Fire, death and disaster
I saw the smoke a mile before I got home.
There were the folks at the little car lot on Silica Sand, feeding a fire in what used to be a garage. Their actions were obviously purposeful, but the building was gone and a burned-out van was next to it.
Then I got home, and checked the chickens. Two broilers dead, of natural causes, one on the small side. Coccidiosis, most likely. I recalled that we'd started them on leftover turkey feed (non-medicated) then gone to (non-medicated) meat maker, and they'd been on the same litter for 4 weeks. Duh! Picked the corpses up with a feed bag, threw them outside and eventually into the trash. They were the size of Cornish Game Hens...worth plucking if they weren't dead already, but the idea of eating something dead of god-knows-what is pretty trayf, even for a goy like me. Even worse than roadkill, somehow.
Rusty was gone, and right after I finally got around to calling her, she came come. She'd had a tragedy of her own...the VCR didn't get the end of Lost, so she had to go to a girlfriends'.
So there was no dinner, and no inclination to cook any. So out we went. I took her past the fire, and since we were headed that way, off to Cals.
Coming back, on the road to Nelson, a mushroom of black smoke to the left. It was late and I had crisis practice to do for a concert Sunday, but we went to check it out. 2 story house in the woods, totally engulfed. We did out distance rubbernecking, and turned to home. Stopped by the first fire to chat. The place had actually burned Monday night, and I had passed it THREE TIMES since then, and not noticed. I've been doing rectal-cranial yoga a lot, and it's been dark in the morning, but I was pretty flaming oblivious. I remembered that I'd heard sirens, and not far away, but I was in bed by then. The owners suspected arson. We'd had the big dairy barn fire at Klingensmiths, which was set, so everyone is suspicious.
This morning, one small chicken was flopping around, passed a turd that looked like its whole digestive system, then went to eat. Not laying bets on survival. Tomorrow I get different food and a coccidiostat, and probably finally put them out of range. I also need to do a spring clean in the layer house; it's pretty strong in there.
Stopped by the house on Hopkins Rd. on the way to work. It's still standing, incredibly, a 2 story hulk. There's what looks like a newly-taped "no trespassing" sign on a tree, and a couple not-burned cars. I didn't get a close look, as I WAS trespassing by sitting in the driveway.
Poor devils.
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