And Here We Go Again. . .

The newly hatched baby Buff Orpingtons have arrived!  They are only one day old.  Please meet, from left to right. . .

Buttercup, Rosie, and Lexie

They are so incredibly sweet!!!

As you can see, the love has already begun!!

Tara named Lexie.  Her real name is Alexis, but it's Lexie for short.

Madeline named Rosie. . .

. . .and I named Buttercup much to the dismay of the girls.  You see, we now have Dixie, Daisy, Jazzy (which is what we call Jasmine), Rosie, Lexie and "Buttercup".  They think I should have picked a name that ends in an "ee" sound.  I told them I named her Buttercup so I could say "Whats up Buttercup!".    So there they are.  I really don't think there is anything cuter than brand new baby chicks.  God did a great job in making them cute as can be!!

I mean really!. . .

. . .How cute are they!!!

I Love My Chickens!!

I mean I really, really LOVE my chickens!

They have so much personality and are so fun to watch. They love their human family and give us the most delicious eggs! I am really having the hardest time waiting for our new babies to arrive. They'll be here on or around April 10th. We're getting 3 more day old baby Buff Orpingtons. The excitement is growing in our household. I'll soon be getting the brooder ready for some new little peeps. Spring is so fun for chicken fanciers!!

Guess who my photographer was. It was Tara, and she's not bad behind the lens! I added the texture though.

The Dust Bath. . .

Dust baths are absolutely essential for chickens.  They prevent parasites such as lice, mites and ticks from making homes in chickens feathers and on their legs.  Dirt naturally clogs the respiratory pores of parasites, like lice, ticks and mites.  When the respiratory pores of these parasites are clogged, they can no longer breathe and will die.  I'd say that chickens are pretty darned smart!  It's something that they all do, but aside from the benefits of a dust bath as explained above, I tend to think that it is also a great source of joy for chickens.  If you've never seen a chicken have a dust bath, I swear you would think they were having convulsions and getting ready to up and die right there on the spot!

I know, I know.  Look how "Dirty they're getting"!  But when they have completed their dust bath, they will give themselves a good shake (like a dog), all the dirt will fly out of their feathers and then they'll preen until they're all beautiful again.

Here's some pictures of them enjoying their wonderful dust bath as they kick, flail and throw dirt everywhere, including but not limited to in each other's faces.

Last summer, I even caught a picture of Caspian enjoying a dust bath with the hens.  They taught her how to do it!

And here they all are after they've had their shake and preen.

Dixie. . .

Daisy. . .

. . .and Jasmine.  She's not molting like her sisters, and is so beautiful and fluffy!

Dust baths are good clean chicken fun!

St. Patrick's Day Surprise!

It actually started this morning.  You see, not everyone knows this, but if you leave your shoes outside on the eve of St. Patrick's day, the next morning you will find gold in them!

You have to be very careful to find a GOOD hiding spot.  Leprechauns are extremely crafty and they don't "really" give their gold away.  When you least expect it, if it's not hidden well, they will steal it back and replace it with rocks!  Madeline's did ultimately get snatched by the leprechauns today.  Tara is with her cousins today enjoying a sleep over, so I'm not sure if hers were switched or not.  Poor Madeline had to go to the Dr. with me today to discover that she is contagious with Strep throat and couldn't go with Tara.  Well, on the way home from the Dr., Madeline got the most wonderful "lucky" surprise!!  When I went in to pay for my gas, we got a very rare dollar bill.

It is a dollar bill that is to be tracked! 

So when we got home, we went to the website to see what we could find out about this particular "George".

By typing in the serial number, we learned is that our dollar originally started it's journey in Rochester New York.  It has traveled 301 miles in 1 year, 163 days, 16 hours, 9 mins. at an average of .57 miles per day.  It is now 301 miles from it's starting location!  The site asked us to journal where it was found and in what condition it was.  We had the option to give our email so we can be sent updates whenever it is tracked on the website, which we did.  When we got the bill, the yellow "1's" were colored on each side.  Madeline decided to color the "pink" 1's that you can see in the above photos.  We are so excited to be the first one's to log him!  It took a long time for this bill to get any action, so be sure to look closely at your currency before you use it.  You may just get lucky like us one day!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day to all!  

