...until they hatch

Chick count this morning: five.

We brought the first four inside so they have access to food and water without exposing themselves to the other hens.

The house is peeping.


Yesterday afternoon mama hen finally got fed up with me moving her to look under her feathers and photography her chicks.

don't count your chickens...

I noticed the first evidence of chicks hatching about three o'clock Monday afternoon.


By ten in the evening we had our first wet chick out of the shell.


By 5 Tuesday morning there was peeping coming from under mama hen and two fluffy chicks with a third on the way out.

veggie kabobs

full moon in pastels

dancing in the green

Tuesday Jay brought his friend Tracy out from the city to help with the planting of our trees. The two of them dug 8 holes along with trenches for the watering system. Digging in our yard requires a pick as well as a shovel as there are lots of rocks.


Afterward I made a ring around each hole with the rocks that came out of the hole and topped the whole thing off with wood chips and pine cones. It's so nice to have green out my kitchen window....I can hardly wait for them to grow big enough to provide some shade.

strawberry salad

just because

dancing with silly lily

Lily is such a fun dog. She daily entertains me with me silly antics. She is a little spoiled and expects regular attention as a result of our spending so much time together each day. She doesn't like to be left out when there is affection going on. If I sit on Jay's lap she will want to climb on top too. In the mornings before leaving for work Jay will hug me and speak words of blessing over my day. If Lily is around she will stand on her back legs and join the hug. Silly Lily.

dancing in the dark

Last night we attempted to candle the eggs our broody chicken has been sitting on the past 10 days. Candling was strongly suggested by several authorities online. Eggs that are not growing properly can explode...the result not only stinks but also can harm the live eggs by hindering breathing if the egg gets covered with gunk. Unfortunately, the process wasn't as easy as described and after looking at several eggs and not being able to identify much of anything, we gave up and decided to take our chances.

dancing with the saguro fruit

The big white blossoms of the Saguro Cactus have dried up and dropped to the ground. In their place, the Saguro fruit ripens, then opens, looking almost like a second bloom.


The bright red fruit call to the birds, the ants, and my husband...come up and taste of our fruit.

shadow hike

With the daytime temperatures in the triple digits our late afternoon hike is no long very appealing. Therefore, this morning, after finishing the breakfast dishes, Lily and I headed out to climb Silly Mountain.

The view as we started up the mountain.

The trail from Lily's point of view.

Water break at the top of Huff and Puff trail.

strawberry lemonade

green

It's not much compared to the lush green-ness of Michigan in June, but it's enough green that I feel a rush of happy every time I catch sight of them out the front door.


Yesterday we went fruit tree shopping. We got Ruby Red Grapefruit, orange, lemon, mango, peach, plum and a grape vine. Add that to the pomegranate we already had and we have a lot of planting to do. We talked through the possibilities of where to plant yesterday taking into consideration access to waterlines, shade, and mature tree size. While the trees wait for Jay and a friend to tackle the difficult task of chopping through our rock filled soil....I'm going to work on a plan of how to have some of the trees end up in my line of sight from inside the house so I can continue to have this happy-green feeling.

chicken dance

While the rest of the flock enjoyed a lovely fresh cucumber breakfast...


The broody hen remained in her designated nesting box faithfully keeping her eggs just the right temperature.


Hopefully somewhere around the 27th we'll have some freshly hatched chicks...her reward for skipping breakfast.

dancing with the rock hound

While hiking in Payson we visited an area called Diamond Point. The area is known for the large number of Quartz found there. People travel from all over the world to go rock hounding there. I didn't find any Quartz on our hike but I did find some interesting white stones that I carried home and added to the rock collection near the front door.


Yesterday I went outside an noticed that Lily had picked up the new rock and moved it near where she was sitting. I remembered the day before when the rock had taken a fall and chipped. Becoming suspicious, I took the rock to Jay and had him lick it. Sure enough....my interesting rock was a chunk of salt lick the hunters had put out.



Guess I better keep my day job.

dancing at bible school

In one of the cities we visited in Mexico we spent the night in a bible school facility. The school was not in working order; run down but mainly lacking in teaching staff. After returning home the ministry raised enough money to purchase a DVD bible school training course in Spanish. The course includes 96 DVD of teaching from many well known bible teachers. Once the package is purchased as many copies of the DVD's as are needed can be made. Jay and I have been working at coping the DVDs as well as downloading a copy into a hard drive. Once again Jay's home computer lab has come in very handy. We will travel to Mexico over the 4th of July weekend to help train any who interested in how to use the program.

to market, to market

Last week's visit to Rancher's Market resulted in a good haul. I found 3 boxes of discounted produce....grapefruit, apples, and cantaloupe. The apples and grapefruit found their way through the juice machine but the cantaloupe were split between the chickens and Lily.


The hot weather has changed Lily's eating habits so she typically waits until bedtime before eating any food...the exception to that rule is cantaloupe...sidewalk licking good!


This weeks barigins included a box of cucumbers (another one of Lily's favorites) and strawberries. I decided to take another try at using the dehydrator with the strawberries...now that I know there is a temperature dial and have adjusted it accordingly I hope that they turn out more acceptable.

dancing in payson arizona

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