DayTrippin'

Yesterday I took a trip to the big city. Of Des Moines. I was going to have some allergy tests to see how allergic I am to bee stings, since we live so far from a hospital.  I now have 3 epi-pens and feel pretty safe, but I figured I may as well get immunized to bees so I won't have anxiety walking around the farm this summer.

Anyway, the tests took about an hour and a half, consisting of a nurse pricking me a total of 40 times with a needle. Yuck. My arms look like a vampire just went to town on them.

After all that excitement, I stopped in Super Target because I desperately needed Adele's new CD and a few things for dinner.  And a new sweater. And there was a Starbucks!  Honestly, on the drive home, sipping my skinny Mocha latte and listening to my new cd I was the happiest girl in the world!

Crazy Chicken Lady?

Yesterday I bought 4 more chickens.  For those of you keeping track, that equals 9 total.  They don't have names yet, so....any suggestions?  We're on a "B" theme here!  Need some inspiration?  Check them out, then post your suggestions!

These two little chickies are Silver Laced Wyandottes and when full grown, will look like this:

And then there are the other little chickies who also need names!

These are California White Leghorns and when full grown, will look like this, only more "life like" as they are not cartoons:

And, there have been a few requests as to what the housing for all these animals looks like.  I guess some of you ("mom") think that I would have them live in terrible conditions.  So that you don't have to call animal control, here are some photos of the chicken condominium I built (the larger addition is new construction that was built just this morning as to allow adequate room for 9 chicks and their rent just went up):

Current conditions.  Far from squalor.  Two cardboard boxes with an adjoining 'door', feed, water and fresh pine shavings.  See happy chicks.

A view from inside the home.

New home, under construction.  A view from the back - the large door is for me to enter to clean things out.  The side attachment houses the nest boxes.

Inside view.  Timber perches that I CUT A TREE DOWN FOR BY HAND.  City girl no more!

Notice the natural oak flooring.  If this coop were on the market, it'd be high dollar, let me tell you.

Easy access to nest boxes and eggs.

Obligatory muddy Jeep picture.  The Jeepy is happy.

The..the...the...That's All Folks!!!!  

Spring Chicken

As you, my faithful reader, may or may not know, we purchased a few "darling" pets not too long ago.  They are cute, they are cuddly, they serve a purpose, they are....chickens!

Let's meet the ladies:

Here we have Buttercup. She is an Amerucauna.  The other chicks covet her beautiful natural blond (as do I) and she loves long, circular strolls around the box.  She may be the brightest colored, but that's not to say she's the sharpest knife....after all, she is a blond.

One day Buttercup will grow up to have blue legs, lay "easter" eggs and look like this:

Next we have Billie.  Don't tell the other chicks, but I think she's the cutest.  Her poofy cheeks are the envy of the coop!  She's growing more and more every day!

  Billie is a Barred Plymouth Rock and if everything goes according to plan, she will one day look like this:

That's it girl! Strut your stuff!!!

Next up, another Barred Plymouth Rock.  Her name is Becky.  She's a natural blond, too, on her tummy.  Becky loves to be held! She also loves sleeping. A lot.  To be honest, I am worried about her exercise routine as she is not growing quite as fast as her other cohort, Billie.  She's cute nonetheless!

Becky will also grow up to have lovely stripes, and in her teenage years, look a little like this:

And I like to think if Buttercup and Becky were sitting at the salon, havin' their nails painted, tellin' jokes, this is what they'd say...

And up next we have Bobbi.  She came from the "Various Bantams" bin at the store, but don't let her 'discount' upbringing fool you! Bobbi has lots of spunk and personality! She's also the littlest one of the bunch, leading Billie to wonder how she keeps such a slender figure.  Most likely, she'll be a beautiful brown hen who lays lots of yummy eggs! (Sorry no photo, since she's 'just a Bantam', those are pretty varied!) Here she is in all her glory:

And FINALLY we have Brownie.  She's got "personality".

Considering her current attitude, she'll probably grow up to be this:

Although, if the cats don't get her first, I guess she'll turn out to be a Brown Leghorn instead of VelociChicken.  I guess we'll have to wait and see.

And those are the ladies! Hopefully they are productive and give us lots of these:

 I'll post pictures of the gorgeous coop Jake is building later.  For now, I will leave you with some chicken poetry: 

Settling In

Well, we made it to Missouri!  As you may or may not know, we moved so Jake could start a hunting business.  It's called Buckeye Ranch Outfitters and it's a work in progress.  More on the the business later.

And now I am getting settled, I guess you could say.  Things are still misplaced after the move; Jake is looking for a camera SD card and I have no idea where that would be. Or his shaver, or my make up brushes. They'll turn up.  I just ordered a new camera battery charger, so as soon as that gets here, and as soon as I buy another SD card, I'll get some photos up. Photos of:

• the garden we are starting, by seed!
• the 5 baby chicks that I am now the proud mama hen to
• progress of the chicken coop that we now have to build
• progress of the cabin

For now, it's a beautiful day, I just took care of Becky, Billie, Bobbi, Brownie and Buttercup (the chicks!) and now I'm off to work on planting potatoes, carrots, peas, lettuce and whatever else we've got.  My goal is to post on here 2x/week, so wish me luck!

What in the......???

Uh-oh. They are onto us.

Mmm....Salt!

One of the perks of being in the hunting business is you can take pictures of deer :)