Those Damn Chickens!

Everyone knows that I love my chickens.  We have 3 beautiful hens, Zebra, Molly, and Rhodey.  They have a large coop and we let them out every afternoon to walk around the yard eating bugs and taking their "dirt baths".

Today, I cooked some grits for them to have, along with their regular chicken feed.  They love grits so I thought it would be a nice treat for them.  I headed out to the coop, opened the door and things just went downhill from there.

All three of them were siting at the top of the coop on these rafter-like boards.   When I opened the door, all three of them flew right at my face.  I hit the ground fast and they just missed me.  They actually had the nerve to look at me like I had scared THEM.  But, they commenced their bug-hunting and I sat down to watch them and draw a little.  Here are some rough sketches.  I've never drawn a chicken before.  It's obvious that I need to work on it.

After about an hour, it was time to get them back in the coop.  Usually, I just get behind them, waving my arms, saying "BACK IN THE COOP" in a very low, firm voice.  But no........today, they were not going back into the coop.  Those chickens ran around like little maniacs.  They would get near the door, acting like they were going in, only to take a sharp left and start running.  Now usually anytime I see my chickens running from behind I crack up.  There is nothing funnier than to see a chicken run.  But today - not so funny.  I tried everything.  I was chasing them while waving long sticks in both hands.  I started building barricades in an attempt to block them.

While I was frantically trying to round them up, it reminded me of something my husband told me a long time ago.  He said that Mike Tyson used to train by chasing chickens and trying to catch them.  I thought that was just horrible.  How mean, chasing poor little chickens.  Well let me tell you.  Chickens can hold  their own.  It's not that they are really that fast.  It's that they can cut left, right, and spin around better than any NFL running back.

The sun was starting to go down and I was almost in tears.  I can't just leave them out because I am way to fearful and neurotic for that.  I would have visions all night of them being grabbed by hawks, mauled by foxes, or raped by a roving band of roosters from the wrong side of the tracks.  I had to keep going.  I couldn't give up.  FINALLY, I got them in.  After closing the coop door and walking toward my house, I swear that their cackling sounded a lot like laughter.

Here's a couple things that I have worked on:

This is the corner of my bedroom.  The black thing on the wall above the TV is a stand that the old TV used to sit on.  My husband really should remove it!

I'm trying to get used to the Prismacolor pencils. (I also can't seem to get my eyes at the same height)

I was in a little crafty mood and covered my clipboard with paper and washi tapes.

I was practicing shading faces with the colored pencils (from Suzi Blu's Mixed Media Girls)

Whats there to say - a girl in a turtleneck.

Another girl face.  I like the shading in this one.