Green Acres II

Here is an update on our garden and our chickens. I can take NO credit for the amazing garden growing in my backyard! Troy has put all the blood, sweat, and tears into this. I just get to reap the benefits of his hard work.

We have (in this picture) raspberries (against the fence on the left), 2 kinds of lettuce, spinach, peas (growing up the fence behind where Troy is), broccoli, squash, peppers, tomatoes. Violet LOVES to help daddy in the garden, Tucker prefers to lay around and chew sticks.


In this picture you can see the tomatoes better ( on the left), potatoes, strawberries, and corn. You can see in this picture the green house Troy made out of some windows he acquired. He is sooooo handy to have around! =)

We have been eating raspberries for a few weeks now and are just now starting to cut lettuce and spinach.

Violet is my chicken girl! She loves tending to and playing with all the chickens. Here she is cuddling with Clementine.


Here is the chicken yard. The little orange chicken on the right is Sparkles (Hazel named her). She is one of the newer ones, and spends most of her time hiding or running from the others.


Here are the "eaters". They do not get names. This is our 2nd batch, we already have a freezer full of the first batch. They have VERY much passed their cute stage, from here on out they will be big 'ole fatties that waddle around and have big patches of feathers missing. It makes it easier to eat them knowing they will not be pretty.


This is Josephine. She will look like Judy ( below). We did have another one like her and Judy, named Opal. But Opal turned out to be a rooster, sooooo we got rid of him and got Josephine.

This is Judy


This is Ruby. She is the noisy one. This morning a cat came into the back yard and she started clucking and making all sorts of noise and scared the cat off. It's a toss up between her and Clementine on who is the Head Hen.


Clementine. She is a giant black pullet. She is my favorite. She is significantly larger than the others and (as far as chickens go) very pretty. Her feathers are black, but in the sun they are a beautiful dark green.


This is Ramona ( named by Violet). She came the same day that Sparkles did, so she is having some difficulty getting along with the Original Four, so she spends a lot of time hiding too. However I did see her venturing out into the backyard by herself today.


And finally, this is Matilda. She is, obviously, sisters with Ruby. But is not as noisy and bossy.

They all just kind of wonder around the back yard, pecking and scratching the yard, no body has laid any eggs yet, but we hope in the next month or so to start getting some. Tucker has become an excellent chicken herder. He is very gentle and just rounds 'em all up into the hen house. All in all, the chickens have been a very good learning experience.