New Camera Lens

Dove in the pine tress behind the house.

I finally decided what lens I wanted for my Nikon Camera. I had been wanting one for sometime, and in fact was the whole reason for purchasing the Nikon. If I had been able to buy a lens for my Samsung NX100 at a reasonable price, I would have continued to use it.

These are some of the first photos that I made with the new 55-300mm lens. I am still working on holding the camera still, because the longer lens makes it harder to hold. 

As always to see the photos larger, you can just click on the photo you want to enlarge.
Hope you enjoy!

"Waco" plan from South Carolina, always something flying over head at our house.

Birds on the feeder.

Who knew? Tomato's in October!

I have been very busy the last few weeks and this morning had some time to roam around the yard, just enjoying this beautiful cool weather that the Good Lord sent us. Would love to be camping this weekend or at The Cabin in VA! But that is not be, another really busy weekend on hand. But I did find some odd little happenings!

Tomatos and tomato blooms in October! I guess some chicken will enjoy them in a few days!

The Protected Eggs

I have know for a couple of weeks now that at least one of my leghorn (white egg layers) and one or two of my Americauna's were hiding eggs from me. Tuesday morning I went out to take them some treats and heard one of the leghorns singing her egg song. Since she is white, it was not hard to find her. And this is where she was! There were 18 white eggs and 3 green/blue eggs in that nest, under the poison ivy! I was only able to save one of the white ones, since it had just been layed it was still warm, and therefore the only one I knew for sure how old it was.

The Ups and Downs of a Backyard Chciken Lover

A week or so ago, it was a bright beautiful sunny Saturday. So I decided to put my Peace Lilly out on the back porch for some winter sun. It got dark, I brought it inside. I sat it in its normal corner in the dinning room. The next morning a second bright shinny Sunday morning, I was enjoying my breakfast. I looked over at what I expected to be my nice fresh flower, when I realized about half of the flower was gone. I looked a little closer and realized that something had ate about half of the leaves, leaving only the veins of the leaves. I think "hum, what insect would be on my back porch on a winter day?" Then it came to me. It was not a insect, but a fowl. Chicken, to be exact. 10 of them! Had attacked my poor flower!

Also, last Monday, the boys and I went to spend the afternoon with Mom. Kenny was in the basement studding. Rosey was with him and the chickens were grazing in the yard. One of the chicken's were missing that night at beak count. We later found some piles of feathers. Kenny said it looked like maybe a hawk had got it. We have also heard since then that a hawk killed a neighbors rooster. So I have been clipping wings and keeping a pretty close eye on the girls. ~:>

Advent Snow Storm

I am 45 years old. I have never seen it snow this much in December. The storm hit at the right time for my boys. Friday was the last day of school and the storm hit about lunch time on Friday. We decorated the tree while the snow fell down out side. All 8 inches of it.

And on the first Saturday of CHRISTmas break the boys and Rosey went sledding.

The trick here is when you get to the bottom of the hill, you have to quickly stand up and grab the sled before Rosey can drag the sled further down the hill. And Rosey doesn't like to share the sled once she gets it.

Pe Pi

So today I am out in the chicken run, the chickens and the dog are on the outside of the run in the woods. Rosey is standing on one side of the tree peering around a tree at Chicken Alice. Chicken Alice is peering around the other side of the tree with her one good eye, looking to see where Rosey is. This went on for several rounds. Mean while I am standing there laughing so hard I am about to pee in my pants. Eventually Rosey saw another chicken and lost interest in the one on the other side of the tree.

Ah, life is good today... ~:>

Eggs!

Eggs! We have Eggs! Five Eggs! They were all in a pile, in the corner. I guess we have had eggs for a few days and I just had not found them. Kenny found them this afternoon.

We think the speckled one was the first one, it was on the bottom of the pile. And here we think is the proud MOMMA! Carmel, she has been scratching a lot lately not eating from the feeder as much. She also has the largest and reddest waddles and comb.

My Little Garden

Here is a photo of my little garden. J and G made me these little tripods for my cucumbers to climb on. Aren't they inventive? The cucumbers were starting to climb up my tomato plants. But now they can climb their own little sticks.

Happy Monday every one! ~:>

Hey, honey, what ya fishing for?

Most men like to fish.

My hubby likes to fish too.

I find it odd that he likes to fish, cause he don't eat fish.

But he still likes to fish.

He likes to fish in ponds.

But sometimes he likes to fish in trees.

For airplanes that are caught at the top of the tree by big ugly teenagers.

Ah, the adventures of my lamb boys...

Garden Trolls

I have been doing a lot of gardening this spring. I have my little garden at the house like every year. These are my cherry tomato's and cucumber plants that I planted inside in February. We also went and planted our big garden on the other lot. It is not a pretty garden, but it is doing very well. Just this morning I sighted cucumbers, green peppers and tomato's. I also have two very beautiful potted flowers that I really want to get a good photo of. I lucked up on Craigslist.com and got some pretty Boston Ferns for the front porch. Makes it seem cooler to me. So I guess I am a happy gardener. Just watch out for the garden trolls. They are sort of wild. Later, Cindy

Life's Little Pleasures

Oh how I wish I had a camera in my hand when I experienced these two things I am getting ready to tell you about.

