peep peep { adoption }

 

It’s that time again.

Remember last year when we adopted chicks to one of our broody hens? (and an update)

Well I never can pass up those chicks at the co-op!  And we just so happened to have a broody hen again this year. 

You may have seen some of these pics already on my Instagram feed if you follow me there…

      

      

First batch of 4 chicks were banished from the nest.  2nd attempt under the cover of darkness also failed.

First batch of chicks were moved to my bathtub overnight and then to a protected area of the coop.

Second batch of 8 tinier chicks acquired at husband’s advice and…

accepted after a little obsessing and interfering parenting training from yours truly!

 

Do you see that little chicky leg sticking out from mama’s feathers above?  I die!!!  Gets me every time.

And this is my very favorite part of adopting chickies… when it’s time to “go in”…

That is just the sweetest thing.

The chickies have definitely taken a liking to their new mama.  I caught these gals having a little meeting about how great she is…

Makes me a little sad for these little guys…

It’s a sweet little group of rejects.  We will be sure to harass visit them frequently and they have a nice cozy heat lamp to keep them warm and an area protected from the big mean hens.  They will grow up with little-to-no social setbacks due to their rejection, I am sure.  =)

how does your garden grow?

This week we had a splendidly sunny day and I was able to get out to the garden to plant the early veggies.

On the way out, I remembered my garden helper pictures from last year, which are among my favorites. 

I ran back in for my camera.

She’s actually becoming quite useful now…

I started pounding all the stakes and she finished them.

We got the garden plotted and planned and a got the first batches of romaine, mixed lettuce, brocolli and green onions planted.

      

And I let Susie go to town planting the cucumbers wherever she wanted in a big plot…

Making holes and sticking the seeds in held her interest for a little bit.

But it’s pretty fun to bury yourself with dirt.

When I took over the seeds for her, she found a huge sliver lodged in her finger.

She was highly offended.

I asked her if she could tough it out until I finished the broccoli and she said she could.  She did.  We went in and got her all fixed up.  And dad came home with the cinderblocks for us to make garden borders.  We’ll be planting Marigolds (hubby’s favorite) inside the cinderblock holes which aid in keeping pests away and happen to be Ty’s favorite annual.It turned out pretty good.  I’ll have to show you an update after we get the Marigolds going and get some more veggies going in the garden. 

A little burst of sunshine was all we needed for a highly productive day of sowing. 

Are you all gardeners?  What have you planted so far?

homemade organic fresh bark mulch

 

My husband works for a company that cuts trees and branches away from power lines.  On the weekends, he operates his own tree service company.  This means we have a plethora of firewood.  Piles.  And piles.  And piles!  And when it takes months to gradually chop and stack all those piles of firewood, the bark falls off the wood and you are left with piles and piles of bark...

So what do you do with a bunch of bark piles?  Well, hubby had a Martha Stewart moment and decided to make us some homemade, organic, fresh bark mulch for our gardens.  So environmentally friendly of him to make something useful out of something that would otherwise have been wasted.

He “simply” ran the piles of bark through his commercial wood chipper (which normally used for up to 16-inch-thick whole trees)…

And out the other end comes Ty’s special recipe: Homemade, Organic, Fresh Bark Mulch.

We tag teamed all the flower beds around the house and more in the yard, adding the mulch to our flower beds in a matter of an hour or less.  Very worth the efforts…

It is chunkier than nursery beauty bark - it’s a little rustic and I like it that way.  Before we did this I didn’t even want to spend time in the yard and be forced to look at the house and gardens in neglect, and now the yard looks nice and clean and the plants don’t look like weeds anymore!  The bark will also help keep weeds down – phew!  I couldn’t keep up with weeding before! 

Yay for a little curb appeal!  Good idea, Ty!  Now we just need to replace our soffits and paint the whole house white!   =D

velveteen. or thumper.

 

Last week, I went to check the chicken eggs, only to find a sweet little rabbit in the garden munching away at our raspberry plants.  But it didn’t look like our typical wild rabbits from these parts.

I rushed into the house, grabbed my camera, and snuck back out to the garden… cautiously shooting pictures from afar, in case he dashed away at any moment…

Slowly inching closer and closer…

…army crawling now…

After the above picture is about the time he hopped over, sniffed my camera, and then hopped about his business eating our raspberry bushes.  WHAT!?  I was so shocked I didn’t even get a picture!

I told the girls to quick go get him a carrot out of the fridge.

He waited patiently as if he knew exactly what was going on…

And gladly accepted our offering…

Despite being unafraid of us, he wasn’t ready to just hop in our laps.  I recruited the neighbor boy (I still call him that even though he is grown up now), to help us corral and catch him.

It worked, but he was still nervous and I was not convinced he wouldn’t scratch and bite us if given the chance.

Hubby took him out to a trailer we have so he couldn’t escape and the kids could play with him…

    

There was no scratching or biting.

We made him a makeshift home in the house for those first nights…

Two laundry baskets zip-tied together.  We’re that redneck inventive.

These pictures were from a week ago.  Now we have gotten him indoor and outdoor cages (craigslist), and have started cuddling and house training him.  After removing 4 ticks from his face (eeew!).

He has become quite the little pet.  Has a little attitude but I hear that’s how they are.  I’ll have to do an update this week.

Now we just need to decide on a name.  Velveteen or Thumper?