Chicky chicks

So. . . . . since our chicks were all killed we went out and got some more.  Call us crazy (because apparently we are)! I plan on spending ZERO more dollars on anything chicken related for this year.  That being said, our new chicks are so tiny, and fluffy, and cute! I can't wait until they are grown and I don't have to buy eggs anymore.  Looks like it won't be until the end of summer though.  Uuugh.

Harmon Chicken Massacre

Joe (James' bro in law) is in town for business. He came over yesterday to play some disc golf. We took him in the back to show him our chickens to find that Rose killed most of them. We have four out of 12 left. The kids were very upset, however, Eva was the only one to cry.

I read on an online forum that the only way to break dogs of this habit is to tie one of the dead chickens around the dogs neck and leave it that way until it rots off. Rose is much to small for that so I wrapped a chicken with chicken wire (so she can't eat it) placed it in her kennel with her and only let her out to relieve herself and to eat. Which means that she will be outside for the next week so that the house doesn't smell.

Rose is an inside dog so she is not too happy about being left outside. Hopefully this will break her of it.

After we cleaned up the mess we did go and play with Joe. Thanks for helping us and we sure had fun playing disc golf with you!!


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Birthday Flowers

Thanks Mom for all of the beautiful flowers for my BDay!!
I already had the shamrocks and clovers, but my red and white pansies are new.



As well as the yellow and white calla Lillie's and the smaller yellow flowers in front of them.
My garden boxes look lovely!


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Let There Be Chicks

So, we lost another chick, but to sickness this time. I went down to the "chick store" and got like 10 more chicks just in case more die.

James built this small coop for the chicks. It is temporary until they are big enough to be in a real one.  They seem much happier outside and hopefully will do better.

Chick Update

We have lost little Squishy.  She was a good chick and we will all miss her.  Eva got too rough with her when unattended and Jake came running in my room saying that Squishy was laying on her side and they thought that she was dead.  She wasn't dead yet. Eva got her bummed spanked and sent to her room.  I picked up little Squishy and put her in a little rag and we (Ethan, Jake, Dad, and I) took turns saying prayers that she wouldn't hurt for very long and for Heavenly Father to help her to die quickly.  Everyone was in tears and a few minutes later she died.  James went out back and dug a grave for her.  We each shared a few final words about what a great fluffy, cuddly, nice chick she was and that we will miss her. 

We took this opportunity to teach the kids that Heavenly Father created all life and that he expects us to respectful not only to people but to animals as well.  The boys kept asking Eva why she did it and before we buried Squishy we gave her the opportunity to tell her sorry.  I told the boys that they need to forgive their sister and they let her know that they did.  When Eva said her prayers last night she told Heavenly Father that she was sorry and that she wanted Him to take care of her in Heaven and for her to be happy there. 

Watermelon

When I left to go to NM all of my watermelon's were the size of grapes.

When I got back a week later I found this little baby.

I also found this cantalope.  I thought that this plant was either

a squash plant or another type of watermelon.  Boy was

I suprised to find this! 

 A big Thanks to my neighbor Toni

for watering my plants for me while I was gone so that they

didn't dry up and die!

Gotta Have My Garden Fix!

Okay. . . I want to start out by saying that gardening is incredibly addictive. I love it. This is the first garden that I have had in a really long time and honestly, I previously have only grown strawberries, tomatoes and herbs. This garden has been really fun! I have gotten a lot of squash already and am growing a couple more different kinds of squash that have not matured/ripened fully. My tomatoes are coming in and now look below! A cute little baby watermelon! I was really wondering if I would even get any.

Reading other people's blogs last year it seemed that they had a hard time growing watermelon's. I am very excited and showed it to my boys yesterday. Even though a lot of what I am growing are things that my kids think are highly questionable, they do still enjoy watching everything grow.

I thought that since this is my first real garden that I wouldn't plant too many things just to see how it goes. I definitely am going to go a bit more crazy next season. I would like to add a couple more garden boxes. Shhhh. . . don't tell James.

They Are Finally Here!

Yay! It feels like I have been waiting forever for the tomatoes to come in. I have been anxiously waiting none to patiently and they are finally here. There is nothing better than home grown tomatoes and I cannot wait to eat their sweet earthy flesh. Mmmm.



So far it looks like my yellow pears are the only one's coming in, but that is fine. I can wait on the others.

Earth Day Tree

I know that Earth Day has come and gone, but. . . . my sister Stephanie gave this Colorado Blue Spruce Sapling to me for Earth Day.


Can you see the little baby branches that have finally formed? They are so tiny an cute. I know that it will be a few years before it will be large enough for me to plant in the yard (trust my kids to not trample and kill it), but I look forward to when I will be able to.

