New chicks!

We got a few new chicks today. I needed more right? LOL!! Well these should be our layers assuming they are girls. We have a 50/50 chance right? We only got three and they are very sweet. They let us hold them without much fuss. They even have names.

This first one is an Easter Egger, so her name is Bunny. She should lay green and blue eggs. She also has green colored legs and feet.



Second is a Maran. Her name is Mary. She has black fuzzy feet. She will lay very dark reddish brown eggs.


Last is a Polish. She has a funny fuzzy head. The lady said she will probably turn out to be a Khaki color. Of all the three, this is the one we are least sure about the sex. Polish don't have much of a identifiable comb or waddle. They said if the head feathers were more round it had a better chance of being a female, so that is what we went with. This ones name is Foofy. If Foofy is a girl she will lay smaller white eggs. Polish are not super producers and they quit laying in the cold weather totally but they are neat looking.

Chicken breeds.

So apparently the chickens we got from the store were not the quick growing kind. Oh we can still eat them, its just taking way longer than 6 weeks for them to get big enough. The lady at the store assured me they would be ready in 6 weeks. Not. Anyway, I was getting curious to what kinds we do have. It appears to be Miscellaneous is the answer. From what I can tell this is what we have.

A black and white Barred Rock (we have 4 or 5 of these). They are supposed to be good egg layers so they may have been saved from an untimely death.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/plymouth_rock/8269



Then we have about 3 black chickens with black feet. I think these look like the Ameraucana's. They are the only ones I can find that have the black feet that look like this. Also I think our yellow chickens might be this breed too.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/ameraucana/5845

Then we have some red chickens (Roosters mostly)and I think they are Buckeyes. They are starting to get the green tails.
http://www.backyardchickens.com/breeds/buckeye/32682


It is all very interesting and a learning process for sure. Hopefully soon we will have chickens in the freezer and egg layers>

New look for the living room.

My sister and I painted my living room yesterday. It turned out wonderful. I wanted just a fresh sage green to match my curtains and compliment the rest of the room. I love it! My husband even commented that we did a great job with it. Whipped it out in one day even with the kids underfoot. :)

Phone photos

Here are a couple cute pictures I have taken of the kids lately with my phone. I finally got them on my computer so I thought I would share. Luca looking fresh in his stocking hat.


Gioia in her curlers. My sister passed these on to her and she loves them. She has done them twice now and it looks so cute on her.

Cedar Cove Big Cats Sanctuary

This week we visited Cedar Cove and saw the big cats. It was very cool and the volunteer guide was very knowledgeable.

http://www.saveoursiberians.org/

They had Siberian and Bengal Tigers, Cougars, Leopards, Bobcats, Servals, Carcals, Kuwatis and Wolves.

This Leopard is growling at us. Look at those teeth!


They have 3 Timberwolves and they are very domesticated. This man is probably 6 foot tall. Look at how tall the wolf is next to him. Amazing!

T-ball kids.

The kids are on a T-ball team this summer. It is pretty fun and funny to watch them play. One kid on their team ran to the pitchers mound plate instead of first base. They all did great. No one cried and they stayed on the field for the whole game. They don't count outs or keep score. Everyone gets to bat and they played 4 innings. It was over in an hour. Perfect!

The pictures are: 1: Gioia batting, 2: Dominic batting, 3: Dominic running home.

Pecan trees and a new chicken house.

Did you mother every tell you your Eyes were bigger than your Stomach? or some variation of that. It is supposed to mean that you thought you were hungry and all the food looks so good, but you just couldn't eat it all. I think that applies to farming/gardening as well.

Hence the arrival of our 40 pecan trees today. We ordered the Pecan Tree Bundle from the MO Dept of Conservation. I am super happy with the look of these trees. They are a good size. 1-3 feet and have at least 12 inch root systems on them. I think these might actually live.
We always have some project on our plate that needs done NOW! Like the chicken house, or
planting these trees. We just get so excited and want to have all this cool stuff going on NOW! LOL.

Well the Chicken Coop is mostly done. It only needs the wheels put on and tin on the door. As you can see the coop is just a frame with chicken wire on the pen part and tin covering the house part. This makes it pretty lightweight. DH and I can move it with a little effort to new spots. With the wheels on it will be a cinch to move. The door in the back opens all the way up which gives great access. Also I don't get poop on my shirt leaning in like I did on the other house. Thirdly, when I want to clean this, I can literally get a broom and sweep it out.



Last but not least for today is this guy. A few days ago I saw a Hummingbird was back so we got the feeder out and before I even made it back to the house he was over eating. We saw a total of 3 at once today. I snapped this good picture of him. They are SOO tiny!