The Chronicles of Beauregard continue...

For a chicken, Beau has a pretty adventure laden life. The sole survivor of the massacre of his original flock by an unknown assassin, he survived a dog attack just yesterday with only the loss of his tail feathers and a neck wound. 

Well... Today, someone left the lid off of the chicken feed bin. It had been left open yesterday as well, and filled with rain. In all of the excitement with the dog vs chicken business, I just put the lid back on and forgot it. Charlie Mac must've left it off this morning after feeding them enough corn mash to start a side business. 

Beauregard must have thought he won the lottery when he saw the lid off and jumped right in. I have no idea what time that happened, nor how long he fought the corn mash quick sand. When I walked out for their evening feeding today I found him like this:

He was exhausted! And a mess:

(Note his pitiful tail feathers)

I bathed him in the goat trough. He was either too exhausted the raise a ruckus or he's the chillest rooster in Mississippi. We then wrapped him in a towel and took him inside. 

While swaddled he pecked pretzel crumbs out of a spoon

And fell sound asleep while being petted. I think he's on to something. 

Listening to the hens wake up over cheerios.

Blondie's new digs

To be filed under "awesome repurposing" Blondie is spending her still-too-little-for-the-coop days in an old play pen we found in the attic of our last house. The thing is nice and big, but doesn't keep my car out of the garage. She flys up to the top of the railing to roost at night, and then back down to her food and water with the sunrise. No escape attempts yet... knock on wood!

I've lined the bottom with cardboard for lickety split cleaning, and done the same under the big girls' roost in the coop outside. Recycling at its best! Then, we can compost it maybe. I'm going to see how that works out.

Hello, Summer! Whatchew know good?

Well here we are and it's summer for damn sure! It's been as hot as blue blazes, but the last day or so had been a lot cooler and pleasant outdoors.
Here at The Hi Five, we've added two furry and feathered family members:
Blondie Chick and a to-be-named Giant Schnauzer puppy! The picture of Blondie is from when she was tiny, she's much bigger now. As soon as I can get my damn Android phone to mail the new pic of her I'll post it!
Work at Woodson Ridge Farms continues to be wonderful and good times are abounding. God bless America and y'all, too.
Talk at ya later!
Lizzie

Chicken Mansion

My husband is nothing short of a badass. Please look at the coop he designed and built all by himself:

TA-DAAAAAA!!! It's WONDERFUL!!!!

And it's hot as blue blazes outside, too. Go Bradley! He's my man! If he can't do it, no one can!!

The girls are definitely singing the Jefferson's theme song. These digs are waaay better than their "nursery."

Here's are the five star nesting accommodations:

I almost want to take a napper in there. 

Here the girls are enjoying their new shaded yard:

Here they can scratch and peck to their hearts' delight. And this is their new water fountain. No poop gettin' in this one! (shudder!)

Lastly, here is the people door:

I'll get some pics of the very cool contraption he put together so the kids can easily collect the eggs and post soon. I'll be painting it over the next few weeks, too.

Oh I love my husbin!

Raised beds, new jobs and adolescent hens

Since the tornado kicked off our month of "Life In A Blender" a few developments have occurred in our little slice of America. Husband and I both got new jobs, mine part time, husband graduated from law school, children finished school for the year and the hens have been moved outside....

Except for tonight when I moved them back into the garage because we were under a tornado warning and we don't have their permanent coop built yet. Miss Cluck hurt her foot while we were herding them with their cage, and I'm hoping it heals without any problems. She's walking/roosting on the pole just fine with it, so I think it's just the skin that got hurt. We are building the coop tomorrow, so they will have somewhere nice and sturdy to ride out any storms.

I'm so over tornados.

We're seeing some promising results from our bell peppers, cukes, corn, basil, thyme, sage, squash, mint, marjoram, onions, chives and tomatoes. We actually ate some of our basil tonight and it was dee-lish if I do say so. And I do.

Speaking of margaritas, you should try Skinny Girl Margaritas. They are the bomb. Just don't try a whole bottle by yourself or you might feel like I do today.

