Snow Snow Snow!

It's snowing today. It snowed a little yesterday. It snowed a lot last week and the week before that. It must be Winter. What? it's not officially winter until December 22nd?? Looks like it's gonna be a loooong one.

The snow is piled up everywhere. I have a path shoveled out in my back yard so I can get to my chickens. The poor girls haven't been outside in a couple of days. If it stops snowing today, I'm going to let them out. It's warmer than 20 degrees today, at least. I go out every morning and give them fresh water, and fresh food. I have a duplicate waterer so I don't have to wait until one thaws out before giving them new water. They are pretty happy every morning that someone at least says hello to them - and hey - they are still alive, and that's what counts! This is with no extra heat, so I know that they are hardy enough to live in winter. And temperatures have been dropping to 10 or less some nights.

No doubt about it! We are going to have a White Christmas!

Cock-a-Doodle-DOOO!

It's official - Cluckers, our runt of the chicken litter, is a rooster. We heard him start to crow yesterday. And, since it has been awhile since I put any pictures of the chickens up here, I thought this would be a good time. Cluckers and Dixie are still the smallest, but that doesn't mean they are any less cute.

I also did a lot of research into heat, and lighting. Even though I am excited for that first egg, I decided I am not going to put extra light in the coop. Also, any type of heat could be dangerous in such a flammable environment, so I am just going to let nature take its course and see what happens.

Cluckers



Dixie


Ginger


Killer

Happy November!

Halloween has come and gone and November is here. The leaves are almost all off the trees, and the weather gets colder by the day. The Red Sox won the World Series, sweeping the Colorado Rockies. Patriots are 8-0, and hopefully will defeat the undefeated Colts on November 4th. Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and Christmas is already in the retail stores. The end of the year is fast approaching!

World Series 2007!

GO SOX!!! Tonight is the first game of the World Series, Red Sox vs. the Colorado Rockies. I've already heard enough John Denver jokes to last me a lifetime. Josh Beckett - we are counting on you! I live in New Hampshire, as you already know, and since we don't have any professional sports team, everyone here sort of finds a team to latch onto. Most of us are probably Patriots, Sox, Bruins and Celtics fans. (And then, for those of us who are tired of a lackluster Bruins team that just can't seem to win anything, we are Manchester Monarchs hockey fans...) I dislike the far left Liberalism of the state below, but you gotta admit, it's nice having teams that are on top of the world right now!

American League Champs!

We did it! Red Sox came from behind, again, to take the ALCS from the Cleveland Indians. Dice-K proved he could provide for the Sox in Game 7, and he played well. We stomped the Indians 11-2. This was one day after Curt Schilling pulled off a 12-2 win just the day before. Josh Beckett was named MVP of this series after his excellent job at the plate. The World Series kicks off here in Fenway against the Colorado Rockies on Wednesday the 24th. Rockies are going to be a tough team to beat. GO SOX!

Then, the Pats stomped Miami 49-28. This is the Patriots first 7-0 start in the team's history. Brady did all of this in the first half too! Well, one of the TD's was in the second half, after Cassel was pulled because he threw an interception allowing Miami to get that last touchdown. Brady thew 6 TD passes, which is the record now for the franchise for most in one game. He is on track to pass Manning's record of 49 TD passes in a single season. The New England Patriots are also the first team in NFL history to win each of its first 7 games by 17 points or more. And what do I have to say about Randy Moss? Just this - WOW! There's no doubt in my mind we will be at the Superbowl!

Last but not least, we drove around taking some fall pictures. I was disappointed, only because I could never get the perfect picture I wanted. Otherwise the scenery was breathtaking.

Peak Colors, Sox and Pats

This weekend is most likely the peak of fall colors for where I live in New Hampshire. Just driving down the road and seeing all the beautiful reds, yellows, oranges, and all the shades in between is breathtaking. The picture to your right was taken mid-week, and it in no way does justice to the colors that are out right now. (Click it for a better, clearer picture.) Hopefully I can get out and take some more pictures of the brilliant colors.
Temperatures today are not your usual autumn temps. High is supposed to get in the 60's.

