In which we witness an egg being "birthed" and Chubby gets a cheer

Today Lexi and I got to witness the coolest thing. Well, "coolest thing" being relative to whether you like this sort of farm "event" or not. I was opening the egg doors to collect eggs this morning and noticed one of our Buffs, Chubby, to be exact) was standing up inside the nest box with her rear end facing me. I won't gross you out by describing exactly what I saw, but a midst all the fluffy rear plumage that our Buffs are so blessed with, I knew in a split second that Chubby was about to lay her egg! Standing up! Is this common for chickens? Maybe it was too hot in there to sit or something, I don't know.

Anyway, I am beyond thrilled (because I really love this sort of thing - why I have lived my entire life in the big cities - with the exception of a five year jaunt in Capron, IL- and don't live on a real farm I am still trying to figure out) and call Lexi to come see what is happening. I tell Lexi to be super quiet so we don't scare Chubby while we crack open the egg door and peek in.

And slowly, a little at a time, and much like giving birth (almost exactly, actually), the egg starts to emerge from the ovum. "MAMA!!!!" Lexi whispers excitedly (it's actually more like whisper yelling, but hey, she tried), "THE EGG IS COMING OUT!!!!!!"

And then it plops out all at once and hits the floor of the nest box with a small commanding thud. Lexi picks it up. "IT'S WET!!!" she squeals and puts it down. We wait three seconds while it dries and then she picks it up again. "OOOOOOOooooo, IT'S SOOOoo WARM! THANKS FOR THE EGG, CHUBBY! GOOD JOB LAYING IT!"

And the moral of the story is, everyone needs a cheerleader. Even chickens. ;-)

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Duck...duck...duck..........Chicken!

I have had ducklings on my property for four days and still had not held one, petted one, or been anywhere within two feet of one. Thank goodness for long camera lenses, right? Our two mamas, Oreo and Cookies&Cream and extremely good at team parenting. They have decided to co-parent all the ducklings together, which is actually very common for Muscovy ducks. This is all well and good for the ducklings, but terrible for us when it comes to wanting to hold one. Instead of fighting off one Mama to borrow her baby for a bit, we have to fight off two. With the instincts of a Mama Bear. 

Now you know why I still hadn't held one.

Thankfully, my sisters came to visit. Convincing Eric to ward off the crazy Mamas turned out to be extremely easy with seven pairs of female puppy eyes and whiny voices added to the mix. Eric bravely crawled into the coop, held the ladies back with a big tree branch, snatched up the closest duckling in sight, and took off, closing the coop door behind him, with the Mamas bawlking, hissing and running to attack his heels. We are forever indebted.

And, we got our wish.

Lyla can now point and say "Duck!", adding one more word to her teeny tiny vocabulary of about, oh, four words. ;-)

 Finally, it was my turn! I tossed Eric the camera and cradled the fuzzy duckling in my hands. It was so warm and started to settle in, closing its eyes as I stroked its head. It felt like it was humming. Perhaps a ducklings version of a kitten's purr.

Mama moment. "My turn" holding the duckling actually means I'm just holding it for my kids to crowd around and pet. 

 This is what happens when an (almost) 16-month-old gets her hands free....

Thankfully the duckling was spared, no harm done.  

I can't get enough of this cuteness. It's a good thing we don't eat ducklings. 

Speaking of eating, I am no longer giving Lexi naming rights to the animals. When she began calling the ducklings, "Chips," "Salsa," "Peanut-butter," and "Coconut oil," I drew the line. We are NOT naming these ducklings. Unless of course, it's something appropriate, such as "Thanksgiving entree," or "Christmas a la duck."

Getting so big already at four days old!

And lest we not forget our other feathered friends...

Abby sporting "Chubby Buff", one of my favorite Buff Orpingtons, due to her mass amounts of fluffy feathers

...CHICKEN!

Planning ahead

 We recently put in five new boxed beds in our garden area. The four tons of dirt we ordered was once again delivered and dumped into an enormous pile in the alley. We spent about an hour last Saturday morning working to haul it into the newly built beds.

 These are the three big beds, the same size as the original three behind them. Eric built two more beds back against the fence, on both sides of that roofed structure, what Eric calls the quail hutch (no quail yet though!). Our compost pile sits beneath it. The new back beds will grow more of our climbing plants, with the fence as perfect backing for trellis.

 One of our beautiful Buff orpingtons. Apparently there were some bugs the chickens were after in the new dirt. Our neighbors even came out to take pictures of them, saying, "It's not every day you see a sight like THIS in Chicago!" To which Eric dryly replied, "Well it is for you!" hahaha (Our neighbors do love us...promise. ;-)

 Faithful dog, Sambi Bambi, as Lexi is now calling her. She is usually great with both the chickens and the ducks, although every once in a while she does try to take a bite...

 My tomato plants have gone wild back there. I am anticipating a very large crop of cherry tomatoes in the next few weeks (YUM). The front beds will be planted with some fall crops in the next week or two, and then next spring we will plant all the boxes, expanding our garden by a considerable amount.

Our favorite chicken, Little Lulu. Almost mature enough to start laying! Nest boxes are built and the wait for our morning omelets continues.

Farewell Spring

Today is the first day of summer. And while I do love summer, I love spring more. Because with spring comes peonies. And unfortunately summer brings their season to a sad farewell. I was blessed to have a whole two weeks (perhaps a bit more) of blooming blossoms, though, and am trying to get excited about what the rest of the year holds for our other plants. But in the meantime, I'm enjoying the last of my peonies.

Here's my the inside of my Chicago bungalow.

For the home decorators out there, I am recovering all of my red pillows this coming week. Red and I are officially breaking up. And for the moms out there, YES, white couches are CRAZY! DON'T DO IT! Grey covers are being included in the fall budget. 

My newest piece, finished last month. India ink on painted canvas. 

I love the way it looks with the metal birds. 

And of course, I can't talk about birds without acknowledging my real ones. Here are three of our four Buff Orpingtons, just a few months shy of being full grown.

For your amusement of the day, I was gardening outside yesterday in the hot sun when Lexi said she wanted to put on her bathing suit and swim in our little pool. I told her to go ahead and go inside to put it on and then come right back out. Well, I got distracted. This happens. And a lot of time went by. And then, just as I was about to go and check on her, she opens the back door. "MOM!!!! I PUT SUNSCREEN ON ALL BY MYSELF!!! I PUT IT ON MY BELLY AND MY LEGS AND MY ARMS AND MY FACE AND MY BOTTOM!!!! ISN'T THAT GREAT???!?!?"

And there she was, at the top of the stairs. White. White. White. In every single place she said, plus some.

I bet you can't guess what the inside of the house looked like, can you? 

Farewell spring,

 and welcome summer.