Raised flower bed project

My current project is to get raised flower beds put in so I can plant the 100 tulip bulbs I bought last month before winter comes. Eventually I would like to put in a porch railing as well.

I got them built and spaced, now I need to get soil and to paint them white. While I was out there I decided to dig up the paving stones that were buried in dirt and weeds and lay them back out on top of pebbles so they are higher.

Once I find some soil I will be able to plant the bulbs and make some plans on what else I can plant next spring.

That's a weird one

Well that's a strange egg

Cat is happy

I'm not a cat person

I am fully aware that I am not a cat person. And Cash and Paisley are not cat lovers. This stray cat doesn't seem to understand that as it's been hanging around for a month now around the chickens, in the driveway, and even in the back deck. 

It doesn't want to be near us and takes off running but always comes back around the house. So I bought cat food. Last night it ate a plate of dry and a can. Today it are another can.

I guess it is staying. 

Frogs - everywhere

At least once a week I go to press the garage door button and I see this.  Always a different frog.  Always sitting on top of the garage door button which is about five-and-a-half feet off the ground.

Too young for mommy-hood

A few weeks ago one of the chickens disappeared.  No sign of feathers or anything.  A couple weeks ago we got rid of our last rooster because he kept chasing people.  Sometime between last night and today another chicken went missing (thanks to the son not propping the coop door open and the birds all getting locked out at night, during a storm until I found them after 10PM.

So I went looking.  I was determined to find evidence of where this one went.  I finally saw something, and from a distance she looked like a bloated dead bird.  I thought maybe she got hit by a car and this was her body on the side of the road, wet from the storms that keep coming through.

I was scared to even touch her, well really I was grossed out.  I was scared she'd be cold and dead and gross.  But her eyes were open, not blinking, for a solid two minutes and I thought a bird wouldn't die with it's eyes open, would it?  I finally reached down and poked her and she turned and started attacking my hand.  So I reached down with both hands to pick her up.

These were all of the eggs under her!  I handed her off to the boy and gathered the eggs.  She'd been sitting on these eggs through the storms!  All but two were warm, although I'm not sure if any are fertile since we got rid of the rooster.  She was not happy but we moved everything into the coop.  They're all the same color so I suspect she's been laying in this spot, by the road for awhile now and then decided, during the storms, it was time to sit and become a mom.

Great Neighbors

Our neighbors asked to borrow some salt one day, and later they handed me two beautiful jars of canned beans.  I don't even want to open them, they're so pretty.

He said he wanted a purple wall

The youngest boy has been asking to have a purple room for over a year.  He finally agreed to have a purple wall.  So while he was away at summer camp I got to work.

I added several large super hero pictures to complete the room and he came home with smiles on his face.  Three layers of paint!  So glad that it was only one wall that I had to do. 

Eggs Eggs Everywhere

The chickens are laying pretty regularly now, we got five today!  They're still cute little eggs at this point.  The bad news is that they keep laying them on the ground.  I think I need to build new/better nest boxes.

Not as Lucky in the other bedrooms

I pulled up the corner of the carpet in one of the other bedrooms.  While the floors look like they have so much potential, they definitely need to be refinished and can't be uncovered and temporarily enjoyed until the refinishing starts.  This will definitely have to wait until next year.

Roaming too far

Our birds don't seem to understand that there is plenty of other space to roam near their coop... going completely around the house and down to the basement door should not be an option.

And trying to come to our back door should definitely not be an option.

Our Flock

Perhaps we should have broken down our flock sooner.

We have :

three Australorp - one of them is a rooster that's been nice so far (all black)

three Barred Rock - one of them is a rooster that's not very nice (black and white ones)

three Buff Orpingtons - one seems a little "special" (beige/tan ones)

two Silver Laced Wyandottes (black and white ones)

one Gold Laced Wyandottes (black and tan/gold)

two Rhode Island Reds (dark brown)

two ISA brown (lighter brown)

From left:  Australorp, Buff Orp, Silver Laced x 2, Rhode Island/Australorp/Buff together, Barred Rock x2, Rhode Island

From left: Rhode Island, ISA Brown, Buff Orp, Silver Laced, Australorp rooster

In the coop from left: ISA Brown, Silver Laced, Buff Orp from behind, Australorp, Barred Rocks, Rhode Island in the dark shadow

Barred Rock in front, Buff Orpingtons giving you "the eye", and an ISA brown behind her.  The two black ones are Australorps

You don't belong here

We had guests over yesterday that said one of our chickens was down by the road.  I was surprised that one would be alone or that they would be very close to the road but didn't think anything of it since all of them were safely in the coop at bedtime.

Then this morning my youngest son called me outside.

Our closest neighbors have 4 barred rock hens, no roosters.  The next closest neighbors really aren't that close.  We have no idea where this guy came from.  His neck looks like it's been plucked of feathers and his tail is a little beat up.

I went out a few minutes later and he was gone, no idea where he's run off to.

Our first eggs - again

I found out first eggs last night!  They were laying on the coop floor (not cool chickens!) and were so tiny and cute!  

Penny for scale size

We have several breeds and they all lay brown eggs, so that doesn't help us to figure out who might have started leaving us breakfast treats.

We've been flocked

Our community does a Library Fundraiser where people pay money to "flock" someone's house.  The Flamingo flock arrived at our home for a few days.

Do you see something wrong here?

On the 4th of July I went to lock up the chickens and was happy to see that none of them were on the ground or trying to sit on the nest boxes.  But there's definitely something wrong in this picture.

Cash and Paisley still run this place

No words needed.

A project that came too soon

Three of the bedrooms have carpet, and after a little peek at the corner I knew there were original hardwood floors underneath.  My goal is to one day pull them up and finish them myself.  I thought that project might happen next year.  

And then we had a bad house guest that ruined the carpet in our main guest room.  I had no choices but to take on the project now.

 So I started here.  Thinking I'd tear up this section first to see what was underneath.

And I lucked out, big time!

Chickens are finally free range

They got their first taste of freedom!

16 birds, 2 are males.  

And we finally have nest boxes

We still have another two months before our birds start to lay, but I'm about a month late getting nest boxes installed in the coop. I decided to go with the bucket idea this time.  They are right above the chicken door so if I ever install an automatic opener, I hope these aren't in the way.

Where have we been

Two years ago we decided that we wanted to move to Iowa. I had done a lot of research on cost of living and teacher salaries and came up for a weekend visit.

We had to downsize everything. Our chicken flock had gotten really small due to predators and we sold the rest. We sold nearly all possessions that weren't family memories and heirlooms. Then we listed the house for sale.

The house sold and in June of 2017 we drove to Iowa with a uhaul.  We planned to rent for a year while we found a town and house that we loved but it was only 5 months later that we found my dream home.

We have a lot of things to do in our new home but we've started on some.

We have 16 chickies they are set up in a new chicken coop. We have fruit trees that are ready to be planted when the weather gets a little warmer. And we are in the planning stages of a small garden with the plans of having a huge one next year.

So weve been quiet for awhile, but the adventure continues.