Today is another do or die for the Red Sox in the ALCS series vs. the Cleveland Indians. Josh Beckett pitched another great game onThursday night to help keep the Sox in the series, now at 3-2. Only two more wins! Curt Schilling is pitching tonight..n can he pull off another win as spectacular as 2004's 'bloody sock' win?

Then, tomorrow the 6-0 Patriots vs the 0-6 Miami Dolphins. After last weeks spanking of the Dallas Cowboys, I seriously doubt the fish even have a chance. (Or should I say 'the mammals?') It will be a great game, nonetheless!

Hope everyone has a great fall weekend. Blog ya later!

Leaves are FALLing (and changing)

Yesterday was the last day of September. HAPPY OCTOBER 1st!! This month has flown by. We took a nice, long walk to enjoy the cooler air, and take in the changing colors of the leaves. We still have a few weeks before peak color, so most of the leaves are still green. To your left is one example of what most of the trees still look like. Trees mixed with bright, vibrant colors, some muted colors, and greens.

Fall, of course, is also apple season. Growing along the side of the trail we were walking on was a crab-apple tree. We thought, at first, that it was a cherry tree since the small, tart apples were so bright red.
In fact, it may be a crab-cherry tree, if there is a such a thing. The fruit is growing in bunches in some places, and then single fruit in others. Who knows! The seeds inside look like apple seeds though. They don't have pits like cherries would. Regardless, it sure was a pretty tree to see.

I also cut down all our corn stalks from the garden yesterday. The corn that grew was pretty pitiful. Small, short and stubby. This has taught us to plant less corn, and spread the plants out. We had too many plants growing in too small a spot. It was neat to have our own little cornfield though.

Did I say Summer was gone??

Okay, I know I said Summer was gone.. but by golly the temperatures this past weekend were great! The nights are cooler, but the days have been up in the mid 80's. Warm, and sunny and gorgeous! The next couple of days are supposed to have highs in the 90's!

Guess we can still go short-sleeved and barefoot outside for a few more days. Wooo!

Summer is gone

I haven't wanted to admit it, and even though it isn't yet the official first day of Fall, Summer is gone. Temperature's are fading, not reaching those nice highs of 90s or even 80s. Today was a high of around 66. (It still felt warmer outside than it did inside my house though...) and tonight, there is actually a freeze warning! SEPTEMBER 16th??? Freeze warning????

Our garden is not so good. Corn is drying out and dying. Pumpkin plants are dying as well. The biggest pumpkin we have is turning orange. All the vines seem to be dying. The other three pumpkins that we had, are small, and I don't think they are growing any bigger either.

As soon as September rolled around, the weather has gotten cooler, and the days have been more cloudy, and rainy. I just think it's weird... As soon as September got here, Mother Earth, Nature, whatever seemed to know that meant fall. Cool temperatures, and shorter days for sure!

Anyway, all I wanted to say was Fall is here. I decided it is not worth denying anymore. I just don't want to think about cold weather and snow! It's bad enough oil is so expensive.

It has been a wonderful summer.... Goodbye warm weather and barbecues.

Nature's Pollinator

Just click on the above picture I took to see it full size. If you look closely you can see that the bee has pollen all over its body and legs. You can even see the special bristles on the bee's legs just made for getting pollen stuck all in them. This picture was taken in my very own garden on one of our beautiful sunflowers. We also have another type of plant that grows outside our window in the summer. Bees of all types swarm around its flowers as well in numbers that easily equal hundreds. Here's a closeup of another type of bee on that:

Extinct? I think not!

If you look closely at these pictures of Killer and Ginger, how can you say dinosaurs are extinct? Sure the great, lumbering beasts that roamed the earth millions of years are gone, but it is plain as day to me that evolution just took its course and created the bird as we know it today. Look at the beak, and the way it is formed. Did you know that a bird's beak is just an outgrowth of bone? There is a special type of gene that gives each bird its different looking beak. I believe it's a 'bone morphogenetic protein' gene. Morpho, is another word for 'changing shape' and protein is necessary for growth of cells, muscles, tissues, etc. How do you think dinosaurs like the Triceratops, or Stegosaurus got their horns and spikes? My bet is a similar gene modified their bones to grow differently in dinosaurs, just like beaks in chickens.

