Dog Days in June...

The dahlia's have been blooming for a couple of weeks, but the red ones are always later. I found them yesterday... Are these persimmons?? And if so, do raccoons eat them? If you know the answer to my question, please email me!! www.music.farm@hotmail.com

Evening on the front porch.

Adam is calculating for his chicken coop roof building. He said to me yesterday, "Baby, this is gonna be the most complicated roof I've ever built." Watch out. When this comes together well, he'll be wanting to make buildings just to try different roofs! I love him... and am quite proud. Neither of us are any kind of carpenter and despite ourselves it seems as though we're building something that a)won't fall down b)will keep the rain and sun off of the chickens and c)has a cool roof :) and d)will, when we are finished, deter predators such as owls and raccoons. (Notice this is not the first time I have mentioned raccoons in this post...more on that later...)

We measure twice and then hopefully only cut once. That has been the case thus far. See the new coop in the back kind of? The walls are done and we framed out a door. Now for the roof. Today is gonna be a busy day, folks.

We could buy stock in kiddie pools. This is the new "pond" for the chickens. We put the block in the middle so that it didn't blow over and it has turned into a little island. ("No chicken is an island", ya know... ) I don't know why it makes me happy that they stand on that concrete block. It just does.

The chickens have been so SO HOT in this hundred degree weather we've been having. They just pant. Did you know that chickens can't sweat? Really. I'm not joshin'. When they get really hot the hold their wings out from their little bodies and let them droop. It looks funny, but they might catch a breeze like that. They drink lots of water (we add fresh water a couple times a day) and they open their beaks and pant and just sit or stand real still in the shade until it cools off.

Bee Balm Blooming By the Barn

Have a wonderful day!

M

For Every Action there is an equal and opposite reaction...

Let us study this picture. At first glance, it's a pretty good picture of ol' Mondo (a.k.a Bad Dog). Then you see the drool...then the pile of fur that I combed off of him in less than five minutes. Then I see that his ears are perked up. That is never a good thing, people. That means he is contemplating. Mondo contemplating ANYTHING is NEVER a good thing. Ever. He just looks like he's getting ready to a) run just for the fun of it, b) run because he wants to sniff a kitten, c) run because he wants to jump in my neighbors pond, or d) run becuase he wants to kill chickens. Today it was c) run because he wanted to jump in my neighbor's pond and then come put a wet, St. Bernard shaped muddy spot on my kitchen floor. This made me feel not so good... Let us now discuss this picture. It makes me feel REALLY good...

g'night

Ladybugs and Coneflowers

So Adam and I are sitting on the front porch one evening last week. We are talking. The bad dog is hangin in the yard and the other three are sprawled all around us. The kittens are playing (does anybody need a kitten?!) and I look to my left and see the echinacea (a.k.a. purple coneflower). I am thinking about how pretty the flowers and how they change as they grow. Then I decide to take a picture and Adam realizes that I haven't heard anything he has said to me in the past five minutes.

The "cone" part of the flower starts off like this. As the petals get bigger, they droop down and the red part actually does form a cone. I love this stage, though, because the petals are pale and the middle is bright red and I can stand like a silly person and follow the geometric patterns in the middle of the flower. Then I take another picture and another until I realize that I need to actually respond verbally to what Adam has to say to me.

Then this morning I am trying to decide what to blog about and go ahead and resize my flower pictures. Then I saw..... Mr. Ladybug!! Do you see him?? The only thing I love better than taking pictures of ladybugs is finding ladybugs in pictures I have already taken...

I hope you all have a wonderful day today and are enjoying the beginning of your summer. Keep a smile on your face - you never know who might need to see it....

the other side...

I would just like to say one thing...

Birds of a feather... how do they KNOW that?? :) We will be eating this very squash today. Mmmmm...

and this lovely zuccini, as well...

We will not be eating Mr. Ladybug.

This is my first bit of echinacea ( I have no clue if I spelled that right) this year. They're fun to watch bloom and I think the middle looks neat. If you stare at the red part long enough, you can see all sorts of designs.

Adam's Dad is a yard-sale-aholic and found this lovely potato (all of the sudden I can't remember the name of it) fork? spade? All I know is that it is supposed to be used to dig up potatoes and it does a dandy job!! (Adam was proud of his pose, here...)

This is where our new deluxe scrapwood chicken coop is going to be. We sunk the posts and are now moving on to the framing out of it. We'll be able to do away with the coop you see, keep the old one that you can't see as a shady place for the chickens in the summer, and integrate our three separate flocks into one once we are finished with the new coop. I'll be able to help feed and water them more then. It has become a really fun project for Adam and I and we're looking forward to it being finished. I can't decide what to paint on it. I will agonize over this for weeks and weeks before we come up with just the right thing!!

The grass...

is always greener....

on the other side....

Happy day, my friends. Hug somebody today and tell them you are happy that they are your friend...

Much love,

Malinda