Our Cat -- Penelope?

We are in the business of animal acquisition around here:  several fish, 6 chickens, a dog, a short-lived outdoor cat named Odysseus, and what we hope will be a longer-lived girl kitty.  She'll also be outside because we need her to hunt some of the chipmunks that are running amok around here.  We have not formally decided on her name, but Penelope seems to be the leading contender.

She'll live in the house for a month to learn that we are her family, then we'll keep her in the barn for a month so she'll learn where her home is.  Once we're sure she's clear on all that we'll allow her to come and go as she pleases, assuming she's big enough to live outside by then.

She is really tiny, really cute, and has really sharp claws.

Vacation in New York

Here are some shots of our vacation in New York with Steven's father and his family, as well as Steven's sister Lori and her family.  Everyone had a wonderful time catching up, and our children really enjoyed their cousins.  Look for photos of the turtle races, one of the surprisingly charming events of the trip.

Preparing for the Turtle Races.  You could bet on the turtles.

Anna and Millie act as turtle wranglers to get them in place.

The turtles are clustered around the flag at the center of a large square, and the race begins.

...and we have a winner!  The man calling the race did it just like a horse race with a wonderful announcer voice.  Some of the turtle names are great:  Willie B. Soup, Howie Wowie, Can't Stop Karen, Betty Davis Thighs, Nick No-Neck

Growing Things

We moved into our house in November when the leaves had turned and dropped and winter was upon us.  We had some idea about the major plants and trees on the property (apple, pear, peach, maple, blueberries, and strawberries).  However, we had no idea what our place would look like in the spring and summer.  Here are some pictures taken over time so you can see what we are blessed with.

As flowers die back and bushes lose their blooms we have more flowers poking their heads up, so things are still changing even in July.

I don't know how I have managed it, but I have no photos of our heavily laden blueberry bushes nor the apples-in-progress from our many  (7?  8?  I forget) apple trees.  We have picked over 10 pounds of blueberries so far and have many, many to go as the season progresses.

Raised strawberry beds make picking easy.

One of our apple trees in bloom.  

Apple blossoms have such a pretty pale pink blush.

We have official raspberry bushes like the one shown here.  We also have volunteer raspberry and blackberry canes that have taken over part of the blueberry bushes, which is not good.  I don't look forward to hacking those out, but the blackberries are so very tasty!

Our Dog Desi

We finally got the dog our kids have wanted for years, Catherine especially.  We purchased Desi from an area breeder this spring.  She grew a bit too tall to be a show dog, so at 11 months old she came to live with us.

Desi is very sweet and easy-going, but as a Sheltie herding dog she can get very excited when Patrick and Anna are running around.  She barks a lot when she plays as most Shelties do, but she can also sit quietly with us.  She doesn't know how to tell us when she needs to go to the bathroom, so to keep her in the house we have to watch her very closely.  We've had lots of accidents as we figure her out.  She spends a lot of time outside on a trolley line that gives her a lot of freedom of movement, but she sleeps inside in her crate.

Catherine took dog training classes at our town parks & rec center, and Desi is doing well with sit and stay.  She does pretty well with heel, but coming when called is still tough.

I'm going to build her a dog house with leftover supplies from the chicken coop.

Cooling off in the kiddie pool.  Catherine said she would stick her nose in and blow bubbles.

Chickens

We have had our chickens since November, and they lived all winter and spring in a minimalist enclosure in our barn.  We spent a lot of time planning and sketching and buying supplies and -- of course -- constructing a spiffy coop for our girls.

We still don't have a proper roof.  I'm going to put on a green corrugated metal roof, but first I need to figure out how to cut a 12 foot long piece of corrugated metal in half through all of its ridges.

The coop is 4' x 8' with a 2 foot tall run underneath that will never get snowed on, so they can be outside as much as they want all year.  There is also a 3' x 4' attached tall run that allows us to access some of the run space at full height.

We built the coop in the barn on skids with the expectation that we would drag it out of the barn and down a  path to its final place.  We never tested this.  We were very happy when it worked as planned!

Its maiden voyage.  Nothing fell apart en route.

The kids are all helping push and steer.

We have nice ventilation windows, as well as doors and hatches for human access.   

Each end has french doors for wide open access.  The bucket turned on its side is a makeshift nesting box where they lay their eggs.
The upright bucket is full of water and has nipples screwed into the bottom.  I cut a hole in the bottom of the coop to seat the bucket so the hens can access the nipples from the run below.  This way they eat and drink in the run, but the water can be kept warmer (perhaps even wrapped in some kind of insulation) inside the coop to keep it from freezing in the winter.  

The nesting box is in the foreground with its hatch door open.  Patrick is showing us the other set of french doors and the roosting bars.  Under the roost gets the messiest, so we have a hatch door to scoop out the dirty litter  into a wheelbarrow.  There is no wall framing along the floor here...just a straight sweep/scoop out.  

Thomas is showing us some hatch doors.  The left two are for nesting box access (one is open), and the larger  right one is for under-roost cleaning.

Patrick is trying the chicken ladder that Steven built for the hens to get in and out of the coop through their pop door.

The chicken pop door latches open, and we close it for the night.  Note that this is not  flimsy chicken wire but hardware cloth.  It's really heavy and hard to work with, but with foxes and weasels and bears (yes, bears!) we need some sturdy protection.  

Note that the chicken pop door is part of the right side french door.  A door within a door-- fancy!

We have access to the feeder under the coop.  Just to the left is the nipple watering system, but you can't see it.