No More Chickens!!!!

 

 

What I mean by "No More Chickens" is>>>>> they are officially in their coop!!!!!
They are finally out of my house AND off of the porch!!!!! YAY!!!!!! Thankful!!!!

I really loved the idea of having chickens.
The cold reality of owning chickens is they are MESSY!!!
We have had them inside since March 27th.....They were so tiny and cute. They all fit nicely into this little box and were easy to maintain the dust, food, water, pine shavings, and poo!

 Oh my word, but they are precious when they are this tiny!!!!! =)

When they were about 3 weeks old, we moved them to a large dog kennel to give them more space...It worked perfectly. They were happy with the new space and loved the perch we fashioned for them.

Then I started to notice the pine shavings......everywhere. There was also dust......everywhere. Food and water were getting a bit tricky to keep clean and I'm pretty sure there was poo on one of my French doors where they were staying!!!! Grrrrr.......

 This is Truly....our "Chicken Whisperer"!! They love her!!!! =)

I managed to not loose my sanity during this time, but my patience was wearing very thin with these adorable little soon to be egg layers!! They all have such unique personalities and places in their herd (is that what you call a group of chickens??), but seriously? I was ready to make chicken and dumplings there for a few days!!!!

We had company over last weekend so they got "kicked out" to the porch and we were able to de-dust the house with the help of my wonderfully amazing husband!!! YIKES!!!! There was so much dust, pine shavings and food scattered everywhere!!!!Even in the bedrooms!!!!  I ask you, how does all of that get into the bedrooms?!?!??!!!!

After the big clean....we kept them out on the porch (in the dog kennel) to acclimate them to the outside air temperatures, which have been unusually cool for this part of the country (probably Global Warming...Ha!!).

They really liked it out there!! (and I really liked the cleaner appearance of my house!!)
Fresh and sunshine did wonders for them. We were having to take them down to their yard during the day and bring them back up to the porch at night. The kids did this for about a week. They were (and are) very diligent in the care of our chickens.

But last night we finally got the coop all sealed!!!!!!
There is a door on it now!! =)
They were able to stay out in the designated chicken area ALL night!!!! WOO HOOO!!!!

 While it was weird to not be able to walk out on the porch and check on them before bed, it was a huge relief to know they are where they are supposed to be and they are safe. Well.....as safe as we can make them!!!! =)



Blessings!!!!

New Toy ......er...Tool!!!!!!

Have I mentioned that I have the most wonderful husband in the world??  That's right!! There can be only one most wonderful and I have him!!!!! =) 
He is wonderful for many reasons, but this post will focus on one......

A few months ago we mowed our grass with our little17.5HP Craftsman 42" riding mower. It was a beast and I loved it!! I have a very uneven yard (field) and lots of brush-like weeds to mow on the edges of our woods. This little mower never complained. It kept mowing and mowing. That is, until we killed it. My son was joy riding on it just after we had finished mowing and it just stopped going. There was plenty of gas, so that wasn't it. We had replaced the drive belt earlier, so that wasn't it. Finally, we took it to the shop to have him check it out. Apparently, there was no oil in the engine and we killed it that way......=(    It was the best $300 we had ever spent on a mower!!! I am considering replacing the engine just so I can keep it around!!!!!

Enter the new mower.......

My sweet husband bought me a Brand New 22HP 46" Husqvarna mower!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 Happy Mother's Day to me!!!!  I don't need flowers or candy (seriously, these hips can't take much more!!!), but I did need a new mower and this one is quite nice!!!!


This thing has an adjustable seat, a cup holder, wheels on the deck, and much, much more!!!
Here are some pics.....

This just looks like royalty.....;) 

 

My daughter is adamant that our kids and riding mowers do indeed mix!!!!

 

 



 

 I love the front end of this thing!!!

 A "high back" seat!!!! =)

 Forward and reverse pedals!!!!!! Aaahhhhh.....Who knew?!?!?!!!

 



I really like having a new mower. Besides the fact that it has to be broken in on my rough yard.

 

 This is an awesome machine!!!!! I highly recommend it!!! =)

 

 My goofy boy really likes the new mower too!!!!

 The view from the driver's seat!!!!

 

I think my hubby took it mudding......

We are hoping to get many good years out of this new toy, er....tool!!!

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In other news around the "propetty".....

 

 My day lily and purple rose has bloomed!!!!! =)

 The blueberries are doing terrifically!!!!

 
 
 
 


The garden is growing..... =)

 And the chicks have a temporary home!!! This is the bottom part of their coop!!! Painting the coop tomorrow and hopefully, they will be in it full time by this weekend!!! Yay!!!!! 
Things are coming together quite nicely around here....
The next big project will be fencing for a cow......that may have to wait until next year!!!!


Blessings!!!!!