Autumn rustic & feathery goodness

Greetings all,

What a busy wrap up to the week . . . with handsome soldier coming home (flight delayed) so when i saw the lights of his plane coming in, i sat back in the arrivals lounge, closed my eyes, let my head flop back & thought "i've done it, another deployment is over."  I thanked the children, then let them run down the gangway (the QANTAS gate attendant smiled awkwardly at the massive security breech) & i said "he has come from Afghanistan" & she said "oh you're going to me cry" as my husband appeared with 4 children clinging to him.  It solved the questions she must have had with our 8 year old son asking his sisters "is that Dad, is that Daddy??" as he craned his neck to see each man walk off the plane in the dark, like i was meeting a mail-order-father-for-hire!!  

Thank you all for your excitement about my soldier coming home & the i-love-you grocery shop, you are all so sweet.  He appreciated the goodies & will enjoy them for ages + you know he reads every single comment while he's away, this blog & your comments are a happy distraction for both of us.  

Earlier in the week, i had taken receipt of 6 hens (from my now-farmless-friend in the school car park, as you do in our 'bush capital city') & the words 'no more chickens' in my husband's voice ran through my head.  I'm not keeping all of these, some are just being babysat . . . meet the flock.  

 I took time out to photograph & soak up the beauty of the new hens. 

 These chickens all came from the same farm, yet the Hamburgs arrived first & certainly have more confidence - with me, the camera & their new surroundings.  They're sharing the coop, nesting box & living area at night very happily, the Hamburgs tend to stay outside on the perches, like watchful security!!

 This combination Silky is so pretty when the light catches her patterned feathers.

 I encourage anyone with a side passage to consider fencing off one end & creating a chicken run.  Ours is enormous, finally put to wonderful use.  Yes we rent people, anything is possible, even in Army housing!!

 One afternoon we stopped & filled 4 garbage bags with leaves to spread in the chicken run.  In just a couple of days, they were mulching them naturally.  This will be one beautifully fertile strip come Summer, compared to the hard compacted dirt it once was.  We'll do that again, collecting leaves is so much fun & free mulch, yay!!

  Look at the plumage, just stunning in the glorious Autumn sunshine.  I'll get all the breed details from my friend shortly, i find it all so fascinating - learning about their origins, behaviour & broodiness.   

My very patient husband met them all this morning while nursing a heart melting 6 day old chick & said "didn't i say 'no more chickens'??" but smiled, he knows these chickens are making us all very happy, our farm dream is a tiny step closer, a young boy running free & catching his favourite-chicken-of-the-day with our girls stroking the hens gently.  Sure, he's delirious & exhausted from war, just happy to be home . . . talk of which-one-to-eat-first will happen soon enough (these hens are for egg laying thank you.)  I love everything about keeping chickens, from watching them eat our salad scraps & munch away all the weeds, raking up the poo & spreading it over other parts of the garden.  Dare i say i take such good care of the coop, it doesn't even smell bad, just country fresh!!  

Totally loving Autumn, the colours, crunchy leaves, chickens gabbling, frosty mornings, wearing scarves & pristine sunshiny days ending with soul warming dinners, it's a beautiful time of year.  My husband brought home an amazing large Persian rug, in stunning golds, creams & browns - i just mentioned to him how fantastic the chickens would look on it, that was not met with laughter.  Tee hee.  Enjoy & have beautiful weekends folks, love Posie

i'm grateful for . . . 'new beginnings don't get newer than new chickety chicks'

Greetings all,

I'm the master of surprising my children, whether it's Daddy coming home or a trip to the gelato store, i get them ALL the time.  While our children were away on school camp, i was plotting with my pal Emma & her husband Dan (doesn't everyone know a great couple called Emma & Dan??)  Policeman Dan was experimenting with hatching his own chicks, while engineer Emma is pregnant with her 4th baby, yay.  If they had enough new chicks, i could have a couple.  They were successful.  Today our chickens are 4 days old & ready for collection.  Funniest thing was, my plot of needing a hot water bottle for 'tummy ache' & saying Emma 'wanted to borrow a basket' was so good . . . my children STILL didn't realise we were collecting chickens to take home, until Dan asked which ones we were taking!!  Surprise, mother-of-the-year-moment, my reward is simply seeing the happiness & beaming smiles on their faces. 

EDIT: i had informed the high schooler about the chickens, she's horrified you might think she wasn't clued in enough to guess, my other 3 children still believe anything i say!!

 I'll let the photos speak for themselves, they are Speckled Hamburg Bantams.

 While we are keen on eggs, Hamburgs are not the biggest egg layers.

 Meet Ma & Pa, happiest chickens in the city!!

 On the drive home i explained we'd have a roster (hopefully they are hens not roosters) for handling the chickens, mainly to prevent OVER loving them & 2 chickens between 4 children . . . children were paired up & assigned even or odd hours of the day, Mummy has the final word or you're banned for your next hour.  I tell you, works a treat, i need more aces like this up my sleeve for power parenting.

 Talk about time wasters - watching them sleep standing up . . .

 watching them sleep lying down & tipping over. 

 My husband will love this - sleeping with a cushion (family joke, our German Shepherds have all preferred to sleep with heads on pillows!!)

 Speaking of puppies, he's getting a slow & safe introduction to where that chirping is coming from.

 BEST.

SCHOOL HOLIDAY.

 ACTIVITY.

EVER!!

Of course, in my mums-the-word plotting, i forgot to mention it to my husband.  When he rang it flashed before me, my 3rd girl answered the phone saying "can i tell him Mum, can i??"  He said she sounded SO happy, he was all for it & while we chatted he was researching chicken coops, one has been ordered.  For now, the chicks live indoors, very cosy indeed.  I'm so very grateful for this 'new beginning' with Maxabella Loves, also new to this chicken caper.  Love Posie

PS you might notice my high schooler sporting a sling, well there is a reason why teenagers are not allowed in children's play centres!!  She actually said "after i fell, a huge 2 year old landed on top of me, it hurt so much" & i had to refrain from laughing, she was so pale & honestly thought her wrist was broken (her little brother was at a birthday party there.)  Thank goodness we have a bye this week for volleyball.