Lovely blue sky and loads of sunshine today! Altho it was down to 25 degrees last night, and is only in the low 40's now, the sunshine makes up for it. The Chickie Girls are busy looking for bugs and seeds, and gather around each time I go out.

 "Do you have any thing good to eat?"

 We have eaten all the ferns and hostas that used to be in this bed under the Giant Fir.......

Now we have to look for bugs and hope for any

flowers that peek up.......

Of course, I have big plans to fence them up over AWAY from the Perennial beds. Last years sad experiences in the lovely pink impatiens bed has prompted me to add fencing tasks to the Chicken Farmers list of chores. ;)

This picture is actually last spring, I don't really have daffodils up yet! I look each day to see how high the green tips are peeking up, tho. The anticipation of spring helps me get thru these months of winter. Here in the Oregon valley I live in, the days are sunny and in the 50's this week. We will soon return to cold foggy days, but in the meanwhile, the chickens are happily clucking thru the fields and garden beds. My goal is to get the girls fenced in before my perennials start coming up again, tho. I need less scratching around the flower beds and  less dirt bathes in the hosta beds! I am dreaming of a new flower bed or two, and have the High Country Gardens catalog beside my chair, making lists as I go. A plant catalog and a nice cup of tea is all I need!

Chickens off the grid!

My camera isn't the best, but you may be barely able to make out the string of Christmas lights over our hen house. My husband is especially proud, as he has them hooked up to the solar panel on top (which runs the light bulb inside for winter light).
So our girls not only have Christmas Spirit, but are off the grid as well!

I hope you had the Merriest Christmas ! My house was filled with grandchildren, son and daughters and parents, and friends, a blessing to share the day with them!

A summer recap: Our summer has flown away, and now Fall is coming soon. Here in our little valley we have had morning fog and sunny afternoons this week, but the rain is coming. I have been trying to get the last of the green beans canned, did put up a dozen pints of spaghetti sauce, canned 20qts of peaches earlier. We didn't get as much blackberries picked this year, our hot weather was fleeting and they did not ripen as quickly, but the chickens have been busy hopping up to get what they could reach! I would really like to get some apples to make apple sauce. My in-laws no longer have the property with the apple orchard, and we miss getting the boxes of apples! I have been busy stocking the pantry, trying to have a well rounded supply of food and sundries for the winter and for uncertain times ahead. We were able to get honey from our bees, enough to fill a couple of Rubbermaid tubs, and I am going to get them strained and put in jars, eventually.
I also need to clean out my flower beds and plant some lily bulbs which were delivered this week, too. The weekend is too short!

I love raspberries! They are like ruby jewels hanging in a green canopy. Our berries are coming on fairly well right now,too. Usually by the 4th of July, we are picking raspberries every third day, and strawberries almost every day. We have always had raspberries every where we have lived in Oregon. David's family let us have starts when we moved back to Oregon with our first baby, now we are on our third home with a raspberry patch. We love to eat them fresh, have them on ice cream and in salads, make freezer jam, sometimes cooked jam. the chickens like them as well, bouncing up to peck one off of the bush. Berries are the essence of summer to me!

One of our favorite things about living in the country is the bees! David's Dad is an old Bee Man and had hives for years, so David is comfortable with the hives. Our first year here, we found a swarm in the old apple tree, and David got out the old hive for them. So we started bee keeping! However last winter, we lost both hives, so had to purchase 2 new ones. Now we have three hives, after a swarm occured. We are determined to take better care of them this year, making sure they have plenty of sugar water, and honey to see them thru the winter , and getting established. the honey is wonderful and knowing that we are helping local agriculture stay healthy is great.

Finally the end of June has brought days in the 70's and even 80 degrees! We had to wait until the official start of summer, June 21 to get any sun and warm weather.
So my flower baskets are a tad behind, since I didn't plant them until April and then we didn't get any sun until this week!
The good news is our little chickens aren't so little and have graduated to free range instead of just the chicken yard. There are ongoing dramas of whether the big girls are eating the little girls food or vice versa. And even tho there are 2 roosts in the little girls hen house, we find 11 chickens on one and 1 lonely chicken on the other! Too funny.
We finally have the garden planted, lettuce, beans, tomatoes, squash. The established strawberries and raspberries are doing well. We may get a few cherries from the new cherry tree, and ou new little peach and apple trees are doing well, if the deer don't notice them!
David has now 3 bee hives, after losing both last winter. Two he bought from Glory Bee, our local bee supply store, and one is a swarm he captured. We learned from last winter and are determined to watch them more closely this year to protect them. We love the honey!
Happy Fourth of July!

