Yes, A patio.

Believe it or not, we have a patio.  Texas finished it this last weekend.  I'm a little slow on the posting, sorry.  So far we only have two grown up chairs to put on it, but we're working on that.  Eventually we get a patio table with chairs, but I'm in no hurry.  Just glad one more project is complete.

A patio?

 Texas had his dad come over this week to help us get ready to put in a patio.  I'm so excited about this patio.  Hopefully it won't get to hot as soon as we're done.  

 Grandpa Frisch with the girls.

 Grandpa Frisch had to get out his brick laying tools to help us fix a few spots in the concrete.

Texas spent a lot of time stamping in the gravel.

Sand for the patio.
The girls will be so sad when they find out this sand is not for them.

 Elsie's new favorite past time is picking all the vegetables in the garden, ready or not, she's gonna pick em.

Annie being attacked by the Chard.

Outside

 The tomato plants have reached past the 9 foot mark and are still going.  We've gotten to eat a few here and there, but in about two weeks we should have enough to start the first round of canning.  I'm glad I jumped the gun on these this year, seeing as how I'm behind almost everywhere else.  Texas and I almost have the tree stump roots chopped out where we can get them, but it will take us a long time to remove the whole stump.

Banjo is tired of baby chicks.  They no longer seem to be very interesting, and honestly I'm tired of them too.  They take a lot of extra care, that I don't really have the time to give them.  Thankfully, Annie is charge of most there care.   Sunshine and Lemon drop, just better not be roosters. 

Neighbors, Babies, chickens and more babies

I lost track of life again, and with all that's happened the blog is well over due for a few updates.

 Update 1:

Texas and I have our own room now and the girls have moved in together.    So far I've gotten to sleep in the new room half of one night.  Elsie is not going through the night without nursing yet, and in fact has regressed to only wanting to nurse.  Sippy cups and bottles no longer hold her attention at all. 

Update 2

 Our neighbor had recently revealed his dark side and we were forced to move our chickens around.   All things neighborly, he got the worse end of the deal and we now have two chickens in our freezer.  The best part is, Texas got to come along and help me slaughter/clean the birds.  He's gotten far more comfortable with handling the birds.  He even took part in cleaning off the feathers, still avoiding the gutting, but give him time.
We got two new baby birds from Tex's cousin Chris.  They were so cute they prompted us to loose the two older mean reds, so we could keep them. 

 Emily holding the new babies, Sunshine and Lemon Drop.

 Me holding the recently deceased Reds.

Texas, cleaning feathers.

Update 3

No pictures for this exciting news, but Texas and I are having baby number three.  Due sometime in January.  Update 1 had nothing to do with update 3, but I'm now wishing we had finished our room a lot sooner.  Update 3 and I will be staying in Annie's old bedroom once he or she arrives.  And finally Texas does not have to resort to sleeping on the living room floor to get a decent nights sleep.

Kids everywhere

The Girls.  Our little neighborhood block is full of little girls.   Oddly we have only two boys to the 8 girls that run up and down the street.  They run, dance, sing, play and do all things chicken related they can think of.  It's a circus, and we love it.  This summer is promising to be full of unorganized fun, with a lot less driving around than I thought.

Raiders of the Lost Arch

 There most be something magical about Indiana Jones, because these girls were enthralled.  You'll see by reading the comments that Annie talks a lot during a movie, she unfortunately gets that from me.  I also clap hysterically and laugh out loud a lot.

"Is that really gonna happen?" Annie

"Double Triple traitors.  They are the worst traitors I ever had." Annie

 

"It's good that that fell down, they can build stairs and it leads to another bad thing." Annie

 

  

 "EWW.  That looks bad.  It's like creepy and cool at the same time." Emily

 

 Maybe it's the snakes?

Little Nature Girls

Nesting:

Meet Emerald, the girls adopted baby bird.  She loves to be hand fed tiny worms and crickets if you can catch them.  The Ukelele is her music of choice and she fancies grass beds, and high up places. 

 As you can see she's quite distinguished, always holds her head up high, 

in anticipation of more worms. 

 She avoids the baby who at this moment was playing with a metal screw 

(promptly taken away)

 and prefers the comfort of small hands

or a home made nest crafted by her loving caretakers.