I'm ready for my close-up...

Well, in an attempt to get a final picture of the chickens inside, I had some trouble with the lighting, and then... well, as you can see, Squeak saw that pictures were being taken, so, of course, he had to be in them.

This afternoon, I heard the weirdest noise coming from the chickens. I'd never heard it before, so I went to investigate. It was Cricket, practicing his cock-a-doodling! It was very cute. I wish I knew more about computers, so I could have recorded it for you.

The chicken coop is almost ready for occupancy--we just need some more litter! So tomorrow morning, they'll go to their new homes! YEA!

The red things hanging down are some bungee cords. I used them to raise up the feeders. We had the cheap red plastic ones, so we used two rubber bands to keep it closed, and then hung them with the bungee cords. It's funny, since the chickens seemed to really like the trapeze. The waterers, for here, we have the ones you add a mason jar to. When they got a little older, we put sand in old Oxy-Clean containers and put the waterers on them. They've only tipped it over a few times, and usually because someone didn't make sure the container was cleaned off before the waterer was put back. (oops)

Tuesday, July 24th?

Well, we have some great news. The goats no longer run from us. In fact, they come right up to us! The trick we used? Only give them one leaf at a time! Singing, talking, and making noise in general seems to help with ours, anyway.
When I got back last week, I was very sad to see how big the chickens have gotten! We are in the process of finishing the coop for them to go outside this week! Eric has one of the doors on--he's so handy! We took an old shed that had been moved off the property, moved it back on and are in the process of turning it into.... a coop. Last night, Eric made 'bees flambe' they had started a hive in one of the basins in the shed. Now, if you were unaware, if there is a bee within 100 yards of Eric, it will hunt him down and sting him. So, as soon as he heard the 'buzz'. He got out, waited until evening, covered it with a tarp, drug it out of the shed, doused it in ether, and whoosh! bees flambe. (just pretend there's an accent on the e.)
The cats are getting out every evening, and bats are getting in. I made a 'screen door' with some gauzy material, but we had loaned out the staple gun... one day, we will get it back, and nature will stay out, and the cats will stay in. But not today. The good news is that the bats aren't sick, they just flew in, and then fly back out. (this is not a huge gaping thing--it is tucked into the jam of the door, but the cats nudge it open, and get out, leaving a cat-sized gap. As we all know, bats are a wee bit smaller, so there you go.
I killed the fish, by not having the aerator running. Whoops, so we have some new ones. Ben is aware of what happened, and wasn't near as upset as I thought he would be. Yea!
The dogs are doing just fine. They love Ben's pool. They get it filthy within hours of us cleaning it out.
The garden got a little overrun while I was gone, but it's doing fine. The tomatoes, peppers, beans, zucchini, and red onions are good. The sunflowers have started to bloom. The carrots and sweet onions are... well, I think they are still in there somewhere. Is that all? Oh, the corn will be done pretty soon, too!
So, there you go. Not a whole lot going on, but it keeps us busy.
Hope the past few weeks have been wonderful!!!

A few days later...

:)
Things are going very well here. The chicks are getting huge! The dogs are needing their Frontline Plus, the cats are better, now that Squeak is back (he slipped outside sometime on Wednesday? Thursday? But he's back now. The kitten down at the shed is MIA, we think the dogs finally chased her off. The pigeons are gone!! YEA!! We didn't kill them--just fogged the area with diesel (ran the tractor in there for a few minutes, then shut the doors!). They are probably down at the barn now. The goats are doing great. They have learned that they can jump, and really enjoy getting on top of anything they can. I went down to find them on the old waterer one day. They come up to us now, but still do not like to be petted. For now. The one I wrestled to the ground is by far the friendliest. Maybe there will be more wresting in our future! I have more pictures, but it's late, and I head out for Chicago tomorrow, so you'll have to wait until I get back!
Thanks for reading!