Growth

It has been a lot of hard work, but it's so good to see it all paying off. The chickens are healthy and happy in their permanent coop, and for the first time I get to really interact with them more. Bending over their brooding coop tended to scare them since I was coming at them from above and that seems to stimulate their fear response. Which I don't want them to lose with all the hawks prowling around.

But now I can visit them several times a day and sit while they scratch for bugs and charge each other and stretch their wings in the fenced in area. I still can't leave them out even during the day, since our tiny 4-lb predator kitty is always lurking (who has recently added a huge mole and a rabbit to her kill list).

Checkers on his ride to the garden.

Cotton - the first in line these days for some pats.

The trio of white, Cotton on the left, BellBottom in the middle, and Colonel Puff on the right. This is the view you normally get of Puff, since he can't see well with all the feathers and tends to keep his head down.

Checkers last week in the garden. Now he has lost almost all the fluff on his neck.

One of what I like to call The Ugly Twins, as they walk like a dinosaur and haven't filled out their feathers yet.

One of my favorites for her feathers.

Hawk keeping his eye on me as usual.

A rare peek into the eyes of Colonel Puff. He is so awkward to watch but is pretty gentle and is one of the few that doesn't mind being held.

Draco - who I am most glad is out in the coop now as he escaped daily from the other smaller one when I opened it. Luckily he would just wait on the edge for me to put him back usually.

BellBottom, Brent's favorite and such a small, beautiful and skittish hen.

Checkers eyeing my camera.

The rest are garden and nature shots I have been saving up for awhile. The garden has finally got to the point where I'm learning how to manage this rocky clay-filled soil, and so much is springing to life in spite of my shortcomings.

My first year for sage flowers.

Thyme

My first medicinal herb harvest - Calendula petals.

Each of my tomato tipis has four vines on it (one each in the center of the poles as well). Finally after months of starting and transplanting these seeds - and losing a few plants to frost and deer - they are all in the ground and doing well.

Tomatoes out in the main garden.

I spent a lot of time mixing in leaf compost and grass clippings to make some mounds for all of my ground vines. So far I've planted cucumbers, watermelon, 3 varieties of pumpkin, gourds, squash and zucchini. My aim was to mound them up about 6 inches using the topsoil from in between the mounds, and them create a little depression to maximize water usage. I started them all in the cold frame on the porch a week ago. And they have grown a third leaf already in the two days since I transplanted them.

The potatoes and onions were so rushed to be planted because of the weather that I didn't have the luxury of picking rocks out for hours. But they look good so far in spite of my lousy planting.

The peppers are trying to grow fruit already even though they are still recovering from their transplants. Some look great and others are not thriving at all, but a Miracle Gro treatment seems to have helped.

My june-bearing strawberries poised and ready.

The boys and I are getting creative to keep animals out of the garden, making assorted wind chimes out of old tin cans and lids. I am hoping that they will make the deer uncomfortable with the noise and reflections off the tin. Alex also put a pinwheel in one corner that is helping too. So far, no more losses. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

The boys are winding down their first year, with only about 13 more school days left. I still couldn't be prouder of the magnificent little men they are becoming each day. And then - I will have more recruits for picking rocks :)

Checkers

An exciting chicken development for the boys these days is "Checkers", our newly beloved pet. Three days ago he started letting me pick him up and snuggled down in my arms for warmth. Yesterday I played with him in the yard a few times in the sunshine and trained him to stay on my shoulder while I walk around. He only flew off once, and that was to do his business, which I was absolutely cool with.

Since I ordered a rare breed assortment of chicks of any sex, I have a limited idea of what their breeds are. I was guaranteed 10 different varieties from 15 different breeds. I spent a few hours one evening when they were a few days old trying to figure it out and decided to wait until their feathers grew in to give it another go. Checkers is almost certainly a Dominique, which turns out to be the oldest American breed. The first settlers brought them from England since they were cold hardy, good foragers, decent layers and meat birds, and very docile. Then they used to produce crosses like the Plymouth Rock and the Barred Rock, which became so popular that the original Dominiques became rare - down to only 50 breeding pairs at one point.

This morning he came over when I cleaned out their never-endingly-disgusting food and water, so I carried him out to the garden to hang out while I watered. Turns out he doesn't like me being more than 5 feet away, and will follow me around without any thought of escape. So he foraged for bugs and I taught him to drink from the hose. He's in training to be my new King of Insect Control, and I'm hoping he will recruit others as time goes on.

So now I'm on a quest to see how much I can teach a chicken, including potty training, which will consist of- I don't care where you go as long as it's not on me.

They're almost ready for their big move to the coop. And slowly the weather is allowing for more gardening so things are busy around here for all.

Checkers pics to come soon!