Kid's Garden

Jacob planted the carrots and beets that are in the pic. above. He planted them in February. They are by the back porch just to the right of the door.

Ethan planted these pinto beans when he brought home a bean sprout home from school

and it died from lack of water.

Currently, Eva does not have a little garden of her own. However, she always helps me water mine. She really enjoys helping out. I will have her plant something of her own soon.

Score!

I was at WalMart in the garden area and they have a ton of stuff on clearance. I got two Gerber Daisy plants each for $1! How awesome is that?! The plant on the right looks near death, but it does actually look a lot better than when I first brought it home. It has perked up quite a bit. I am confidant that it will make a full turn around.

The Beetles Are Gone

Yay! The beetles are all now gone. The kids are very excited to be able to play outside again.

Okay, a couple of days ago I posted about a strange beetle called the iron cross blister beetle. My backyard is now overrun by them! I can't even let me kids outside!! Yesterday, after James got off of work, he decided that he wanted to go out back and see if he could find one. He smashed no less (most likely more) than 50 of them. I kid you not.

After the smash-a-thon we headed back in the house to read up more on these nasty buggers. If a horse eats just a part of one of these guys (found in the hay and/or grass) it can KILL it. Aaaaaaaaaaaah!!!!! Now my yard is basically smeared with these things and if my kids so much as touch the smear or get it on themselves and then touch their face they can DIE!!!!!!

Today, I went outside to clean up the dead (bring out your dead!) and by the time I found 1 to start shoveling into a pile I saw 1 fly into the yard and another two of them running around, I was just like forget it! I will have to clean up the mess in a couple of weeks when they are hopefully gone. Can I get another Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah! ! ! My skin is currently crawling and I am officially freaking out!

Heebie Jeebies!

Okay, I went outside to admire the first of my summer squash (can I just tell you I am so excited about it!) and then, amid my proud observations came this huge beetle! (pic. below)




I was totally mortified! Bright colors! That must mean poisonous right?! I looked online and found out that this Thing is called an Iron Cross Blister Beetle. It can cause skin blisters if touched and is fatal if ingested. Oh my gosh! I have never seen anything like this. It was a good two inches long and before I even went inside to find out what the heck this thing was, I found a large rock and dropped it on the bad boy.

Man alive, I am so glad that my kids didn't find this outside. I am always just leaving them in the back to play by themselves. And can I tell you that this thing, I swear, started chasing me! Okay, that might be an exaggeration, but it was definitely following me.

This is one of my heads of lettuce. It comes from a package of Gourmet Blend seeds.

Suprisingly, the lettuce is what is doing the best in my garden. This is the first time that I have attempted to plant lettuce and thought that it would do the worst. Generally, it is a fall crop and I thought that it would wither up and die. I intentionally planted them inbetween tomato plants figuring that the tomatoes would shade them and make them last longer.

My tomatoes are doing okay, but I thought that they would be thriving and be much larger by now. They are just so-so. We will see how they do.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 Lady Bugs . . . at the lady bug pic-nic!

This is no bush my friends. It is a large pile of weeds that I plucked from the earth yesterday. Can I say that I love pulling weeds. I always have. There is just something about pulling them out with one's might that just makes all of my stress melt away.


As you can see, I have cleared half of this corner. I had been putting it off, because this area had been infested with lady bug larvae. I wanted them to hang around for my garden. I noticed that the weeds were going to seed and let's face it, I don't need more weeds than I already have.

As I was plucking my way along there were a lot of lady bugs scampering to hide under the grass. Yeah! They stayed. Hopefully they will still stick around and eat all of the nasty little bugs in my garden.

My backyard is full of weeds. I spend hours out there everyday picking them and you can't even tell that I had.

This is a somewhat less daunting view of them.

My Garden!

Here is a pretty little summer squash plant.

This box has tomatoes, lettuce, parsley, basil, green onions, and onion chives.

Box number two has beans, watermelon, and the summer squash.

Awesome Find!

Friday I went to Home Depot to purchase a snake for our upstairs nasty plugged up toilet. I stopped by the garden area and found berry bushes! I have been wanting to plant berries, but thought that I would most likely have to travel to Payson or Flagstaff to find some.

Woo Hoo! I scored a four pack that came with 2 blueberry, 1 blackberry, and 1 raspberry bushes. They are basically twigs at the moment. That is whey they are covered so that they don't freeze during the night.

It does take a few years before they will be mature enough to produce berries, but I am still excited!

I also included a pic. that shows that our backyard is still a giant mud pit. Thank goodness. It made it very easy for digging the holes for the berries. Woo Hoo again!