Breaking ground

 It has begun!  The digger arrived.  It dug a hole.  A big hole!  It found lots of rocks.  Big rocks!  We have more rocks for landscaping and using in our build than we know what to do with.  We also have a huge pile of dirt, several of them in fact.  What fun for kids who love to get dirty!

This is the biggest of the rocks.  It took about 30 minutes to remove it from the hole!

Who can resist playing in the dirt?

This isn't even half of the rocks!

Ready for the footings!

The view up the hill to the North.  Prettiest sunset I've ever seen

Foxes, and chickens, and bears, oh my!

One morning last week I heard lots of squawking and noise outside.  Finnlee came running saying she saw a fox.  We ran outside to find the chickens all flustered.  Fred was calling out his danger cry.  There was no sign of the fox.  But I found a pile of feathers in the chicken run.  Then at the edge of the clearing another pile of feathers.  Off in the woods I followed a feather trail to the body of our sweet Rhoda.  The fox must have broken her neck in the attack but I scared it off before it had a chance to eat her.  Such a shame to loose one of our best layers that way.  I cleaned and skinned her body and she is sitting in our freezer beside the first one we haven't had the nerve to eat yet.  Inside her I found one last egg, fully developed, ready to lay.  That evening as we were eating dinner I heard Fred's danger cry again.  Sure enough the fox was back.  I yelled out the window and clapped my hands to frighten it away.  Chris ran out of the house barefoot and chased it all the way into the woods yelling at the top of his lungs.  Everyone says you can't scare away a fox.  They will keep coming back as long as they can get your chickens.  Chris must be scarier than anyone else because we haven't seen the fox since!

I took this picture of Rhoda a few days before the fox killed her

To help keep the fox away we have been keeping Molly dog outside all day.  She hunts chipmunks, follows the kids around, and sleeps under the van.  After feeding the chickens one day I whistled for Molly as I walked up the path to the house.  I saw her hunched black form on the driveway ahead of me and called her again.  She nudged my hand from behind as I was looking at the black furry mound on the driveway.  Then it turned its head.  It was a bear.  Then I saw another one.  Both small, but larger than Molly.  Likely last year's cubs kicked out by mom to make room for a new baby.  I kept Molly's attention as I lead her to the house.  I didn't know what she would do if she saw them, and I didn't want to find out!  I put Molly in the house and came back out to watch the cubs.  I was torn by the urge to go get the camera or keep watching.  I decided I should see what way they went and make sure that Mama wasn't with them too.  I stayed on the porch by the door in case I needed to move fast.  The cubs ignored me as the ambled across the driveway.  A car drove by waving and pointing at the bears in front of me.  The cubs took that as their cue to meander into the woods along the road away from the house.  They were so beautiful!  I feel honoured to have had the opportunity to observe them.  Maybe I need to start carrying the camera around when I do chores!

More peeps

So, right after we spent 3 weeks incubating our eggs we had a hen go broody.  The. Day. After the eggs hatched to be precise.  Since we only had 7 chicks from the first batch, we decided to let our broody Salt sit some more eggs.  I gave her 12 eggs to start.  After almost 2 weeks I slipped into the coop after dark with a flashlight to candle the eggs.  To my surprise, they were all viable except for 2.  I moved her from the hens' favorite nesting box into a temporary brooding room I built into the corner of the coop.  On day 21 we woke up to find this darling little face peeking out at us!

Hello little one!

Salt did such a good job sitting her nest that all 10 eggs hatched out without a problem!  I have to say, its so much easier letting a hen do the incubating, hatching, and chick raising!

Salt all plumped out to make a nice warm place for her babies

We named this one Happy Feet.  Doesn't she look like a baby penguin?

Our first babies are more friendly with us than the new chicks because they imprinted on us from the start.  This is Amelia, our best flier named after Amelia Earhart of course.  As soon as we open the brooder she flies up onto whoever's head is nearest!

The new babies look so tiny

And the older babies look HUGE next to them even though they are only 3 weeks older!  They look like awkward teenagers now!

The older babies have most of their adult feathers in now.  Its very interesting to see their markings coming out

These 3 certainly have their father's legs!

Salt has started to take her babies out of the coop for walks.  She's a great Mama and makes my job so much easier!