I have a ton of Irish blood running through my veins, so this is always a fun holiday to celebrate!

May you have:

A world of wishes at your command.

God and his angels close to hand.

Friends and family their love impart,

and Irish blessings in your heart!

I also wanted to take the time to thank EVERYONE who left such wonderful comments for Tara on my previous post.  She, Madeline and I so enjoyed reading them all.  It was so cool how most everyone told us where they were from!  Tara was so excited to get words of encouragement, and congratulations from Hawaii, Poland, Scotland and everything in between!  Thank you so much for that.

Can I Share My Proud Moment??

It starts with her.

My Amazing firstborn child.  She LOVES her chickens. . .and her cats. . .

She loves any living animal.  She is a very kind soul.  Daddy was hoping at least one of his girls would show some interest in hunting.  No such luck.  They love animals way too much.

She knows and loves her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  She is an amazing daughter and the BEST big sister ever.

This child is so smart!!  This year, she was lucky enough to participate in a special program in her school called Math Olympiad.  Only the top math kids can qualify to participate.  They meet once a week and work to solve extremely difficult math problems.  Once a month, they had a contest and the results were used to compete with other schools nationwide.  The teacher who runs the Math Olympiad program stopped me last week at the science fair.  She wanted to tell me how much she has enjoyed getting to know Tara and having her in the program.  She then went on to tell me that she didn't want the rest of the kids to feel bad but she wanted me to know that Tara was the highest scorer in her group this year.  I was so proud of her.  Then she went on to tell me that she went back through 15 years of records, and in the 15 years that her school has been participating in the program, only 3 other children scored as high as her!!!!  It was all I could do not to cry.  I am soooooooooo proud of this amazing child.  She has blessed my life in so many incredible ways.

The Sledding Chickens On Video!. . .

I had fun taking pictures of the girls in my previous "Snow Day" post, but my mom, who is visiting with my sister in Texas right now told me that I should have video taped it.  She wanted to see.  So yesterday, I had the girls show everyone via video how their Henny Penny's like to go sledding.

Here's part one:

And this is part 2:

Now isn't that so much more fun than sitting in front of a gaming system or a T.V.?  My children just love to play outside.  They do like their new XBox Kinect that they got for Christmas, but they really like playing outside more.  And they get plenty of fresh clean air living in the country.  We also made home made Maple Sugar Snow Candy yesterday.  It was delicious!

You know what I hope that everyone will take away from my blog (where chickens are concerned)?  It's simple, Buff Orpingtons are an amazing breed of chicken.  They are so sweet and friendly.  They love children and people in general.  They are extremely patient and absolutely full of personality. They thrive on human contact and make it simply impossible not to love them! I have 2 hens molting (since January), yet my 3 girls consistently give us 14 eggs per week.  If you don't have any chickens but are planning to start the wonderful chicken experience this spring, then I highly recommend the amazing Buff Orpingtons.  If you already have chickens and don't have any Orpingtons, then you need to add them to your flock.  We are going to add 2 more to our happy little flock this spring.  I can't wait!

Snow Day!!!

Today was a snow day. And even better, it was a Friday snow day. Really now, is there anything more fun than a snow day when you're a kid? I don't think so!!

Our neighbor Riley came over in the morning, and the girls started sledding first thing. Before long, the Henny Penny's were sledding along with them!

Here's how country girls spend a snow day!!

Then it was on to snowman making. . .

I love the snow hat!

They had lunch, and afterwards the chickens had some more fun with the girls:

And then they all made Snow Ice Cream.

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp. vanilla

4 cereal bowls of clean snow

Warm the milk, vanilla and sugar (so sugar will melt) on the stove top.

Put that into a container in the fridge or out in the snow to cool. When cool, it's time for Snow Ice Cream!

Put 4 cereal bowls full of clean snow into a big mixing bowl:

Add the cream, sugar and vanilla.

Stir, stir, stir. . .

Smile for your crazy camera mommy. . .

. . .and come in the house for the first taste. All three girls had a pajama day. That's always cozy fun!

Yummy!!!!

Snow days are so much fun, and I always try to make them really special. Don't you wish you could come over to play too?!