A photo, courtesy of our resident 2 year old photographer, taken today while out with the flowers. I'm amazed at some of the images he captures.

Rainy day indoor fun... Self portraits

Colven disappeared into the loft with my camera for a few minutes and then called down to let me know he was "all finished." I was so curious what might be on the camera haha. Funny kid!

California Cousins

We are so fortunate to live near family. Yesterday we had a break in the rain and cold of late California winter, the sun was out, the grass is green, the sky clear! Beautiful! The kids soaked up some much needed sun and I had to run in and get my camera because they all just looked so darn cute. They have so much fun together. What a dreamy life.

A beautiful sight

I absolutely love having chickens. It has been so fun (and sometimes a lot of work) so far! This is what I get to find when I go into the coop for one of the two or three trips in to find eggs. Fresh, warm, clean eggs nestled in pine shavings. So fun! One of the Buff Orpington gals is busy laying in the center nesting box.

I took this photo of the new batch of organic chicken food. I want to feed them whole grains instead of the pellet or crumble mix which is so commonly fed to poultry. One big reason is I want to avoid soy for them, and it is nearly impossible to find a soy-free pre-mix. Also, these grains can be sprouted to achieve maximum nutritional value as well as cutting down on wastage from spilled feed. When a crumble or pellet feed is spilled or dropped on the ground it essentially becomes garbage. Whole grains can still be found and if left behind for a few days they will sprout and become more tasty. I made this new batch from a different recipe this time than I have used before and I have to say it's really pretty ;) The chickens seem to be loving it as well. We now have 400lbs of food for them which should last a bit, eh? Now the trick will be cutting the cost of the grain itself. In the next few months I need to do some research and see if a new supplier I have found will cut the cost as much as I think it will. Even with shipping they have to beat Whole Foods, right?

The new recruits

I have been terrible at posting lately! Life has been busy. I thought I'd post quickly the new 3 week old chicks we got today. They are Speckled Sussex, a breed I wanted to get when we began our flock last summer but they were quite an elusive breed to procure. I'm feeling lucky to have a few! They will only be in these cramped quarters for tonight, tomorrow they move outside into the house we are building for the broody hens we will have someday. They'll be separate from the main flock for a number of months still, I think at this age they would be pecked to death. These new chicks bring our total up to 28. Once I get a feel for the good layers and friendly breeds we'll start culling out the "undesirables" to reduce the flock size. I'm still trying to figure out how many chickens we need to not only keep our growing family in eggs, but provide enough chicks who grow into chickens to make yummy dinners. I have absolutely no experience with this, so getting a handle on the exact perfect number is still fairly elusive for me. It's all a work in progress, this life of ours!