Egg In A Basket

Neat! I saw a Wyandotte hen sitting in the basket this morning. I think she was happy to get her basket back. I was happy just not to smell skunk anymore. There is one wooden egg and she left a light colored egg. Strange. I always thought the Wyandottes laid medium brown eggs. I just checked and they are supposed to lay large eggs from light to rich brown. That egg doesn't look particularlly large. Personally, I like the dark brown or rich brown eggs. They don't taste any different, but I just like them better because of the color. Just me.

This does look better today. Hard to believe, but the hens cleaned up a lot of the scratch grain off of the blue lid and they even cleaned up a bit off the the ground. Messy chickens. I guess I do have to take the blame for all this waste. After all, I'm the one who gave the girls all the grain. I'll keep the grain feeder away for a few more days and see if they will eat up any more of the waste.

Strange to report wind, but there actually was a little wind last night that caused a bit of leaf fall and lots of branches cracking and falling along with acorns landing with sharp reports like gunfire. It was quite noisy. Pretty soon all my raked areas will be covered with leaves, and I will be doing rain dances (not) hoping for rain to wet the leaves and earth so I can start my raking campaign. I hate raking this dry dirt. I end up standing in a cloud of dust and with a sore throat.

No painting today. I'm giving that new paint I got at Home Depot (it's called Freshaire) a chance to dry a bit, at least one day, before I turn the doors over and paint the other side. I may decide to paint the cabinetry in the kitchen first, so I can hang the doors and won't have to leave them laying around where they can stick on something. But first I will have to complete the finish work. Tomorrow?

[5 eggs today]

I think the hens liked their new straw nests.

Smiles

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A Tisket, A Tasket, A Pretty Basket

I didn't notice that Morgan was watching me take this photo of my one Longaberger basket. It usually lives on top of the hoosier, but I like to put it on the table in the Fall. I bought the basket in 1988 at Sue's house party and I tried really hard not to buy anything, but I fell in love with the colors and the shape of the basket. I can't remember for sure the use this basket was made for, but I think it was for holding apples. I'm going to put out a few more Fall things tomorrow. Maybe I'll have some fun and put out Halloween stuff too.

Here is another of my favorite old things. I used to work near an old place that had a fence that was falling down and being removed. I liked the cut of the pickets and asked if I could have the old gate. Yep. I carted it up here. Goofy maybe, but I like the old gate.

[3 eggs today]

Chickens got carrot peelings, lettuce and tomatoes.

No dressing.

Smiles

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Chicken In A Basket

A tisket, a tasket, a chicken in a basket. This Australorp hopped in the basket while I was looking for eggs. She looks pretty content in the basket. I put the feed in the barrel again tonight. I don't often find the basket occupied.

This is a a view of the house and garage under the hole in the trees.

See the dead tree? This happens in the summer mostly and then the trees fall over and usually don't make it to the ground. They usually get hung up in the branches of nearby trees and just hang there for years until they finally fall apart in pieces. You don't want to walk under these dead trees and get hit with a dead branch. Some of the branches are as big as small trees.

This is the area I am using to cut up the sheet rock. I would like to sheet rock these walls, or at least the area around the sliders.

[10 eggs today]

Smiles

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Collecting Eggs

Here is a Dark Brahma in the basket next to a bunch of eggs in the bookcase nest box. The hen is hot and she is panting with her beak open. Poor Baby. I'm surprised and pleased that the hens have taken to the bottom nest box and are laying their eggs there instead of on the dirt. There was one egg in the basket under the hen. I will check back later to see if this hen laid the egg and was just setting or if she is going to lay an egg.

These three were in the top nest box

There was one egg under this broody Golden Lace Wyandotte.

She is so pretty!

And this egg was in the large bottom nest box. See, I really do need to add some more straw to the boxes. But it is so hot I get dizzy out there. Kristine is home so I should be able to get to sleep earlier tonight and get up when it is cooler. I found a bunch of paint and I have been thinking of painting the chicken coop and pen. My first thought was to let the white paint finish falling off and then stain the wood. But that is going to take too long. My brother made this pen and coop originally as a dog pen, and he made it from old horse fencing that was painted white. I really don't like the white, but I may decide to go with it and paint the whole thing white. The door is white, so that would work. Maybe?

I added a comment box in the sidebar that will even translate the comments. How cool is that. I tried it out and it worked, so if it gets used I will keep it in the side bar. Seems like a lot less bother than all the clicking around the regular way.

[11 eggs today]

So far...

(another egg in the basket = 12 eggs today!)

Smiles

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Egg In The Basket

This basket is one of the things that I found when I was sorting through over thirty years of stuff to donate to our town garage sale. I have sooooo much stuff to get rid of that I don't know quite where to start. My approach so far has been to sort through small areas like closets.

I have moved on to a small storage area that has been used as a catch all spot. I am tossing stuff! All that stuff that was saved because we might need it, or once used it, or someone gave it to us, or it's was something the kids had or... There was some kind of reason it got put away. Now I only want to save things that I love, that I use, and that are too expensive to toss.

I remember talking to a lady once who said that people spend the first thirty years of their life collecting stuff and the next thirty years getting rid of it. Sounds about right to me.

Just once in awhile I see something that I think I might find a use for and keep the item. Amazing, but a chicken has decided that she likes the little basket and she has made a round little nest.

Cute. I will keep trying to get a photo of the hen in the basket. When I remember the camera the basket is empty. The hen I saw in the basket yesterday was a Dark Brahma. Today I gave the chickens a peach and two apples for a treat. I will try to get a video of the hens chasing the "ball." Pretty funny stuff!

[11 eggs today]

Smiles

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