Look closely around the eyes of these two chickens. See the circle of skin? Feathers are modified scales. Dinosaurs and reptiles had scales. You can see how the skin around a chicken's eye looks like small scales. And have you ever seen a chicken's legs and feet? Looks to me just like a T-Rex's hands, just moved down to be feet.

So, next time someone tells you that dinosaurs are extinct, you can smile to yourself, and think, 'yes, but there are still modern day dinosaurs living today..."

Sunflowers in the Sunshine

It has been a long haul, but our sunflowers have finally begun to bloom. Remember in one of my earlier posts, Garden Varmints, when we found out a squirrel had eaten our garden? The sunflowers were what the squirrel noshed on the most, and it had eaten the tops off of almost all of them. Someone told us that we might as well pull them up as they wouldn't come back. Thank goodness I remembered my classes in plant biology and if you cut off the top of a plant, it will try and grow a new apex, or terminal bud. (That's just fancy speak for the top of the plant.) If you look closely at this picture, you can see there are two smaller sunflower plants below that have smaller blooms, and they haven't opened yet. Those are just two of the plants that used to be headless, thanks to a hungry squirrel. If I was a little more childish, I would be sticking out my tongue, putting my thumbs to my ears, palms out, fingers extended and wiggling, and blowing a big ol' raspberry. Thank goodness I'm more mature than that. Right now, I'm just saying, "Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah!" Score one for garden - zero for squirrel.

Golden Delicious

This is a tree in our backyard. It isn't your normal everyday backyard tree, however. This is an apple tree. (If you click on it, you will get a much bigger, clearer picture.)

Last summer/fall the tree had some crabby crab-apples. This summer, besides a great summer for our garden, has turned out to be an excellent summer for growing apples. We noticed that there were many more apples on the tree than last year. Then, my wife picked one up off the ground and took a bite. I said, "that's going to be pretty bitter, you know," and she said, "Nope! Golden Delicious!"

The apples last year never got beyond green skinned sour apples that were small and not tasty at all. This year the skin turned yellow, the apples are bigger, and they definitely are sweet and tasty. (If you can find one that hasn't been attacked by caterpillars and insects, that is.)

I have no idea how old these trees are, but I would love to learn how to trim the tree for next year to get a better crop. I seem to recall hearing that if the tree gets bigger and is left to grow tall, then the apples are smaller and the trees don't bear as much fruit. If anyone knows the proper way to prepare an apple tree for the growing season, feel free to leave a comment!

Summer slowly fading....

Today was the first day of school for kids here in town. That's always a sure sign that Summer is walking out the door, while Autumn tries to slowly squeeze through at the same time, like an uninvited guest. Of course, the cool breezes that Autumn brings with her, along with the scents of crisp apples, fall leaves and pumpkin pie, make her start to feel like she should have been a house guest all along.

The leaves are starting to sloooooowly change color. I catch a glimpse here and there on my drive to work, or even in my own backyard. Whenever the breeze picks up, I see more and more leaves taking up dance lessons and falling off the trees. The nights are a little bit cooler, although the day temps still get up to the mid to high 80's. I can hardly believe that this coming weekend is Labor Day! Summer in New England is defined by the period between two holiday weekends - Memorial Day to Labor Day. I never thought of it that way growing up, and then after living in Texas, where the summer is pretty much from April to October, you get used to a long summer season. This summer has been a wonderful summer! Time to squeeze in every little bit left before he makes it out that door for good.

