Cat food

Are these naked blind ugly things baby Grackles? Someone please tell me they are.

There are three or four of them in this pitiful tangled mess of bare-naked baby bird body parts.



They must be.

I swear (usually not on the blog) that this was a Sparrow nest, and these awful-looking things are way too big to have come from those tiny eggs. There was a pair of adult Grackles saying evil things to me the entire time I was up there with my camera, as if I had invaded their space.

Won't Grackles dump other eggs or even baby birds out of a nest and steal it for their own?

That is just plain rude.

If that is indeed the case, I'm thinking Marshall may accidentally get aimed in this general direction. Nature's revenge. Blenderized by a barn cat, or something like that.

So, are they cat food or not?

New babies

Lilac's chicks were due to hatch on Sunday.

Saturday we went to The Big City for the day, but before we left I let the chickens out as usual. While I was in the coop I peeked at Lilac sitting there in her corner, as she had been for the past twenty days. I thought, "Girl, your life is about to change and you don't have a clue what is about to hit you".

Her beady eyes met mine and she put her all her feathers up on end. Uh oh. She did already know.

They were early!

All you moms out there know that babies never hatch on their due dates. Then why would I expect chicks to?

And I wasn't the only one doing some peeking.



Their dad, by the way, is learning.

He saw me coming with my bamboo pole today and ran straight into the tall grass and sat down. It was just that easy.

I took these photos on Sunday, when the babies were only a day old.

One day old, and they were already starting to explore.



Mama Lilac was showing them how to peck at spots on the wall, so they tried it too.

She didn't mind my handling, so I actually picked her up off the nest to assess the situation and remove the empty shells. All eight were fully developed. It looked like Mama Lilac had shifted her weight at a bad moment and crushed one as it was hatching. So we have seven babies as new as they come, three yellow and four a beautiful soft brown.



The yellow chicks are Buff Orpington just like their adoptive mom. By the time a hen is determined enough that I realize she is broody, she has already stopped laying eggs. Lilac laid exactly zero of the eggs she kept warm for all those days.



The pretty brown babies are mixed breed, Buff Orpington and Barred Rock.

So soft and warm in my hand.

But things will be different this fall. The chicks that are unfortunate enough to be boys will be so obnoxious they'll practically beg me to get my new axe out. And the truth is, I don't want to keep mixed breed chickens in my laying flock of heritage breed birds.

Do you eat chicken (or beef)? Then don't look away. Even if you prefer someone else wield that axe, I believe it's important to understand where your food comes from, and to actually think about it once in awhile.

I have said it before, these lives are not a gift to take lightly.

This is where it starts.

Simple fun

Around here, it's usually the very simple things that are the most fun. Stuff like playing underneath and inside huge overgrown lilacs, laughing at our beast of a dog as she jumps at the sprinkler... or digging in loose gravel like a badger.



When it's worth losing some time to take those socks and boots off, you know it's going to be good!



I believe I've mentioned that we don't have a TV? Easily amused, yes, that's us!



But it sure is a whole lot of fun!




You Capture - "Fun"

The evidence

"No."

"A bath? No."

"Uh. NOPE."

"No, I dooooon't need to."



The number of baths and/or clothing changes a boy has on a summer day is directly proportional to the amount of fun contained within that same day.

I need to go wash some towels...


The challenge at I Heart Faces is "Play".

After I got my photo ready I read about this week's judges. Just my luck, they are obsessed with color. So here's me with my black & white entry. Oh, well. I'm gonna play anyway.



Here I am a month later, editing to link up with In A Yellow House photo challenge - "Your Best Shot".

I feel I've really come a looooong way in this photography journey of mine. It was only last November it crossed my mind to take the camera off the "little green box". Portraits are my weakness. But I nailed this one. I love it. LOVE it. For some reason this shot has been on my mind all week, and then Ms Yellow House asked for it... our best shot.

Why the chicken crossed the road

Or more specifically, the reason why my terribly handsome Red rooster crossed the road.



He was in an awfully big hurry too.

I was chasing him with a five-foot-long bamboo pole.

Now don't think I'm cruel! The alternative is to chop his head off, and I really don't want to do that. As much as that bird is a huge pain in the rear, I really do like him.

Red has a job and he does it well.

