It's Spring ~So Much To Do !

The most difficult thing about our new home is deciding how to spend our precious time when there are so many things to do, to see, and to enjoy right here on 'Laughing Dove Farm'. Should I take a walk in the woods with our dogs ? ( Picture above was taken on a path in our woods.) Should I work on my spinning, weaving, gardens, scrapbooking, writing, or maybe my husband and I should go camping. But hey, fishing season is almost here and the boat needs to be readied ... I have a few good books tucked away to read, some quilt squares cut out and ready to sew. I know, I'll sit on the back deck and watch the birds, the deer, my sheep and maybe catch a nap in the sun.

 Why do we call our new home 'Laughing Dove Farm' ? We love doves ! We've kept white doves for over 2 decades now and left doves in our dovecote at Cedar Pond for the new family to enjoy , but also brought 3 pairs of doves with us here to our new home. Our doves are the offspring of the many generations of doves from Cedar Pond. Plus, there are wild doves all around us and anyone who listens to doves can hear the distinctive laughing- like sounds they make. ( Picture above is of wild doves perched in trees here at our new home.)

 The chicks I ordered from a hatchery arrived in the mail last week. I bought some chicks that should grow up to lay blue eggs and am very excited about my future laying flock , but not as excited as our youngest grandson is about them. I spend a lot of time tending my new chicks, and also tending the mature laying flock of 8 we brought with us from Cedar Pond.

 I had my sheep sheared the first weekend in March while there was still snow and ice everywhere. My new sheep shearer is a tiny woman who also is a mom of 2 little ones and has a flock of sheep of her own.

 

 Here are my naked sheep, most of them ewes who were still expecting lambs when I took this picture. Within days after the 16 ewes ( female sheep) were sheared they began having their lambs. Every night during this time of the year, no matter how cold and miserable it is outside, I do regular check ups in the barn to see how the ladies are faring, if any new lambs have been born, and tend to what they need at this stage of their pregnancy. Mostly they need deep bedding, and a lot of drinking water, plus a safe place to have their lambs undisturbed by the other sheep or predators.

One of the joys of new lambs is sharing them with grandchildren. Here is a picture of two of our granddaughters ~sisters holding sister lambs.

 We still have snow in our woods, in the fields, and in the surrounding hills, but it is spring and all you need to be reminded of the season is look out onto my fields and see little lambs running, jumping, and playing !

 We have 19 new lambs. All lambs were born alive and healthy, and their mamas are healthy too. That is such a blessing to not be taken for granted when I consider how many sheep I have now (way too many !). My flock doubled with lambing season.

 Have I mentioned we have a lot of wild turkeys here too ? We've counted at least 40. They roost in our woods at night. During the day they range from our woods to the neighbors' on either side of us. They're pretty predictable, we can almost set our clocks by their trek back into the woods at night. Until I moved here and began to observe wild turkeys from our living room windows every day, I did not realize how far and how high wild turkeys can fly, and also how smart they are. ( Picture is of wild turkeys in our field.)

Wild turkeys between our sheep pen and our bee yard. They wander into our hay barn and all around the sheep pens and pasture too.

The hills across the gravel road from our house are still wearing winter snow, but the sunshine and warm rains are melting the snow quickly and next week we're supposed to have warmer , drier weather. I kind of like the rain and the snow and am not concerned about it sticking around longer than it is supposed to. The hot weather will be here soon and by September I know I'll be wishing for the rain and snow again.

" There is an appointed time for everything. And there is a time for every event under heaven ~ " Ecclesiastes 3:1

Thursday Tea In The Garden ~ Chicks & Thyme

 Spring time and I have chicks hatching out all over the place.

 Well, not really. But I have chicks whose mamas are hatching them out in the right places ( underneath their mamas ) , quite successfully.

 These two chicks were hatched out by my grandchildren using an incubator they borrowed from me. The eggs the chicks hatched from were green because they came from my Americana hens , and the rooster -father is my Black Copper Marans . I am hoping they are hens.

 I have decided to celebrate Thursday Tea In The Garden because Thursday is a wonderful day for me to take time to blog, and I really do spend all sunny days outside working in my poultry pens, my gardens, or with my sheep & dogs. I got the idea from Judith at Lavender Cottage. * I don't think this is a link-up party but she gets the credit for a Thursday celebration I am excited to celebrate in my own gardens., thank-you Judith !

 Oh, by the way, these two chicks were given names by one of my granddaughters whilst being cared for by her & her younger sister after they hatched out of the incubator. Welcome to the big wide world Albert Cheepers McNugget Featherweight Esquire the 1st  and Prudence. Just hope one is a hen & the other a rooster !

 Not to forget the garden part, yes, I did have tea in the garden, a chamomile blend, most soothing. I looked over my herb ( Blue Bottle ) garden , pondered it a bit and decided I will plant this pot of lemon thyme in the thyme bed tomorrow.

Cheepers & Prudence are safely tucked into their small brooder in our sun-room after modeling for me earlier today. They really were not too excited by my pretty Japanese tea-cup , my cheery yellow polka dotted teapot, nor my bunny planter which now holds a blooming orchid. But then, they are baby chickens and food, water, warmth, & safety are all they desire.

I hope your spring plantings are beginning to bud & your hopes and dreams are too. Happy gardening, happy tea-time. Cheep ~ cheep.