Willowmina Maple Kitty

It's official. My cat is gone. I have had Mina since she was a little kitten. Last week, at 9 years old, she disappeared. I know something must have happened to her, because she isn't friendly to strangers, and her idea of a good time is to snooze all day on one of our patio chairs in the coolness of a screened-in porch. If she wasn't sleeping, she was trying to trick us into feeding her again. Last Thursday, Mina never showed up for breakfast. She is ALWAYS there for breakfast. If not right at first when you open the door, she was always there the next time you opened the door. (And the time after that, and the time after that... ) Today is Monday, so she has been missing now for 4 full days. If something got her, I sure hope she put up one hell of a fight!

If anyone reading this happens to see a cat that looks like this, please let me know!

Warm again!

Ahhh.... It is summer yet again. After a cool, dreary, cloudy week, it is finally warm, muggy and sunny. Have to hang out in my hammock later and just chill, and enjoy. After that bit of cool weather, I realized I'm NOT ready for winter yet!

Relief!

Oh, for all of you worried about Dixie and how she was going to be after almost getting mauled by our dog, you'll be happy to know that she is back up and running around like always. She only limped and rested for a day. She can chase and catch those crickets with the best of them.

Weather

The weather has been unusually chilly for this type of year here in New Hampshire. Starting last week, on Friday, maybe, the temps only got into the mid 60's, low 70's. The lows were low 40's to 50's. Come on! August is still Summer, right? The way the cool temps and cloudy days were, it felt like October and Autumn. I was worried the chickens were going to get too cold. HA! If I'm worried now, just think how worried I'll be when it is officially WINTER...

Today is a little better. Tomorrow is supposed to be hot and muggy again. Phew! I'm not ready to pay for oil again just yet!

Dixie and Ginger

Poor Dixie! The other night, right before time to close them up in the coop, Dixie decided she was brave enough to try and fly out. My son and wife, who had just got back from swimming at the lake, saw her sitting on a fence post. Then she jumped and was FREE! My son, panicked, and wanted to scare her into flying back into the coop, and since my dog was right by him at the door, he yells, "Bella, go get her!" This was the moment my dog has been waiting for ever since we came home with chickens in a box. She bolted out and chased poor Dixie and got a hold of her in her mouth right before she managed to get back in the pen, either by herself, or by my son putting her back. She was okay, but limping. The next day she just sat all day huddling in a corner, and only getting up to limp away if I came close to her. I decided it was time to clip the wings of all of them before another one got out.

So, yesterday, my wife helped me hold them while I clipped their wings. I had taken a sponge out with me earlier because I had cleaned their water container. When my wife came out she freaked a little. I didn't quite understand until she explained she saw the sponge and thought it was for cleaning up the blood after clipping the wings. After we trimmed the wing tips, and she saw how it was painless to the chickens, she relaxed, not realizing what a simple procedure that was going to be. So, all the chickens, (except for Cluckers - I felt he was too small still to trim his wings - hope that's not going to be a mistake,) have their wings trimmed.

Now, Ginger, I just wanted to add, is getting black feathers on her tail and her wings. I tried to get a picture, but this was the best I could do.

Zinnias

The zinnias in our garden are really starting to come out and bloom. Zinnia blooms seem to last longer than other flower blooms. They are bright vibrant colors and the hummingbirds frequently come and visit them. Speaking of humming birds we found a tiny hummingbird feather the other day by our petunias on the front steps. Teeny tiny bright orange feather.

Dixie

I love these chickens! I thought it would be fun to have these chickens, but I never realized how much simple pleasure you could get by watching a few birds scratch at the earth, eat grasshoppers and in general just peck and walk around. Yesterday, I went out around 8 o'clock to get ready to close the chicks in for the night. I just stood by the fence and watched them. Dixie, the Brahma or Cochin (I am leaning more towards Cochin as someone stated she might be in one of the comments on another post), flew up and grabbed onto the metal fence, and then flew right onto my arm and just walked onto my hand from there, cooing, and clucking happily. She let me just scratch her head and scratch behind her wings while she stretched her scrawny little chicken neck, as if to strut and tell her friends below, "Look at me! I get the deluxe treatment!" Then when I tried to put her back down she just tried to climb back up my arm. Finally I got her to fly down and join the rest of her buddies. Yes, it's true - chickens do have personalities and are great fun to have around.