Back to the chicks. They've been enjoying pecking and scratching in the yard and eating scraps from the kitchen. Their plumage is coming in beautifully and I'm looking forward to their red combs joining the show. Yesterday I was feeding the cats and heard Juanita cheeping excitedly. Turns out she's just a narc. Miss Cluck was proudly strutting around ON TOP of their mobile pen. Lord knows how she got there, and I wish He'd post the video on YouTube, because I bet it was hilarious. The gap in the wire on the top, in the middle of the roof was only about three inches at it's widest.  Anyway, I ran down and caught her and put her back in, then added some more scrap plywood to the top. (cue sanford and son theme song).

Speaking of the Lord, Good Him I'm tired.

'Night, y'all and God bless.

Easter Sunday

April 24, 2011

Easter! After a wonderful morning hunting eggs and finding “giant bunny tracks” in the yard, we went to church and then lunch with my parents and sister. Big Boy was the first to discover some “tracks” by the fence, and to be truthful, they look a lot like the Easter Bunny dug in right as he hopped over the fence. Good eye for tracking that boy has, a very good eye.

All three of the children went to the Easter service with us in the Nave. They were very good and quiet the whole time. I wonder if our days at the church nursery are over…maybe it will depend upon the day. Anyway, I was very proud of their behavior and focus at church today.  

Today we moved the chicks out of the guest bathroom. They have grown tremendously in the last three weeks and have learned to get out of the tub. Bird poop in the tub that I can easily bleach is one thing - knowing that the longer they stayed in that room the longer I’d be scrubbing it to sanitize it inspired me to get kinda bossy about getting them outta there.

My Sweet Husband is heading into his last law school exams ever so spending time to build a super nice coop just isn’t in the cards for a few more weeks. The chicks are also still just a little small I think to be outside all alone at night. (I’m a mother…hen…get it?) Anyway, we’ve come up with a solution – using a lot of repurposed parts we’ve built a temporary chicken run to keep on a tarp in the garage. Sweet Husband did pretty much everything, God bless him. It’s a big rectangular cube, wrapped in chicken wire. There’s a little bit of a roof on one end in case we want to take it outside and use it as a chicken tractor.  We made it out of our old compost pile cube from our old house, some wood we had from other projects and another roll of chicken wire we got by returning some light bulbs. I love making new things without spending a dime!!!

It’s not beautiful by any means, but I feel good about Juanita and Miss Cluck living in it for a while. Tomorrow I’ll disinfect the guest bathroom and feel civilized again.

Also in the yard today we watered the two raised beds both morning and night. The corn, lettuce and pepper seedlings (planted yesterday) wilted by late afternoon, but perked up again once they were watered. We’re just going to have to be really good about watering them a lot until they are established.

The two eldest children planted purple petunias in a border around the front flower bed. It’s a sweet story that began with tears. I was beginning to mow the front yard with my super awesome manual lawn mower (more on that later) when Precious Daughter burst into tears crying “you’re mowing my flower land!” Oh no! Her “flower land” was made up of all of the wild flowers that grow in our “native” lawn….aka “weeds.” But in the eyes of a three year old with a beautiful imagination, I can see how it was indeed a Flower Land. What to do?

Luckily, I had two flats of purple petunias that I had been meaning to plant for the last two week -- I love it when procrastination pays off. I took her sweet, tiny hand and we walked together to the flowers in their trays and I told her she could plant herself a new Flower Land wherever she wanted in the flower bed. I’m so happy to report that not only did this help her with the loss of her wild flowers, but she did a great job with the help of her big brother! He dug the holes for her, and she put the flowers in and patted down the dirt around them. I looked up from my mowing to find that they’d made a lovely border around the main flower bed.  Not bad for a 5 and 3 year old, huh? I’m so proud! After they were planted, Precious Girl was going to each one and watering it with a water bottle she was refilling and talking to them. SO SWEET.

Tiny Baby was determined to be held most of the time he was awake today, so I didn’t get to help just a ton. What mowing I did was while he was asleep. But I know too well how fast this time will pass and I’m cherishing it. He’s so precious and small and making all his baby sounds. Oh my little Boogie Bear. I’m going to go join him in bed right this second, co sleeping is the BOMB. I’m so glad we’ve slept with all three of our babies. There’s nothing that compares to it. Snuggles rule.