Hey folks! We had some awesome weather
here in southern(ish) Indiana last week. We seized the day(s) and
worked and played outside quite a bit. Can't imagine why I've been
sleeping better lately finally...Fresh air+manual labor=good night's
sleep!
Since we're kind of in-between big
projects/haven't had anything too exciting to “write home about”,
I thought I'd share some pictures for this week's homesteading post.
(Rest assured we do have some exciting things coming up real soon!)
I'll try to keep the commentary to a minimum, but you know how that
goes. ;) These are all from one afternoon and while it wasn't a very
typical day, I thought it might be fun to give you a more personal
look into who we really are via an impromptu chicken and kid photo
shoot. ;)
Ripley hasn't been on
the grass much since she, unlike her older sister, likes to put
anything and everything gross into her mouth, but she didn't seem to
mind the new texture after too long!
Myka is still very much
the jealous 4 year old, so she likes to do what Ripley is doing quite
often. * sigh * In this instance with the crawling around, it made
for a cute picture, at least.
Ripley has been
cruising along furniture for quite some time now, so she thought she
was hot stuff walking along the tree. Just in the past week she has
actually been walking by herself for good distances!
As for the pictures
with the ball, I just thought they were cute. ;)
Getting up close and
personal with the chickens...
Myka loves hanging out
with the chickens...so long as there's a fence between her and the
rooster. Otherwise she's stuck to me like glue or takes her bubble
mower in there and chases him around with it. Don't look at me like
that. He deserves it. Myka won't have to worry about him too much
longer, though...Chicken pot pie, anyone?
Pretty sure Ripley got
pecked by Esmerelda there, the Black Australorp, but she took it like
a champ. (If you're not aware, chickens like to peck things to
investigate them. It's one of their ways of checking things out. It
doesn't necessarily mean they're trying to be mean.)
To be honest, I'm not
entirely sure who this is, in hindsight. Ha ha If you didn't know, we
have 4 “kittens” and two adult cats that, well, kind of come and
go as they please, nowadays. I say “kittens” because they're
almost 6 months old now and almost as big as their tiny little mama
kitty.
Anyways, two of them
are black and gray, but one has a regular tail and one has a bobbed
tail like mama. Unless you can either A) See their tails or B)
Clearly see the orange-ish colorings the bobtail one has, it's kind
of hard to tell them apart! I thought this was Susan, with the normal
tail at first, but now I'm leaning towards Marcy. Her paws look
rather big like Marcy's. (Sorry. I sound like a total crazy cat lady,
don't I? Rambling on about the intricacies of my cats...)
Time to showcase some
of the girls! I feel like the chickens have been getting the shift
all winter, so I thought I would show them some love. ;)
Starting on the top
left and working around clockwise, we have Ivan, our Light Brahma
rooster. I love that I got him mid-crow. :D Again, however, he will
not be with us much longer. We plan on trying to hatch some eggs
ourselves this spring and then he's going bye-bye. One of my aunts *
thinks * she wants a rooster, so I told her she could have him, but I
highly doubt she can talk my uncle into it! Lol Especially if he knew
Ivan is twice the size (literally) of all the rest of the chickens!
Again, to be honest,
not really sure who this is. I've always had a hard time telling
Margaret and Julie, our Barred Rocks, apart, ever since they reached
adulthood. Large Marge used to look fatter than Julie, but now they
pretty much look the same. Either way, one of them is a cheeky little
minx and likes to stay out, even when all of the others are already
in bed for the evening.
This is Bertha, one of
our Buff Orpingtons. She's a nosy girl. :)
Here are our two Barred
Rocks side by side. See? Hard to tell apart, right? It cracks me up
when they walk around side by side like this because it reminds me of
the Sanderson sisters on Hocus Pocus. Ha ha
Ah, the elusive
Gandalf. She's so hard to get a picture of because she's always on
the move! She's one of my faves, even though she's the reason we had
to build higher sides on the nesting boxes because she likes to kick
all of the straw out. -_- We still have no clue what she is either!
Maybe you can help me out? She was labeled as a Star-Spangled
Sebright at the store. She clearly is not that going off of pictures!
Not a bad picture of
the ridiculous looking Silkie Bantam, eh? She's usually pretty
skittish, but she actually let me pet her the other night while she
was “sitting on the eggs”. She's been acting a bit broody, but
not sure she's broody enough to hatch some eggs, if you know what I
mean. We'll see!
Daddy and Myka looking
for tadpoles. Because, you know. Tadpoles in FEBRUARY is normal,
right?! (And yes, my child had pajama pants on all day. Don't judge.)
Here is a big ole bull
frog mamba jamba John accidentally scared out of the water, quite
literally. Don't worry. We put him back. I'm sure he was fine.
See that reddish twig
in the middle? That is a black raspberry bush! I am SOOO excited
about how many black raspberries we'll be able to get to this year.
We had access to quite a few all over the place last year, but I
swear we've, like, tripled that from clearing away brush. Squee!
