Great things to start the day with....

A bucket of love...

The mother's day gift I received from my Mother-in-law...

A beautiful yellow Iris.....

The even prettier blue Iris...

Fragrant trees...

A Dove sitting on a line outside my patio....

Sweet little birds that can get by the Grackles...

The vibrant blue of a feathered visitor...

A cool mistake with my camera...

Yellow best friends...

The wild eye of a bully bird...

May Days

As much as I have lamented over the never ending rain lately it has brought us the blessing of GREEN. I missed the fullness of the trees and the green hill in front of my house during the winter. It is always amazing to me that we can hand water a plant for months and it will drudge along and stay alive but give it one good rain and it flourishes as if it has been touched by God Himself.



We did have a clear day in which I tried to do as much as possible. The jungle of a lawn was mowed to a respectable length, the patio was cleared off, and I pruned back this bush. It started out to just be a clean up for the thing but when I got underneath it I realized that it was choking itself to death so I cut it all the way back. This pile of branches is to be my learning tools. I want to learn to wattle and thought about how pliable these are, the rain has kept me from getting to them too much and I am hoping at the same time it is keeping them from getting dry and brittle.

The work continues for turning the stall into a hen house. My original plan keeps growing and now we are renovating two stalls. One will be the hen house and the other will be a supply room/infirmary/holding area. They connect now by a door cut into the stall wall.

Dixie is not thrilled about all of the banging and tools but it does not stop her from napping in there when I am off doing other things. Here is her innocent look as she stretches on her way out of the Hen stall.

Here is Sunny standing down after a romp with the Barn Swallows. They irritate her as much as she irritates them but I am thinking both sides are now enjoying the chase and banter.

The big girls have had a bee in their bonnets with all of the rain. They try to stay to higher ground, like the outside roosts, in order to keep from being knee deep in mud. *note to self: fix the mud problem when re-doing this run for the babies.*

Speaking of mud, here is our poor drowned garden. Don't get me wrong, it drains well but the amount of water as of late just has not given it a fighting chance. The section we planted is doing well. Ok, the pretty rows I made are not so pretty now. The rain decided to move some of the seeds to other rows, it is a virtual mish mash now. *Sigh* I transplanted some lettuce that the storm last night decided to pound into the ground, we shall see if it can come back.

We are blessed. All of the rain and obstacles only serve to help us learn and grow. The babies are in their third week and are doing great. I will put up new pics of them and allow them to show off the new feathers and half bare bodies. What personalities this group has, we are in for a treat with this bunch. ; ) Have a great day and enjoy the bit of sun that has graced us for a few hours.

Rain had other plans

The plan was to get a lot done this weekend. The rain had other plans. I like rain but this is rediculous. The big girls are learning to swim and they are NOT happy about it. The baby girls are warm and dry and they could care less about water unless we are talking about the water jars in their tubs. This morning I awoke to find that tub 1 had moved their water to the middle and spilled it, crazy girls, don't they know they are not allowed to rearrange the tub without permission?

The kids are spending way more time with the babies now. Sarah carries her girls around with her and Daniel has found it beneficial to sing to them. Tub 1 is full of half naked birds, they are really starting to get their feathers and big girl attitude. Tub 2 is not quite there yet but they are so super cute.

I wonder with all of this rain in such a short period of time if the seeds I planted last week are even still there or if they are all going to rot in the ground. All of the things that we have growing on the back porch are doing well, even with the sun on vacation. I have lights going every which direction and they seem to be content with those at the moment but nothing is as beneficial as the actual sun that seems lost to us.

Stay dry and I will be back with pictures and hopefully an update about the break in the weather.

Growth, Rest and Plans

Things are hopping around Redbud and others are just kicking back and enjoying the warmth that Spring has gifted. Sunshine was enjoying a bit of Sol this past week. I think this is probably her taking a break from barking at the swallows who have nested in the barn. She barks at them, they taunt her, neither are happy about the other's presence in the door of the barn.


The big girls are really enjoying the weather lately. There were a couple of days that I took them frozen bottles but overall it has been nice. They have been busy dust bathing and reveling in all the abundant clover and greens we have been picking and throwing in the run. There is enough daylight now that I removed the light from the hen house and they are doing great. The last few days we have been getting 17 eggs a day from 18 hens. The new henhouse is coming along and I love that we are taking our time and thinking through possible troubles so that it is very caretaker and hen friendly. It won't be long and they will be in their new digs.


The babies are all doing great. Tub #1 all seem to be very healthy and really growing by leaps and bounds. Well with the exception of Gilda who does not get in a hurry for anything. We actually moved her to Tub #2 yesterday because of her size. Her sisters were not picking on her, they actually protect her but they are so large and are rambunctious, I did not want to take any chances. Gilda has settled in with Tub #2 quite well and they all seem happy to have her there.

