Countrified

My original slant when I started this blog a couple of months before Felicity died was, "a city girl's perspective on life in the country". I realize I've not written much about my perspective on life in the country, but am resolving now to begin doing so. And it was all inspired by the gift I received on Saturday from my sister-in-law, Annette. Yup, that's the gift on my head - a bonafide gardening hat.

And if the above picture fails to give a good view of this hat, here's another photo from the side. (That's a frog on the side. And don't worry he's not lonely. There's a bee, ladybug, flower and sun to keep him company, not to mention all those sunflowers.) If I wore this hat in the city, I'd get some looks, but out here in the country, it's actually quite the fashion. With our lack of trees and major wind here, this large of a hat could make me airborne. But, hey, the boys would love it. For once I'd be a fun mom. And if all else fails, this hat could certainly be hung on the wall for decoration.

Along with the hat delivery, my brother-in-law brought us four new family members. We've named the hens Feathers, Omelet, and Henny Penny. In my opinion, naming our animals is half the fun of owning them. Of course, I may regret doing so if we butcher them later in the year and my children have bonding issues later in life.


And this handsome guy is Peter Drumstick. Peter is in honor of my bro-in-law.

With the rising food costs, we're going to put them to work right away. So far we've received one egg (unfortunately brown, not golden). They are free-ranging it for the first time today. Hopefully after two days of being cooped up (literally) they'll willingly return to the coop at the end of the day. I'm also hoping they'll lay their eggs in the nest boxes rather than under our pick-up truck, though I doubt Elijah would have any problems crawling under the pick-up to retrieve eggs. I'm just not sure the eggs would survive.

So, as a former city girl I'm learning about caring for chickens. The advantages are the eggs and the experience for the boys. The drawback would definitely be the poo. I didn't realize chicken poo is so large.

And lastly, while it doesn't have anything to do with chickens, I thought I'd further embarrass my stud of a husband in this photo taken at our AWANA carnival last week. My women's group always does a theme game and this year we all dressed up as Egyptians. It was A LOT of work, but also a lot of fun (for about an hour :)

Stay tuned for another country living post sometime in the next week. Topic: Septic tanks. Seriously.