May in the country

We've had a busy, happy May. What a blessing! The weather has been so wonderful that we've spent almost all day every day outside. We've eaten our meals and done school outside, trying to take advantage of every moment before it's too hot. I think it soon will be!



Anyway, here are a few pictures to show you what we've been up to. First, we observed a squirrel behaving very strangely several days in a row. David found the skull of a fox (or something small like that) a while back, and it was out in the yard. We noticed that it kept showing up in different places in the yard, and finally saw a squirrel picking it up and trying to carry it!! He would move it a few feet and get run off by another squirrel. We saw him do this for several days. We were floored. Turns out to have a simple explanation, according to our neighbor and landlord. Squirrels nibble bone for the calcium! Well. I have certainly learned a lot in the few months we've been here in the country! I'm loving it, too.

We've also got our garden growing well and are quite hopeful about it. I'll take pictures for the next update so as not to overwhelm you with too many in this one.





Our neighbors' chicken had babies! They are adorable, and she brought them into our yard this week. The distant shot is in the neighbor's yard, and the close shot is looking out our kitchen window.

We've also seen quite a few pairs of Summer Tanagers that seem to be nesting in our yard. The only other time I've ever seen them was at the bird banding held down at Ft. Morgan, so we've really been enjoying that! I've had some good views, but not while I've had the camera with me, of course...







On Memorial Day we visited friends who had baby goats born that day! We got to hold baby goats and milk their mothers. We also had homemade ice cream made with goat's milk. Delicious!



Here's a picture of two of our own baby chickens, quickly growing up!



Lastly, can anyone identify this cool looking caterpillar we saw this week? I could probably find it online and will hunt for it if nobody identifies it for me.

Remember, you can click on any picture and see a larger version.

I do plan to update again before another month has gone by. Maybe I'll post some artwork then. I've been sketching and painting outside in the afternoons; almost like having an outdoor studio!

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!