Thursday, March 31, 2011

Third Day

Here is what it looks like so far. Love it!


All for now. Tata.

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

The Coop


I am so excited! Mark and my brother Randy started on the coop Monday after shopping for materials on Sunday. That was the first of so far five trips to the lumber and hardware store. They are both such troopers. Monday started out pretty nice with some sun coming out in the morning when they started. Here is where the coop and run are going. It's under a grape arbor so it has a frame to start with for the run.





Here are Randy and Mark.




Here is Randy sitting on the floor of the coop. It's about hip high for easier cleaning.



Here is Mark with the front wall. Very exciting!







Ok. Here is the coop at the end of Tuesday. All four walls are up and the frame work for the nesting boxes. is on. The end will have a door that comes down so I can collect the eggs without going into the run. Hooray for husbands and brothers!











More to come! Tata for now.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Louise, Thelma, Mega Moon and Birthday Wishes

Happy Spring! I'm so glad it's here even if in name only. Actually it was a great day on Saturday and yesterday was ok. I went looking for a refrigerator box on Saturday to put the chicks in and found out that there is only one manufacturer that boxes their fridges up any more. All the other ones shrink wrap them. Who knew? The chicks are quickly becoming teenagers. But they are still fun to watch. Still in need of a coop. My brother is going to help us with that.

This is Louise. I'm hoping she doesn't turn out to be Lewis. She is bigger than the other chicks except for Wilma who would then be Wilmer. If they turn out to be roosters my friend Janet says they can come and live at her house. Thank you Janet.
I really hope that won't be the case because I have become quite attached to them all.






These next two pictures are of Thelma. She likes the camera and she was standing on my hand in this picture. I try to put my hand in the tote a couple times a day with food in my hand so they will get used to it. The smaller ones do better with getting on my hand.



Did anyone else get to see the mega moon when it was out? Our skies were overcast but we saw it in the evening and again the next morning.


A couple of weeks ago I turned fifty-five. We went out to dinner with some friends on Saturday night and my friend Shannon who I have known for thirty years gave me this card. Only someone who knows you very well could get away with this. It just cracked me up. It's great to have a sense of humour.


I hope you will all forgive me for sharing but I just had too. I hope everyone is enjoying spring and getting able to do all the Spring things your heart desires. Have a great week and tata for now.

Wednesday, March 16, 2011

Plant Exchange, Greenhouse and Peony Bed

I had a much longer post planned for today but I could only get these pictures to download.

I'm starting to plan what I'm going to have for my plant exchange Saturday May 7th. Last year I posted about the First Annual Plant Exchange and we had a great time. Many plants were exchanged and we had coffee, tea and home made scones and cookies. So this year I am dividing up some drumstick primroses and here is a close-up of one. I am also going to divide up some of my coral bells. I also have a plant from a friend last year that has reseeded and I am going to try to pot some of those up. I don't remember names very well. This is a close-up of the primrose and it's really pretty when its fully bloomed out. It will stand 8 to 10 inches tall. I really like them.




The last couple of days when the rain has been pelting down I have been out working in the greenhouse. I have these two chairs out there so if a friend comes over we can sit out there and have a cup of coffee or tea. It's so cozy to be in there with a friend. Please know you are always welcome.




Mark bought me this dragonfly thermometer last fall because I love dragonflies. He's so good to me! When I took this picture this afternoon it was 72 degrees in there and it was raining and chilly on the outside. Love it!




Last summer I bought a collection of 10 peonys from Costco and I planted all of them into this bed by my garden room. This is also were I planted a peony from the gal that I was stealing irises from. The story is further back in the blog.




I like the way the foliage looks as its coming out of the ground.





I hope to have some more pictures of the chicks on here tomorrow or the next day. Oops, I better not say when I'm going to do that. Then it will never happen. Anyway that's all for now. Tata.

I read this quote recently and decided to end today with it:

"Choices can change our lives profoundly. The choice to mend a broken relationship, to say "yes" to a difficult assignment, to lay aside some important work to play with a child, to visit some forgotten person-these small choices may affect our lives eternally."
Gloria Gaither

Sunday, March 13, 2011

May I present......

Well, here they are. They are now about 12 days old and are so much bigger than this now. They are so much fun and I just love to go into the sun room and watch them. I will put some cracked corn in my hand and put it into the tote where they live for now and they will come and sit on my hand and eat and scratch. I love it! I am in love.

I have names now also. But only two have their permanent names. The two Americaunas are Thelma and Louise. They seem to be the most aggressive and the names just fit. There are two black Sexlinks, three black Australorps, two Rhode Island Reds and two Buff Orpingtons. I ended up with the three Australorps because there were only three of them left in the tank and I didn't want to leave one by itself. So those three will be the Dixie Chicks Shadow, Blossom and Primrose. (Shadow was the name Jacob my grandson wanted for one). The others will be Lucy and Ethel, Laverne and Shirley and Betty and Wilma. All fun names. I will keep you informed as to who gets what names.




Here is a picture of my grandson Landen holding a chick. He is in love also.




This is my granddaughter Hailey with a chick. She wants them to stay little forever.




Now that my computer is back in commission I hope to tell you all about the chicks. Mark and I were out coop shopping today. Still don't have a coop but will soon. So I close for now with promises of more later. Tata for now!

Sunday, March 6, 2011

They're Here!!!

The babies arrived Thursday after I picked them up from Del's Farm Supply. I still am having difficulties with my computer so am not able to have any pictures up. But are they ever cute. And already growing! I can see them grow everyday. I can't wait to get pictures on here for you to see. And, yes, they have names at least most of them do. Oh, yeah there are eleven of them and I hope they are all hens. The gal at Del's they should all be pullets (hens) but once in a while a cockerel gets in there. We shall see. For now they are living in a large black tote that my friend Carla lent me and have a grow light on them to keep them warm. The dogs are absolutely mesmerized by them and go onto the sun porch as often as they can to look at them.

I worked outside for about two and a half hours today putting more prunings around the half moon garden. So I am more than half way done with the little fence. Its looking so cute.

Well, that's all for now. As soon as I get my computer back I will have some pictures of the chicks on here. Tata for now.