Birds of a Feather (hopefully)

While Jason was away on a business trip, the children, my brother Adam, and I went to the Middleburg Livestock Auction. We were also accompanied by my friend Bernice and her two children. I was hoping to buy some Guinea birds. A bit of research told us that Guineas are fabulous bug eaters and can eradicate ticks from a property. We have ticks. We want Guineas. There were 20 Guineas up for bid. Some other lady insisted on getting them all! No matter what I bid she outbid me! She even tried to get the 18 fertile guinea eggs, but for some reason she gave up at $6.00. So we bought an incubator and got it all set up. We chalked it up to a homeschool science project and now we are expecting. We started the eggs on April 11, so May 1st is the big day! Or so we hope! 

My friend Bernice was hoping to get "a" duckling at auction. She ended up with three bunnies and eight ducklings! Auction can be a "dangerous" shopping experience! Unfortunately four of her ducklings were not hardy enough to be sold on a cold day. Having four Runner ducklings left and knowing that Jason also has a fondness for ducks, she decided to make of gift of two of them to him when he returned from his trip. He was delighted.....  

They already follow him around! And its not a big surprise that they love water, no matter how much they are given they continually scoop it up in their beaks and then spit it all over themselves until it is all gone, then they holler for more! Jason loves his new little friends. We all do!
We have had the chickens since last year. A friend of a friend was getting rid of them, and we found it impossible to refuse the offer. I am so glad that we did because they have been a constant source of pleasure, and are very good layers! I have been trying to figure out what breed they most resemble. I suppose it is possible that they are a mix, but they seem to have the characteristics of the Standard Bantam Cochins. Hopefully that is what they are, because that breed is known for being good brooders. Apparently they make excellent mothers! We are hoping that one of them will decide to go broody. The little red A-frame inside the chicken coop (below) is our version of a broody box. They lay in it every day, and seem to contemplate the big decision.........

Is it spring yet?

(We got the photos working again! Here is Jason in his new beekeeper hat! And our spinach in the hotbox! It is doing well, I am anxious to eat some.)

I really wanted to post a picture of Jason in his new beekeeper hat! But our photos aren't working today! Ahh! I hope Jason can fix them! I have many of them backed up (ask me for a link to our photo site if you want to see lots of pictures of what we have been up to). I love to take pictures, so even a day without my photos is panicky! Anyhow, I will ramble for a moment without adding any photos. We are so excited about spring! Our plans include getting bees, getting dairy goats, gardening, and being warm! I have been so cold this winter! I think being cold runs in the family. Jason is usually warm and toasty while I shiver to the bones beside him, he hugs me a lot, and that helps! Shine on me blessed sun! We tried a hot box for the first time this year, and the baby spinach leaves are the highlight of my April. I wanted to post pictures of them also..... 

I guess I'm not sounding very chatty about my children, but the thing is that they are so into what we are into, our goals and desires seem to be their goals and desires for the most part.... They all love gardening, I went out to look at the hot box the other day and saw that a portion of the garden had been dug up (including a few of the strawberry shoots),  the big shovel still lay there. That is how we started our garden last year, no tiller, just shovels. I read that it is better for the soil to not till, but I think we may need to till this year, we are planning on having a bigger garden than we had last year! Shiloh is a dear. She stepped in a bee hole at Fort Hunter last fall, and now she is very afraid of bees, but she is excited that we are getting them, because she loves honey! We watched the Bee Movie together. Loved it! Ave´, Destiny, Savannah, and Chester are all very excited for the spring plans also. We have our new bee smoker proudly displayed on the kitchen cupboard, and on the slate outside someone drew a goat with sidewalk chalk, above the goat they wrote, "Spring!", below the goat they wrote, "goat". Cute :)