Guatemala Man

My little bro is on a mission in Guatemala and sent home this pretty scarf for me. He's been working hard down there and trying to communicate to us what it is like. Though nothing speaks like his pictures! He's already been through a lot including humid summer, volcano, earth quakes, and hurricanes! Tough little dude....
This is where he is right now - back country near the coast. He talks about having to hike up the mountain to get to an appointment.
BURRITO!
Jake is going to bring me home a brown baby :) Very proud of him and I want the Universe to see him and the people hes growing to love.

Daddy's Girl

The 4th and 24th are like Halloween to Tally. It's sad how much she gets scared of fireworks. Every year she cowers by her Dad - usually wrapped around his head shivering. :( It's one of the few nights of the year he will tolerate her on his side of the bed.
Snuggle bugs the following morning....

All but the kitchen sink....

This weekend Ben and I really put the petal to the metal and finished the chicken coop! All that is left is the 'lid' - which will be a 9 foot by 4 foot piece of wood we'll have figure out how to get home in the camry....

Anyhow, are you familiar with the Disney Movie "Babe"? This is Ben's favorite movie. I know that he wants to be farmer Hogget when he grows up.
I was snapping pictures of Winny in her new coop - and this one reminds me of a couple of lines right at the beginning of the movie Babe.

THE PIG AND THE FARMER
REGARDED EACH OTHER.

AND FOR A FLEETING MOMENT,
SOMETHING PASSED BETWEEN THEM.

A FAINT SENSE
OF SOME COMMON DESTINY....

Yes - It's pink. Paint is expensive. We went to the 'oops' section of home depot - where paint is $5 a bucket. Our 3 choices were baby blue, aqua green, or miss piggy pink. Can you see us staring at these cans? "......well..... Hens are girls....right?" So we went with the pink.

Here is peeking down inside, plenty of room to peck and scratch, and totally Reggie proof.
Our girls should start laying eggs in a couple of months - so they'll need some room to stretch their legs and hideous feet and .... up the latter....
GASP!! Look at all this space! But is lacking natural lighting and where will I put my vanity??

I'm so proud of Ben! This was not easy to put together and he stuck with it. I'm excited to see these chicks in full swing. I'll let you know when Ben decided to install a solar panel on the coop for the winter :) (just kidding.... kind of....)

Day Dreaming...

It's hot today....

Raspberries

Our new place has raspberries. Their time is almost up -- and I'll miss the fruits of this bush. It was great to pick a bowl of berries A DAY and have them with morning breakfast or evening desert. Seriously, they will be missed.
The bushes are along the side of the house which is where the chickens live and provide a long grassy area for dogs to sniff. Over these weeks of berry picking, Reggie discovered that he likes raspberries. He'd stare up waiting for us to offer or drop one down to him. THEN the little neurons clicked in his big head... that those red dots on this bush are berries!!
I'll just get some myself!!
Here is Reg. Eating my raspberry bush. Good boy.

Phases of the Coop

Chickens are growing up! With bigger chicks comes bigger homes

They start off so cute..
Next they moved to a bigger box --- but the predators could watch too closely. Up yet another size. ..
... this is chicken stadium. They hung out in the stadium for a couple of weeks until they could fly up and perch on the edge.
Next comes the rabbit cage. This was the home yet! No flying out. But the messiest cuz they scratch and kick everything everywhere!
Now Ben's working on the Chicken palace. HUGE wood coop 9 feet long and 4 feet wide..
So far keeping chickens is super easy and the only time i have to fuss with them is to upgrade the housing unit. Though, they are pretty stinky.