The chicken saga continues: After dealing with raccoon attacks all summer long, we finally got the problem of him thinking the coop is a fast food stop solved. I found tooth marks on one of the latches, but the coop remains closed each morning when I check on it.

Maybe we really scared him off for good when we chased him around the backyard in our jammies about a month ago! The quieter of the two hens that are left had gone into the pool to get away from the predator and the other hen was under the raccoon in the middle of the lawn. I went for the coon with no weapon in hand, just my hands.

My oldest hen is about 26 weeks old and I just found her first egg last night! I knew she was getting to that age range, but wasn't sure she'd be laying as the weather is turning colder now. Anyway, I opened the coop last night and Roxy went in and immediately found the egg. The girls had already pecked it open and she started licking out the insides as fast as she could.

Now that I know at least one of them is laying, I'll look out for eggs every day and hopefully find them before the hens eat them. It might help if I put a wooden egg in the laying box; they won't be able to peck it open, and they'll be encouraged to lay in the spot I made for them to lay! (I guess John was right about them not realizing the boxes were for that purpose.)

Ben's Home!

The time to get Ben has come and gone, and I have failed to blog anything about the whole experience. Let me just say this: It was wonderful!

Someone asked me if I cried when I saw him. No! I squealed like a little girl on Christmas morning and ran to give him a hug. (He could hug me because I'm his mom!) Actually he hugged both of his sisters too, then his dad (that's legal).

He took us on a tour of the Gudalajara. It was great to meet people he'd known and worked with during the past two years. Most of them wanted to feed us or give us drinks or something. Some of them asked us to come back so they could barbecue for us. It was obvious that they felt a deep love for our son! I found myself close to tears many times.

So now, he's back! We are once again a family of five and loving every minute of it! (Love you, Ben!)