Crazy critters

Our critters are crazy. It is as simple as that. I even have some pictures to prove it. The other day I was in the chicken coop when the goats rubbed against the door and shut it. Elsa the chicken was sitting on top of the nesting boxes at the time and I didn't like the way she was looking at me. As I was trying to push my way back out of the coop (not easy to do when two goats are leaning up against the door!), I heard some loud flapping. And then I felt a large bird on my back! She scrambled up to my shoulder and seemed quite content to stay there. I finally managed to escape the coop, bird still attached to my shoulder. That is when the goats noticed that I was wearing a chicken and decided to try and pluck her tail feathers. I'm sure the scene would have been amusing if anyone had witnessed it-me with a chicken on my shoulder and two goats on either side of me with their hooves up on my hips.

New Addition

We had a fabulous weekend this past weekend. Our family took a trip to Omaha where we ran a fun 5K Color Run, visited the zoo, and saw some friends. Of course, it isn't a trip without something unexpected happening. I got a text from a friend saying they found a kitten and wondered if we wanted a third cat. So we had a new kitty waiting for us when we got home. The funny thing is that since we moved to the farm, we have had several people offer us free animals (including pigs, dogs, parrots, horses, and donkeys) from people but this is the first animal we actually accepted. We named him Flint. The other cats aren't too thrilled with him but I'm sure they will come around. He sure is cute!

Egg-citing News

Well, it might not be that exciting but I think it is kind of cool. One of our chickens laid a green egg! All our chicken breeds lay eggs that are dark brown. The exception to this is our Americaunas, Anna and Elsa. They can lay blue, green, pink, cream or brown eggs. I am pretty sure that Anna is the one who has been laying the cream eggs but this week we found a green egg which means Elsa has started laying now too. I was really hoping to get some blue eggs from them but I kind of like the green since we now have camo-colored eggs in our carton! Plus, that gives me an excuse to get more Americaunas to try to get a blue-egg-layer.

Light green, cream, dark brown eggs

They love going on egg hunts every day!

Chicken Chasers

My oldest daughter learned a new trick. She has also taught her youngest sister this fun new talent. It is called "catch a chicken". Poor chickens never saw it coming. One day they were wandering around the yard, happily clucking, being mostly ignored by both kids and goats. Then the next day, the kids started snatching them up off the ground, hugging and petting them. For the most part, the chickens actually have handled it well. Or maybe they just haven't figured out that by running away, they can avoid the attention.

I told her to stop picking up the chickens so she started hugging them instead!

More Clean Up

We continued to clean up storm damage all week and we still have lots to do. We really appreciated the friends and neighbors that came to help us get the tree off the play barn and chop up some of the larger trees. It was nice to have an extra chainsaw at work!

A small pile of cut tree

Trying to fix our leaning tree

We appreciated all the help getting this tree off the play barn

Trying to be like Daddy

Clean Up After the Storm

On Monday, we had a big storm. 80 mph winds and lots of rain. It was pretty crazy. When the sirens went off, I had to wake up my girls from their much-needed naps and we hid down in the basement. We lost power for three and a half hours. Not bad considering some people were without power over night and far into the next day. We had several trees go down, including a couple of very large trees. Fortunately, our house and outbuildings are fine. At least for now. The girls' play barn currently has a tree leaning on it. So far there is no damage to the building but if the tree shifts, that could change. We are still figuring out the best way to move that tree.

We feel very blessed to have so little damage to our property. We know many people who got water in their basements and there was damage all over the city.

The girls and I spent most of today cleaning up the smaller trees and branches that were littering the yard. I lost count of how many Gator loads of branches we moved. But at least some areas are looking normal again.

At least this tree missed the barn and our outdoor furniture!

This tree missed our fence, except for one smallish branch

Great little helper!

This helper wanted to drive the Gator

The goats enjoyed eating some of the branches we collected

New Nest

After a lot of hard work from my husband and kids, the chicken coop is finally ready to be used by the birds! We still have some work to do but now the chickens can have more room and places to lay their eggs. Today I let the chickens into their new home and they seem very happy. (That previous sentence makes it seem so easy-in reality I had to catch twelve chickens and carry each one across the yard. That was not easy! They are not fond of being caught!) Now they have lots of room to explore, more plants to sample, more roosts, and nesting boxes. Unfortunately, the goats (and my girls) can squeeze through the chicken door and enjoy hanging out in the coop. At least the chickens and the goats (and the girls) seem to be getting along though!

Left side is for the birds, right is for the goats. At least, that's the theory. So far, the goats like the coop side better.

Testing out the strength of the nesting box platform

Adding the last of the chicken wire

Can't keep the kids out of the coop!

Happy birds