Chicks...

These are our new chickens...I love them. They're beautiful. We got 6 of them, 3 of each kind.


Cochins...2 Hens and a Rooster. They're gorgeous. They have feathers one their feet. To give you an idea of how big these birds get...When you go a restaurant and get a piece of chicken (or don't if you don't swing that way) it comes from a bird that weighs about 2-3 pounds. These birds will get to be about 10-12 pounds. They also make great pets as they are very docile.

These ones are called Egyptian Feyoumi. They're crow at 4 weeks and start laying eggs at 4 months. However the downfall of these chicks is that they're soo skiddish. They're still pretty little. Just over 3 weeks old.

We'll have eggs in a few months. I'm excited. They do a really good job of taking care of the bugs in the garden. We let them run around in the lawn and graze as they like.

HELP!!!

So, as I may have told most of you, this year I'm going to try square foot gardening. Here's how they look so far...


They look all well and good from about this distance until you get down closer. This is what I found this morning when checking for damage from the rain...
There seems to be some sort of insect devouring my plants...all of this damage happened in just one day. They were gorgeous on sunday and now i'm a little worried. I looked around in the plants for a bug that might be just hanging out but I found nothing. I did walk past this HUGE ant infestation in the lawn about 2 feet from my boxes...

It's about 2 feet across and full of ants. Do they eat plants? I planted the marigolds to keep animals away but I think the rabbits are the least of my worries at the moment...

I'm really not wanting to powder my garden with poison. Any ideas?

Good Ol' Michigan Weather...

Normally I'm totally okay with Michigan's Bi-Polar weather but this past week has been almost too much for me to handle... 90 degrees in the morning, hailing in the afternoon, near frost at night and debilitating fog to boot. Last night I sat on my roof watching and taking pictures of the storm roll through until about 3:45...

Then today after church on the way to Auntie Elaine's Birthday party Lily, Rosie and I happened upon a river running through Ivanrest. I'm fairly certain it was at least 18 inches deep and flowing rather rapidly through someones lawn, down the driveway and right across the street. I first saw it a little before 1 this afternoon and then drove back through it around 3:45. It was still flowing strong. It's supposed to storm hard again tonight but we'll see what happens with that...

Count me in...

So, here's the deal with this whole blog thing...I started it mainly as a way to share pictures of Elijah and things with my family. However, after some thought and reconsideration I decided that this might be a good way to keep in touch with my favorite people who I don't get to see as much as I would like.... I can't promise that I'll always have something interesting or thought provoking to share but I'll do my best.

Pictures

I've created an online photo album of Elijah's 1st birthday party for you guys to see. Take a look and see how big he is now.

Emilie