The Easter Bunny!
Happy Easter 2018
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Category Archives: Spring
Happy Mother’s Day!
Mother’s Day Hike at Forest School
Card (that is Dexie and I!) I am stylin in a sheer teal jumpsuit!!
Showing me around the school garden (which now has lots of raised beds; many with full cages around them to keep out pests)
She calls this the “Prickle tree”; the huge thorns look like deer antlers!
Homemade coaster!
And a crown!
She did all the sewing herself!
She said this design was supposed to be on the crown but she ran out of time
The pressure was on for the Spy’s Mother’s Day gift, right?! ahahah
Who doesn’t love cash? hahah
In other news, we have a new activity: hanging at the barn/horseback riding!
Leading Goose
Learning to use the curry comb
And the hoof pick
Boots/Hoofs
Rambo
Horsie Hug
Our friend/neighbor is the sweetest letting us tag along with her to the barn about once a week so she can learn all about horses!
Turning the horses out for the night
The planting and spring activities continue in the garden.
Eggplants are under the milk jugs
Red Celery
Pineapple (I like to just plant these for fun, have never been able to actually grow a pineapple!)
The white powdery stuff in the above photo is diatomaceous earth. I bought a big bag of it and am hoping it will cut down on the pests this year (especially squash bugs which are the worst!)
Diatomaceous earth (pronunciation: /ΛdaΙͺ.ΙtΙΛmeΙͺΚΙs ΛΙΛrΞΈ/), also known as D.E., diatomite, or kieselgur/kieselguhr, is a naturally occurring, soft, siliceoussedimentary rock that is easily crumbled into a fine white to off-white powder. Diatomaceous earth consists of fossilized remains of diatoms, a type of hard-shelled algae. It is used as a filtration aid, mild abrasive in products including metal polishes and toothpaste, mechanical insecticide, absorbent for liquids, matting agent for coatings, reinforcing filler in plastics and rubber, anti-block in plastic films, porous support for chemical catalysts, cat litter, activator in blood clotting studies, a stabilizing component of dynamite, and a thermal insulator. Diatomite is used as an insecticide, due to its abrasive and physico-sorptive properties.[10] The fine powder absorbs lipids from the waxy outer layer of insects’ exoskeletons, causing them to dehydrate. Arthropods die as a result of the water pressure deficiency, based on Fick’s law of diffusion. (from Wikipedia)
Plus isn’t the word diatomaceous just great?! It should be an adjective and I may begin using it as such.
Red Bud sapling
Red Admiral Butterfly
We have seen TONS of butterflies; including monarchs which I’ve never seen this early in the season!
We’ve also been diligently watering the garden
Blackberries coming soon!
Check out the cool beads we made! I love FIMO/Sculpey clay!
Chicken Coop progress
Happy Mother’s Day!
Share!
Spring Chickens
One with the chicks.
As you can see…
She’s not enjoying them at all.
Green on green on green
Zzzzzzz
Cardinal on her nest
First there were 3 little cardinals, then 2, then 1, then none. Bad spot for a nest? Hopefully photographing it didn’t disturb them. Maybe the black rat snakes are out hunting (even though we haven’t seen them yet)? Spring can be brutal.
At school the kids were drawing/contemplating a dead bird that met its end by flying into the school window.
We saw a run-over copperhead snake on ourΒ road (3rd one this spring!)! Again, a brutal spring for some. Exhibit D: the awful flooding in our area (we are up high and were thankfully not affected other than the kids having a week off school and bad traffic). All of the chicks are happily still alive and have enjoyedΒ pecking around the yard (we’ve kept a close eye on them) but are still spending their nights in the comfort of our living room (in a bin).
Coop site planning
We cleared out a pretty good sized area.
And Smoochie…
Got the base of the coop built! Woo!
We also moved the rabbits out to this area; so the bunnies and the chickens will be neighbors.
Hey neighbor!
They caught some worms and the kids exclaimed, “I thought they were vegetarians!?”
Me: “No, look at them they’re like little velociraptors (especially when they blink).”
What’re you looking at?
Holding Specky
Check out Specky’s leopard print feathers!!
Puff Puff helping to weed the garden
I LOVE the salmon favorelle’s feathery feet!
Springy abstract sculpture
Chickens are way more well behaved than bunnies. I spent like 45 minutes one night last week (during the heavy rain) trying to catch Bun-Bun in the woods.
Cinco de Mayo
Goldie admiring the lovely edges of the garden plots
Where we planted…
Red Foliated Cotton (image from Baker Creek)Β
WeΒ have never tried growing cotton before; very exciting!
Dexie has been nice
Hopefully she will never discover that they taste like chicken!
So for any of you that are considering getting chickens; there is a ton of information out there in internet world about raising chicks but I wanted to give you the most important #1 tip we’ve learned so far about keeping chickens:
Just wing it.
BAHahahahahah
