puppy dog tails

Lynn, our next door neighbor, breeds her golden retrievers, and the latest puppies came on Sunday! Their eyes are still shut and they make the cutest little noises of protest if Molly gets too far.

By the way, did you spot the extra white in this pic? Dante's right front tooth is coming in! He will have front teeth for the first time since he was 18 months old and had them extracted.

purple and brown

Luke introduced the kids and me to these guys -- claymation shorts on Nicktoons by Aardman:



And so Dante is busy making his own, except we only have blue sculpey, not purple. Close enough.

day after the biggest snow this year

Three hens a laying... and blue eggs! Now we KNOW that Tinkerbelle has joined the fray.

dante's dreams come true

Well, one of them anyway. But before all that, here's a headshot of our new dominant rooster. Peepers has harassed both silkie roos enough that he simply has to run in their direction and they make themselves scarce. As for the ladies, Speck seems to be the favorite target for the boys.

ANYway, a couple of days ago, my neighbor Lynn called to say that she had a deer hide for Dante. Her son, Keith, shot the deer on their property, but they didn't want the hide. Dante was delighted (understatement of the year), and called River right away to offer the other half. So, now we figure out how to tan a hide.

Today we (and I do use the term "we" lightly. I stood by to offer moral support and groans of grossed-outedness as Luke ripped off the remaining flesh and fat, but let's just say I was extra happy he was home early) cleaned and salted the hide. Dante's pal Mason came over to watch, but was pretty put off by the whole scene as well.

Lucia exclaims "poor bambi" as she looks on as the hide awaits cleaning.

It needed a bit more strength than Dante had to really get the stuff off, so Luke ended up doing pretty much all the cleaning. What a trooper!

Dante pours the salt on before rubbing it in. Then they folded it in half and rolled it up to sit for a few days.

The girls wonder why everyone is outside in their territory. I invaded their safe space and caught them all roosting on the tree limbs. Protesting loudy, they started jumping off and moving away.

the death of a tree

a preying mantis egg sac on the tree we liked!

2 hens a laying, and a partidge in a pear tree...

we've got eggs!

Well, an egg anyway. I went to the coop to lock the girls up for the night Wednesday, and as I was checking their food and making sure everyone was in and ok, I noticed this little jewel on the floor of the coop! I opened up the nesting boxes, and since we'll be gone all day today, the girls will be shut in all day, so we'll see if anyone else is motivated to join in the egglaying fun. Maybe it's time to go for an egg hunt in the woods again...

The revered first egg enjoys a cozy nap in Lucia's new penguin slippers.

dem bones

River saved the bones from his Thanksgiving turkey so that he and Dante could make spears and the like. So in the middle of Gatlin's birthday party, the boys cleaned, boiled, sanded, and boiled again their bones.

All done for the day, the boys relaxed a bit by the firepit and somehow got soot all over themselves.

River's grandpa gave him their have a heart trap, which he's put to good use. He caught a squirrel earlier this week, but we didn't make it out to see it. We did however manage a trip to see the poor possum he caught yesterday.

Pleeeeeease release me, leeeeeet me goooooooooo.

thankful

Lucia, Jo and Josh

Caroline, Lil, Devin and Dante

Jennifer and Peter's youngest, Patrick.

first snow... barely

The girls (and guys) got wet as the snow turned to freezing rain on Tuesday. It was all melted by the time the kids were ready to venture out, but Dante and I got some shots of the girls in what little was left.

Pong's pouf doesn't weather the rain well...

chilly chooks

It's getting cold nowadays, but the girls are troopers and don't seem to mind the cold all that much yet. No eggs that I know of, and I've been keeping them in the coop on gymnastics days and haven't found an egg in there once.

The roosters are all crowing, and now Peepers (the only roo big enough for the large breed hens) is old enough, we've got some mating going on. Dante and his friend evidently witnessed a successful encounter, but all I've seen so far is one rooster attempt to clamber onto a hen's back, while the other rushes over to harass him til he falls off. And Pong, the older silkie, takes his job shepherding his girls seriously. If Dante picks one of the hens up, Pong chases him about the yard until she's free.


Rosie strikes a pose, secure in her position as top dog. She breaks up fights between the roosters and runs around and nudges lingering hens to catch up with the pack. She's also usually the last to enter the coop at night. And has pride of place on the roost in front of the window.

Speck, still a pretty bird. Gets a lot of clout since her "bird of a feather" is top dog. But she is a favorite with the lads as well

.

Pong's feathered feet blur as he scoots across the yard to fend Dante off.

Peepers has been slow to realize that he has a huge advantage over the other boys because he's bigger than everyone else. But Pong remains the dominant rooster. Go figure.

Peepers examines the camera, the camera examines his comb and wattles. I'm pretty sure they're still growing, but they are already a sight to behond.

I've seen a lot more of this scrunched up look displayed by Izzy here, and can only assume it's a defense against the cold.

Luna can't believe the treats I brought out are gone already.

Clover eyes the camera warily as well. Bandit comes the closest to actually touching (well, pecking) it, but they all stay out of reach despite their obvious curiousity.

Since losing her pal Fly, Bandit has slipped to lowest in the pecking order I think, tho it's very hard to tell. She's also much more friendly, and of all the girls she's the only one who will still come nad sit on my lap or back.

Tinkerbelle's face just cracks me up. I love those little tufts!

bikeride to lyman viaduct

trying to see the St. Bernards that were barking like mad at us

the view from the viaduct