We are still having chance of frost at night, lows in the low 30's, so just a few signs of spring- like chickens in the daffodils! The bees are not doing much either. But the new chicks are peeping away in the galvinized tub in the living room! Biscuit, our Springer Spanial would love to see them closer for a snack, but has been good so far. It would be nice to get the garden in, then I remember we are in Oregon, where it won't start warming up untill the end of May!  I want to plant the containers, like the rusty chair above, but am not quite brave enough to put in the geranium starts I have been babying all winter. I do usually get the 20 or so hanging baskets going abut this time, but not quite organized yet to get the plants. I think a green house is going on the DH list!

It's early spring here, only in the 40's in between showers, still a little snow visible in the hills surrounding our valley. Of course, when I go outside, the Chickie Girls think I need to feed them, so they come running. They have been busy in the perennial bed, scratching midst the cat mint and white cone flower coming up, around the daffodils which are like solid sunshine. The peonies are sending up their red shoots, with promise of heavy fragrant blossoms to come. I also have the grape hyacinth blooming, bleeding heart peeking up, the iris are sending up new shoots, along with the day lilies. The girls are busy laying as we have more light now. We are getting between 10  to 15 eggs a day. Luckily I do have buyers for them!
I added some Double Delight roses, orange and pink dahlias to the long perennial bed. Can't wait to see the colors as they come up! I also have new plans for another flower bed beyond the arbor over the fire pit, and despite my promises to my husband, am sure I need more plants to add the the established beds;)

One day the girls are hanging out under the pine tree and the next day we woke to a couple or three inches of snow here in the Mohawk Valley. So they spent all day in the chicken yard, very leery of the scary white stuff. But we got 10 eggs today! Much better. Now if I can keep my poor husband with the broken arm from climbing up to sweep the snow off the  dish on the roof...

Hope your Valentines day was lovely and sweet!

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.