Blog adjustments.....

Hi there! I know it's been a while since my last post. Life is just clipping right along here at our little homestead. We are squeezing everything we can out of every last ounce of summer with camping trips and BBQs and huge birthday celebrations. I will try to update you all on our summer excursions in a future post as this one will be a quick one on the fly today.

I'm sure you've noticed that the blog looks a bit different! I've been busy behind the scenes trying out a few new templates. It's what I do. I am notorious for changing things up pretty often around my house too. My husband and close friends have a running joke that I rearrange things about every 4-5 months. Well, I suppose I do. I find myself going a bit stir-crazy when things start feeling stagnant and I just have to change things around for a fresh, new perspective. I am really loving the new look and feel of the current template so I imagine I will keep this one around for quite a while. At least I will try not to change things up on you too often :)

Well, I should go for now. Dinner is drawing near and I expect my hubby home from work soon so I need to get motivated and moving. I hope you all have a relaxing evening with your families and I would LOVE to hear your thoughts on the new blog layout. There are still a few tweaks I am planning to make, but the overall feel is there. Leave me a comment and tell me what you think............

The Rooster and the Egg........

Hello there everyone! I hope you're day is going well. It's been quite a while since my last post on here so I thought I'd better at least check in. Things have been hopping around here with summer camp schedules, camping and BBQs, but the most excitement for me happened with the chickens.

We have finally confirmed that Reepicheep, the pretty little black and white bantam chicken, is indeed a ROOSTER! He's been getting his little crow on now for a few weeks and it's so cute to hear. It reminds me a little of that ditty they play at nearly every sporting event...you know...deetley deet dee deeeeeeeeee..........

He is the cutest little thing. I just love to watch him watching out for his girlies. He's a great little rooster!

So here's some really exciting news:  after so many months of waiting we finally found our first eggs!!!

I am positive at least one of them was from Pippin, the other bantam, because it was so small, but there were 2 eggs in the corner of the coop when my hubby went to check on them the morning before last.

Two beautiful, washed long awaited eggs .

So on Saturday, the hubby and I opened up the nest boxes (which had previously been blocked off with chicken wire as I didn't want the girls to think they were a good place to sleep or poo) and made a few adjustments to the coop and pen. First, we emptied the litter and put in fresh shavings and opened up the nest boxes for business :)

That meant we needed to reconfigure the position of the roost, which had been resting on the opening of the left nest box as a support for one end. We raised it a bit and secured it to the wall stud. We also added a step under the boxes to make it easy for them to get in.

Then we put a little inspiration for the girls in each nest box.

It's working because we found another egg this morning in the nest box. I don't think we're successful at fooling them with the golf balls, though, because my son reported that while the egg was in the nest, the golf ball had been evicted  :)

Well, that's all I have for now. I'll do my best to update you all on the simple life we are attempting to live here on our little chunk of land as soon as that life slows back down a bit from the wild summer pace we've been wrapped in as of late.

I hope you all enjoy your days and long for your very own backyard barnyard. It's more blessing than I ever expected it to be.

Bless you!