Chickens are now 10 weeks old

An updated photo of Betty and Wilma

Paving

I'm taking a couple of weeks of leave and in that time the plan is to complete the paving of a path to the back compost bin and also clean out the garage (and house!) so that we can park two cars in the garage.

Check out the before and WIP photos of the paving... I started this morning at 6am and completed the paving/moulding part by 11.15am.  Just the cementing in to go and then planting in the Pennyroyal :).

Before, there is just some bare dirt and me trying to level it but still allow some 'fall' so that the drainage is away from our block.  

Also found a stray tomato plant peeking out of the compost bin, so as long as Will didn't stand on it when helping mould the pavers, we may actually get some Roma tomatoes this year.  I assume it was from the Roma tomatoes from last season... although it could be any tomato we have eaten (or rather NOT eaten) since.

The 'after' photo... or the 'WIP' Photo.  Still need to cement it in and then it'll be done... barring the pennyroyal actually growing.

Notice the drainage gap I've left?  It's a pretty big gap but it made it an even 2 pavers on the shorter side.

The Chicken Story (part 2)

More Chicken Pics

Betty and Wilma pecking around... and eating all those weeds we have

Don't you love my hand painted sign... that took a whole hour and a half!

The local watering hole. They seem to drink a fair amount of water per day. Either that or they are spilling it. We'll have to work out something for summer.

Pecking around. They are cheeping less. I wonder when they will start 'boking'? Currently at 6 weeks... on the verge of 7 weeks. Apparently they increment by a week every Monday!

See the bamboo pole. We picked that up from Flower Power for $2. It's quite long/tall.

Chickens!

We bought a couple of chickens last weekend from the Chicks r Us farm (Barter and Sons Hatchery).  We bought from them as I was very keen on getting an Australorp (black coloured chicken) rather than the normal Isa Brown.

We ended up getting one Australorp (now named Betty) and one Rhode Island Red (now named Wilma).

Day one was freezing so we kept the 5 old chicks in our bathtub.

Pics from Day one are on the right.

We brought the home in a box which was originally for Compost Worms.  The 'cheeped' all the way home!  

In addition to the two chooks, we purchased a chicken feeder and some chicken feed.  Due to the young age of the chickens (we wanted Point of Lay but chickens are in high demand, so the oldest we could get was 5 weeks), we purchased $10 worth of chick feed and a bag of normal chicken feed.  Total cost of chickens, chicken feed holder and chicken feed and credit card fees: $68.11.

There of course was lots of preparation work before the chickens could be 'installed'.  Will built a chicken pen / coop as well as modified a dog house (we just bought a dog house and modified it) to give the chickens a safe environment in which to roam.  We may allow them to free range after they have cleared up the pen area a bit more (and work out how to catch them and then clip their wings!)

Chicken Pen:

Swarovski Crystal - Tigger Disney

If I was a collector of Tigger stuff, this would be so on my list!! A Swarovski Crystal Tigger!!!!!!!!



Love it.



Swarovski Crystal - Detailview

Riley and Liam

Proof that we don't actually disintegrate when kids come and invade our house!



Photo is of Riley Wilson and Liam Boswell

New Year

It's a new year (2008) and as is every second of everyday, a new beginning. I don't know why we need the reality of a new year to make resolutions or "start afresh" when it's there for us all the time!