.  They both came walking up to me with grins on their faces (I could tell something was up) and Ryan said, "Hey, don't we still have a bag of fireworks leftover in the basement?  Go get 'em!"  Oh yeah, this sounds like a great idea!

The fireworks didn't really work either, but the kids had fun watching the show anyway.  So, it was time for a new plan of attack.  Go get the proper supplies:  a couple pops, a box of ammo and the shotgun.

Nothin' says redneck like a good rat killin with your shotgun!

Okay, back at it again.  Ryan lifts the house up while Evan gets in ready position.

This next picture is a little blurry, but it's one of my favorites.  It shows just how determined these guys were to shoot the rats.  Evan saw one on the other side of the tractor...

It took a lot of shells...

..but in the end....the score was settled..
Slater Boys 10
Rats 0

(a couple of the victims)

SWEET VICTORY!

Chicken Fund Hero Party

It is finally starting to seem a little like spring around here.  We didn't have to wear our coats today.  It was beautiful.  Maci and I took the tractor to go move some hay again when we noticed that my sister and her kids were at my mom and dad's house.  Their house is three miles from ours and only about a half a mile from where we were getting the hay.  So, we decided to give her a call and see if Cousin Brody wanted to come help us in the tractor.  He did, in fact he took the job very seriously...

After we got all of our hay moved and Quentin got home on the bus we decided that we would drive our Ranger (ATV) to take Brody back.  Quentin and Maci are trying to save money to buy 6 more chickens.    In Iowa, pop cans have a redemption value of 5 cents.  So, on our way they collected pop cans from the ditches. 

As Quentin was walking he stopped and looked kinda funny at something.  Then he said, "Huh?  A cell phone.  That's weird."  WHAT!?  A cell phone?  THAT'S MY CELL PHONE!!!  I lost my cell phone about a month ago.  The same night Ryan got his tractor stuck and I had to take him a chain.  I stood along the side of the road and took a few pictures for my blog post that night: 10 Great Years!  It must have fallen out of my pocket when I was taking pictures!  Great job, Quentin!

I had an old cell phone that I had hooked up, but it was several years old and didn't have any of my contact's numbers in it.  I thought they were all lost.  Now, what are the chances that this thing will actually work?  There was a ton of snow on the ground the night I lost it, it's snowed twice since then AND it's rained twice.  Well.....I plugged it in.....and it's charging!!!

Quentin, you're a hero!  So, we had a Hero Party for him.  He got to pick anything he wanted for supper.  He chose tacos from the Mexican resturant.  Sounds good to me!

Oh, and after we got home the kids counted out their "can money" for the chicken fund.  The total came to: $7.15 and one cell phone!  Not bad!!!

Hooray! Hooray! Today is the day!

Today was FINALLY the day that our kids got their new chicken house.  They were SO excited!  It all started last year about this time...Ryan took the kids with him to the farm store and they had their spring chicks and ducklings in stock.  The kids loved them and, of course, wanted some of their own.  So, being the coolest dad in the world, Ryan told them if they would do jobs around the house to earn money they could buy some.  Then arrived the two most helpful little kids you have ever seen!  They earned their money and we brought home 8 chickens and 4 ducks.  We had an old chicken house that was on the farm when we bought it, so my grandpa fixed it up a little and we were in business. 

We don't know anything about chickens or ducks, but I will say that we have had so much fun with them.  We had one fatality, Chicken Little died shortly after we brought them home.  Other than that everyone appears to be healthy. 

Throughout the summer my grandpa (who helped fix up the old chicken house) realized that the little chicken farmers were pretty serious about this and things were going well.  He decided that the kids needed a nicer chicken house. So, this fall he started in on the project.  He did an awesome job.  It has nesting boxes, roosts,  a window...the works.  With all the snow we've had this winter we haven't been able to get it moved from his shop in town out to our farm.  Today was FINALLY the day!  The kids were so excited.  We went to town to watch them put it on the truck...

Quentin and Great-Grandpa lead the way to our house...

they unloaded it...

Great-Grandpa put a few of the finishing touches on it...

Quentin checks out the inside again..

Two very excited kids and one proud Great-Grandpa!

We won't be able to move the chickens and ducks for a little while yet.  We need to wait until it drys up a little to get the outside fence put up, but at least it's here now.

Thanks Grandpa!