Ginger

Miss Ginger, (or maybe Mr., I don't know yet) is changing color. Her head is starting to become the reddish color the rest of her body is, and she is starting to get black tail feathers. As far as I know, the Buff Orpington has no black feathers. So, we'll just have to see what Ginger looks like in another couple of weeks!

Gosh - who thought chickens could be so exciting??

New Lawn Mower

I tried to mow my lawn last week. I think it was on Friday. And guess what? The mower, POS that it is, fell apart around me again while mowing. Three weeks ago, I was mowing and the new muffler fell off. Then this last time I mowed, the oil started spurtin' out again and the top came loose from covering the engine. When I tried to restart it, the line wouldn't stay taut enough to even attempt to start the engine since the top was loose. Grrr... NOT again...

I looked at what was fixed to hold the top down and saw what broke. (It was all jury-rigged together anyway by the man I paid to F-I-X my lawnmower.) I found some extra pieces of metal strapping and tried to re-bolt the top down again where it would stay. That was successful. I checked the oil since it had leaked all out again. It was way too low. I re-filled the oil, but as I was doing so, I could see it just pouring out of the engine block. It was at this point I knew the mower was dead and no amount of fixing up was going to fix this thing right.

I had only successfully mowed half the lawn by this time, and I was pretty angry and upset. Nothing I could do though, except go have a good cold beer.

Lo and behold, I was talking to a friend (check out his blog, too, by the way, Cyclic Connotations) mid-week, and he just happened to ask the magic question. "Do you want to buy it?" Buy what, you may ask? He was trying to sell his riding lawn mower! Whoa - talk about good timing! I said sure, and a few days later (today) he shows up to give me an impromptu riding lesson, and off I went!

Once again, my lawn is now fully mowed - and I got to SIT down doing it. WoooooHoo! Jason - Geek Squad may suck, but your Karma is back up where it belongs. :)

Create-A-Trail

20 Second Garden Tour

Chickens! (Straight to video at a blog near you...)

Chickens - Smarter than you think!

I worked late last night - didn't get done until close to 9pm. Luckily I was at home, but I knew no one had gone to put the feathery friends up in the coop. I asked my son to go out and please do just that. He came back in (after getting his mom and dog to go with him as he was a little hesitant of the dark) with a big grin on his face. "Guess what Dad? The chickens already were up in the coop!" That made me smile as well. Our chickens, only living with us for a week, had already figured out the routine of going to bed, and they were smart enough to know that their bed, and safe place, was inside the coop. Yay!

Videos!!

Since I bought my new digital camera this year, I haven't taken too many videos. I figured it was best to leave the movies to a device that specifically dealt with taking video. However, my Canon PowerShot SD700 IS has the capability of taking pictures and videos. I've taken a few of my boys and my family in general, just to say I have some family home videos, and they've turned out very well. Now that I have a blog, I thought 'what better place to experiment more with video!'

Chicken Breeds

My friend's sister checked out my blog since she has chickens, and she wanted to see what was up with mine. She looked at pictures of Dixie and Killer and she wrote to me with her suggestions as to what breeds they are. She thinks that Killer is a Barred Rock chicken, and the Dixie is probably a Brahma chicken of some sort.

Do you agree or disagree?

The Chickens are Here!

While I was at work on Friday, my wife and sons went to a local Blue Seal feed store and saw they had chickens that were a month and 1/2 to two months old. They didn't buy any at that time because they knew I wanted to look as well. So, yesterday, after making sure I had some sort of feeder and waterer for the chicks, we went back to the Blue Seal store and picked out our chickens. We also picked up some Blue Seal Medicated Chicken Feed. A 25LB bag was only about 7 dollars. That's not too bad. Not sure how fast 4 chicks will eat this up, but hopefully this will last a month.

Each of us picked out our own. (Except my youngest son, he's only 8 1/2 months old.) I don't know for sure what breeds they are, as the young man helping us didn't know either. I figured (and hoped) if I was buying them in NH, then they were probably ready for the cold winters.

