Goodbye little lady!

We lost one of our Barred Rock hens to a predator today.  We're suspecting a hawk given marking in the snow on the roof of the coop that look like a large bird landed there, and no tracks in the snow to indicate a raccoon/opossum.  I didn't see the body.  Honeybunch said it wasn't pretty.  He managed to dig a grave in the frozen ground beneath the fig tree, not far from where little Cerberus was.  It's a sad day.  There's not much we can do to prevent this from happening.  We don't want to fence the girls in to a 5 sided jail cell, and we can't put up bird netting over the whole yard.  It's just the price you pay for raising them free range.  I'd rather that she had a good 9 months of living as a free bird than 5 years of living in a small fenced pen.

We're in the process of getting pre-approved for the financing we need to buy the farm.  If all goes well, we should be in a position to make an offer on Sunday, should we decide to do so.  It's terrifying, but exciting.