That looks a little painful.

Today we had another round of hay bale jumping. This time the daughter of one of John's friend joined us. We also rode and drove 4 wheelers. So very fun. But the coolest thing that happened had to do with the chickens. Abby, this might not be a post for you.

(The chicken coop is the building in the middle. View from the road)

I was waiting for John and the kids to come back from their 4 wheeler adventure and was wandering around taking photos. I watched the chickens squawking and running for the hen house when I noticed this low flying bird behind the chickens. Some of the chickens were flying but this was bigger, much bigger and flying faster. Then a poof of white feathers everywhere. I then realized that the bigger bird was a hawk. My first response was to grab my camera and start shooting but quickly realized that I only had my 50mm and the birds were at least 150 feet or more away and I wasn't going to get anything. So I started running hard. The hawk looked up and the chicken got away but the hawk immediately flew to a flock that was trying to hide in the hay bales. I ran over there too. My legs burned. The chicken had tried to buried into the hay bales when the hawk grabbed it with it's talons. I rushed over and had an up close view of the hawk. I raised my camera up and it spread it's wings and soared into the pine trees to wait for another opportunity with the chickens. I started shooting but the bird flew towards the sun and all I got were rays. John came driving over on the 4 wheeler and I jumped on suddenly the hawk soared over the field and the kids started chasing it. The chickens had taken cover and there was nothing to entice the hawk this time. It flew into the same clump of trees and we haven't seen it since. All the chickens have gotten away today but whether they are going to survive is another story. I didn't see the chickens for the rest of the day. It was like being in a discovery movie. it was really the coolest thing I have ever seen.

I saw on the pioneer woman website where she photographed her kids doing something like this but I think her photos were cooler. She was laying on the ground and the kids were jumping over her.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

( I am sure John's brother started this. I think that he likes to remind John that he maybe younger but he's bigger.)

John's brother, lives in town and came out this morning for the day. We started off with a wrestling match before breakfast and then those two went into town for food stuff at Costco.

The kids and I met them coming home on our little run. The kids jumped into the back of his pickup (because everyone here has one) and rode back to the homestead. After lunch, the kids (including John and Kevin) headed out to the hay field for a little target practice and hay bale jumping.

Finally home for a game of settlers and then bed. Oh, and in all of this Ethel cooked an extremely large turkey and about 50 cups of stuffing today. Somehow there are 50 people showing up at the grange she rented for Thanksgiving, not by her choice. I think that her stepdaughter hijacked the event and invited her mother and family to this event. Weird.