It Is Officially Summer!

...And boy is it hot! Wednesday, the solstice, was about 95 degrees. It's been that way ever since. Right now though, we are having a wonderful thunderstorm, it has cooled things down about 20 degrees.

I see bread and butter pickles happening in the near future...

                                                                                                                                                              The garden is growing, and the chickens are all getting along. I spent a good amount of time ( I won't say how long!) laying on my lawn today watching them do their chicken things. It's great!!

One from the original flock and one from the new group....

Can't We All Just Get Along???

Adding the 5 new comers to the existing flock was not without it's problems! A few bullies emerged ( my two white rocks) and because of this, one of my new buff orpingtons obtained a bloodied rear end. We brought her in for the night, and then coated her almost non-visible wound with blue-kote and sent her back in the next day.

almost done!

All 10 of the chickies

 And now, after a week, everyone is getting along. Also, we are done with all of the structural building on the coop and run. We spent 6 hours yesterday putting up the posts and chicken wire. Joe will make the door today. The chicks are all about 7 and 9 weeks now, and are better than watching TV! We bought a pair of Adirondack chairs and have the set up facing the run...

Peaches having a treat

We Doubled Our Chickens....

My original order of chicks was for six. Two White Rocks, and 4 Aracaunas. After much nursing, one of the Aracaunas did not make it, and for some reason, I just felt that 5 chickens was not enough, so Joe gave me the go ahead to replace sick chick. I replaced sick chick with 5 more! We picked them up this weekend from Empire Acres farm, and so far, so good. No major fights, just a little bosy rudeness. ...Because really, what could be better than 5 chickens.....but 10 chickens!


We added 2 8 week old Buff Orpingtons, an 8 week old Aracauna and a pair of 6 week old Barred Rocks. It's funny though, my six week old girls are about as big as the new 8 week olds...and the new six week olds look tiny...apparently I have some fat spoiled chickens!

On My Two and a Half Acres....

....I have a house, and it keeps me warm and dry and safe. On my two and a half acres I have a garden. In it, I grow wholesome food to fill my stomach. On my two and a half acres I have flowers, some wild, some I planted. There are also trees, of all kinds, including sugar maples, which I tap for their sweet sap to turn into amber syrup. On my two and a half acres I now have a hen house, which houses 10 chickens. They will give me fresh eggs to bake beautiful things with. On my two and a half acres I have all of these things, and they also have me. I care for them, and I am repaid in kind. There are also things on my two and a half acres that you can not see, like the smell of the grass in the spring time, or all of the quiet nighttime sounds that float through my window. On my two and a half acres I am happy.

          

Just Another Rainy Day

When I know it's going to rain a bunch, I make sure to bring flowers inside

      Yesterday it rained, and that's all it did today. I've got plenty of things I'd like to be doing outside, like working in the garden, or maybe just getting a little tan, but that was not meant to be this weekend. The good thing about this dreary weekend is that it forced me to do a bunch of the inside chores I had been putting off for many weeks. It also gave me the chance to bake some bread and make soup. Nothing warms you up on a rainy day like hot soup and homemade bread!

Potato Leek soup: In progress

my squat loaf of english muffin bread

Rainy days are good days to hang out with the chickens too

June 1st Photos

making some progress on the chicken coop

tree frog

the peas are making progress too!