Beautiful Spring

 Some of my earlier planting

 The lilacs popped today!  I do love lilacs!

 Everything is just bursting! We've finally had some sunny days and higher temps.  The Iris are popping out of the ground at a great rate, Flowers just burst into bloom the last few days, today I saw blooms on my strawberrys --do you suppose I'll get more than 1/2 dozen of them this year?  This is my 3rd picking of Asparagus, I could eat it nearly every day!  Clematis are finally turning green & have buds and my transplanted raspberries are doing great!

 Our first batch of chickens are growing quickly!  They are ready to go outside, only we don't have the pen ready for them yet.  These are our fryers

 2nd batch of chickens (our layers) are doing great too.  We were happy it was warm enough that they could go straight to the chicken house without them being in the house.

Today Kara preformed in the Central District Music Festival.  She has been taking lessons for about 2 years, and this was the first time she has done something like this.  The students had to memorize their songs they played, they also had sight-reading & scales heard by the judge and then there was Theory Ear training exams.
We don't know what the results from those tests were, but she received a 1- rating on her playing!

P.S.  In case you're wondering--the cool clock on the wall was a Mothers day gift from one of my special daughters :)

 

Education

My husband just called and said he's on his way home with 25 new ladies.  This is sink or swim, and I'm trying to figure things out!  Found this today!

A Short Chicken Glossary

 

chick

A newly hatched chicken.

capon

A castrated male chicken used for meat.

cockerel

A male chicken less than a year old. These often make it to the barbecue.

hen

A female chicken more than a year old. These are the ones that lay the eggs.

pullet

A female chicken less than a year old.

rooster

A male chicken more than a year old.

egg

If you don't know, you shouldn't be doing this.

Ready (or not)

 I believe I mentioned in my last post that I tend to be impatient.  I really wanted chickens last year.  Since we moved here last March, in the middle of cold, rainy weather, and had tons of things to do just to get settled along with the chicken house needing repair and all the prep work it involved it simply was not reasonable to jump into the chicken venture.
All year long it's been our my goal to be ready for chickens this spring.
HAHAHA--Read, *my goal to have my husband have everything done*.

Well...spring is here, the chickens are in,
and are we is he ready?

No, not quite!
Another bout of winter early spring nasty cold and rainy snow related weather postponed the needed hours to finish up getting the chicken house ready.

Oh well...who needs a chicken house for baby chicks anyway?
Turning back the pages on my memory book I remember my mom raising chickens all the years I was growing up before I turned a teenager and we moved to K-town.
We lived in a very small tiny town during those years, and we did not have a chicken house.
One of the places we lived was in the back of a grocery store/combo-feed store.  In part of the back area there were empty rooms that doubled quite well as a place to put chickens.
(What?  You don't put your chickens in the house with you?)

Another place we lived had an old adbanded house next to ours.  The house and fenced in yard worked as a perfect place for mom to keep/raise her chickens.
(What??  You don't do that either?)

Well, we are talking 40 years ago, and did I mention the town was TINY--you almost could consider it a non-town!  

WAIT A MINUTE--40 YEARS AGO??? Where did the time go?

So today I was on my way home from accross the state, and my husband calls.  It went kind of like this:
Him: "I bought the chickens today, you will need to stop in town and pick them up on your way thru."
Me:  "Uh, why didn't you take them home, you have the pickup"?
Him: "It's chilly, and they need to stay warm, just put them in the backseat."

Ohh, Kay.  Yes I guess I did want to raise chickens, I suppose that means I have to do more than tell the kids to gather the eggs, or fry them up after they're butchered, right?

So.  Husband forgot he had to work this afternoon, spent all morning in town, rushed home with the supplies, instead of being able to put the chickens in the chicken house we had to fix a place in the basement for them.   Do this, do that, like this, like that....he hollers as he runs out the door, leaving the poor chicks to our un-educated mercy.

These two have stated that they are the official "chicken keepers".  I hope they know what they're doing, because I sure don't!

 Now before you get all worried that we really don't know what we're doing, let me state that this is a very short stop-gate measure, and we had to go bring in my other large tub to additionally accommodate them.

I just checked on them.  food, check.  Water, check.  Heat, check.  Bedding, check.  Not too crowded, check.

I'll probably have to check on these two girls tonight--they'll probably want to go downstairs to sleep so they can keep them company.

Thanks in advance for all the prayers for my sanity & patience in this fowl adventure.


P.S.  Maybe you could pray for the chicks survival too, since we're such novices?  (at least until butchering time)