I was dumb enough to let one of my layers bite the dust. I locked all the chickens but one in thinking that it would be okay. It's the girl that doesn't really follow the other ones and is a bit of a loner. She didn't see the rest running in and ended up staying outside for the night. Unfortunately there must have been a coon or something because the next morning, when Caleb was mowing our lawn (THANKS!) we found a whole lot of feathers. It looks like she put up a good fight. I got Cass's birds to her so that means that I now only have 2 hens and 1 rooster. It feels empty to me. I'm going to have to go home to get mom and dad's chicks that they have been raising for me. That should be fun.
Meggy is still sitting on her nest. I have no idea whats going on with that one but I'll just let nature do what nature does.
You'ld think that now that it's summer I wouldn't want to bake at all but I have the urge to make some breads again. I bought some rye flour since I've started to really like that bread. I wonder if you can make bread in a BBQ. It would probably take up too much fuel, no? Maybe a flat bread or something on my pizza stone? Tell me what you think. I also could use some advice on harvesting and saving seeds. When and how do I get them? My cilantro is flowering, so is the spinach and I was thinking of collecting lots of zinnia seeds for next year. Can I get them from just any plant? I'll be saving the seeds from my heritage tomatoes, especially if I like them. What about your peppers, mom? Anything else that I should look for?
I've been thinking about being an aunt lately. If you all don't know already, Dan's sister, Alisha, is pregnant. She's due the first of next year. I honestly haven't really thought about being an aunt before. I remember when Hannelle's sister got pregnant for the first time. It was like Hannelle was having a baby. It was even exciting for me. And she is such a good aunt now. Since none of my sisters have been married until a year ago and Alisha just got married the thoughts haven't really gone through my mind. I'm looking forward to it though. Most of the babies that I know don't know me. I don't feel comfortable at all with babies but if it's my sisters kid, well, heck, bring it on. So, Alisha, I'm really happy for you and Frank. I can't wait to meet this new neice or nephew of mine but you guys are going to have to train me in all things baby because I'm super clueless. I don't even know how to do the baby talk. It makes me feel like a fool.
That's it for todays post.
Enjoy the summer!!

My place in June

First though, i have an obituary to write:

Between June 14 and June 17, nine baby ducks, son's and daughter's of Mikey and his illegitimate lover, died of unknown cause (most likely eaten). They will be missed by owner's Dan an Nicole (who were looking forward to the profit after selling them at some market).

In future news, Meggy, who I thought was having severe post-partum depression, becuase she just wasn't leaving her nest, is actually still expecting the remaining 10 eggs to hatch. This time I'm going to snatch them all up before they head outside and raise them inside for a while till they can protect themselves. I think the others got eaten one by one.

Here's our place in June:

You can't really see it but there's lots of other things just sprouting. There is corn, beans, sunflowers, zinnias and cukes...

That's it for now....

Ducklings!!! (plus the picture now)

At least 4 of my ducklings have hatched. Yesterday Dan, Sarah, and I got home from Cass's place and I went up to have a look at my girls. Sure enough, the mama on the smaller nest, Meggy (I think), was crouch on it instead of sitting on it and I could just barely make out a tiny little head under her. Over the next couple of hours a few more appeared. Around 7:00 I noticed that she was outside wandering around having her evening walk so I quickly snuck up there to have a look. There were 3 sitting in her nest and a forth one that was standing beside the other mama's nest. As soon as we approached it got really scared and did an actual dive under mama#2. I've got a great picture of its little but sticking out of the side of the nest. I was so excited to see that they finally started hatching. I called both mine and Dan's parents and even called some friends of ours. I'm such a geek about this but I guess it is just important to me. I took the cord and camera with me to show you all the pics but, alas, it's not working for me. Redeemer is shut down, I went to Hannelle's and here at the public library it isn't working. It's too bad because I've got some great pictures from Rich and Alicia's wedding that Dan and I went to on Friday. I hadn't walked around our property from Thursday evening till last night so it was a nice treat to see how much had grown and changed. I was really impressed. I'm even seeing some of the zinnia seeds popping up. A tree fell down again but it's at the back of the property and not nearly as big as the one that fell down this winter. Unfortunately it fell into the pond. It'll be fun figuring out how to get that out!
I can't wait to get home to see if the other nest has hatched. This morning when I checked on them the two mamas were sitting beside eachother and the ducklings were hiding underneath. There were a few eggs left in her nest but I'm sure they won't hatch anymore. One was even darker. Oh, I can't wait to see them outside. I think we might need to tie up Chloe to keep her away from them. A new thing to learn about, I guess.