I just don't trust him. Apparently, he feels his royal reign is threatened by small children. The kind of small children that mind their own business... playing in the sandbox, coloring the sidewalk with chalk or dragging a hose around the yard. My small children.

That type of shenanigans in completely unacceptable.

So there I am racing around the yard behind my Red rooster. In my sandals. In the slippery dewy wet grass.



My boys are laughing hysterically.

But I have the advantage! I have the bamboo pole! Not to smack him up, just to steer him. It sure works better than a flyswatter.

And yes I know, it's a crying shame my husband wasn't here to man the camera.

When it's hot out, a running Red rooster loses steam faster than you would ever believe. One loop around the yard and his beak is wide open and he's gasping for breath.

Chickens have wings, you know, but I'm starting to think they are mostly for decoration. He won't fly away from me.

The second time around the house he tries to hide in corners or under the steps, but he knows I'll have him if he stops for too long. But soon, he's had it. He's done. He sticks his head into the flower bed, between a gigantic daylily and an overgrown chive plant, shuts his eyes and waits.

I haul His Highness off to the barn and lock him in the doghouse. Don't worry, he doesn't mind. He's pooped out. He needs a nap. He can sleep while my kids play outside, and I won't have to worry about them being attacked.

One of these times I swear that Red rooster is going to see me and my pole and head straight for the doghouse on his own.



It would be so much easier. For both of us.

My garden fountain

My husband got the water turned on in my garden swamp. Not that I really need any amount of water beyond what I can carry, yet.

But I will.

Our plumbing obsessed five-year-old is going to go completely nuts when he realizes that he didn't get to help.

Maybe he should have.

The first time I tried to use it, the valve popped off and it was like a fire hydrant had been set free. Well, not quite that bad. I mean, I didn't get knocked over or anything, but our nearest neighbors (a mile down the road) might have heard me scream.

It was refreshing. Very much so.


If you think the grass grows good in there, you should see the weeds. And the garden-on-steroids itself, when it's properly tended and doesn't, in fact, drown when we have five inches of rain in an unreasonable amount of time, or anything like that.

I think our neighbor was joking when he said if we had been gone one more day last week (they cared for our animals) we would have come home to a corral full of calves. I'm also starting to think he doesn't like taking care of bottle/pail calves very much. AND I think my husband is thinking about fixing some fence and getting some pens ready so we can actually have a couple bottle calves next year.

Lots of thinking going on around here.

What do you think?


Linking up with In a Yellow House - "Red" photo challenge

An illusion of peace

You Capture assignment was just to shoot like crazy all week long, and then to post only one photo. Just one.

I had a rough week. Lately it seems like all my boys do is fight. All day long. And it seems like all I do is yell at them.

The little bean is perpetually in "search and destroy" mode. It's one thing after another.

She snuck off with every shoe she could find and threw them behind the dryer. With the shoe project complete, her dresser called to her, she answered, and emptied the whole darn thing. Then she took her brother's banana (it might as well have been the end of the world). The other brother left the bathroom door wide open and, well, use your imagination. Next, she grabbed the CF card (from my camera) which was attached to the laptop which I thought was safely out of her reach. When I took it from her, she unplugged the laptop instead.

That was all within a period of about ten minutes.

When I picked her up to say "Why, girl?", she latched onto my arm with her five big teeth and would not let go.

Another bruise.

Beyond that, yesterday she unplugged the fridge at least five times, and I had to extract her from the dishwasher at least twice. I think we have finally secured the refrigerator plug.

It just doesn't stop.

Our house is a disaster zone. There are dishes all over the kitchen, piles of clean laundry all over the living room, dirty towels on the bathroom floor.

I am completely exhausted.

But we're all healthy (although the bean is cutting some gigantic molars) so who am I to complain.

{sigh}

Oh yes, my one photo.

Even though the light is horribly harsh, and technically this isn't a great photo, it is my favorite of the whole entire week.

It's my favorite because of the sweet calm of the moment. It is a perfect capture of childhood here on the farm in summer. Boys joyfully exploring together, and flattening a path through alfalfa that is already so tall. It was a warm, windy day. They had just crashed their kite and were moving on to the next big thing.


There is another photo that I also really, really like... with the abandoned tractor in focus in the foreground, and a blurry exploring boy disappearing into the alfalfa in the background. But at the moment I like this one of the two of them better.

You Capture - "Your best shot"