Pictures speak a thousand words

Beach, diving, traveling. I LOVE IT!

Summer Rundown

Our first eggs as found by friends (we were out of town... big surprise)

Haley was very intent on getting her mouth on these babies at first. But now she is so good we can leave her alone to 'watch' for cats with the chickens free ranging in the yard.

The babies in their second temporary home, Haleys dog crate

Our first fruits...

Isn't she so pretty!!!

Yummys
The eggs are getting bigger already

Our first egg layers, one of which is gone from us now
The first sunflower
There are some big changes for us at home. We now have 9 (was 10 a couple weeks ago) chickens. I get about a dozen eggs a week and when my 7 babies start producing eggs, I'll have maybe three to four dozen a week. I plan to sell the remaining eggs.

I currently have all sorts of different breeds to test them out. I have two rhode island reds, one barred plymouth rock, two wyandottes, one is a blue and one is silver laced, one white easter egger, a buff orpington, a white cochin and a cookoo maran. I am so happy with all my birdies, but of the two laying hens I prefer the larger traditional shape of my rhode island reds. The eggs don't taste any different between the breeds they just look different. As far as taste, I can tell and the real test is when John can tell the difference between a store egg and a back yard egg. They are so much better, if you doubt me come to my house and I'll give you a few. Or head to your farmers market. You'll notice the color and the taste is completely different.

My garden was off to a very late start this summer, so we're just getting tomatoes now. My sunflowers were the only thing I planted on time this year, and I am so happy because they are tall and dramatic. The birds love the seeds and so do the squirrels. I planted cucumbers for the first time ever, and learned all about them after it was too late. I figured I was doing well when I brought an arm-full to the kitchen. I love cucumbers so when I could hardly choke one down my pride was hurt. I learned very quickly they need lots of water to keep from being bitter. I was sadly gone way too much to tend to my garden as it needed. Maybe next season. Thankfully the chickens are going crazy over them and are cleaning the bed for my cold weather veggies. Garlic, broccoli, cauliflower, chard, all kinds of greens and more. Love it!

Here is a video of our birdie that passed on. John broke the news to me while I was in Mexico. He told me he had "good and bad news", as you can tell, she was a very LOUD bird hence the good news. What you don't see in the video is the bad news. She laid my biggest eggs, she never took a day off from her egg duties and she always let me catch her. I'll miss her waking us up in the morning with her egg celebration songs, this birdie thought she was a rooster.

wo

Love

John just took me to San Francisco for Valentine's Day the biggest surprise ever. We stayed at The Galleria Park Hotel and had a romantic dinner at B44. It was one of the most romantic weekends I've has since my honeymoon.

London

My mom and I just went to London... and had a ball!