On Wednesday, I saw one of the chickens running across the chick yard. Upon a closer look I realized the chicken was chasing a butterfly. It was such a cute thing to see. A brown chicken chasing a orange butterfly. And the butterfly knew just how far the chicken's head would reach. Which is where the butterfly stayed on several passes through the yard.

Then last night J and G and i were sitting in the yard, each boy had a chicken. J lulled his almost to sleep. I noticed there were lots of big mosquito's flying around. I told the boys to go put the chickens up and we needed to go because of the flying tormentors. G picked up his chicken, put the chickens head around where the mosquito was flying, and the chicken ate the mosquito. Now this is one reason that I was interested in chickens, to eat bugs, but I didn't realize that you could point out a bug and the chicken would eat it! G proceeded to do this two more times. Needless to say, G and that chicken are going to be great friends!

Chicken Update

Over the weekend, we replaced the chicken play yard, left over from the twins toddler years, with a real temporary fence.

Well, today is Monday and as you can see they have got to the top of the fence and to the top of the post. However, the jar in the window is the jar that their food stay in, and they know it on site. So I am hoping they will not be so successful at their "flying" up to the top of the other posts. The other photo is of J, feeding the chicks dandelion leaves. They will peck at the leaves as long as you hold them. The twins think it is great fun for the chicks to eat from their hands. The chicks think it is great fun to peck at the sapphire in my ring, if I am holding the dandelion!

Wild Turkey

I heard this strange sound the other day, so I immediately went to look out the window to see if my chicks were OK. They seemed fine, as I was walking past another window I saw a strange large object in the drive way. This is what I saw. It was on the cement when I first saw it, but by the time I ran back to the other end of the house to get the gun, I mean camera, it had moved further from the house. This place never ceases to amaze me and all its natural beauty.

Chicken Tractor (aka: chicken coop)

Over the weekend the chicken tractor was completed and moved to the yard. Which meant that the chicks got moved to the yard too! It is really close to the house for right now. But it is moveable, that is why it is called a chicken tractor. My knowlege of chicken and chicken talk has grown in the past two months.






This is the egg door. The nesting boxes will be in front of these two doors. That way we can reach in and get the eggs from the back. That is IF they nest in the nesting boxes. I have heard some people put straw and golf balls in the boxes to show the hen what to do.





Here they are in their new digs. Ready to explore the world.











And here we have a green snake caught in the hen house. Don't look to happy about that either.

One little page from this weekend...

This is Making Memories Eliza, found at Tuesday Morning. Only thing better than scrapbooking supplies, are scrapbooking supplies CHEAP!

Proverbs 31:21

Spring Time Weather!

Well, since Saturday, we have had lots of sping time weather. In fact yesterday I was at the school on the playground and I actually got hot. Saturday the boys had a whole day to play in the yard, ride bikes and other goofy activites. Today however it is overcast, cold and calling for freezing rain overnight. One just really doesn't know how to dress these days.

My neighbor called yesterday, asking if Kenny got a new toy. I said "no, he just got it fixed. It has been broken ever since you moved in. " He did act like he had a new toy though, when the part came last week. It arrived remarkably fast, all the way from Canada in 4 days time. Guess I need to stop bad mouthing the post office. Til next time, Cindy

Snow balls, snow men and snow boys...

We finally have a snow day WITH snow!

Aaah snow, glorious snow....
This stuff hurts!

What do you mean we need to put a coat on?
Yes, I am doing homework while there is snow piling up on the ground.

Look! New tag! \/

Manic Monday!

Mondays are normally filled with lots of stress. From getting caught up from the weekend with housework stuff to homework and cub scouts.

Yesterday was no different from what I have come to expect from a Monday. But I was lucky enough to see something that brought a little smile to my face. As I was stopped at a stop sign there was a flock of robins landed all around me. On both sides of the car. I had been hoping for some snow, but after seeing the robins, I think I am ready for spring.

Photo credit to: kevinbolton56

My Projects from Last Week

I have been feeling very crafty for the past few weeks, and here are some of my projects.

I made cozys for the twins nanos and then the big B wanted one for his Zune.

I made some cards that I had seen somewhere on the web, and two felt ornaments that I had see several years ago and just never got around to doing them.

I also have been on a reduce and reuse kick. I have started reusing paper bags from the grocery store. One day last week I went, carried along my bags. When I got home with my groceries one of my bags tore. Well I needed some of those moss pots to plant my tomato seeds in, but really didn't want to spend the money so I decided to make use of my ripped grocery bag. Now I have sweet 100 tomato seeds warming in my bay window. The boys are really excited. I am sure when they go missing this summer I will find them under the tomato plants eating straight from the vine!

Happy Monday Everyone! Cindy