Beach Morning

Daddy came home last night, low tide and sun. Beach Day!

Doggie, Daddy, Daughter Date

Dog Paws & Crab Claws (yes, both crabs alive)

Me & The Kids

Pose

Rock Climber

Easter with the Many's

It's been ages since we had seen our dear friends. Family life is busy. I was glad to see that despite the long separation that our families got along just as well, I missed them. They provided an egg hunt and a wonderful brunch for us to enjoy. N was especially excited to experience the crazy tradition of scrambling (ha!) for the treat filled plastic eggs. Thank you so much for your hospitality and generosity.

Happy Easter!

Another Imagine Childhood Giveaway!

This one in honor of Earth Day and ends on Tuesday the 26th, go enter!

The Underbelly of the Chicken World

* I try and keep this blog as PG as possible, so I will not post photo's here of events that transpired, but a word of caution...there is descriptive carnage in following post.

I awoke with a start this morning.  There was some gruesome sounding squawking going on in the coop. There I found one of our 2-month-old-babies (Daisy, the Buff Orpington) with it's head in a hole (not unlike an ostrich) breathing deeply but otherwise not moving. My heart sank, I gently lifted her to my chest and quickly saw that the feathers and skin had been pulled back from her neck. She was horrifically mauled by her own kind. The older ones have been pushing the younger ones around some, but they must have cornered her and really went for it. Things were pretty heated a few weeks ago, but I was under the impression that they had worked things out. Thankfully I have my most knowledgeable chicken friend on speed dial and frantically woke her from her sleep shortly after 7am. She confirmed that I should separate her from all others, gently clean wound, medicate with Neosporen and let her rest in the quiet garage with the heat lamp.
Daisy has been eating, drinking, pooping, and chirping so I think she'll make it, but oh, I do not want to go through that again. I will take more precautions next round of chicks, and have already altered the coop so I can manage the two flocks easier. We were all pretty shaken, but it's a bit of a reality check; they are animals, they have instinct and no amount of anthropomorphising on our part changes them.

Filling In

So for those of you that may be interested...I have filled in the previously gaping holes from the last few months worth of posts...check 'em out if you would like. And there's more to come from our very busy week and weekend!

My Urban Homestead

I've really been into this book for about, well, a year I guess. I've checked it out from the library a handful of times and it was just time to buy it. I have grandiose dreams of my yard turning into the diagram below:

So orderly, so logical. Grow what you eat. It makes sense. What are you inspired to do this growing season?

Puyallup Spring Fair

It was my first time to the fair grounds in springtime, and we had a really fun time. We took our friends, the Halls with us and gorged on fair food, rode the rides, and saw many animals. It drizzled on and off all day, but didn't hinder anything for us; fair + friends = the perfect day.

Recyclable Music

Cotton Candy Round 2 Years Later

Canoe Ride

Fire Truck Scream

Truck Roller Coaster

Girlies (Kaela and E)

View From Above, in Farris Wheel

Boy with Ice Cream

Ice Cream Attack "Me no take break!"

The Tallest Walker in the World

What Sugar Incarnate Looks Like

Krusty Pup

Hands Stamp

Umm, you've got a little somethin' right there.

Morning cinnamon rolls.

Morning Walks

The weather has been getting slowly better. The sun is coming up earlier and earlier, so by 7am there is daylight lurking outside our windows. When it's not completely pouring I like to get a walk in with Molly before she and we have breakfast. E rides her bike, N settles into the jogger and Molly trots next to us. We're all a pretty well oiled machine. We walk to a park about 1 mile away, the kids play, and then we head home again. Though we're walking mostly through neighborhoods I still am pretty aware of the speedy traffic about, so we all wear reflective vests and whatnot, and Molly get's to wear this sweater that makes us giggle!

Tick-Tock, Cluck-Cluck!

I was happy to have one of my 'chicken friends' over for a visit this afternoon when a box arrived for me! Something I ordered from Etsy, something I have been eyeing for several months now and finally decided I could not live without it!  TA-DA! A wind-up vintage chicken alarm clock.  The hen's head bobs up and down with the second hand; it pecks! It is impossible to convey just how much I love this clock...I LOVE IT!

Next on the list.

A Few Speed Bumps

I miss it here.  I'll be back soon, we're in the process of revamping our homeschooling schedule, scheming ways for our lazy doggie to loose weight, cutting a huge hole into our yard (garden expansion), acclimating our chick babies to outdoor living with the one-year-old-territorial-meanies...and re-reading all that makes me sound like I live on the prairie...

Roomies

So our once, little fuzzballs are all feathered out and living outdoors...finally! The problem is that in typical fashion the older gals are going after them like sharks! Until the new 2-month-old ones get old enough to hold their own, I have to separate them for most of their waking hours. It's not that big of a problem because I need a bit of weeding done, and the 11-month-old girlies more than happy to take care of it! Really once they've laid their egg, they're much less cranky, but I've expanded the coop outdoor area to give the young ones some space to hide and the older ones some respite from their incessant and obsessive peeping when they all are in there together.