the chickens have landed

Our eight chickens arrived safely from Utah on Friday, and all of us have been getting used to each other. Needless to say that we (us humans) are on the low end of the learning curve, but hopefully we’ll get the hang of keeping them happy. The first 48 ours have been a challenge, but we established right off the bat with our dog (Abby) that she doesn’t need to take any interest in the chickens, except to protect them from predators. Puss (our cat) on the other-hand, has been fascinated with them to the extent of sitting at their coop door and staring in at them, as they stare out at him. I nipped this pow-wow in the bud, and hopefully Puss will now keep a healthy distance. Here are some shot of the finished coop along with the chickens. And their names are: Carmelita, Chiquita, Dorita, Evita, Juanita, Lolita, Marguerita, and Rosita… Enjoy.

South & North Cabanas

Ramp and Busby Berkeley platform

Lots of room for eight chickens to roam

Nesting boxes

The gang’s all here

The ladies huddled

Marguerita

Organic Asparagus

After three years…  our Organic Purple Passion Asparagus is finally mature enough to enjoy munching. And they are pretty big.

Rainbow

Here is a photo of a Rainbow that was less than a quarter of a mile away from the house this evening. Awesome!

A Fowl Future

We are just four weeks away from getting our chickens from some friends in Utah. Here is a photo of the gang. Five of these little ladies will be making their new nest in Montana.

Which 5 chickens will be making their way to Montana?

Photos of the coop progress will follow. Also, we’re in the process of getting our fence posts gathered. We need to cut fifty trees, shave and oil them for the quarter-mile of electric fencing we’ll be putting up. So it’ll be a busy Spring, and hopefully more blog posts and pix… we’ll see.

Poor Pouting Puss

Our poor baby boy Puss is bumming because his new playmate, “Boots”, whose real identity is “Squirt”, was picked up by her human on Wednesday morning.

Puss was outside when our neighbor (who lives a mile to the East) stopped by and claimed their runaway kitty. So Puss saw Squirt staring at him through the truck’s rear window, as they slowly started up the hill back to civilization.

At least Puss saw her leave, instead of looking for her, thinking that she wandered off… only to return. Sorry buddy, she’s gone.

But… a new baby brother is on the list to keep Puss company in the near future.

Puss’s Favorite Youtube Video

I thought we’d share Puss’s current favorite Youtube video. He thinks it’s awesome. This video is recommended to all of you Crazy Cat Ladies out there.

Homeboy Meets Mountain Girl

We don’t get too many stray cats visiting us in the back-country, but this petite little girl appeared on Saturday, looking quite skinny and a bit sleepy. We’re not sure whose lost little darling she is, but we’ll keep her safe and warm. We have to say that she’s one smart cat to have avoided detection from the local predators; i.e. mountain lion, coyote, bobcat, and wolf.

We fixed up a comfortable bed in the back of the woodshed, and we are  fattening her up with some grub… and there are plenty of tasty mice for midnight snacking.

We hope she sticks around for a spell. So we named her… Boots. Our Homeboy Puss, and Boots are still getting used to each other. Puss was happy to see another of his species… Boots wasn’t in a social mood. Today, she’s relaxed a bit and they can be within a foot of each other without the meowing and hissing. Our dog, Abby… well that’s a different story. But she isn’t bent out of shape as she would’ve been eight months ago, and that’s a huge improvement. It’s something we’ll all have to work on. Stay tuned.