*little rainbow farmette

 

the back corner of our property makes me ridiculously happy. it is a sunny patch that features our 450 square foot organic garden, two giant bins of  kitchen and yard waste breaking itself down into rich and lovely compost and our little rainbow coop that houses our backyard chickens. 

 

the barred rock hen in the photo above was the victim of a vicious raccoon attack a few weeks ago. i will spare you the gruesome fresh wound pics, but her neck was essentially just a big mess of bloody and mangled flesh. every single person who saw her in the week after told me she was going to die. as the injury heals little by little the scabs are replaced with soft scar tissue. no feathers will grow there again. she will be our funky looking yard bird from now on. but she has recovered and moved back in with the flock and is back to laying 2-3 eggs a week. we changed her name from ramona to ramona the brave.

 

i had hoped to expand the farmette this year adding some rabbits or perhaps a hive of honey bees. but there were no new additions to announce this spring. next year, for sure!

 



 

this is the crazy looking contraption we rigged up to keep our pea sprout babies safe from the chickens and the squirrels.

 



 

so far it is working like a charm!

 

Happy Spring!!

chicken funnies*

luca picked up our biggest hen and said "look at me, mom!" and i snapped a couple pics with my iphone. then esmé said "aw, look at her legs! i bet that is how you put pants on a chicken."

i hope you are all having a lovely weekend, friends!

xx

life as of late*

sundresses * bountiful garden * happy chickens * happier kids * popscicles * bubble blowing * wildflower bouquets * bare feet * glitter pedicures * summer bliss

busy bees*

hot coffee * kombucha * organic orders * freezer jam * tending chickens * tending gardens * tending small people * picnic lunch * iced coffee * summer sewing * woolly knitting * fairy tales and chapter books *

good on you, wednesday.

sunny the roo*delilah the baby

one of our araucanas turned out to be a big, handsome rooster. it became pretty evident when he was about 8 weeks old. my husband was positive that Sunny was a he, but i remained in denial. 

 this is what finally convinced me. about 15 seconds in. 

i had already talked to a friend about the possibility of a roo in our flock and she said she would love to welcome him to her one acre urban homestead.

this was sunny's last day in the rainbow coop. it was silly how attached to this guy we had all become. 

here he is with his girls.

 we dropped him off at the huberty homestead where he can happily free range and has a whole lot of hens to watch over. we brought home this little araucana in trade. we call her delilah. she is half the size of our big girls. it is quite difficult to bring a new hen into an established group of chickens. it is even harder to bring in a tiny, lone girl.

 we kept her in the house at night. she slept in the brooder box in my sewing room. esmé would wrap her in cloth diapers and let sleep in her arms on the couch. certainly not the typical chicken lifestyle. in the morning i would take her out to the coop and watch closely while she tried to interact with the big girls. they pecked at her and i let them. i just made sure there were no brutal attacks, and there never were. in fact only one hen, a black sex link named jojo, seemed bothered by her presence. i put a wire cage inside their enclosure and that is where delilah stayed with her own food and water, for nearly a week. it seemed like a safe way for them all to get acquainted with each other.  the night before last i left her in the coop to sleep all night. after dark i went out to check and the five big girls were all snuggled up on one roost and little delilah was all by herself on the empty roost. but she was safely in the coop so i let her be. last night i went out after dark and could not find her. i took a flashlight out and looked and looked and then there she was, all cute and cozy on the big girl roost, right in the middle. it took one week and it seems that they have accepted her presence. 

she is acting like a chicken once again and all is well in the happy, hippie rainbow coop! next order of business, eggs. glorious, fresh eggs...!

perfect chaos*

 summer vacation has arrived and the super busy, fun packed schedule was right behind. lots to do, lots to see, lots to make and lots to read. the kids and i signed up for the summer reading program through the public library. as soon as harper found out prizes and free books were involved he has talked about little else.

 esmé made a wall pocket for her teacher for an end of the year thank you gift. she picked out the fabrics and put her artwork on the front pocket and i stitched it together.

they are just like the wall pockets we made here.

 and she got straight A's on her report card! YaY! we heard through the grapevine that krispy kreme gives kids a free doughnut for each A. esmé earned ten fresh, sugary doughnuts for her hard work and she was sweet enough to share with her whole family.

 riley went from this...

 ...to this!

amazing what a haircut and shave can do!

 he graduated from high school the next day and yesterday he turned 18. i am such a proud mama!!

 harper picked up a new summer hobby. when he isn't reading books to earn cool prizes he strums away on this little guitar.

 the girls in the happy rainbow coop are growing so big! we should have fresh eggs by the end of july, i estimate.

i have been relying heavily on sweetened iced coffee with milk to get me through these hectic summer days. i use this cold brew recipe. i made a simple syrup by pouring 2 cups of boiling water over 1 cup of sugar and stirring until the sugar is completely dissolved. i pour the coffee over ice, add a little of the simple syrup and top it off with a splash of 2%. per-fec-tion.

chicks :: day four

here are our happy girls, 4 days old. jojo, daisy, ramona, holly, matilda and sunny.

wild birds, baby birds and giveaway winners!

 the kids and i put this out a few days ago.

that is handspun rainbow merino there on top - spoiled birdies!

 a fiber scraps, yarn and dryer lint for nest building birds. we do this every year and the birds happily take our offerings but we have never, ever spotted a brightly colored nest with yarn and fiber bits. we will be on the look-out again this year and please believe, if we spy one you will hear all about it!

 and look! we have baby chicks at our house! six sweet little bundles of fluff. we picked them up and settled them in yesterday.

 this was kind of funny - after they each had sips of water and explored their new home they all settled down in pairs - the two araucanas together, the two barred rocks and the two sex links. they are still doing it this morning when they sleep. so far they are happy and healthy and getting along fine. i plan to take and post lots of photos as the girls grow - get ready!

and lastly , i have two winners for the smell better butter weekend giveaway (this giveaway post completely disappeared yesterday! so weird! but the comments are all there so no worries!)

the randomly selected comments were #6 and #18

meggie and pepperberry knits! yay! i will contact you both this afternoon and get your smell better butter mini tin trios to you!

huge thanks to everyone who entered! xo

this is monday*

this in the blender :: bananas, peaches, strawberries, rainbow chard, spinach, water, spirulina and cinnamon

this in the stereo.

this at the table :: he has finally quit eating the crayons! yay!

this in my studio :: basil-lime and grapefruit

this in the garden :: the cutest little hen house ever, in progress.

this on the mantle :: you can knit your own spring nest with eggs! pattern here.

i hope you are having a happy little monday too, friends! xo

oh, and while you are here don't forget to enter the smell better butter giveaway!