The egg business has been booming. Last week we sold 13 dozen eggs! Those babies better hurry and get with the program fast. ; ) The garden is taking shape as well, thanks to the kindness of a neighbor. My plan was to use the entire arena this year instead of the corner I used last year. The problem I ran into is that this ground has been an arena for years and was packed tight. My neighbor was kind enough to break the ground for me with his tractor and then disc it as well. That certainly saved me a lot of work. So we have it broke into sections and already have one section planted. I am in the process of raking rock out of the beds in order to get the rest planted. We made a path that forms a plus sign and put down thick layered paper first and then the rocks that get raked out of the beds are going on top of the paper, in hopes of forming a weed barrier. The outer edges of the arena could not be broken up because of the fence so we will be building raised beds to plant things like Asparagus and Artichokes that are perrenials. One side of the fence will be a bed for climbers like cucumbers and gourds.

Soon it will be time to start planting the sunflower houses for Sarah and Daniel. The houses will be connected by a hall raised from broom corn. The sunflowers will be mixed with Indian corn and we are deciding on some pretty flowers to dress up the walkways.

On the back of the property we are going to try our hand at growing some popcorn. I really hope it works out because how fun for the kids to pop popcorn they raised themselves. Since we are doing a lot of companion planting to keep down on chemicals a lot of the herbs will be mixed in with the vegetables but I think there are a few we will still plant in a bed off the patio as well.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and I will be back with an update as to what we have accomplished hopefully on Monday.

Learning to Fly

In tub #1 we have a runt, well now she has a name. My husband has claimed her to be Gilda. She is named after Gilda Radner from Saturday Night Live, he wanted to name her Clark but since she is a girl, well it really did not fit. Gilda is small but feisty. I don't know if you can tell by the picture here but she is literally half the size of the others.

The girls are all really starting to get their wing feathers and they know it. They spend hours trying to fly. They fly at each other's head, they run-fly and they even try jumping on top of the water while flapping their wings. None of this is successful yet but it won't be long.

Hey look, it is the Charlie's Angels pose. They are a force to be reckoned with.

Can you see how many feathers they have in this picture?

It is easier to see on Saria, although she is a little ahead of everyone else.

Tub #2 is full of characters. They are almost a week behind tub #1 but they too are starting to get some wing feathers.

Here is Boo and Nelly posing for the camera. They are so sweet, even though they are rough on each other.

We still have 25, 15 from the original batch and all 10 replacements. This is the last day of antibiotics for the first tub and everyone seems to be really thriving. Now if we can just finish their new home so they have some space.

A Good Day

We made it through our first day without losing a baby chick. Yea! Everyone appears healthy and full of spunk, even the runt is doing well. Last night we introduced Tub #2 to a feeder. Oh my how everyone was scared of the metal monster. They were pushing each other into it, hesitating and then running across it as fast as their little legs would take them, but not eating from it. After a while of walking around it, over it and looking from afar, someone got brave and took a chance. Once one was eating from it they all took to it, monkey see, monkey do.

They no sooner got over the trauma of the feeder before we were uprooting them again. We introduced pine litter into both tubs to replace the paper and paper towels they were using. This time there was no trauma, they were having a ball. There was lots of playing going on last night, it was like kids in the first snow of winter.

Update From the Weekend

On Friday I thought that maybe putting Nelly in with Ducky would be a good idea. Nelly could show Ducky how to be a fighter, not that she wasn't already giving it all she had. It was a bad idea. Nelly trampled Ducky to get to the food and Ducky did not respond to having a box mate. I quickly put Nelly back with her sisters.


It seems Ducky was perfectly content with her horse friend. Saturday morning she took a turn for the worse. I was holding her and talking to her as she passed and letting her know how proud we were of her for trying as hard as she did. We will miss Ducky very much.


The girls in tub one also lost a sister on Saturday morning. She too was a fighter. After I had changed the water over to antibiotics she seemed to be responding. We made sure she ate every couple of hours and got drinks and she was eating much better. I guess we just did not get the medicine in there early enough. The other 15 seem to be doing great and getting wing feathers. There is a runt but she is tough and hangs right with the rest of them. Hopefully the 25 we have left will all do well and thrive now.

Saria is doing great. She is developing her feathers faster than every one else and seems to have that aloof attitude that Zelda continues to have. Her favorite place to be is perched up on the feeder. We must get them a little roosting stick in the tub very soon.

Speaking of Zelda, here she is. She is our biggest, fullest, healthiest bird. Not much seems to phase her really. During the winter months when they were all getting a bit aggrivated by the wet weather she started a bad habit in the group. She started eating feathers and taught everyone else how to pick them out. Now I think we are getting it under control but while everyone else looks worse for wear, Zelda has every feather perfectly in place.

The big girls like to gossip around the feeder. I am sure half of the conversations are about Zelda.

I did get all the posts up for the new chicken run. Woo Hoo.

Hubby got some mowing done on Saturday before the rain. It was a good thing.

We rake up a lot of the cut grass and clover to throw into the run with the big girls. They have so much fun digging through it, keeps them out of trouble.

Miss Sarah had a game on Saturday morning. Ninja boy was there to catch it on film.

Spring was being so wonderful to us. The neighbor's pear tree is all leafed out.

Bushes and flowers are blooming and bringing color to us almost every where you look.

Inside we have Tomato plants preparing for their debut to the garden.

The Artichokes are doing well.

The lettuce is wondering why it is not in the ground yet but it has been so very wet.

On Sunday we caught a glimpse of a Towhee in the yard.

And since it was raining Sarah thought it a good idea to enjoy the rain with some bubbles.