Finally!!!!  The light at the end of the tunnel!  Here are the chicken coops and the oh-so-happy chickens!

One  year ago it all got started with our first  grown chickens we got from a friend and our first chicken coop we built. (Mille Fluers)

One reason I've not been blogging much!  We ordered new chicks!  And we've been working on 2 new chicken coops practically every spare minute to add on to the first one.  Those chicks were growing so fast we had to hurry!

Above:  Rhode Island Reds & Whites and New Hampshire Reds enjoying their first full day of freedom!

Below:  Ameracaunas after being in their new home a few days.

Here's a view from the back showing the two doors for each coop that allows us to reach inside.

I snapped the picture below while peeking in through the window covered with chicken wire to show what the inside looks like.  We still have to add the roosting poles and the nesting boxes.

We'd never owned chickens before last spring.  My hubby's grandmother made a living raising chickens and selling them.  He remembers big chicken houses with thousands of chickens and big trucks coming and picking the chickens up.  I have to say, we really enjoy our chickens and the eggs we gather from them.  It took us years to decide to take the leap and try raising them and I guess you can see from the pictures as only a year has passed, we are hooked!

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I cooked a big meal last night and kept finding the need to pull out one iron skillet after another.  Then I began wondering just how many pieces of iron cookware I had in my cabinets.  I mean, my lower cabinets are very deep and I forget sometimes just what's back there in the dark!

So after supper I got down on my knees and pulled out every piece of cast iron I own and looked at it all at one time.  That was a first!  Next thing ya know it's 9:00 PM and I'm re-seasoning all of my cast iron.  I was so tickled with it when I was done that I snapped a picture before putting it all away again. 

Some pieces were my grandmothers, some my mother in law's and some a Christmas gift from my hubby's parents.  There were 2 pieces that were way in the back that I had totally forgotten I had:  the 3 1/2 quart saucepan (front-left) and the huge pot behind it.  I'm not sure of the exact size of it but the pot to it's right is a large dutch oven!    The others are big and small skillets and a cute little corn bread stick mold.  

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These chicks are wanting to know when their new chicken coops and runs will be ready to move into.   Hubby took off work for the rest of the week to get them built and I snapped some pictures this morning of the beginning process.

The chickens we got from a friend last year live happily in the coop on the right.  Little do they know they are about to have neighbors move in next door.  Hubby is adding on 2 more coops and pens. 

Each pen will have its own gate and water faucet and coop to house the different varieties of chickens.

I'll post a step by step photo stream of the process from start to finish when its done.  Here's a picture of Rusty and Louise enjoying themselves down by the work site.

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I know, I know, I am forever posting pictures of my roses from my Peace Rose bush.  I can't help myself.  I walk by them and just feel like I have to go grab the camera a capture the picture before the flower fades away.  I ended up cutting all of these and making a pretty bouquet for the coffee table today.  (My date is wrong on my camera I'm just noticing.)

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I don't know when I've been so shocked.  I can't remember the last time I felt such urgency to share news with as many people as possible as quickly as I could.  Please watch the two short videos below and spread the news to everyone you can.

 I  am hoping that every Christian will turn their televisions to another channel when Oprah comes on each day in hopes of the boycott affecting her ratings.  Also please take the time to go to her website and EMAIL HER about what you are doing and how you feel about the fact that she's using her powerful influence to lead thousands upon thousands to hell. 

 http://www.oprah.com/email/email_landing.jhtml   <-------- email her here

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JW4LLwkgmqA&feature=related  <--watch first

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zf3Gh8dVoBo&feature=related  <--watch second

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Spring...Spring...Spring.  Here's more pictures of scenes around the house.  My roses started blooming last week along with my Iris's.  All my Azalea bushes have finished except this one and it's always the last to bloom.  It's hard for me  to remember but all those flowering shrubs I've recently posted pictures of we planted as tiny 1 or 2 gallon plants.  It's amazing how rewarding those inexpensive investments have been and continue to be year after year.

I've been hanging out laundry since spring-time weather returned.  I can get 4 loads or so on my nifty umbrella clothes line.  I have been even more motivated to hang out instead of  dry inside since my dryer seems to be taking longer and longer to get those towels and jeans dry.  And I keep reading that the dryer is one of a household's biggest energy drainers.  I want lower electric bills!

