Life, Death, Destruction, and Beauty on the Farm

 Yesterday, July 7th, 2017, a series of severe storms rolled through the area knocking out power, downing trees, and flooding roads.

As the storms raged on my family watched helplessly as the eggmobile began to rock back and forth in the gale.  The winds, some as strong as 60 mph proved too much for the mobile coop.  Daniel, 7, watched in horror as it rolled on to its side with about 100 chickens both inside and out.

We built the eggmobile a little over a year ago and it has served us well since.  As of this writing we are still trying to figure out how to set it back upon it's wheels.  Once that's done the repairs will begin.

Anthony and Samuel, who run the egg production, are taking the hit pretty hard.  They've invested countless hours and a good bit of money into these hens.  Anthony was wondering if things could get worse.  They can....and did.

Since the eggmobile was unusable the chickens were basically left to fend for themselves overnight.  We knew that the electric fence and the dogs would deter most larger animals like raccoons and coyotes but we also knew of one predator, sighted earlier in the week, that could wipe out all 100 chickens in a night.  This predator makes a sport of killing birds, especially chickens.  He often kills, drinks the blood and leaves his victims lined up nicely on the floor of the coop.

Last night while we slept and the chickens stood in the open field or in what shelter they could find, a mink decimated 17 of the helpless birds.  16 hens and a rooster were killed.  Thankfully, most of the hens were older and ones that needed to be culled but it's still a loss.

Life on the farm is a constant cycle of life and death.  It's something you are keenly aware of even if it is often difficult to witness.  This ebb and flow, like the ocean tide, is a way of life.  It's natural.  It's real.  It's often raw.

You realize quickly that getting angry or trying to lay blame does no one any good.  It's just the way it is.  You plan, work hard, and hope for the best.  The best often comes.  It comes more often than not.  The fact that this is a single post about tragedy among so many post that never touch that reality is a testament to the fact that we are surrounded by the best, the good, the true, and the beautiful.  It's why the tragedy stings.

The only response is to work, pray, and hope.  Worrying, being angry, or giving up are not options, they are distractions.

The eggmobile will return to it's wheels, it's a fact.   The boys will replace the chickens lost.  The dairy cows will once again mingle with the birds as they make their way back and forth across the hill as they do each year.  The event will seem a distant memory relived and retold in stories told around the fire or kitchen table.

That's the way it is on the farm.  There is life.  There is death.  There is destruction and there's oh so much beauty.




"He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.  I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live.  That each of them may eat and drink, and find satisfaction in all their toil—this is the gift of God." Ecclesates 3:11-13