Since May 7th Mom has been traveling and I have been holding down the fort in her absence. She has taken care of some important business, traveled to Ireland to take in the sights with an awesome cousin, traveled to WY to see a grandson graduate high school and tour his new college campus, and now she is headed back to MI to tie up some loose ends before returning home on Friday night! I can't wait for her to be back home again and to be able to enjoy all the great things going on here at the Something Special Homestead!
While she has been gone one of her hens started a nest and so far she has hatched five baby chicks....one a day starting on Memorial Day... then the eggs stopped hatching...at least for now... I have marked all of the remaining eggs so that no new eggs are being added, but I'm not sure if we will get any more out of this nest... This little chick is the first one that hatched and it was named "Pickle" by Aiden.
...next came "Cutie" named by TJ...and then there was "Pip" that I named...Emma named the next one Penny...
..and the last one Isabella named Swirlex because of the swirl of yellow on top of its head!
Silver and her babies are doing well and they are getting close to being ready to go to new homes...(without needing the extra care babies need)...so far there are three ducks still available from this nest if anyone is interested...
Lucky Duck was modest with just five babies and they are starting to explore outside of their home...
...I even set them up with a little swimming hole today and they came out for their first swim! As far as I know all of these babies need new homes and we have more coming...so again if anyone would like some ducks please let me know...they make great egg layers and pets, which is what I would prefer these turn into, but they are a meat duck as well and can be used for dinner instead.
These two started a nest together as best as I can tell...they were taking turns sitting on the nest until the solid silver on decided that they could both fit into that tiny little box...lol...they have stayed this way for the past two days until this evening when it was time to close the coop...though the solid silver duck got off of "Rotten" she didn't move far and has gathered straw and feathers to make a nest to sit in right beside the box...smh...these animals are crazy some days...
...and of course there is "Pretty Girl" who is still sitting on a nest by the back of the house...I'm really not sure if her eggs will hatch due to some of the harder rains we have had...but if they do hatch it should be any day now...so far I have moved Silver and her babies out from between the buildings, but I still need to get a different house in there for the next set...guess I will have to try to get that done in the next couple of days...
...The birds aren't the only thing doing well around here either...Our garden is growing by leaps and bounds and I am so excited that it is finally all put together... the first set of tomato plants that were put in have gotten big enough that they needed cages...my cages may look a little crazy, but I was able to make the extras that I needed with supplies I found laying around and I think they might just work out very nicely!
...and wow oh wow...look at those zucchini grow...they got so big I had to take the protective netting off about a week early...So far it looks like they are doing good even unprotected...I even saw several blossoms today!
...the green beans are also doing awesome in the middle row and the potatoes are doing pretty fabulous back in the corner! Plus, I have gotten more than two sandwich bags stuffed full of peas in the freezer from the garden and a couple of broccoli too!
...and now that the sun has finally set...It's high time I tried to get some extra rest! Tomorrow will be another long day full of oh so many adventures and I was tired all day today...please God let me get some good restful sleep tonight so I can wake up refreshed and ready to take on the world with these kiddos!
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