Chickens and Garden

On Friday, I received a call from the woman I get my chickens from. She needed to find a home for one of her girls. She had a pen that was attacked by a dog and had spent around $100 to save this chicken's life. This chicken had just had stitches taken out and needed to go back outside. Here's the kicker... she was given a very strong antibiotic (Baytril)* and now her eggs cannot be eaten. Ever. My friend sells eggs, so that would not work. This chicken lays white eggs, all of mine will lay brown. So, I drove over and picked up that chicken and another.
This is Thea - She is a 2 1/2 year old Appenzeller. She is missing tail and back feathers from the dog attack, but they will grow back.

And this is Sutton. She is a 13 week old Speckled Sussex. She is the same age as Sprinkles, the Barred Rock, but quite a bit smaller. Sutton gets chased quite a bit and hangs out in the coop most of the day. I lock her in a crate overnight in the coop because I don't want her to get cornered and attacked. Hopefully I won't have to do that much longer. She's very sweet!

The Girls: Ruby, Sprinkles, Thea, Sutton

The garden is doing well. We are apparently having a drought though and things just need to grow... I added 5 bags of cocoa shell mulch to the vegetable plot last week. It is literally cocoa shells. It can be tilled into the garden at the end of the season. It smells like dark chocolate when it gets wet! And it's pretty.

I am considering going to get more bags and doing the 3 Sisters plot too. I don't have current pics of that plot, but the pole beans are coming up. I desperately need to weed though!

* Some people say that there is a withdrawal period for Baytril. However, it is banned in the US for meat and egg production birds because it's possible that it may cause resistance to human antibiotics. I cannot take that risk for myself or my family. She has not laid since the attack. If she does start laying again, her eggs will be discarded.

7th Anniversary

7 years ago, I married my best friend at my favorite place in the world (my college campus).

Today, we celebrated by having Jon's mom watch Connor while we went to see "Chernobyl Diaries", had a nice early dinner, then went for a river side hike at Deep River Co. Park.

10 Year College Reunion

I had my 10 year college reunion last weekend. 10 years. How is that even possible? It seems like our 5 year was just last year!

Le Fer Hall

Class of 2002 at lunch (9 in attendance)

 Saint Mother Theodore

Church of the Immaculate Conception



Pete took us for a nice wagon ride around campus.

Alpacas

Class of 2002 on the marble staircase

Horses at the barn

Oager and Milford, these guys were here when I was.

Me, Erika and Melissa by the fountain

Reunion Banquet



Bikes and Pie

Connor is learning how to ride his bike!

He's doing pretty well with it. He keeps looking down at his feet instead of looking ahead, but that's ok!


I made my first rhubarb custard pie for Mother's Day. I love rhubarb. I adore rhubarb. You have no idea. I have had a hard time finding plants this year. I finally found some at Meijer over the weekend on clearance. I bought three and will be planting them today or tomorrow. I found rhubarb stalks at Meijer too. They weren't very fresh, but still yummy.

Here is the recipe. This makes a 9 1/2 inch deep dish pie. I had left over rhubarb and pie crusts so I finally used my ramekins for what they are supposed to be used for. I filled the bottom of two with rhubarb and make up some more custard, topped with left over pie crust from the lattice crust.

And Then There Were Two...

I lost my beautiful new Speckled Sussex pullet today. My mother came out today and when we left around 10:30, all three were fine. When we got back around 1:15, I didn't see anyone. I didn't think much of it because Ruby might have been laying and the grass was so tall, I figured I just couldn't see the babies. I went out a bit after 1:30 to check on them, and saw the feathers... Best we can figure out is that something snagged her through the fence, slashed her neck and side, then she fell out of reach and it left. Ruby and Sprinkles were quite freaked out and hid for hours.
We do have raccoons here, but I've never seen one during the day. We have opposums in the area, but I've never seen one on our property. Our neighbor has a cat that he lets out, but I don't know if it would go after the chickens. The hawks could not have gotten in the pen.

*sigh*

New Chicks!

I picked up two chicks from my friend today. They are 8-ish weeks old (waiting to hear exactly how old).

This is Splash. She's a Speckled Sussex. She was sexed at the hatchery.

The black and white one should be a Plymouth Barred Rock pullet. She was part of a "bin clean out" mystery batch. The hatcheries sometimes offer a mystery group when they have extras. Her name is Sprinkles. I'm hoping she is a she! I'll have to get better pics tomorrow. If she is a he, he will be going back and we'll switch out another. I cannot have a rooster here.



Ruby was fairly accepting of them. This was Sprinkles' first time outside ever! When I went to lock them up for the night, they were hiding under the sawhorse. They came running and cheeping when they saw me. I had to put them in the coop. They'll get the hang of it eventually!

Connor's Responsibilities and Rewards

Connor has only been 3 for 7 days and each day has had a major meltdown. I'm starting to think that it's not Terrible 2's, it's Terrible 3's.

We are trying a Responsibility Chart and Reward Jar. I made up a chart with his responsibilities - make bed, put clothes in hamper, be nice to mommy, be nice to daddy, eat all meals and pick up toys. He gets a sticker when he does it. I made a Reward Jar that he'll be able to pick a reward from at the end of the week if his chart is good. We just started it and haven't figured out how many he'll have to have for now, but eventually we want to have the whole chart filled for a reward.

His rewards are on slips of paper and include - 1 extra book at bedtime, 2 extra books at bedtime, 3 extra books at bedtime, book from library, ice cream outing, trip to the park, trip to Bellaboo's, trip to train restaurant and Target $1 spot pick. There are multiples of some, only one of others, like Bellaboo's because that will easily be a $15 day. I want to eventually have the jar at least half filled, but don't know what other kind of rewards would be good. We don't want to have too much food or things that cost money. If you have any ideas, I'd love to hear them!