One of our MANY forts

These are the pallet houses. They are made out of pallets from Daddy's job somewhere. The one on the left is E-man's and the one on the right is Mr. D's. There is a bridge connecting their houses. Johnny-Boy likes climbing all over the top of it.  Thankfully Daddy put a guardrail up to keep Johnny-Boy from falling off the side.

 This is my pallet house. It has a floor and a very high-class table/bench/bed.

 It is next to the world's longest thorn bush (the thorns are about 3-6 inches in length depending on how long they've been growing).....

..... and the world's tallest holly tree. I really should have thought my location through more carefully. :) But the upside is that I have a very well built, prickly defense system!

Galadriel

And now we come to the rooster named Galadriel. Or as E-man calls him "Banana Butt." Don't ask, I  had nothing to do with that name. NOTHING I TELL YOU!!! I can see you. You are thinking "yeah right." IT'S TRUE!!!! But anyways, Johnny-Boy now when he sees any chicks he says "Nana" (Banana). E-man is a bad influence. Galadriel is very naughty and fast. In the picture above he looks very guilty, doesn't he! It's because he was pecking the wall at some dusty spots. I don't like the chicks to do that, so I always chase them away!





SHOCKING NEW DISCOVERY: GALADRIEL IS A HEN!!! THEREFORE, MY NAME WAS ACTUALLY CORRECT!!!!

Silly Quotes From the Boys

Johnny-Boy

As we are stopped at a stop light

"Wook! Wook Mama! It a  BUS!!! Wook!"

Mr. D

As we are at the grocery store looking at milk

"When is the season for chocolate milk? I'm getting hungry for it."

E-man 

As we are listening to my Lord of the Rings sound track from the library, the Mordor song comes on and Mommy is about to skip it.

E-man: "Hey! I like that song it's so dark and doomy!"

Mommy:"Don't you mean gloomy?"

E-man: "No, I mean DOOMY"

Goldberry

Goldberry is our broody hen. A broody hen is one who has stopped laying eggs to focus on incubating them.  She wants to be a mom! That means that she will sit in a nesting box (where the hens lay eggs) and will not get out. Her body temperature rises to keep the eggs warm.  She is so focused on her eggs that she forgets to eat and drink. She also looses feathers on her stomach so she can keep her eggs warm.  This week, we got her a wooden nesting box and some eggs to sit  on. In twenty-one days the eggs will hatch.

Goldberry was broody earlier this year. She had hatched our four Sussex chicks and when we took them away to hand raise-them, she was very mad. If you hand-raise chicks they are much tamer than if she raises them because they are used to being handled every day.  If a hen raises chicks, she will do everything possible to keep you away from her chicks.  So now Goldberry is broody for the second time in a couple of months.

She also does really weird things. She attacks our camp chair, Mr. D's boot, Johnny-Boy's toy lawnmower, and anything else that smalls like a human. So we like to call her "Crazy Goldberry." It suits her, don't you think!

The Best Ice Cream in the World

Today we celebrated Thursday by going to Trailside Creamery. Okay - Celebrating Thursday was just an excuse... It is a locally owned ice cream shop that serves great ice cream for a great price! ($1.50- kid's cone, $2.50- regular cone) They serve other foods too! Like iced lattes, milk shakes, malts, soft drinks, and toppings for your ice cream! They have the BEST ice cream in the world universe.

Make that good ole' vanilla for the Johnny-Boy, Chocolate-Coconut twist for Mr. D, Peach-Vanilla twist for E-man and black raspberry for me!

Johnny-Boy didn't have his afternoon nap yet, so he was REALLY  tired, but he still enjoyed his ice cream!

Gandalf

Gandalf is the oldest of the living chicks. He is one of our Speckled Sussex rooster chicks. I'm hoping that he will start crowing soon! As you can see from the picture above, he is very inquisitive. He always comes up to us and jumps on us or pecks our feet. The way to tell him apart it that he has the whitest chest.

Snake's Pool

This is Snake's Pool. It's was named that because twice, we've seen a snake that looks suspiciously like a copper head.  Any ideas on what kind it is? Mommy said that copper heads don't swim, but I've seen a copper head before and the snake we saw looked like one. 

 

A spring comes out of the end of the pool. In fact, the whole creek starts in Snake's Pool. Our house was built in, um, I think 1914. That makes it almost 100 years old! The spring was used for a  water source.  That is why the pipe and the wall are there. There is about 6 inches of mud at the bottom of the pool which is why we don't wade it it.

Can you find the frog in this picture?  Frogs also live in the pool. LOTS of frogs. In fact, you wouldn't believe how many frogs there are. Maybe we should rename our pool " Frog's Pool".

John Frederick Henry James III or Merridoc

John Frederick Henry James III is a very wild, loud chick. She never likes to be picked up.When I have to bring the chicks outside it is almost impossible to catch her. I don't know why I named her that, probably because I was running out of ideas. :)

WARNING!!!!!!!!!!

AVOID THIS PLANT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(and sadly yes, I am speaking from experience....) In case you didn't know, it's the evilest plant out there, POISON IVY (Dun-dun-dun)!!!!!

Fluffunisk

Fluffunisk (fluff-a-nisk) is a very calm Ameracana chick. She loves to sit on my hand and will NOT get off! (Well, unless I dump her off, but I don't like to do that.) She is also always trying to get out of her pen. Enclosed space drives her crazy. She is sort of my other traveling buddy, but not as much as Mr. Chipmunk.

