:: Birds of Prey ...OR CHICKEN EATERS! ::

Something has taken to eating chickens...
We've lost 4 in the last 2 1/2 weeks.

• 3 pullets 
• 1 grown hen (Gracie)  my cute and fluffy little Barred Rock. :(  

• This is Gracie chicken on the left in this photo... 

I am not happy about that folks!  

So... they are COOPED FOR NOW... I don't like it. I'd like my chickens to be able to free range... they are happy when they are strutting around the yard, having a fill crickets and grasshoppers, worms and other creepy crawlies...that they love to munch on and fill their gullets! 

This guy has been blamed for lots of things in the past...one of them being my dirty dishes... yes, I know ...LAME, but true!



While I can't be certain it's him...or her; because now I've heard them in the trees near my neighbors pond, obviously a nest.

 I've figured, apparently Red Tail Hawks are good parents for these reasons :

• They nest near local groceries
• They nest near a good water source (my neighbors pond)
• They live obscurely...making it safe for their children.
• They eat well...ehem! 

This is another bird that has been spotted a lot recently around the neighborhood and country side.
It is a Caracara ...it is said that this bird eats carrion and prey.  They are known to travel with Turkey Vultures...in fact I've seen a couple in my yard a year or two ago  after T.H. had to kill a huge snapping turtle. The Vultures came to clean it up...like they're supposed to do and a couple of these guys came along for the feast.



They also eat small animals, like rats, field mice, rabbits, and small nesting birds. (...pullets, perhaps?)

We've had a couple of these guys on our property before also... they cleaned up the RAT problem we had about 5 years ago... HUGE RATS out in the fields... the worst I'd ever seen... Gone now.
On occasion I still hear the Horned Owl off in a tree somewhere, but I don't see them much.



Am I upset by any of this?  Yes, upset that the order of things around our little homestead is being intruded upon. But at the same time... these birds have to eat too.  I didn't get chickens so that I can supply feed for the local wildlife. But it is what it is...and that is a little bit frustrating.

 I've not actually seen a chicken abduction in progress... So I can't say who , in fact,  is the guilty bird; I'm having to only let the chickens out mid- morning and making sure they coop by dusk (which they usually do). It's the pullets that won't coop. I've had to enclose them ALL going on DAY 3 now...so that when they do finally get let out in a week or so, they'll know to go inside as a whole flock!

Safety first citizens!



Sunny Simple Life



 The grace of the LORD Jesus Christ be with your spirit. ~ Philippians 4:23 




The first image is mine...taken in my yard. You may go directly to the source by clicking on the last two images... thanks! 

:: My Thoughts on Mother's Day and How I Spent It ::

Mother's Day-- I spent the day with The Honey (T.H.)

I didn't see my children...(well I saw both my boys for a few minutes) but that's about it.
I'm TOTALLY  OK with that.

Here are my thoughts on Mother's Day. 

It's over rated. I'm not that much into holidays or events where the emphasis is mainly obligatory, or dictated by a calendar.  I'm confident in my mothering skills. I have only a few regrets, when I reflect upon, how I raised my children. The biggest being ...not teaching 'The Fear of the LORD' to them more soundly.  When I do reflect and I begin to dwell on parenting mistakes... I'm reminded that God's Grace abounds much more than my sin (and my ignorance) in that area.  

Please don't mis understand. I LOVE BEING A MOTHER AND...I do not think Motherhood is over rated. Parenting children, whether they are your biological children or not OR perhaps someone else had them; and you had a part in raising them, for whatever reason, is both a big responsibility and an honor. 

I just think a day set aside for that...is silly.  If honor is due them... don't wait for a calendar or Commercial Sales Event to show it. 

With all that being said... TH and I planned to be busy on Mother's Day...and we had ourselves a little fun. Without our kids. :)



We took a train ride. We're not train enthusiasists... but we thought it would be fun; and it was!

I took lots of pictures and I even fiddled with the timer and snapped a few pictures of TH and Myself, so the ones of us are from weird angles (like the one below)

This one another lady took for us...we exchanged cameras with her and took pictures of her family too. Sometimes all you need to do is ask. 

Before the train departed. 

Engine 316 

Car #70 (it was open air car...the weather was exceptional) 

The ride was about 1-1/2 hours long. 

We passed a train coming from Rusk,TX 

I had walked to the front of our car to the platform (seen above where the stairs are) in just the knick of time and got the photos below of us passing Engine #300

Once in Rusk we had about another 1-1/2 for lunch and walking around the State Park. 

You could take a lunch--but we bought one instead. 

The picnic tables looked out over the lake. 

The bottom right photo shows a little house across the lake-- on the State Park property. 

I could totally live there. 

This Cyprus tree was near our picnic table...the Cyprus Knees were poking out of the water. 

So cool. 

This is after lunch...when I started playing around with the timer on my snap and shoot. I found a window ledge and snapped a couple of photos in between the buildings.  

