Halloween is Tomorrow?!

My family has had a very difficult time since my last post, as my youngest daughter was diagnosed with breast cancer.  She has had her surgery and is recovering well, and will now face chemo therapy.  We are all praying for her and expect a full recovery!   

As for the chickies, they just keep me busy, not caring about the events in my "real life".  My clever husband came up with an idea to fence off part of our yard so that the chickens are happy and my lawn is MUCH happier, tee hee.  They still have plenty of room and are very happy with the new "gated community".

And, to make things even better, they are donating four eggs a day, every day, its like magic!  There is nothing better than opening the lid on the nest box and seeing a daily surprise!

And the daily trip allows me to see the glory of the fall colors, even if I do live in California, like God sprinkling a little magic in my life.  

We had our first Fall rain over the weekend, not much, but just enough to make it seem that Fall is really here.  It inspired me to get busy on my papercrafting and so I made this Fall card for everyone.  I hope you enjoy the beautiful season as much as I do.  Enjoy.

Friday the 13th!

Wow, sorry to be so long in posting.  Life sometimes gets in the way.  But, apparently my chickens, or at least one of them, totally believes in the Friday the 13th myth, cuz it seemed to have scared the "EGG" out of her.  I mean, come on, we have all heard of "super size me", but this borders on chicken abuse, don't you think?  Or perhaps a goose sneaked into the coop just to mess with my head.  Anyway, here are a few pics of Ms. Meringue's latest marvel!  I mean we will have to create a new egg name because "jumbo" just won't do, will it?

Wow, how can it be AUGUST ?  The days are flying by this summer.  I guess because I am getting a new kitchen which is wonderful and fabulous and . . . SLOW.  So I am camping out, sort of, by cooking on the camp stove in the back yard, which my chickies love, and make much noise about.

The other day, I learned that chickies ALL holler when anyone lays an egg, and boy did they holler loud!  When I went out to gather the offerings, I found a GIANT egg laid just for me....I have not used it yet, but it has to be at least a double yolk.  This would make number two of double yolks for Ms. Meringue, my white chicken, who, by the way is more of a soot color this summer from all the dust baths she has been having....if you have not already purchased your chicks, stay clear of white, cuz it doesn't stay that way.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer and, like me, way too busy having fun to blog...LOL.

Happy Birthday....to me!  What a great birthday gift, Ms. Souffle presented me with her FIRST egg, a pale blue-green beauty, kinda small, but it is her first.  And, her bunkmate, Ms. Meringue also gifted me with her daily egg.  Wow, two eggs a day, what a great start to a yummy breakfast.  Check out the proud gifters:

Hooray!  Finally!  We have eggs!  So far, it appears that only one chickie is laying eggs, I ASSUME its either Ms. Meringue or Ms. Quiche because the Easter Eggers are supposed to lay blue/green eggs, but you know about "assume".  Anyway, one day I had two eggs, one big and one little, the next day, two the same size and color, the third day nothing, etc.  I think the ladies are just trying to get the hang of this, so I am being patient (not), until everyone joins in.

The other news is that the chickies are screaming...I can't think of any other way to say it.  They are so very LOUD in the morning its unbelievable.  I think they are announcing the arrival of the eggs, but who knows?

Well, since my kitchen is gone, yes we are remodeling, I have been a little lax in the blog area, but soon the kitchen will be done (August?), and things will get back to semi-normal around here.

Here is a pic of two of the first eggs!

Where has the time gone?

Wow, I can't believe the 4th of July has come and gone.  I guess it must be summer because it hit 112 here in Northern California.  The good news is that the chickens are not "fried" and the heat wave has finally broken...it is a balmy 90 something today and it feels great.

The chickens have developed a new skill which I don't think I am too happy about.  They have become escape artists!  No matter how hard I try to "pen them in" just part of the back-yard, they still manage to show up in the "wrong" half.  They climb and fly over short fences and wiggle between bushes that seem way to tight to get through and love to walk on the retaining wall just outside my family room window as if to say, "hey, your coop is nicer than ours, what's up with that?"

So, I am off to the back-yard, again, to try to figure out the escape route this time!  I really wouldn't mind giving them free range to the whole yard, which is what they really want, except I wish they would stay off the patio because what they leave behind gets really slippery on my Spanish tile patio!

Meanwhile, on the egg front, there are none!  The nice lady at the feed store said that no matter what the internet says, chickens don't lay eggs until they are at least 6 months old, which would put it about August 20th or so, as far as I can determine.  So, I am off to the store to BUY eggs, how wrong is that!