Really Dirty Boys

Our cousin Shawn came over this weekend, and the boys decided to have a who-could-get-the-dirtiest-contest. Who do you think won? 

Mr. Chipmunk or My Traveling Buddy

My Traveling Buddy is a very good traveler. She (yeah, I know but MR. Chipmunk sounds better) likes to either ride on my head or ride on my shoulder. The strange part is, she doesn't like to get off. so I am stuck with a chick on my head where I can't reach it. Has that ever happened to you? It's very uncomfortable. :) But then again, it's my own fault for teaching her to do it in the first place.

Eowyn

Eowyn is a ridiculously curious hen. She was formerly a show chicken for the person who owned her before.  If Mommy is digging in the garden, Eowyn will come and peck in whatever Mommy is digging in. Eowyn NEVER sits still unless she is sleeping. For her, "The old paths are getting too well-tread" (The Fellowship of the Ring, A Long Expected Party, Chapter One). She always goes up to the neighbor's yard or goes down in the creek. 

Brewster the Rooster or Saurman

When we first got him, Brewster the Rooster was very nice.We started out with two roosters and Brewster was not in charge.  We got rid of Sauron (the other rooster) because he was mean. This meant Brewster came to power. He became very protective of our flock. When we pick up the hens he tries to attack us to make us put the hens back down. After being pecked and bullied, E-man is terrified of him. Actually, I'm scared of him too. I try to avoid him as much as possible. Crowing is his upside though. Usually stories describe that it sounds like "cock-a-doodle-doo", but it sounds more like "Ow-a-doo-doo." It has a nice sound to it.

  

Chickens

Before  you read any of the profiles on my chickens, you must know that all of these names aren't exactly "gender correct." And by that I mean  there are hens named Legolas and roosters named Galadriel. So what I'm saying is, don't laugh. There are only THREE female names in Lord of the Rings and we have fifteen hens.

We first got our chickens in December from a friend who was downsizing her farm. When we did, there were 12 chickens total, two roosters and ten hens. We got rid of one of the roosters. In April we got 10 chicks and one of them died. We had a sick chicken also and sadly she died last week. She had some sort of worms or something. So now we have nineteen chickens.

Kaiser

There is an interesting story behind our dog , Kaiser's (Kay-ser) name. The people who had him before were looking in a baby name book and came across the name Kaiser (Kie-ser) and thought is was pronounced Kay-ser. Are you confused yet? But he's not my dog. He belongs to E-man.

The Professor

This is Professor Reginald. We've had him for about eight and a half years. He is very curious. He is also very whiney about getting fed even when he already has food. Actually, his name was Register (don't ask, I named him when I was two) and then we started calling him Reggie, and then that morphed into Professor Reginald. At one point, he had a sister named Sparkle. Last summer she ran off though. And we used to have a cat named Sugar, and she got hit by a car. Sugar had six kittens. Three of them went to the shelter, one died, and two went to a friend. At one point we had eight cats, but now we only have one. Reggie likes it that way and would be very offended if  we got another cat.

Johnny-Boy

Johnny-Boy is a happy, wild  two year old. He LOVES Elmo, pickles, and yelling. Lots of yelling. Because of being slept with every night, the stuffed Elmo that we got him at Christmas looks eighty years old now. He doesn't have many words for his age, but he uses the ones he has loudly. Some of his words are: Lala (Elmo), Keke (cookie), wawa (water or his cup), numnum (supper), dada (Daddy), Dede, (Mr. D), Mama (what do you think?), gickle (pickle), no (he NEVER says yes), gungun (our cat Reggie), Aier (our dog Kaiser), cheche (chicken), and he has lots of other sounds that he makes for different things.

Mr. D

Mr. D (as he named himself) is a very laid back five year old. He likes Mario, legos, anything his older brother does, Gimli, axes,watching Spiderman (the old one) and reading. He also can be very loud. This year he is playing soccer for the first time. His favorite position is offense.

   

E-man

E-man is a silly, weird, slightly random eight year old. He likes legos, Legolas, food, Mario, Narnia, The Sugar Creek Gang, and  spaghetti. Playing is easy for him, because he has so much energy. He is the inventor of many strange games some of which are Enemies of Sonic, Super Heros, Mid-evil knights, and What's-it-called. He says to include that he loves dirt and thinks dirt and mud are awesome. He also thinks that God is a genius for inventing dirt.

Mommy

Mommy is a chef, teacher, and blogger (http://wrensnesting.blogspot.com/). She likes to knit, crochet , read, quilt, listen to The Avett Brothers, cook, and garden. Her and her brothers always randomly burst into song. It's some sort of family thing..... She is a political junkie and has had a picture with Mitt Romney and Niki Haley. 

                                   

                                         

Daddy

Daddy is a custom home builder and remodeler. He also is a chicken farmer (Daddy and I are the chicken caretakers) ,trailblazer, favorite person of Johnny-Boy, and very good with a chainsaw. He loves doing projects outside, cherry pie, lemon pie, sugar, and power tools.

About Me (some more)

Welcome to my blog! Hopefully you will enjoy it! If you like chickens, outdoors, music, or Tolkien, you've come to the right place. I love reading Tolkien's books and actually right now I am teaching myself elvish. It's very hard to learn a second language. I'm also making elvish names for all of my cousins. I wish that my name is Eowyn, but oh well.  My brothers and  I are saving up all of our money to buy LOTR legos when they come out next month.Composing music on the piano is also one of my favorite things to do. I've been learning piano for five years now and I am working on composing for a LOTR spoof movie.