Oh Wait, I didn't tell you that Either?

We got chickens too. Another clarification, we are not trying to be farm people. This was my idea. We also have neighbors with these too. Sounded interesting, so Hil and I decided to go in on some chickens. They're only two bucks each! What a bargain for eggs every day for the two or so years that they lay. Well, I thought so. Phil probably still thinks I'm nuts. Rightly so I guess. I don't want normal pets. No dogs, cats, hamsters, not even fish. But I'll handle chickens. I know, I know. Crazy. But at least they give you something back, right? And they really are quite cheap to maintain once you have their house up. Oh, and they STINK! They didn't stay in the house long once it stopped raining. They are now outside, where they belong. And they are not nearly as cute as they are in the pictures here. These were taken one morning when I got out of the shower and Ella was nowhere to be found. Well, I found her with the chickens. She had put on her gloves and her apron and was holding her chicken, Beast, gently in her lap. Their names are: Nacho, Ignasio, Beast, Belle, Sally Dude Bag, JoJo, Deangelo, and Rhino. They were named by the kids, minus just one or two. Ella is quite fond of them, but they don't let her hold them anymore. They have sharp talons.

The Bees Knees

OK, I feel I need to clarify, or justify, or something. I don't even know how some of you are finding this out! Just kidding. But kind of not, I haven't even put it on here. How do you all know what we're doing? It's quite the surprising topic to some.
We have adopted about hmmmmm, a few thousand bees. Yes, bees. But they are nice bees. They are making us honey and pollinating our garden and trees and flowers, and keeping the wasps away from our back door.
They are the most fascinating little critters. I'll have to have Phil get on here and tell you all the cool things about them. Truly, I never knew any of this, and I don't know why more people don't have them.
We decided to do it for different reasons. Phil thought it sounded like a fun hobby. Several people around here have them and love it. I wanted the honey. That's about it. We even have the awesome suits. It's pretty cool. We've not had them for very long, but they are super busy. We've already had to add another box to the hive. The queen is laying eggs and all appears to be well.
The above picture was taken from a good distance. I didn't have my suit on, and to be quite honest, the thought of him "shaking the box vigorously" to get the bees out, kind of freaked me out. But I had to get a picture. It's quite addicting to watch them.

The Garden...

Spring feels like it might be here. I've been super excited to see my boxes come up this year. One is strawberries, and the other is our 'salad' box: Mixed salad greens, butter leaf lettuce, green leaf lettuce, rainbow swiss chard, broccoli, peas, cabbageand carrots. And then there's the herb garden. I'm really glad it's coming up. And it makes me excited to plant the big garden. I hope it keeps growing!

She's too funny...

It's really quite a busy body. Truly. She has probably eaten enough dirt to grow a potato in her belly. She has eaten other things that I won't mention here. She can't just play in the sand, either. I watched her do it. She played with her shovel first, then one hand, then the other, then both, and then she went to lying in it. I have a feeling that this kid is going to dive into everything with all she's got.

Worked Outside Today

Motivation has been hard to come by this week-or least for me. Phil was way more ambitious than me today. I made us some lunch this afternoon, during which, Phil gave me a list of things, that should probably be done soon. Nothing too difficult, but hard to for me to find the gumption to do. Things like, take the Christmas lights down, mow the lawn, clean out the cars, ya know, stuff that just should be done. After much hem-hawin' done by me, we went outside to water the plants at least. And it turned into lawn mowing and weeding. At least it's done.
And the girls got tons of sand in their pants. Seriously. I have a coating of dirt and sand in my bathtub.