BLEUBIRD BLOG

SO BIG.

juj and plum can not believe how much their beloved chickens have grown over the summer. (and i can not believe how much juj and plum have grown.) they are no longer baby chicks and boy do they look different. they have the prettiest black iridescent feathers that shine a rainbow-like green in the sunlight. our ladies still have yet to lay any eggs, but according to their age, it could be any day now. we are waiting anxiously. it's such a heart warming feeling having things back to normal around here. big breakfasts together around the table and morning chores, an always loud house filled with giggles as well as some bickering from time to time. making family dinners and late night board games. i am so happy to have these two home.

i am also preparing for school, ordering books and supplies and making schedules. i am looking forward to sharing a little more of our homeschooling journey with you this year and yes, i am still planning a post on how we do things along with answering some of your questions. stay tuned.

happy thursday my friends.

speaking of the kids getting big over the summer, here are some photos from when they were so small that i thought were too cute not to share again...

i can't believe how much they have grown.

A TYPICAL SATURDAY MORNING.

morning time on any given saturday in this house is fairly laid back. laid back meaning we stay in our pajamas or yesterday's clothes for most of the day. we spend the morning time outside with the animals, tending to the garden and working on outdoor projects. we eat a late breakfast and forget to brush our teeth until late afternoon. we do saturday chores and listen to records until we decide we've had enough of this old house and venture out for some fun and good food.

here are some photos of this saturday morning...

while we do our morning chores, feeding the dogs, poopie scooping, feeding and watering the chickens, watering the garden, picking weeds and watering the potted plants and flowers birdie likes to play in the water. she scoops water from one pail to the next with her little blue bowl. it's her own routine. we encourage her to help us out with chores, which she does but as soon as she's done she runs back over to her water station. and let's just take a moment to appreciate that girls bed head.

julian wasn't in the mood for pictures this morning. i don't blame him, i am rarely in the mood for photos myself these days. he's getting older, will be twelve in september. i am curious to see how much he wants to or does not want to be involved with mama's blog as he gets older. i think it's totally cool if he chooses not to partcipate much or at all for that matter. it is his decision and i will gladly respect that.

this is our chickens new home. they seem to be loving it. plenty of leg room and a nice nesting area upstairs for when they want to be alone. if you look closely you may notice a few scratches on the front of their new house. one of our dogs, popcorn aka the weasel, has been trying to get inside. she was pretty determined the first week or so but is finally starting to lose interest. this is good.

plum looks a bit sad in this photo, to me at least. i assure you she was not. it was a bright morning and she crawled under the tent to hide from the sun.

freshly watered marigolds.

my favorite candle burning while we listen to records, start our inside chores and make breakfast.

plum was dancing while doing the dishes in that first photo. she's my tiny dancer. she is also a really good kitchen helper.

i love saturday mornings.

foot note: some of you have inquired about plums floral dishwashing headband. you can get one here.

CHICKEN KEEPING.

i wanted to give you all an update on our chicken keeping. we are still enjoying every minute of it. all five of our hens are alive and well and seem to be extremely healthy. however, we are a little suspicious about yoko. we think that she may actually be a he. she is much bigger than the other hens and her chirp sounds a little different. if this is the case we will have to take him back to the feed store. roosters are a no no inside of the city. the kids are very understanding but they do ask that we get another hen in yoko's place of course. :)

each day we clean their cage and fill their feed jar, we also refill their water jar twice daily. they are fairly easy animals to take care of. after a lot of careful research we finally decided on the perfect coop for our girls. it will be here later this week. turns out it would have cost us just as much, if not a significant amount more to build a coop ourselves than to just purchase one. we will move them into their coop within the next couple of weeks and once they are full grown chickens we will buy them this chicken yard to give them more room to roam.

we've been living vicariously through our very favorite farming book lately and dreaming of a simple country life like i've discussed in my past "farm dreams" posts that you can see here and here. we've been going back and forth between choosing to stay here in texas and settling down outside of the city or to move back to san fransisco bay area to be closer to my family and friends. lately we are really leaning towards staying put. we want to buy some land and start building our dream, realistically this would be much more obtainable here in texas. the kids are already dreaming up our future home and drawing out farm plans which include little houses for each of our new pets... pot bellied pigs, the little goat family, bunny rabbits, guinea pigs, two horses and the alpacas. hah! we are big dreamers over here.

we are thoroughly enjoying our new feathered friends. each morning the excitement that we all share to go down and check on our five little chickens is so great. they are a part of our family now. i didn't realize how quickly that would happen or even if it really would happen, but they truly are. they are so sweet and loving after only being with us for a few days. they let the kids hold them on their laps and they doze off to sleep for little naps. even gemma bird is completely smitten and impressively gentle with them. there is just nothing sweeter than a kid with a baby chick. i think i will be a little sad when it's time for them to move outside into their coop. i will definitely miss the sweet sound of chirping in the house.

thank you to all of you who shared your chicken stories and advice with us, they were all so fun to read. also aubrey and i finally named our chicks, so we have peekie, pingu, yoko, tulip and lupe aka lupe tortilla. haha, can you guess who named who?

footnote: thank you the measure for gemma's sweet play suit and headband.