The Girls

Chloe and Annie aka the girls. They have grown so much since we brought them home in June. They are now mostly outdoor kitties, and they live in the garage. They have both become great mousers. Annie is a love bug, when I got outside in the morning she climbs up on me until I pet her, she doesn't care if I am putting on my shoes, petting her is the most important thing.  Chloe is more aloof, but the moment you pet her she will start purring. They will both follow me around outside "helping" with what I'm doing. They come when called, yes I know that sounds funny, but they do. I am so glad that we brought them home, and they are apart of our lives.

Emmy

She turned 18 this summer.

The Garden, plus a dog

My New Girls

The girls will be two this year and that means that it is time to start getting ready to replace them. No we won't be getting rid of the older girls, we are just adding to what we have, eventually they will stop laying all together, and then they will live out there lives as pets. The older ones have already slowed down on laying and right now they aren't laying anything at all, so I stopped by the farm store (4th trip) and drooled over the new little girls. I couldn't take and it anymore and I bought 16 chicks (90% that they are all girls) now we get to start over by getting out the stock tank again and once mid may hits we can turn them out with the big ones.

This time I bought 4 different varieties. I couldn't just decide on one. Last time I bought the Buff's and Rode Island whites, this time I bought Rode Island Reds, Buff and two others. I didn't buy the Sex Link's again. I wanted to try out a couple new breeds instead.

Orpington, these are one of my most favorite. They fall into the medium production for laying and produce large brown eggs. They will turn into large fluffy brown hens, with attitude. I love attitude.

Plymouth Rock

Rhode Island Red

Ameraucana I bought two of these, really just for fun. They lay a medium blue/green egg.

Gracie

September 27, 1998 to January 1, 2011

This was our Gracie dog, I always joked that she was my replacement since we got her December before I got married. She was an awesome dog and will be missed so much. She loved to chase birds, rabbits, really anything at all, and her favorite thing to do was to go with you. She loved going in the boat, to go hunting all of it. You couldn't have asked for a better dog.

The Kittens

Goose is the black one and Zoey is the white one.

They are adorable and are such good kittys.

I keep hinting  to Hubby (okay more like telling him) that I would like a kitten too, and he keeps saying no. Really I don't have time for one right now, and even if he said yes I wouldn't get one, but they are just way to cute!!

I feel for her....

The boys thought it was fitting that it was shaped like a football.

This one is just ouch....

Compared to our "normal" eggs which are normally on the big side already.

The Girls..... an update

The girls started out giving us one or two eggs a day, then they upped it to four and now we are at ten a day. At first they weren't keeping up with my need, but now I have more than I need. It looks like I need to start calling friends and family asking if they want to buy some fresh eggs. I will have to support this habit somehow.

The fresh eggs have a totally different smell and taste than the ones you get at the store. I have found that my cookies, cakes, etc.... they taste so much I don't want to say better but fresher, they just have a little bit different flavor and it is a good thing (not that they weren't good to begin with, I wasn't getting any complaints) It is just once you start baking/cooking with ingredients that are so fresh it truly makes a difference. It is all in the ingredients. I am really looking forward to trying out some new recipes, I have several quiches in mind.

Deer

These are some of the bad deer that we have around here. These weren't in my yard, but they were only about 3/4 of a mile from it. I love the fawns though they are just so cute!! We saw these deer almost everyday when on our way home from swim lessons. It was about 11 in the morning.

Chickens……an update

The girls are doing well though I ended up with three roosters. Now we need to get rid of them. I don't want my own chicks they are a pain, and you don't need a rooster to get eggs. Plus roosters can be mean, and they are just loud and annoying. One of them found their voice and has started calling, luckily they are away from the house enough that it shouldn't wake us until we can decide what to do.

The Chick House

Well it's done, and I am so excited. The house was completed yesterday so the girls spent the night out there, and today the fence is done. It looks great so much better than I could have ever hoped for. We didn't have building plans I just said that I wanted it to look like a house with a pitched roof and this is what I got. We can even put on gutters if we wanted too..... it is just amazing. It does still have a few details that need to be completed, like paint and roosting bars, but all those things will be get done soon enough.

Thank you H so much for all your hard work on the house. It is wonderful. I love it.

Eagle

The other day we noticed an Eagle sitting in the tree across the road from our house. He/she was perfectly content just watching us.

Chicken Problems

The girls are still in the stock tank in our shop. The house is almost done we just need doors and to put up the outside fence and they can move out of the stock tank and into there permanent home. Which I am really looking forward too. The shop has started to smell of chickens even though the tank gets cleaned out every few days.

So this evening I went out to feed and water, and found that two had gone missing. They had somehow uncovered the netting from over the tank and had jumped out. I really figured one of the cats had gotten them and even if they hadn't I didn't figure we would get them back. But after two hours of looking and doing other outside chores we found one. Then about an hour later we herard the other one out in the orchard. After luring her back with one of the other girls they are safe and sound. I am really hoping we get the house done this coming week.

The Girls and the “Chick” House

The girls have grown so much in a week and a half. They are still cute but they are starting to take more of a chicken look on. I am really looking forward to getting them out of the shop and into the new house. The stock tank is getting small fast.

Here is where the "chick"* house is so far. It looks great. We will have a door on both ends so it will be easy to get into the outside pen. The outside pen will be 12x20 with a top (predators). Now I need to figure out the really important part. What color to paint it?? Any ideas?

*#2 has started calling it the chick house instead of hen house, it is way cuter.

Crazy Chicken Lady

I am officially the crazy chicken lady. On Friday I had to go to the local feed store to get spray, and they still had baby chicks. I told the boys that they could look but we weren't getting any. On the way home we stopped by the shop and they (me having nothing to do with it) begged hubby to have some chicks. After almost 10 years of marriage he agreed!! I was stunned to say the least and we didn't have enough time to turn around it was lunch time and #3 needed his nap. So we went and picked them up later Friday afternoon, before hubby could change his mind. I have to say they are adorable.

Now we are getting ready to build the hen house. We have a rough idea of what we want and our good friend is going to do all the work for us. The house will be 6 x 8 with nesting boxes and doors on each end. Then a 10 x 20 outside run for them. It would be nice if they could just roam but were we live I wouldn't have chickens for very long.

I will post pictures of our house when we get started on it but for now here are girls.