Wake

Yesterday I was in a somber mood pretty much the entire day as a result of the chicken ordeal.  My conscience is really weighed down by the knowledge that I could have done things to prevent the chickens demise.  After talking to my neighbor who also had chickens and also had them killed, I am thinking the odds of it being raccoon(s) or a fox are about 50/50.  She said racoons got hers and that they just want to kill the chickens but not necessarily eat them.  Our chickens were not eaten.

After work last night I stopped at Home Depot and bought several clasp style hinges that would have easily prevented access to the coop on Saturday night.  I plan to back it up further by using small caribiners through the hole to prevent rotation.  Two clasps will go on each door.  I’m even considering a wire rig that I could attach to the ramp to easily raise it at night giving chickens a near bullet proof safe haven. Of course if I had proactively taken these steps the chickens would still be here today, a fact that will continue to haunt me for the forseeable future.

I need to try to refocus myself as this weekend is Alison’s 5K for the Humane Society, our third largest 5K we do each year.  There are a lot of moving parts to this race and the course geography is far from ideal with the start and finish lines being close to a 1/2 mile apart.  The running club has just obtained a dedicated golf cart which we will be utilizing heavily for the event to compensate for the distance.

Tonight I am attending a post half marathon meeting to discuss the various breakdowns we had at the event.  It should be an interesting session.