Tiny Eggs & Giant Zucchini

Some of our spring chicks have starting laying! I know it is kindof odd, but I feel such a sense of accomplishment!! ;0) I raised them from day old chicks and now they are laying eggs of their own- I am so proud!!!

Maya is one of our Bantam Cochin pullets. She is black and tiny and a very serious egg layer already! She was one of the first babies to start laying and her first light brown egg arrived on her 19th week birthday!! Her eggs are about the size of a ping pong ball, and almost every day without fail since then, she makes her way into the nesting boxes and leaves us a tiny gift.

Maya- one of our Spring chicks 

(I named some of the chicks after my favorite scrapbook companies &

she was named for the company "Maya Road")

4 of Maya's tiny eggs, next to one of our "normal" large size eggs

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My garden has been kindof a bust this year. I admit that gardening is not my forte! I did not keep up with weeding and it has gotten quite overgrown with weeds. Despite the weeds, the squash, zucchini, peppers & corn all seem to be doing quite well! Simon went out to the garden today to chase a chicken out, and tripped over a HUGE zucchini that had somehow been missed underneath all the plants. This is the biggest zucchini by far that I have ever seen!!! He was thrilled with his find and came in yelling his excitement. 

This will be fun! I have already pulled out my mama's zucchini bread recipe and I am wondering how many loaves we can make with this monster- yummmm! Can't wait :)

August Updates

I can't believe we are already half way through August. The summer is flying by and school starts here in 11 days. Where did the time go? The heat wave is over, thankfully and we have had much cooler days and LOTS of rain and thunderstorms. I actually love the rain, but a lot of people here don't because of the flooding and the fields being too wet. I can certainly understand that!

Lots has been happening in our family lately, hence the lack of blog posts. Times have been stressful, but in all things we will give thanks- or at least try to. When life gets busy, the farm gets put on the back burner. However the farm is growing and everything is green and lush and full of life!

We have 14 kittens!!!! All 3 of our barn cat mamas had litters within a couple weeks of each other. Sadly, 3 kittens didn't make it, but the others are all healthy and playful (and ready to find new homes soon...) The kittens all grew up together and they all play together. The funny thing is, the 3 moms take responsibility for all the babies, they don't discriminate. I see kittens from all 3 litters nursing from the same mom- it is quite humorous to me!

how many kittens do you see in this picture? There are 8 here!!

In other news, we had decided to give Scurvy Dog another chance. We tried in vain to find a new home for him, and after a few weeks of searching we decided to give him another shot. Unfortunately, that was a bad decision on our part. One day when we were gone running errands, he broke off his chain and killed 6 of our chickens. It was a very sad day because one of them was Anabelle's beloved "Mohawk". Of all our 38 chickens, any one of us would have gladly given one of ours to spare Mohawk. He was such a special Silkie, and he and Annie had a very special relationship. I am glad I have many pictures of the 2 of them together (I even have a video of her riding her bike down the sidewalk with Mohawk sitting in the basket on her handlebars!)

I don't think any chicken could ever take his place, but we do have the 3 young silkies that haven't been named. I am hoping that Annie will bond with one of them.

Anyway hopefully one day soon I will be back to blogging my funny farm stories... I promise to let you know when I do!