TV for Cats

Walter and Daisy also love
Free Range Chickens.

Free Range Chickens

We still sleep in the coop at night...

But it sure does a chicken good to stretch her legs.....right, Ethel?

In each group picture, Lucy is to the left and Ethel is to the right.

In the Paper Last Sunday

http://www.citizen-times.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=200880705063

Here's a story from the front page of last Sunday's paper, entitled,
"City Residents Seek Relaxed Chicken Rules."

My chickens are so far no trouble at all. We'll move the little coop around the yard to keep the stink factor down. They are much more quiet than a dog--even this afternoon when the neighborhood cat came for a visit and Lucy reacted with repeated loud, "BA-CAHW!!"

Ethel disappeared under the nesting box, but Lucy sent out the alert.
The chicken master (also known as the Assistant Bee Keeper and the Number Two Carpenter) dumped a bucket of water over the cat's head to indicate clearly that visiting the chickens should not become a hobby. The cat seems none the worse for wear, and the BA-CAHW!ing seems to have stopped.

Chicken Pictures

Chicken Video

That's Lucy on the left, and Ethel up on the ramp.

I love them.

They are shy and curious and red and clucky.

They like to eat strawberries, bugs, and clover.

The Coop de Pop

The project is finished. This first picture shows the nesting box.

This is not a chicken. This is the number two carpenter putting in the chicken ramp.

See?

Ta Da! Tomorrow we add two Rhode Island Red chickens. I'm voting for "Lucy and Ethel" for the names. I like the name "Coop de Pop" because Pop was the number one carpenter, and because it sounds vaguely like a revolt in some chicken based culture.

Visiting at Big Daddy Calvin's (aka Grampa)

More Pictures from the Big Bug Hike

Mimi and the Big Bugs

Got to visit with my brother and family yesterday
as they were passing through the mountains of WNC.
Took the four and almost five-year-old nephew and niece
on a hike in the woods.
We found several bugs bigger than my pinkie finger.
My almost five-year-old niece commented that
I was a really good scientist,
since I could find all these bugs.
Amazing the compliments that make your day.

I Used to Have a Bean Bag Chair

And now my cat has a Beanie Baby chair.

The Birds and the Bees

Do you see the birdhouse
in the foreground of the picture?
Yesterday while we were working
combining hives and
taking a super of honey,
little baby wren faces were stuck out
of the door hole in the birdhouse,
chattering at us.
I figured it wouldn't be long before
they abandoned ship
to explore the world.

Sure enough,
when I went out to check out
the new hive situation last night,
there was an explosion of noise
next to the side fence...
three little baby wrens
hopping around
fussing at full volume.

CUTE!
Didn't have my camera,
but will long treasure the memory
of those precious babies.

When I went out later,
you could trace their presence
to some thick brush
just outside the fence.
Little they may be,
but quiet they ain't.

Too Much Fun for Just One Blog

We harvested honey today. See my Backyard Swammerdam blog for the whole story...the link is over there to the right. But here are additional pictures of us harvesting what looks like around 2 gallons of honey from our early estimates.

Not the Livestock We Had in Mind

A New Project, Further Details to Follow

Got garden, got bees....what else could a hack theologian need on her suburban "farm?"

Live Oak Trees Covered in Spanish Moss

Ye Olde Lake House

There has been too much spring in Spring this year,

so it was good to spend a few days

not doing anything productive.

Read books, float in the lake,

watch our toenails grow.

Now THAT is a vacation.