My wife picked out one that she calls Ginger. I believe her to be an Orpington.

She then picked a chicken that will be for our youngest. We named this one Dixie. She has beautiful feathery legs. I don't know what type she would be yet.
My other son, who is almost 10 (one more month) decided he liked the runt of the litter and called this one, Cluckers.

Last, but definitely not least, I picked one that I liked. The one I decided on wasn't the one that I ended up getting because the guy couldn't grab him for me. So the one he did get, which had a diamond on his head, I liked just as well. Just to be different, I named this one, Killer.

So, I really have no idea what breeds these chickens really are. I think Cluckers may actually be the Rhode Island, or NH Red. I guess I'll have to wait until they get a little bit bigger to tell for sure. Unless any of you out there reading this know what breeds they might be. Feel free to leave comments!

In terms of eating these chickens, I don't know if I can now, since every one has a name.... My Aunt kept pigs once that were piglets when I went to go see her. I thought they were so cute I took pictures of them. Then, months later, eating breakfast at home, my mom says, "Did you know that bacon you're eating comes from your Aunt's pigs?" I was mid-chew, and didn't quite know what to think. But, I love bacon so it didn't stop me for long, and I kept on eating.

Here are some more pictures of the chickens:

Check it out!

Silvia, who has a blog titled Casa In Costruzione, has a post that is about chicken coops and has very nicely decided to link to my blog. Can you believe my coop is starting to get some attention?? WOW! Thanks Silvia!

Garden EXPLOSION

By explosion, of course, I do NOT mean that some otherworldly comet came and caused a huge crater, sending plant debris everywhere, but rather an explosion of growth!

Being gone for 10 days in Maine, my wife and I didn't see the garden every day, and didn't know what to expect. When we came back we saw just how fast a garden can grow! Pumpkin vines were choking flowers and tomatoes. Squash plants were hugs, and so were the squash fruit itself. We had to clean up and cut back a lot of the pumpkin vines and squash plants. We then tore up the radishes (since they had been planted WAAAY too close together anyway and so had lousy radish growth) and the mustard greens. We did this to try and give more room for vines to grow. Anyway, I do have a few garden pictures that you can easily compare to the others that were posted to see just how much this little garden of ours took off!

La cage de poulet - elle est finie!

The chicken coop - it is finished!

I know, I know... it's been awhile since I have posted any progress or pictures. Well, I went on a so very nice vacation in Maine and just came back this week. That's another topic. But with all that relaxation, I just had to finish the coop. Monday night after work was wet, sticky and humid, so I waited until Tuesday to patch up my leaky chicken coop roof. There was one spot that was pooling the water and then slowly seeping under the rolled roofing and leaking into the coop. So, I added another piece of roofing and then used roofing tar on all the seams. Now that my roof was all patched up, I finally could put up the small fence so the chickens will have room to roam a little. (And I mean little.) Wednesday, after work, I went straight to work and got my fence up. I made sure top put it down into the ground so no tunneling critters will be able to get under and up and eat the birds. Which, by the way, I soon hope to get. Why have a coop and no chickens?? Anyway, here are more pictures of the coop now that it is complete.

Looking inside at the underside of the roof:



Another view of the roof from the inside, showing the rope that raises and lowers the door:


View of roof with sealant:



Different view of the roof with sealant:



Nesting Boxes and Perch looking from door:



Closer view of nesting boxes and perch:



Here's the fence:



And a picture looking at the entire finished product:

Rolled Roofing

I had never heard that term before, but I was talking to a pal and he suggested I use that to help seal my chicken coop roof. So, this past weekend, my wife was out and about and went to Lowe's. Since she was going, I asked her to check and see if they had this wonderful rolled roofing stuff. She came home with my rolled roofing and forgot to get the stuff she went for. Now that's a sign of a keeper! (My wife, not the rolled roofing...)

