All sorts of great things

We've had a very full several days! It sure is a blessing to be living out here in the midst of nature. Wonderful! Saturday we spent a couple of hours participating in a clean-up drive of the road we live on, and then Jon built a chicken tractor while David and I planted most of our garden. For those of you wondering what a chicken tractor is, it's a pen with no bottom. You let the chickens eat and fertilize in one place for a day or so and then move it over a section. You just keep on moving them around and they keep the grass green and free of weeds. :)



I don't have pictures of these, but yesterday morning after Jon left and while David was still asleep I saw four Indigo Buntings at the edge of the backyard!! I was so excited! Then, David and I sat outside to eat lunch and saw two Summer Tanagers in the big pecan tree at the back of the yard. WOW! Later in the day, David went fishing and came running home to tell me that the Canadian Geese who've been hanging around the lake had had babies! So all three of us walked over and enjoyed watching the new family for a while.



Yesterday we also got to see the rat snake our neighbor found, as well as the largest black widow spider I've EVER seen!





Then, in the evening we had the cutest little tree frog on the kitchen window! I couldn't resist taking its picture.



With all these exciting things happening outside, the inside of my house is a mess! What's more, the weather is supposed to be this nice for the rest of the week. Maybe I'll do house work when it rains on Saturday...

Baby chickens

Well, we've taken the next step in living in the country, and added ten baby chickens to the mix! What will happen next?? :) David and I sat outside today, did school and ate lunch while watching the chickens. Jon and David are building a chicken tractor tomorrow so they'll have a bigger place to play than the pen they are in now. I did some quick sketches, but they really don't stand still long enough to do much. They are pretty, though!



As I pulled out a sketchbook I haven't used in a few weeks I discovered this small painting of a pepper I did over Christmas while we family members all sat around the kitchen table and sketched or painted. Fun! I'd forgotten about this.

Very welcome visitors

We hung up our hummingbird feeder a week or so ago and the birds immediately started coming. Today there were several of them out there- in March! How exciting!



Then a pileated woodpecker showed up right outside our side window two days in a row, between our house and our neighbor's. David saw him first both days and we all hovered around the window watching him. I took a bunch of pictures and was thrilled! The next two days we watched out the window at the same time we'd seen him the other two days but he has't come back. Click on the picture to see a closer view.



A friend gave us these eggs on Easter Sunday. They were beautiful! They came from her chickens this way, too. I kind of thought she was kidding, but did a bit of research and found Easter Egg Chickens. Who knew?? Not this city girl. The eggs are really delicately colored and it seemed almost shameful to crack them open and scramble them.

I do hope you had a wonderful Easter!

Acts of Kindness

I recently pledged to take part in a Pay It Forward gift exchange. After responding to her challenge, I received a beautiful painting from Anita Davies (see below.)



It is based on the concept from the movie 'Pay It Forward' where three acts of kindness are carried out without expecting anything in return. Each recipient of those acts of kindness then selects three different people who they, in turn, then do an "act of kindness" for and the process repeats over and over, spreading kindness in an ever-widening circle.

If you are interested, here's how it works:

Email me your land mail address, with 'Pay It Forward' in the subject line. thebrashers1@bellsouth.net

Please remember that you must be prepared to send three acts of kindness to other people when you do this.

I promise to create a small gift for the first three people who email me requesting to participate in the 'Pay It Forward' exchange.

I will announce the three people here on my blog.

The three people must then post on their own blogs promising three different people an act of kindness gift.

Sorry, you must have your own blog in order to participate.

Please allow 4 to 6 weeks for me to create and mail your gift.

Gifts can be anything that is handmade or painted by your own hand.