The googly eyed tree

This is a big beach tree that lives in my backyard. Ever since I can remember, it has been called the googly eyed tree. Can you see all of its eyes?? I like beach trees and their leaves are neat. They look crimpy.

Chickies are growing up!

We were outside today after inspecting Moscow hive and we heard this Mr. Man...Rooster Cogburn...CROWING!  They are three months old! Love my chickpeas!

Baby bird

Went to bed late and had to get up early for work. Now I'm relaxing on the couch, being kept company by an adorable little baby bird. Whenever anyone lays on the couch, he's pretty quick to join. He will even make little sleepy noises and snuggle with you. I love him!

One LOOOOOOONG Post

 Hey everyone!  Did you think I left without saying goodbye?  =) Nah, I've just been busy!  I'll try harder to post daily or several times weekly.  Right now I'm relaxing after a LONG weekend (but that'll be in another post) and trying to finish things up before I go back to work tomorrow.

So, here's what's been going on here in paradise.  Above is the little guy that dad and I saw out in the woods.  I love seeings turtles!  Dad and I saw him later that day, swimming around in our pond.

 Here is our one and only rooster now, Mr. Cogburn.  We had five all together, but dad and I butchered them about a week ago now.  It's not a fun job, and I'm glad that my dad is willing to do it.  We gave two of them to our neighbor and cooked up two of them for us.

They were delicious.  There is nothing like farm grown, free range chicken meat.  SO much better than store bought.

Anyways, Cogburn likes being the man of the house now.  He crows happily all day, and seems to be nice enough to the hens.  Sometimes roosters can be really mean, but Cogburn seems to be pretty tame.

So this is one of my FAVORITE fruits...meet Mr. Coconut.  I love everything about them, and the fact that they are really good for is makes them even better.  I love using coconut oil for oil pulling, on my skin, hair and I'm going to try making deodorant too.

I bought this one because I read that some birds (Scarlet Tanagers) really like the meat in a coconut.  Since I had just seen a Tanager in our yard, I decided to give it a try.  No luck so far, but I just like looking outside at the coconut, and I have the water saved up just in case a neat recipe comes my way that calls for it.

 My Russian ladies have been really busy bringing nectar into the hive.  I was doing some clean up work in the hive last week and pulled out some brace comb that was full of honey.  Needless to say we were chewing on bee's wax and tasting honey for the afternoon, and it was amazing!  YUMMY.  Can't wait to get more.

Here is a really neat moth that was on the inside of the door in the chicken coop.  It blends in amazingly.  Nature is really amazing!


Anyways, there's lots more going on, but these are the highlights.  This past weekend my mom and I drove out to Iowa to do a Relay For Life walk.  It went for 12 hours and we were POOPED by the end of the day.  Then we went to bed, got up and drove back home.

My whole left side is sunburned, but we had a great time with friends!


Until next time everyone,

Jamie!

Flowers, frogs and bees

I'm sitting out by my bee hive, watching them coming home for the evening and decided to post a quick snip about the evening.

First off, the frogs are out in the pond croaking away. I was checking one of my swarm traps when I heard them. I really like listening to them at night.

Then I walked around to the back garden and saw these beautiful flowers. I don't know how they ended up out there all by themselves, but they sure are pretty.

Now I'm just watching the bees for a minute before I tuck the chickens in and head in myself.

Nature is an amazing thing and I am truly blessed to be able to surround myself with it everyday!

Until next time,

Jamie