Rain And Chicken Feed Shouldn't Mix

It was hot and humid today and I was feeling sleepy, and then I heard rain? My first thought as I hurried to get the camera was to get a picture, but the rain doesn't show up at all in the pic.

Like I said I felt sleepy and it took awhile for my brain to start working and remember I had put the chicken feed out in the pen earlier. Yikes! I don't want the feed to get damp and moldy and kill the chickens. I ran back out to the pen and put the chicken feed inside the coop. Things are still a mess in there from the skunk episode, but the smell is going away. The chickens were out under the trees and didn't care at all about the rain.

A few of the girls came to see what I was doing in the coop. I'm sure they were checking to see if I had a plastic bag. They know I carry veggie bits to them in plastic so they will come running and will jump and peck at the plastic when they see it. They are not such dumb birds after all. Poor girls. I think they are pretty smart.

Later I came back with a veggie treat. I didn't even have to call them today because a few spotted me and started sounding off and that brought the other hens running. I had to hurry to stay in front because I didn't want to trip over them and then we had a mad crush to all get in the pen at the same time. What was I thinking? I seldom bring the treats out to the pen. It must be the humidity.

The girls were in a hurry to grab a piece of veggie and take off with it, so by the time I got the camera working they were each off on their own. They eventually came back and finished off the squash bits and the zucchini. I wish they had some greens to eat in the woods, but everything has dried up.

I spent some time playing with my blog divvying up the sidebar blogs I like to read into like topics. I left a lot of the blogs under the Neat category. Those blogs are just really neat and fun to read. I put all the farm blogs together. I spent some years on my Uncles dairy farm and love and miss the farm life, so I enjoy reading the farm blogs very much. I put the quilting blogs together. I am a beginning quilter and learn a lot from them and enjoy reading all they share.

I'm still learning how to use blogger. So, once in awhile I check and see what I can add. I wish google had a counter I could just add by clicking on Add a Gadget. I don't like to mess around with pasting code. I'm afraid of messing it up and the blog would go poof.

[5 eggs today]

Smiles

~:>

Button, Button

This is the back of my machine with the case pulled off. I looked for the button to lower the feed dogs, didn't see the button, so I called the sewing machine store. Help! What I needed to do was feel for the feed dog button.

Turns out the button was there. Duh! Underneath! Why am I so lame. Good grief, I couldn't find the feed dog button. So sad, so sad, because it turns out I still can't do any free motion quilting because the Heart Truth doesn't come with that foot. Soooo, I need to buy a darning foot!  So, I'll add that to the list of stuff I need to have someone pick up for me next time they are in that part of town. I sure do spend a lot less money since I stopped driving because of the migraines.

These hens are dust bathing in the shade.

It is just too hot for sun dust bathing.

They are digging pot holes.

And they are not doing the foundation any good either.

[10 eggs today]

Smiles

~:>

Just Chickens

This photo of the spa house window is much better than the other one I posted a while back. Sandy designed and made this window and John built it into the wall. I look at this window and see a design for a quilt! I didn't sew today. Maybe tomorrow. Tom and Kristine saw the new Star Trek movie this afternoon and Kristine says she needs to see it again before she can figure out exactly how she feels about it. She likes the acting, the writing, the sets, but she said that the story or plot was a bit lacking. I think I will wait for the dvd to come out. 

So far it seems that the chickens have taken to the closed in nest boxes since today we collected 12 eggs and only two of them were laid in the open nest boxes.

The chickens were all excited about something again

so I had to come out and take a look see,

but I couldn't tell what the problems was.

Morgan was sniffing around

for something?

See that farm gate in the video? Well, when you open it, the gate swings into the pen and hits the other side, which makes cleaning out the pen difficult. I would like to take the gate off and reverse the hangers so it would swing out into the yard. Then I could get the wheelbarrow in there and load up the rakings easily. Or, maybe I should find another old door and build it into that area. That is a plan for the future. In the meantime I need to rake out the pen. I take it out in bucketfuls. It takes longer, but I will get it cleared out eventually. I only put the straw down in the pen because of the mud. It is much easier to keep the pen raked out and clean if it is just dirt. But chickens with muddy feet leave muddy eggs. Thus straw is called for.

Smiles

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[12 eggs today!]