Dan and I had our 3 year anniversary this week. Can you believe it? It hard to believe that we've been married for 3 years now. They have been a good three years with lots of learning between the two of us. This month most of our friends have been getting married. Two weeks ago Mike and Meg got married. Tomorrow Rich and Alisha are getting married and in two weeks Ry and Alissa are getting married. Yikes. That's a lot of weddings. Dan was only in Mike's so that cuts down on a lot scheduling for us. Dave and Brenda are getting married in Sept. and Dan is in that one but we've got all summer to get over this month of weddings. I'm also in a wedding party (my first besides my own!) the same weekend so I can't go to Dave and Brenda's. My wedding will be out in Nova Scotia and I'm super excited about it. The bride, Sarah, was in my wedding party and I feel like I haven't seen her in ages. Her life for the last couple of years has been a whirlwind of excitment and travelling so I don't think anyone has seen her for an extended amount of time. The wedding is sure to be a fun relaxing time with lots of interesting people. It's too bad Dan can't come though. He really got along with Sarah's fiance. Oh well, we're just going to have to go see them in Oregon (where they will be for the year following). For the last couple of years I've wanted to go to Oregon. My fav. author has a book set in Oregon and I fell in love with it even though I've never been there. It just seems like the kind of place I'd like to go to.
Yesterday I finished planting some things in my garden. I've had a really really late garden this year. I kept expecting my seeds that I ordered to come in the mail and they never did so I must have ordered them wrong. So everything that should have been planted a month ago and all grown by now has just been planted as a seed now. I planted a TON of zinnias and sunflowers along the front edge of my garden. I have nasturiums along the side. I just planted my beens and carrots yesterday. I bought some cucumber plants just so I could get a head start. They are looking a little sad still but I'm sure they'll perk up after this weeks rains. This year I decided to try cabbages so I have a few of them in too. My tomatos are looking great! Mom and Dad's tomatoes have perked right up and the heirlooms that I bought (almost a month behind) are growing pretty fast too. Remember the brocolli's that some thing had chewed right to the stalk? Well all 4 of them have little florets on them already. Isn't that awesome? I can't believe they came back so fast. Give them a couple of weeks and I bet you won't be able to tell the difference between them. My spinach and lettuce are great for eating right now. The spinach is almost too long already. I finally tore out all the extra sunflowers that popped up all over the garden. I was so impressed with how nature self seeds that I couldn't pull out all those little sunflowers that were growing everywhere. Well, they stated looking like weeds so I pulled out all the ones that didn't belong. My first planting of corn is looking really good. Dan rototilled between the rows last night and got the rest of the garden ready for the second planting. I should do that tonight or they won't be ready until after frost gets them. I hope I don't get sick of sweet corn. I'm debating whether or not to get a few more pepper plants. Dan would eat them like apples and they grew sooo well at our place last year. I already have 5 or 6... I can always plant one later when the spinach comes out. My plan is to plant peas in the fall whenever something is finished so that the garden doesn't slowly fill up with weeds. I heard both peas and annual rye grass are really good green fertilizers so I'll try it out. My garden was such a mess from the winter this year that I figure it will be worth the over-winter maintanace to start an earlier garden.
The ducks still haven't hatched. I must be really bad with due dates. It's been almost 2 weeks since I said they should hatch. I've gone up there everyday to look. Those ladies aren't budging. They just stare at me and hiss. Actually, a few days ago one backed off her nest just a little but and I saw that about half her eggs were a darker colour and I'm hoping that means that its because those eggs were jam packed with a baby duck ready to pop out. I just know its going to be any day now. I really want to be hope to watch some of it happen.
The robin has laid another 4 eggs in her nest and gets all mad at us when we walk by. I wonder if her babies all died since they have flown the nest or if robins really produce that many offspring in a year.
Mom's chickens (or should I say Cass's chickens) are doing great now. They still don't chase very well but they know the boundaries of our place and easily come back at night. I once again have to only go outside to shut the coop at night. They still sleep seperately from my chickens but they follow eachother more. Unfortunately its the smaller dumber rooster that seems to have bonded more with my girls so maybe we will be keeping him. I can't wait to get Cass set up with them. I don't mind at all having them at my place but I want to see how much fun she has with it. I hope they start laying soon. Mine seem to have slowed down their laying... or else hiding the eggs again.
Well, that's it for now. Ta ta