And then I had a fairly typical morning.
5.15 Wake up to the mournful sound of a hen who wants to be let out of her coop. Close my eyes and try and ignore it.
5.17 Mournful sound from Annie has now become a wail, and has been joined by voices from one of the other coops. I keep my eyes closed, and hope that they will give up.
5.20 I get up, put my dressing gown on, and stomp downstairs. Find the door key, unlock the door, and open it. Deathly quiet. I wait for a moment, and shut the door.
5.21 It starts again.
5.21& a few seconds, I open the door and march out to the coops. I hiss "sssssshhhhhh" to each coop, and have to resort to opening the pop hole of the Evacuee coop and sticking my head in to say "SSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH" to the originator (Annie)
5.23 I stand by the coops waiting for them to open. It feels like minutes have ticked by.
5.23 and a few seconds, one coop opens and 7 girls spill out making a racket. "Sssssssshuuut up! " I hiss.
5.23 and a few more seconds, wailing emanates from the Annie, the original noisemaker in the Evacuee coop, as she is still shut in.
5.24 The third coop, reasonably quiet till now, join in.
5.24 I bang on the Evacuee coop roof and hiss "shut up shut up shut up, you'll wake the neighbours" . They shut up.
5.24 and a few more seconds, I walk to the 3rd Cube (wth the 3 youngsters and Phyllis in) and do the same. They shut up.
5.24 The Evacuee cube starts again. It still hasn't opened. Thinking about tomorrow, I swipe the opener with a magnet (to fix the opening time for tomorrow). I go to the Youngsters Cube and do the same (so they open at the same time as each other tomorrow). I then go back to the Evacuee Cube and manually unpin and open the door. 5 girls stream out, complaining loudly at the lack of service.
.
5.25 The lot who were out already join in with the complaining.
5.25 and a bit, I go and let out the Youngsters. They come out REALLY whingeing. I threaten everyone with being shut in solitary confirnement in wooden nest boxes (but realising I can't do that today as it's too hot for them)
5.26 I go back to the house, go to the toilet, then go back to bed. At least I'll have an hour before they start whingeing to be let out of the runs into the garden. If I get back to sleep quickly, I'll get a decent amount of sleep.
5.35 I'm lying in bed, trying to work out if the chattering is an acceptable level of noise.
5.36 I tell myself that I need to go to sleep, otherwise it'll be too late to go to sleep. I isten to the radio, I listen to the chickens.
5.50 A chorus of wailing erupts. I get up, open the window, and all is suddently quiet. Butter wouldn't melt in their little beaks.
5.51 I get back in bed.
5.53 The wailing starts. I lie in bed wondering if it really travels as much as I think. And next door's back bedrooms are occupied by kids, surely they'll sleep through it?
5.54 The wailing reaches a crescendo. I get up. Open the window, the noise continues. I put my dressing gown on, stomp downstairs, and go into the garden.
5.55 I open the doors to both runs and the Girls stream across the lawn, chattering in glee. The original wailer, Annie, starts wailing again. I try to catch her, and fail.
I'm getting a bit fed up at this point, and decide I'll take them to the allotment and if they get stolen it's good riddance. I point to each of the noisiest girls and tell them my plans. They ignore me.
5.56 I get back into bed with my dressing gown on. DH stirs, asks why I've left my dressing gown on. I tell him it's the ideal time for a fox to come, and every second counts in that instance.
6.00 Someone lays an egg (on the grass, I later discovered) and decides to announce it. I pretend to be asleep, hoping DH will get up. DH is asleep and doesn't hear anything.
6.02 The egg announcement stops. I try and sleep but find myself in the usual half doze, where I'm listening for trouble.
6.04 A spat breaks out between one of the Evacuees and someone. I pretend to be asleep.
6.30 One of the Girls is at the fence under the window, calling. I ignore it. I doze off.
7.15 Woken by the noise of alarmed chickens. Leap out of bed. It's not a fox (the calling isn't that level of panic), so I open the window. Something has set them off, they are pointing in the same direction,
Run downstairs. Get to the back door to see Thunderpaws (a massive, long haired, blue cat who terrorises our cats and makes the fence shake when s/he leaps on and off) strolled past. S/he didn't see me.
7.16 I open the door and chase Thunderpaws, and s/he runs out out of the garden. I hear some strange motorised noise that I can't place. It's not a chainsaw. It's not a car or bike or boat. It's a really weird sound. I go back through the house to the front door, to see if I can hear it better from the front, or work out what it is. It's even louder out the front, and it's a horrible sound. I can't place it. It's really annoying. What an anticocial thing to do on a Sunday morning! I'm farting around trying to keep my chickens quiet, and this is going on!! This is what's unsettled them!!! (well, it's this unsettling them today anyway).
7.17 As I turn to go in, I see a pair of yellow eyes watching me from under a bush on the driveway. It's Thuunderpaws! S/he realises s/he's been spotted, and saunters off. I'm sure her back legs and tail did the feline equivalent of a V sign as she sashayed away.
7.18 I feed the cats.
7.20 I debate whether to stay up or go back to bed. Normally I'm having this debate at 6.30am, but today I'd let the girls out at 6 so it was too early to stay up. I know that if I go back to bed, I'm going ot be staying in bed until mid morning.
7.21 I get back in to bed. DH wakes up and asks whats happened. I try and go back to sleep.
7.30 I listen to the news.
7.40 I pretend I can't hear the chickens.
8.00 DH has to get up, and asks if I want a cup of tea. I say yes.
8.45 I wake up to find a cold cup of tea by my bed. I drink it anyway.
9.15 I get up.
