Morning in the coop.

I don’t know much about chickens, but I thoroughly enjoy having them.  There is nothing quite as refreshing as leaving chores undone, and slipping outside to the morning sun in a sleeveless shirt. Water is scattered, the coop swept, and the chickens feed.  I also feed the dog and cat along the way and pluck some weeds from the garden, watering if needed.   It’s a  wonderful half hour of my day.  And more so if the little man is not yet down for his morning nap and joins me. 

We currently have two roosters and four hens.  The first hen just showed up one day, two others where given to us, and Rafa bought one.  I bought the first rooster, and then the next week we were given another.  They fought, so the younger of the two is now resting in the freezer.  Then we were given a third {pictured above} rooster.  He is younger than the other one, but is the one we want to keep.  The older rooster is too old and tough for eating purposes, so he is currently waiting in the back patio to either be traded, sold, or given away.  You would think with all this chicken action we would have eggs coming out of our ears, right?  Nope!   When the first hen showed up, she laid for a while then gave up.  We are hoping she comes back around or she will end up in the freezer too.  Then a few weeks ago one of the younger ones began to lay, but with all the rain we had, stopped.  She has begun again and we get one egg a day from her.  After she lays, she cackles and the others join in and the rooster crows and the dog begins to howl.  Announcing is a family affair!   And picking up a warm egg is incredible!  

The other two are still young, so we think they will begin laying soon. {For their own sakes!}  So there is hope that Job will have all the fresh eggs his little heart desires once he starts eating them!  Our plan is to get our little flock up to about a dozen laying hens and one rooster.  Then we will use the eggs for just eating purposes and maybe raise a few extra chickens to process.

Besides doing a poor job of supplying eggs and producing offspring, they are great about gobbling down kitchen scraps and plucking up the abundance of little critters and insects that can me found around here.  They also love the weeds we tosh them from the garden.  So even if the egg production stays low, we will keep them for the other purposes they serve or even for the pure joy of just having them. 

Sketched.

{Penciled by Rafa on the tile countertop. Along with a sweet love note for me to find the next morning…}

Lima Beans

From field to freezer in two days.

One day last week I spent part of the afternoon with one of my newest friends, a 91-year-old widow who lives on her own, is still all there mentally, and has the sweetest disposition.  Charming and enchanting are the two best words I can think of to describe her home that is only nine years older than her.  We delighted in wonderful conversation, story telling, and new friendships.  As darkness began to fall, I asked her for permission to slip out and take a few pictures of her yard.  She gladly obliged. Thus the following:

Throw Pillows.

The material is the leftovers from cutting and trimming the kitchen and living room windows.  There are 8 in total. The original idea was for them to go on the couch, but since that is now in the other room, they fill our bed, pulling the two rooms together quite nicely.  When we finished the house, our color scheme was all natural, but orange has been seeping his way in too, through curtains, blankets, a painting, and now pillows.  You won’t find me complaining!

Too Cute….

…to not share on the world wide web!

The Bottle Rattle {or Rattle Bottle?}

A washed water empty water bottle filled with black beans, coffee beans, rice, garbanzo beans and I can’t remember what else at the moment. 

Job loves it! He could spend hours watching the bottle tip from one side to the other. Listening to it catches his attention but watching everything fall mesmerizes him. And the crunch of the bottle is a nice affect too. 

But I can’t help wondering if I am one of *those* moms. 

You know, the cool kind…the one that makes neat artsy toys for her kids.

Or the other kind.

You know, the cheap kind…he one that doesn't buy toys for her kids.