First Day Of the Conference

We were supposed to leave Baltimore last night to come down to Northern Virginia. We're staying at Bill and Flo's to be close to the conference in the Hyatt Dulles. We'll stay at the hotel Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. But with the Alpaca adventure yesterday, we were way too tired to drive last night. So we got up at five this morning, packed a little, and left to drive to the hotel at seven in the morning. We got there in one and a half hours. Danielle dropped Karen at the hotel, and then drove back to Baltimore to really pack and bring everything down. Karen was in the Touch For Health Board meeting all day, and Danielle was packing and driving back to Northern Virginia.

The update is that we found out what's been bothering, and eating, our chickens. Seven chickens, including Herald, our rooster, were EATEN by something. We thought it was a fox. Something broke down the coop and got our birds. We were so upset. The remaining chickens were so traumatized that they refused to come down into the main floor of the indoor coop. Just when we thought it was safe, and the remaining birds were sort of relaxing, we found out what was going after them. This morning, Jacob was woken up at three in the morning. Ruby, our red hen, was making enough racket for all the hens. He came down to the coop, and found a Raccoon had gotten in and was chasing the red hen around and around. She did NOT appreciate it. Jacob chased it out, locked the coop, and went back to bed.

Susan took care of the sheep and goats this morning. We haven't heard anything so we assume that everything is fine. Tonight, we are here at Bill and Flo's, getting ready to eat dinner, and head to bed early to try to make up for the lack of sleep from yesterday.