The Historical Marker---telling about the Short Rail Line built by the prisoners and supervised by the state prison system, in the 1880's. 

The Engineer and Myself! 

I video taped him telling some bystanders all about Steam Engines and how they work.

AND THEN...  I accidentally deleted it. Ooops! 

That train Engine is HUGE! 

Our seats were wooden... I carried a bag with two cushions for us. I think we're the only one that did. You could only have one bag each. 

While we sat on our cushions, I had my small bag in the big bag...more room for our feet. 

Coming back I snapped a better photo of the TURNTABLE... in Maydelle, TX.  The only town we actually traveled through closely. 

~"Famous" 1890's Turntable ~ 

It's for turning an Engine around to head back the other direction. 

I didn't see this one in action...

but it does still work. 

This train travels through a Texas State Forest and Wild Life Reserve and the train actually travels over The Neches River...it was flowing nicely that day. 

The Pine trees were so TALL... so close like you could reach out and touch them! 

you're not supposed to stick you hands out the window...but I leaned out anyway. 

I took this  photo heading back...this time CAR #70 WAS THE CABOOSE. 

I love seeing the Engine up there chugging around the bend. 

Back at the station... 

we pulled up right next to the water tower...with all the bells and lights. 

I had a great time. 

Totally enjoyed it. 

The grace of the LORD Jesus Christ be with your spirit. ~ Philippians 4:23 

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The conclusion, when all has been heard, is: fear God and keep His commandments, because this applies to every person. ~ Ecclesiastes 12:13

::Sunny Simple Mondays-- Tilling vs. Hugelkultur and Beds ::

In the last couple of years we've been playing around with different gardening aspects.  Years ago, we tried gardening...the tilling, the row making, the planting, the weeding, the dying, the giving up ...parts of gardening.  And give up, we did! ...until after The Honey retired.



Then we started planting again...and still we didn't know what we were doing. So we have just tried different methods to find out what works best for us.
Hugelkultur (called Hugelbeet in Scandinavian countries ) is one method we tried early on and really weren't quite sure how it would work. But I must say...this year we've decided we love that method.

Here's what happened:

This year, we tilled the hugelkultur mound under (which was a big mistake)...and planted in rows...again!  Let me just tell you... I don't like this method.  It just doesn't work for us.

After planting in our neatly tilled rows, we began to see potatoes...and corn, and every weed you can imagine.
We promptly took the boxes that had been in that garden all around the Hugelkutlur mound; and brought them up to the front yard, where basically nothing grows-- no grass, only weeds ...but mostly just a dust bowl, yes.

We started our raised bed there.  Most of the boxes were planted with compost, and manure from various places.  Those boxes were thriving...but not  enough room.

We did have the one box that NOTHING was growing in; because we KILLED IT. (story here)

So the last box...I used the Hugelkultur method of gardening...I called it lasagna gardening, but really I'm not sure that it is--there is no cardboard or fertilizer layers in this box.  Only compost and dirt.
I showed you how to do it... here



Today... this is how it looks.

It WAS SLOW GROWING AT FIRST...

These are lettuce transplants... I didn't think were going to make it.

 kind of embarrassing to show you...but they are growing now.

These are peas...planted by seed straight to ground.

There are the peas today... in the middle. 

That is more lettuce to the right of this picture and to the left ...

outside the box...the dreaded weed!

You might notice, I also put a little dollar store fence around this bed. 

It looks neater than the other fence we have around the other boxes... 

It makes it easier to clean up around the boxes...only right now my weed-eater is on the fritz...always something. 

I just used the drill and put holes all along the edge of the boxes and popped the little fence in there. 

Easy Peasy! 

This is my broccoli bed. I took this picture last week... The weather has just been too warm to grow broccoli. Had we used the Hugelkutlur bed...the broccoli would have probably thrived during the winter months.

 

 But instead it bolted early. Never fear though... I've recently learned you can eat the broccoli flowers... it tastes just like broccoli!  I had a few crowns to remove and once these plants are spent...the biggest part of it will go into the compost.

This is the whole reason for this post...which has ended up being pretty long...but our potato bed is doing well.

Except for the all the weeds. (which are thriving!

yes, I've weeded it and I've walked through and pulled and pulled the weeds.

Tilling, I'm certain is the reason for so many weeds.

There are a couple of brussel sprout plants that I transplanted from the DEAD DIRT...but it is too late for them to thrive and produce.

The corn, not pictured is doing pretty well...but again WEEDS EVERYWHERE.

I'm sticking with hugelkultur and raised beds.  It is the only way to grow in my opinion.
You can read about my Hugelkultur experience
 Here..HUGELBEET!
 Here: How does my garden grow pt 2
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Sunny Simple Sundays has been moved to Mondays...
So now there is a Simple way to start the Week...with the Simplest Party Ever... just link up whatever it is that you're simply doing in your home and share with others
@ Sunny Simple Mondays! 






The grace of the LORD Jesus Christ be with your spirit. ~Philippians 4:23