I got the older Mille Fleur chickens nesting boxes and coop floor all cleaned out today and replaced with fresh hay and pine shavings.  They will be happy I'll bet.  We start tomorrow building the new chicken coops and yards for the chicks.  The Ameraucana chicks are now almost 3 and 4 weeks old and the Rhode Island Red and White and New Hampshire Red chicks are about 21/2 weeks old.  I just can't get over how fast they grow.  And taking care of a bunch of chicks is quite a job I've found out!  I'm so ready for them to be in their own coops!

I've gotten a lot done around here this week and it feels good!  The house is clean and the laundry done (all but the folding and putting up).  And I got all the flower beds weeded and the shrubs trimmed.  Plus I hosed off the front porch along with the shutters all along the front of the house and the carport and back patio.  I changed the water in my little water fountain by the back door and tidied everything up outside.  OH!  I almost forgot that I mowed the entire place this week too!  I have to brag on my hubby too.  We've had an old eyesore of a building that's needed tearing down for a few years and he tackled that last week. 

More later...It's date night.

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Little maker of the home what do you really do?

When it all is said and done what will be said of you?

You rise each day and like the sun you give your life away.

And tired, you've run the course again, you need to hear Him say,

"Well done, oh, maker of the home, well done, you labor not alone.

And though your eyes may never see, this very home you live to make

you really make for Me."

"Your life a shadow seems, compared to what others do.

But who would catch the tears and point to Me if it weren't for you?

And when they've grown, imprinted on their hearts will always be

how good, how right, to give their lives and build a home for Me."

Beverly Bradley

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It's taken a year but I've finally found the best way to boil and peel fresh eggs! 

I've had such a time since we got our own chickens and started having sure 'nuf   FRESH  eggs.  When I would boil them and try to peel them the egg would just stick to the shell and it would just wreck the eggs.  A lot would end up going to waste and they didn't look very pretty if I wanted to serve deviled eggs or slice them with salt and pepper.

Here's the new method I use and have had great success.

Cover eggs with cool water in saucepan and bring to a boil.  Once it reaches a full boil turn off the heat and let them set right there on the stove for 15 minutes.  Then pour off hot water and run cool tap water over eggs, emptying saucepan and refilling a few times.  Next let the eggs set in the pan of cold water that you've added some ice to for 15 minutes.  Crack and peel eggs under cool running water.

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Come follow me around our place and see everything that's blooming right now!!  March and April are the most beautiful times of the year to look out the windows here.  I decided to capture everything on the camera since the Azaleas only bloom once a year and it will soon be all over with sadly.  The following is an Indian Hawthorn then Mums and the rest are all different Azalea varieties.  There is one large shrub with a small picture under it to show that it blooms in two different colors, pink and purple, and it's buds are only just now starting to open.  I even spotted a pretty butterfly up close in one of the shots.  I hope you enjoy your stroll~ ~ ~ ~ ~

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Things are quiet here today.  Dh has gone fishing.  I hope he catches a nice mess of White Perch.  I spent a good deal of time this morning with the chicks.  I scooped out all of the shavings from the coop that the older chicks are in and replaced it with fresh shavings.  And I gave them fresh water and feed.  I'm not happy about 2 of the poor things.  I don't know what's wrong with them.  They spend most of their time laying down and when they do run it seems like somethings wrong with their legs but I can't see anything unusual.  If anyone has had experience with this and has any advice please let me know.   I took them out of the coop today and put them together in an ice chest set up with the things they need.  

 The chicks that came in yesterday seemed to have made it just fine through the night.  They seemed to  have arrived perkier than the last shipment and I'm pretty sure I know why.   It's the difference in the distances they had to travel to get here.   A friend had ordered the last batch of Ameraucana chicks and we split the order.  But they ordered from a company in Iowa.  We ordered  these from a company in Texas.  We had a good number die from the first batch and the company had to replace them and now there are 2 sickly acting.  

There was one already dead when these came yesterday from Texas unfortunately.  But obviously the first order of chicks had a much longer journey from Iowa than these did from Texas to us here in Mississippi. So I think it's more humane really.

I've put fresh paper towels down for them this morning and gave them fresh sugar water and more food.  Here's some pictures of the newbies.  They are Rhode Island Reds, Rhode Island Whites and New Hampshire Reds.

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