New Girls in the Coop

IMG_2576
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

My sweet husband brought home some 4 new chicks home the other day. I wasn't real pleased, we still had 4 older chickens. He assured me that the feed store was willing to take in the older chickens and "find them a home". We eat chicken I know where chicken in the store comes from, but haveing taken care of those chickens the last couple of years I know we could never eat these chickens.
This weekend he and the kids took the older chickens to the feed store.....and came home with 3 more chicks. he has convincing me down to a science and his secret weapons are the kids. He has them do recon, announcing as the walk ing the door that "we got chickens mom" "They're so cute". Well the kids are cute and so excited, and the chicks are kind of sute too.How can I get upset at that. He's ruthless
We have:
3 Opringtons - brown eggs
2 Americauna- blue or green eggs
2 Welsummers- dark reddish brown eggs
They are pretty cute especially the Orpintons. Thier legs are so feathery and look like muppet legs
yep he's ruthless to parade so much cute in front of me.

Why I love Arizona in the Fall

beets
Originally uploaded by dnaprice66

...you can plant vegtable gardens! While all my relatives who live up north are cleaning out thier gardens and getting ready for winter, I get to seed my garden and plant vegetables. This year I planted
beets
beans (these haven't sprouted)
Peas
lettuce
carrots
broccoli
brussel sprouts
In my flowerbed at the front of the house I planted petunias, thew grow really well here in the winter, come February they really take off. This is my favorite time of year in AZ. It really makes up for the summer and the 100+ degree weather in early October.

Mammoth Sunflowers and Why I shouldn't be allowed to bake cookies

The sunflowers have grown and threaten to take over the place. The Mammoth Sunflowers are approximately 13' across once the petals dry up. Last night i cut two of the flowers off to try and save some of the seeds from the birds. The other large sunflowers are not as big in diameter but they have grown much taller than the 6' cinder block wall. Our bedroom windowlooks out into the garden. Its fun to watch the little birds play around the sunflowers, not so fun to watch one of the chickens try and wrestle a ripe tomatoe of the vine.

This afternoon. Littlest sister was bothering the big sister and friend. I invited the littlest one to help me make cookies. My dh has perfected the chocolate chip cookie recipe, so I stay away from making those. I was in the mood for Snickerdoodles. Butter,eggs and flour rolled in more sugar and cinnamon. Yum!

We had every ingredient except we were shy 1 tps. of Cream of Tartar. IT all mixed up and looked right. We made our doughballs rolled them in cinnamon and sugar. An tremor of epic proprtions must have occured in the oven because this

Became this:

That blob on the lower right side is just a sad glob of dough that didn't even want to try for cookie greatness. They tasted all right. The Littlest one my darling daughter ate three of them tonight.

My backyard......and a hat

Now is my favorite time of the year to be living in Arizona. Its been sunny and bright, so much so that when there is a gray and overcast day it comes as a relief from all the brightness that inhabits Central Arizona.

This time of year we are usually reaping the harvestfrom our "Winter" Garden, that we planted back in the fall. After seeding the last October, the chickens got into the garden and dined on carrot, sunflower, and peas (seeds). There isn't a lot of produce. Last week, the hubby patched the holes in the garden fence and instruced the children tothe need to keep the chickens out , and they pseeded again for a Spring/Summer garden.

For now the Lemon Tree is weighed down with lots of lemons, and is also starting to blossom for next years fruit. Lemon trees are amazing to me how they can do that all the time. We are picking the fruit and sharing it with whoever will take and enjoy free fresh lemons.

The Almond trees are blossoming:

Petunias are doing wonderfully well this year:

and our hens are giving us 4 - 5 eggs a day, this is plenty for our family an also gives us a little to share. I know there is more than 5 eggs in this picture, the children forgot to check for eggs the night before.

and there is always knitting. I knit two hats for Sydneyknits' hat drive for the oncology unit where here husband was treated.

The patterns I knit were Felicity and Odessa. Below is pictured Odessa w/o beads

Having knit this once without beads, helps me feel more comfortable with the pattern and next time I will knit it with beads.