Friday Giveaway!

Happy Friday friends!

I've been so encouraged by all of your kind comments, that I wanted to do a little giveaway. Mother Plumtree (if you haven't met her yet, click here) has been busy stitching, and offered her first embroidered towel for the giveaway! I really thought Mrs. Puffington was going to have hers done, but she isn't finished yet!

It's just a little vintage style dishtowel, embroidered by a chicken.

All you need to do is leave a comment, telling me what celebrity you would like to look like. I'll announce a winner on Sunday morning. If you have trouble leaving a comment, please click on the 'Contact Me' link, and send me an email.

Here's a couple of other chicken photos from today. Aaron sure loves the girls too. He dotes on them all the time.

Fifi LeFew (click here if you've not met her yet!) started laying this week. The sweetest little blue eggs you've ever seen.

Thanks so much for stopping by my little corner of the world and reading my ramblings.

Tour de Coop

Stubs would like to invite you of a tour of the chicken coop! Won't you join us?

You remember Stubs, right? She's toeless thanks to a wicked raccoon. She's the impressionist artist? If you've not met her, click on the archives and read 'Meet Stubs'.

Mother Plumtree! How did you get in here? I told you, wait your turn. She's so anxious to show you her stitchery that she just finished. It's hanging on the wall there. Cross stitched. I think she sat up many a night to finish it in time for you all to see it today. Looked how puffed up she is. So proud. Silly bird.

Here is what the coop looks like from my little brick sidewalk. I used to use that area as a potting area before we built the coop. It was a pretty neglected area, so this is a much better use of the space.

Here's the roost box that we built out of garbage....oh, I mean 'reclaimed' materials. We actually used the potting bench (found in the trash) and a couple of old windows (found in the trash). I'd been saving those windows for 10 years, hoping to one day build a cold frame. A few sheets of plywood that were laying around finished it up.

Aaron actually designed this little roost box for me. He wants to be an architect, so I figured he could do this. He did a great job. See how it opens for easy cleaning? I feel like the girls are pretty safe in there. I have opposable thumbs and sometimes I have a hard time opening the door for them. The coop is 10 x 10, which is supposed to be big enough for 10 birds, but I let them out to free range every day. Do you know what the definition of free range is? Destroy your garden.

Poor Stubs can't roost, so we built her a little small platform to sit up with the other birds since this photo was taken.

Aren't those old hinges cool? That is one thing I love about Glenco. He saves EVERYTHING and he is a scavenger. We see old doors and the like on the side of the road, he'll pull over and yank the hardware off if it's neat, or just take the whole danged door.

The latches on these old windows are what made me fall in love with them. They are old metal windows that we found by the trash in the historical district of Crown Point. I love trash night almost as much as I love bacon.

Here is another prime example of the ingratitude of chickens. Of course I want their little abode to be all cozy, so I planted a nice Hydrangea 'Limelight' for them to enjoy, and sit under. They ate it, and then dug it up for me. Thanks girls.

But I can't stay mad long, when I see the sweet little faces of my girls. What is it about chickens that I adore? Why do I want to hold them and kiss them? Why do I want to dress them and make little rolling pins and teach them to make pies?

Is there a medication for this?

Somebody Stop Me.....Here's Helen

Some of you may remember poor Helen. If you are a new reader, you might want to look in the June archives and read about little Helen. She's truly a miracle bird. A coon attacked her in the middle of the night, biting her head. I do think she may be blind in one eye.

Poor little Helen is on the bottom of the pecking order. Thankfully, she's not physically picked on, but psychologically, the other girls put her through the wringer. Do you think that just once, they could let her be the first one out of the coop, or the fourth for that matter? Absolutely not. The other girls have practically broken their necks to make sure that wouldn't happen!

Unlike Mrs. Puffington and Mother Plumtree, Helen isn't much of a stitcher. She finds it a foolish waste of time. She spends most of her days in reflection and prayer. Seems to be, after the coon attack, Helen's tasted a bit of the afterlife and she aims for everyone to 'know the way'. It also could have been the fact that I did take her in a grocery store when she was ailing, and well, I didn't want to tell you this, but I did go to the meat section. I tried to shield her one good eye from the bagged chickens there, but I think she saw them. I often hear her quoting Scriptures to the other girls. Just yesterday as they were breaking up their meeting, I heard her tell Stubs 'Consider the lilies of the fields...'. I don't know about you all, but to me, a sweet meditative chicken is hard to come by.

Helen has quite a ministry actually. Last night she ventured out to the prisons. She'd die if I told you this, but her sister is actually incarcerated. She won't tell me why. It couldn't be for anything too terrible, could it?

Helen told me that she had two conversions last night. She felt it a smashing success.

Pictured above is Harry 'The Black Spur' Australorp. He'd been wanted in these parts for years. He's a bad seed. Always looking for a fight, and one night he found one. It wasn't pretty. We don't talk of it here anymore. He's on death row. Scheduled for the deep fryer on August 30th. Helen feels she got to him just in time.

Kids these days. That's all I can say about this one. Natasha is in for a short stint due to a DUI, public indecency, and resisting arrest. Acts like she was raised in a barn. I know her parents and they are beside themselves. They gave her too much too soon if you ask me. She needs a good hard days work in the yard. If Helen can't talk some sense in her head, I don't hold out much hope for her.

Well dear readers.....you've still to meet five more hens. Are you up for it?? I'll be flying the coop for a few days. I'm leaving for Missouri this afternoon and will be back in town on Wednesday night. Tune back in for more silly stories....

The Early Bird Gets The Worm....

The Coop Keeper felt the need to sleep in until 7 today. The girls weren't too happy. Unbeknownst to me, they had this big meeting planned. I wasn't invited. Apparently they do this every morning. I guess I must be blogging or something when it happens.

I was weeding nearby, trying to nonchalantly eavesdrop. Stubs was leading the meeting, and assigning the daily tasks. Fifi LeFew was to be on cat patrol. What was Stubs thinking? She's much too anxious for that! Maybe I should put a bit of Xanax in her mash. Mother Plumtree was to monitor the southeast corner of the yard, looking for grasshoppers. Scarlett was to take the northwest corner, gleaning for leftover mulberries that had fallen. I could tell by the expression on her beak, she was none to happy about it. Common work for a glorious red hen. Helen was to scout the entire yard looking for freshly mulched areas to destroy and prepare for dust baths. They always take advantage of Helen! The whole yard? Really Stubs? Isn't that a bit much? By now I could tell they knew I was listening, so they broke it up.

Off they went.....Stubs leading the flock. I rolled my eyes at her as she passed. She shot me a look that could kill. "Hey, wait a minute there Stubs'......she kept walking. Acting like a rooster I must say. Cocky. She must be the top hen. "I'm the Coop Keeper baby" I said, pointing my trowel at my chest "....ya, ME". She pooped and kept walking.

The Peep Show will continue tomorrow........

It Continues....Mother Plumtree

Let me just preface this post by saying that chickens are hard to photograph! Period.

This is Mother Plumtree. She is another Buff Orpington. I have two. Looks just like Mrs. Puffington, no? Well, almost. When you see them next to each other, Mother Plumtree is much lighter.

Another gentle bird. Mother Plumtree lives in the shadow of Mrs. Puffington. She knits as well, but drops a lot of stitches and gets frustrated easily. She can embroider beautifully. She's a bit shy.

Her turn on's: Tomato worms, the shady spot under the daylilies and cantaloupe rinds.

Her turn off's: Loud noises, the neighbor's dog and people that knit well.

I'll give you a break tomorrow with the birds and talk about something completely different!

I have six more hens to go.................