Early Morning Sun, Morgan and Chickens

One of the things I love best about the forest is being out in it in the early morning and watching the sunlight make its way through the tree tops to light up patches of the forest floor.

After all the rain and snow the leaf layer on the ground is still wet and the moisture has made the moss very happy.

The chickens are digging up the layers of wet leaves to get down to dirt that they can scratch through to find some tasty grub.

I've noticed that the hens especially like to scratch around the base of the trees. There must be some really good thing to find.

Two more mostly sunny days and then we are back to rain and thunder storms. I am being very lazy and not doing much of anything and I blame it on the weather. I've got lots to do and I want sun and warm days.

Snowy Moss And Muddy Chicken Feet

The moss doesn't seem to be bothered by the snow. I took the photo in the afternoon and lots of the snow had melted away because of the rain. More rain is forecast, but tomorrow we are supposed to have a break in the weather.

It has snowed here in May and Tom says it has snowed in June. This snow history gives me a bit of slack when it comes to getting my garden ready and planted. Our weather is a bit unpredictable.

Since we are going to hopefully have a sunny rain free day tomorrow I plan to haul a bunch of leaves and dump them in the chicken pen. I feel so sorry for the muddy footed chickens.

They really want out and hate being locked up. They even stand out in the rain at the end of the pen staring at the door waiting for me to come out and free them. I feel so guilty.

But they are safe if muddy. Because of the holiday and people and dogs not following their regular routines we are going to keep the chickens locked up until thing settle back to normal.

With some luck the fox will have found himself a new place to look for his dinner. Although it may have been a vixen looking for food for her kits.

Peek at the Past

(March 31, 2009)

Mossy rocks.

[7 eggs today]

Our coop is this close to the house. The bears don't really care. They get mixed signals. Some people scare them away, shoot at them, take photos, and some even feed them. A fed bear is a dead bear because they won't go away and become bold and scare people or worse.

A big Daddy bear could rip that door off. A bear tore apart a goat shed up here to get at the goats. We have been lucky that the bears that have investigated our coop have been bears this size or smaller.

~:>

Smiles

Sticks and Moss

A big windy rain storm with thunder and lightning moved through last night and made a lot of noise especially with all the branches and stuff blowing against the house.

I thought a photo of some of the sticks might make a good photo for the blog. I saw the sticks, but what I really noticed was how large the moss on the trees has grown.

All these mossy trees remind me of the moss covered trees I have seen on trips through Washington state.

Washington has a much wetter climate that lends itself to lots of greenery. In fact one of the few temperate rain forest in the U.S.

Well, I was surprised by the exuberant green mossy growth up and down the trees, on the roof and pretty much where ever the moss has found a spot it likes.

I think moss is beautiful and when I ever get my garden going I would love to have moss growing all around in the garden. Of course I would need to find shady places where it could thrive.

I found this recipe for growing moss, how to grow moss for your garden, on eHow. I think it would add so much to the garden to have moss established to make the garden look like it had been there for a long time.

Chicken update: The hen is doing ok? No egg today. That's good. I would rather she healed herself up than produce eggs.

Peek at the Past

(March 30, 2009)

I need another trip to the quilt store.

[6 eggs today]

I have been searching around for different ways to discourage predators. I am not looking forward to visits from bears or any other hungry critters. The black bears are hungry in Spring after their winter sleep and may come looking for chicken dinners.

It's snowing!

~:>

Smiles

Mossy Rocks

[5 eggs]

I love the mossy rocks!

This is the front view

that gets sun most

of the day.

This is a view

of the back that only gets

morning sun

and lots of shade.

I think it is amazing

how the moss can

live through the 

100+ temperatures

that we have in the summer.

I would really like to

have a solar water feature of some kind this summer.

I'll have to add it to my list of stuff that I need to accomplish.

I have been searching around for some way to put this blog on a cd. The main reason I'm making this blog is to have a remembrance of living here to add to our family genealogy. But I'm not having much luck finding anything. I guess I will have to have it printed.

Phooey... I have a very light migraine. 

Smiles