After I mowed my lawn (and having the muffler fall off, that had just got replaced..) I finished putting the roof on the coop. Rolled roofing is basically one gigantic shingle rolled up into a roll. You unroll and let the material expand and relax a bit, then cut it to the size you need. I cut 4 pieces of about 4 1/2 feet long, and nailed it down on the roof. As I was laying the roof down, the skies darkened, and decided to rain before I was finished. Luckily it stopped after 5 minutes and let me finish before it really started pouring down.

Now, when I return from my vacation next week, I will finish the fence, and buy some chickens! And, I PROMISE I'll try and get some more pictures up here. Just in case any of you are still interested in seeing the progress from the last pictures I posted.

See-Eye-Ay-Oh for now.

Gorgeous Growing Garden

The past few days have been cloudy and rainy. Not all day rain, but enough to make you wonder where the sun is this summer. I don't like it, but our garden does!

The pumpkin plants are growing fast and flowering. The squash plants are huge, but even with all the flowers, no fruit as of yet. I guess squash plants have both male and female flowers, so I'm hoping the flowers are mostly male and this is why the squash hasn't started to grow yet. I haven't looked close enough at the flowers to try and see if I can remember plant biology. (Pistils, stamens, etc. - Hey - guess I remember something!) Tomato plants are great. Lots of fruit growing. Plenty of green grape tomatoes and a few large 'big boy' tomatoes. Can't wait until they are ripe and ready. If our jalopenos, onion and cilantro are ready at the same time, PICO de GALLO is going to be great! Cilantro is actually flowering and huge, so we may have coriander from the seeds instead.

The sunflowers are growing taller, and so are the zinnias. Marigolds are bright and bushy. Wildflower mix of red white and blue are bigger as well - just no flowers on any but the marigolds.

It's pretty amazing to see everything literally grow right before your eyes. So, when the cloudy days and rain make me grumpy - I just have to remember all the good food that it is helping bring to my table!

Cool Spiderweb

This was taken a few days ago. The picture doesn't really do it justice. This is a spiderweb by a telephone pole. It was huge! The morning dew showed it just right - as long as the trees were in the background. As soon as I tried to get closer, and the sky was behind the web, you could no longer see the silky strands. You can click on the picture to see a larger version.

4th of July

Nothing much to report for yesterday's 4th. I hope every American had a wonderful and Patriotic day. It started off sunny here, but then slowly became grayer and darker. By fireworks time it was pouring. So, no fancy flashes of lights and sparks last night. I did more work on my chicken coop though while it was still nice outside! I'll post more pics later.

Garden Pictures

Since I was talking about our garden earlier, I thought I'd share a few pictures. I have plenty, but garden pictures aren't all that interesting to a lot of people. If you want to see more, just leave a comment!

See my lovely fence?? That was the quickie I put up to stop the varmint! Oh, and guess what the varmint was? A SQUIRREL!! We were upstairs looking out the window and we saw a squirrel in the garden noshing on the sunflower plants again. This was after I put the fence up. Oops! we knocked on the window and managed to get the squirrel to run away. As it turned to flee (ok, more like slowly saunter away), I saw why my wife thought it might have been something bigger. It had a HUGE bushy tail.

More pictures of the garden:




Here's my cheesy scarecrow and our corn rows, (No - it's not my hair style,) sunflowers and pumpkin mounds:




Hey - we got some squash growing too! Here's a big 'ol squash plant. My wife told me the flowers were a delicacy if you fry them up just right. (She's from the South - anything becomes a delicacy if it's fried just right!)





Don't have any picture of the banana peppers, but they sure are tasty!

Chicken Coop Part 2

I worked more on my chicken coop yesterday. I ran out of scrap pieces of plywood that I could use for the walls. But here are a few pictures for you to see what a piece of scrap coop looks like. HA!

In the beginning...




It all starts to come together:




The grand chicken entrance:




Grand entrance part 2:



The beginnings of a nesting box:




How do you get the eggs?




Ah ha! It opens!






All I need to do is make sure the roof is patched up good for leaks, finish the walls, and the nesting box. After that I just need CHICKENS!

MMMmmMmmMm! Fresh eggs!!