Tired Of Winter or The B's Have It!

It has been cold and wet and I am craving visions of Spring. Here are few photos that make me think warm and happy thoughts.



Blooming Bulbs.



Baby Brangus.



Bama! Even though I am an Auburn fan, this picture still makes me happy.



Big Mose.



Big Bass.



Bocephus.



Burros



Baby Birds



Beautiful Bloom.



Bare feet.



Bliss.



Best Buddies.

Chicken House Tenants

Chicken House Tenants

We have a wide variety of chickens, from solid and rather dull laying hens to those sporting pretty cool afro styles. They make us laugh!


Biscuit, a Buff Sebright rooster. He is very tame and friendly.




This is a white Crested Blue Polish hen. 




This is a Buff Laced Polish- he hasn't earned a name yet.



Here is Soren, a tiny but fierce little Golden Sebright rooster.




Rosemary bought this pair, Zeus and Roxanne, last weekend. They are very fancy Mille Fleur Old English Game chickens.




Another photo of Zeus. He is very sweet natured and likes attention.




A funny Silver Sebright hen- I love the feather patterns.



And a golden Sebright hen.



A Golden Comet named Mrs. Lazenby. The Golden Comets are the best layers I have ever had.



Pearl is licking her chops just thinking about all the eggs!



Blue Cochin named Priscilla. She is very fluffy and fat and will sit on other hens' eggs hatch them and raise their babies. I once had a Cochin that sat on wild turkey eggs that a logger brought by the house in a hard hat. It was so funny to watch those huge turkey poults following that tiny little hen around.



Hard to believe that this adorable chick grew into....



THIS! He is a homely White Crested Blue Polish rooster named Blue Jim. He is neither tame nor friendly. We shall see if he is to remain.

Chicken Coop

When we lived in Forest Home, we really enjoyed our chickens. When I asked Rosemary what she wanted for Christmas, she declared- "chickens!". So, we ordered 10 laying hens; 5 Golden Comets (my favorite year round layers) and 5 Ameracanas (lay beautiful blue and green eggs). We also ordered about 30 different bantams (miniature chickens), including White Crested Blue Polish and adorable little Silver Sebrights.


After we placed our order, we then started on the coop. After the coop was well underway, I took Rosemary up to pick the colors that we would stain it, as we were using rough sawn pine boards that had not been pressure treated and they need some protection from the elements.
She picked her favorite colors, blue and green. I don't think we have to worry about any "haints" moving into this chicken house! Here is how the coop has progressed.





Rosemary and Kevin framing the floor.

Framing out the window and door openings........

Wall framing is up, Rosemary is dying to hit something with that huge hammer.

Rosemary handing up a fiberglass panel- we used some of these instead of all metal so that the coop would be brighter inside.





Roof is all finished, cleaning up for the day- start the siding the next morning.




Siding up and we get a first look at that blue stain.... Um, wow!

Still have the green trim to finish up. Antler door pull- there is a a latch on the inside- you pull the string to raise it. I once read how Pa made one to keep out the Indians or maybe the bears out of the cabin in one of the "Little House on the Prairie" books and I always wanted one of those neat latches. I remember being quite impressed that you could be inside and pull the latch string in and nothing "bad" could get you. The girls were quite impressed that I could remember something "from such a long, long time ago" - they must think I am 100.