My neighbour and I also lost chickens the same way you did. They have the best chicken house and run a person could wish for. They blamed another neighbours dog for taking the head off the chicken - no way it could have gotten into the run and this dog would go in my chicken house with me and sit in my yard with the chickens/ducks wandering around it. This dog got killed on the highway and a few days later, I had a chicken killed with just it's head gone. I searched on the net and on this site and the suggestions were, coon, mink (which we have on the beach) or weasle. I gave my mother hen and 8 baby chicks to my daughter, who has a 9 acre farm a few klms north of us. She had the perfect little house for her, a run that was fenced in with a wire roof over the top of the whole run. The grandson and I dug down and put crumpled wire all around the bottom of the cage wire. She was very very safe. My daughter phoned one morning, the hen was dead. Some animal had dug under the front of the little house and had """ chewed """ the plywood that was into the ground, facing towards the run, there was a good size hole and "Henny's" head was gone. I know how you feel loosing your friend but there will be another to take it's place. Good Luck with your chickens.

I certainly don't want to make more work for myself - I've already ordered insanely dark hardwood (think: dust), but in my defense, have bought hand scrapped, low luster (will withstand abuse and foot prints)! If the floor wasn't so dark, I'd be willing to try the darker version of the carpet. Maybe I'll get a small one that I roll up whenever the kids are around - hahaha! Or for that -oh-so-soft feeling, might be easier to buy a pair of fussy slippers. I've had no luck with dense, cut pile type area rugs - seem to show lint. And my current one (a sisal type) is nice, but stuff gets ground into the grooves (no, my kids are too young to be trusted around a carpet. Heck, I can't be trusted around it!) Hmmm.....no rug would be an option except that one daughter uses the ottoman as a toy and pushes it around the room (worried about scratching the floors excessively).

My3dogs, I saw the red - but that is out as I can't stand anything red in my bedding. :-) The wheat might be an option but still quite expensive even at that price. Chispa, I couldn't care less about name brands, it's just that this is the only one I ever touched that felt SO good. Again, most nice merchandise is not touchable, everything seems to be online. Trust me, if Wallmart or anyone else had something feeling that great, with THOSE materials (cotton, silk), I would jump on it - as "evil" as they are. :-) Trouble is you won't find those kinds of things at Wallmart or anywhere Big Box and everything else seems to be on the Internet. This is why I asked about an equivalent from the cyber space.

Join the Club I have a 50 ft one on the right side fence and a 15ft one about 5ft from the left side fence and us in the middle have none . The neighbours seem to think that just because our blocks are 3/4 acres they can plant anything, they have got no idea. They might be a native but they should be banned unless you want to plant one in the middle of a few acres, here they are brittle and the branches as always falling, and when flowering everything is covered in orange and seedlings pop up everywhere months later like now as we are finally getting some rain. I dont know if their roots do any damage but in a small area I should imagine they would. The only good thing about them is they shed heaps of leaves here in the Spring which I use for mulch. Why anyone would want to plant a tree that grows to 100ft in the wild in suburbia is beyond me I do realise they don't get to that height though they get high enough. I would do something about it now before its too late. I still cannot work out why anyone would want to plant any tree that close to the house let alone close to two, seems they have nothing between the eyes mate. Try having a word with the Tenants or the owner if possible because if he know he may get sued for damages down the track I bet he will get it chopped down now...Cheers..MM.