It's cold in May here is Oregon! 47 degrees just now at 7:30 pm as I went out to take some pictures of the chickens. Our big girls were busy scratching in a pile of composting leaves, and the "little" babies were safely enclosed in the new chicken yard. The back of the addition to the chickn house shows that David has not yet painted the back section, altho the front is painted white. Last night we only had to catch 4 little ones to put them back in before closing them up for the night. Much better than the night before when it was full scale chaos, scooping with the net and 22 chickens screaming and running away from the giants. Sigh. Today was a 5 egg day, so I am happy, as I have been selling them at work. By August, we should be getting almost a dozen a day! I am ready for warmer weather, Altho my baskets are planted, they are not doing much as yet. the rhodies are almost ready to bloom, and the perennials are coming up, with iris, peonies, snowball bush just on the verge of blooming.

Happy Birthday, Nathan! We had such a great time with the Grandbabies last weekend. Violet especially loves waffles with "cream",( whipped topping).
Then after they went home, we had quite a windstorm, which blew down limbs all over and split a bigger limb on our big fir. Of course, this does not stop the big chickens from laying their eggs up in the tree!

Things are silly here in the country! We have had the chickens almost a year now. They have been an entertainment and a delight. We started out with 6 Aracauna hens, lost one to a cruising neighbor dog, and have maintained 5 free ranging chickens over the fall and winter.
Of course, our daughter had to name them: Sophie, Audrey, Gwendlyn, Danielle de Barbaraqe... I'm forgetting one, hmmm.

So the other day I came home from work and was standing on the driveway talking to David. I noticed the dog was laying on the grass , licking something round and light colored..... an egg! with a crack! I snatched it up, looking around to see where he could have found this egg. The girls were supposed to be laying in the hen house, in their nice nesting boxes. No more running off to the woods to lay. No more climbing over the fence to the woods to collect the egg, no sir.
"well, I saw the Dumb Chicken up in the tree" says the husband. ( sometimes we call the chickens by their characteristics as we can't remember their names) So I look up, and there in a crook of our dark old fir tree shines another egg. She was laying in the tree, and apparently one fell out, bounced down where the dog was sitting, and he thought " I am a good dog , aren't I!"
Sigh.
So David being the awesome chicken owner that he is, put the extra nesting box up in the tree, so she wouldn't just lay on a branch. And put a ladder there so he could climb up and get the eggs. So now we have at least 4 chickens going up into the tree, using the ladder as well, to lay their eggs up where the view is fantastic.

How did it get to be the end of April?
Well, altho it snowed on my daffodils 10 days ago, and is still around 36 degrees in the morning at 0615, Spring is officially here.After all, Easter is over! I have already planted 3 trays of perennials, and potted up 18 hanging baskets. Also I planted half a dozen mosses, creeping phlox and creeping thyme between stones on a path out to the arbor area. Then I got David to put a picket fence in around a new rose bed I started in February, so have started to "white wash" it, and am planning to plant morning glory vine over the arch at the gate. I need ideas for the actual gate as well. Maybe a twig gate, or Mabel suggested an old headboard to a twin bed. We will have to see. There are many more projects to go! The reason for this frenzy, is that some friends of the family want to have their wedding here in June, on Davids birthday. so I am determined to have it flowery and pretty. Really,it gives me an excuse to push to get projects actually done, that have been on the drawing board. Did I mention that I love spring?

Its Christmas time and a white Christmas it is. We are staying home this weekend,tucked in and finishing those little projects and surprises for Christmas Day. Grandpa David is working on a dolly cradle for a certain someone, and Grandma has purchased the baby dolly, Great grandma has been woking on dolly quilts and blankets. Of course if it keeps snowing, our little one won't make it down from Portland with her parents. We will not get ahead of ourselves and will merely check the weather online every hour or so.

What a gorgeous Fall we have had! I have enjoyed the colors so much this year. Lately, have tried to get the garden beds cleaned out and ready for winter- cutting back perennials, planting iris, daffodils,peonies, day lilies for next spring. Just since these pictures have been taken, all the oak leaves have fallen and David is busy mowing over them, raking and composting as much as possible. I have sprayed the shrubbery for deer repellent, but found the deer have still been munching on the hydrangeas, Japanese maples and other delicacies .I cut the lavender and hung it in bunches on the porch for color and fragrance. David picked 3- 5 gallon buckets of apples from one of the trees- much more than last year. I did get him to help me start the twig fence around the "Secret Garden", will have to finish it in the spring.
Our neighbor felled a large tree and let David get the wood for his Dad and Mom. they were so grateful, and the wood was so huge! We are still heating with pellets, David hasn't installed the wood stove in the shop yet. Maybe next year. Now it's time to put away the oak and wicker benches, the hickory porch swing and the porch chairs. The rainy season is setting in. Too soon for me, I was still trying to plant more gardens!