Skunked

Here we are again, I have been out in the yard in the dark night in my pjs and muck boots smelling chicken feathers.

How do I keep coming to this point.... and who would ever think of themselves as being here !

Any way, here I am and we have lost most of our chickens already this year. 8 chickens in two weeks to be exact. This means we are now in desperate need of laying hens. We only have 5 layers left and only two are laying right now. That is not enough to feed my family much less sell. From the smell of a fresh batch of chicken feathers we found on the ground we believe it to be a skunk. Let's all hope we trap it tonight.

The Chickens Are Unhappy

Yes, that is right my chickens are a little off. We know this because for about 8 weeks now we have only been getting one to two eggs a day and with all the chickens we have that is way off. I have carefully watched them and have noticed that only the barred rocks are laying. This just makes me love them more, they are my favorites after all. They are such little champs. We have several theories as to why the chickens have just stopped laying, but can't confirm any of them.

1) they are molting
2) Rocky's love is a little much and is bordering on harassment
3) the predators are stalking them and stressing them out ( we have lost quite a few in those same weeks)
4) they are laying somewhere else

I guess we will just have to wait it out and give them the break they must need.

The Batman, Dinosaur, Indiana Jones, Hiking Party or My Youngest Turns 4

As most of you with children know with your first child you would cut your arm off before you would let their birthday parties be theme free. You make sure that every aspect meets that theme, and spend all sorts of money to have the perfect party.

Then after a few kids and many years of party giving you could give a crap. Not that you are not just as excited for your little ones special day, but you realize that what ever they want is fine as long as it makes them feel special.

For my youngest, my sweet baby, all he wanted was his whole family to come to his house, to have a batman pinata, an Indiana Jones cake, dinosaur decorations, and go hiking. That is exactly what we did. In his mind is was the best day ever, what more could you ask for.

To Heck With It All

After a busy month of butchering chickens, digging and rocking ponds, putting in gardens, installing light fixtures, and generally improving our home we said to heck with it all , loaded up our nutty family, and headed to Albuquerque. We had a blast. We hiked lava fields, saw dinosaurs, ate in a shark tank, feed larakets, rode camels, ate ice cream, ordered pizza, rode trains, found peacock feathers, swam in pools, let butterflies land on us, and just had a good time. Now back to work, refreshed and just a little tired.

Love Is ......

Not giving your children to their grandparents permanently when they

Have a rock fight, get in trouble for it, move the rock fight around the corner where you can't see, break a window on the house, hide in an apple tree so you can't find them, find out the apple tree is to small for two little boys and break the branches on the apple tree with their weight.

Rain, Rain

It is 63 and raining, and it has been for days. It stared on Tuesday night and is still going strong. As you can see from the picture my kids have found a wonderful way to entertain themselves. We adults are just frustrated since all our out door projects are just sitting and waiting for the rain to stop and us to finish them.

Happy 4th of July

I hope everyone is having a great time on this 4th of July. We spent the day doing what every red blooded American does on the one day a year we celebrate our independence.

I hauled rock !

Now don't get me wrong we attended parades, ate watermelon ( even the chickens) , popped fire works, and ate hamburgers. I did not want our citizenship revoked after all. But, the majority of the day was spent hauling rock up a hill from the big pond in the yard to the little pond in our garden. The pond is shaping up very well. Yesterday ( as the above picture shows) we finished digging the hole and put the liner down. Now we just have the long and hard task of rocking it. I will make sure I post pictures later this week when we are finished. And now I leave you with a picture of our youngest rooster Mohawk Mike spending his independence day lounging by the compost heap. It must be nice.....

The Big, Long Post

I must apologize for my lack of posting in the past week or so. The home improvement stores have begun to mark down their merchandise for the season, and the rains have come. The combination has made for a very busy life and a much improved home. Good thing since my whole family is coming for my youngest 4 th birthday in a few weeks.

On another note, the rains have also lead me to ask a very important question......

" just how stupid can a chicken be"

The answer is really, really, really stupid. Now that the rains have come the yet to be butchered black broilers are a bit confused. ( 11 down and 12 to go) All that water falling from the sky is just to much decision making for them. What do they do about it. The answer is nothing, they go about their day getting soaking wet. All of this ended with me, once again, standing in the yard in the rain and dark trying to round them up and put them to bed for the night. Let's all hope they don't end up getting colds and dying from it.