New Life ~ Chicks & Lambs

A new lamb, she is a lilac Jacob Sheep lamb,

a newly hatched chick  (This is a Self-Blue d'Uccle  bantam chick, I love blue chickens. ),

lambs playing leap-frog over the downed tree , tree frogs chirping down by the pond, new chicks emerging from their eggs, hummingbirds and honeybees swarming the sugar-water feeders and flowers ~ why it must indeed be spring !

Chicks Just Make Me Happy

 Two granddaughters spent a few days here with us and of course they loved holding and playing with my new chicks ( as in baby chickens ).

 How can you not love holding such tiny softness , such fragile beauty ?

You just try keeping these two out of the chick pen , no way... these two returned as often as I allowed to hold the baby chickens. Oh my, am I blessed ! Granddaughters to play with and baby chicks too. I hope you have special joys in your life, and I know you do. Just look around, see how your life has been blessed. No matter your set -backs , the tragedy and chaos you have suffered and maybe suffer even now, you can find even a small glint of light, of hope, of blessing. Bless you today as you travel on this journey of life and appreciate the every day things so many take for granted...a bit of food, a place to sleep, something lovely to look at and somebody who cares for you. You truly are blessed !

Me, my chicks make me happy, and my granddaughters make me happier , I am blessed !

A Whole Lot Of Brooding Going On Around Here

There is a whole lot of brooding going on around here.Inside the dove cote in front of the house...

...doves are sitting on eggs. They've gone "broody", which "describes a hen's condition in the period during which she is intent on incubating her eggs and is often reluctant to move off the nest until they are hatched." 'CHICKENS' by Derek Hall

On the floor of the dove-cote there is some brooding going on too. See the stump in the top right part of the picture? Look closely...

...yes, there! Sitting oh so quietly and calmly, is a bantam frizzled cochin. She won't leave the eggs she is sitting on, rarely leaving to eat or drink. If I try to move her she seems catatonic, but if I take her too far away from the clutch of eggs she is sitting on she squawks and flaps fiercely in her attempt to be back on her eggs.

The other 2 bantam cochins, her sister and the rooster, leave her to the eggs. They know better than to disturb her. Smart chickens!

My midget white turkey hens are also sitting on eggs. They simply scratched a bowl shaped area of shavings out and laid their eggs. They won't move off their eggs either. I can walk around them, add feed & water to their pen, but they steadfastly sit,almost as if they are deaf and blind to anything but what is under them.Like the chickens and doves, they seem to be focused inward, oblivious to everything but the tending of their eggs.

In the bantam pen in the back of our home the story is the same. bantam hens striving with each other to sit on a clutch of eggs. Often the hens will steal eggs from each other by rolling them away from a nest mate and under their own feathered breasts.

These 4 ( FOUR! ) hens have decided to share the nest box. They sit together, day after day, keeping the eggs warm, turning them, and often gently, oh so gently, slyly sliding an egg out from under a nest mate, to warm it under their own breast.

Either way, the eggs are being incubated, and when hatched, will be tended faithfully. I will remove 3 of the hens just before hatching because I have had hens fight so fiercely over the chicks that the chicks end up being unintended victims as they try to get under the wings of their fighting mothers.

Meanwhile, back in the dove-cote, look what just hatched!

5 new bantam white cochin chicks, tended by a devoted mother.All this brooding going on around here is going to make for a lot more drama and entertainment on Cedar Pond! 

I hope any brooding around your home is productive, leading to righteous fruit and a happy home, and not hen fights! Remember, when hens fight, little chicks get hurt, and big chicks do too! "Let all be harmonious , sympathetic,brotherly, kindhearted,and humble in spirit; not returning evil for evil, insult for insult; but giving a blessing instead;....And who is there to harm you if you prove zealous for what is good? But even if you should suffer for the sake of righteousness, you are blessed." I Peter3: 8,9,13

Tea-Time Tuesday, But Where's the Tea?

It is again 'Tea-Time Tuesday ', and also the time of year around here for daffodils.

This lovely daffodil teacup was obtained by me for the price of some frizzled chickens. Daffodils are a popular flower around here in Western Washington. There are fields and fields of them. We have an annual Daffodil Parade with Daffodil Princesses. This teacup says "MARCH DAFFODIL ", probably assuming the daffodils bloom somewhere, sometime, in March. In our gardens the daffodils did not open their sunny faces until the first week of April. The saucer is so pretty. The lady who traded the teacup for chickens received this teacup from her mother's estate I believe about 20 years ago. There are no other markings on this teacup or saucer, but it appears to my untrained eye to be Lustreware.

Daffodils, teacups, a sunny day ~ delights of the heart & eyes. But this teacup looks so empty and is just calling for...

...CHICKS ! Doesn't everyone put chicks in their teacup?

Cute, little, yellow, fluffy, chicks!

The chicks seem to be looking for something though.

Tea! Hey,where's the tea?

I am sure if you visit the ladies listed below they are showing you their beautiful teacups and probably serving up something delicious along with inspiration. Please be sure to leave them a comment after you've had your tea !

• Terri at 'Artful Affirmations' *
• Martha at 'Martha's favorites' *
• Sandi at 'Rose Chintz Cottage' *