New Life!

Our baby chicks are nine days old and growing and changing so quickly! We've only been able to hold them a few times because the mother hen is so protective and has taught them well to run away when they sense danger. Apparently, we are dangerous. :)

It's been really sweet to watch this buff orpington hen mother these ameraucana chicks as her own. (I shared a little about how that came to be, in my last post.) And these little chicks love to be close to their mama.

Here they are at just one day old. When they still had some blue around their eyes. Their little chirps are so cute.

This is them at about a week old. They spend all day learning how to do what chickens do. :)

They are already getting lanky! We won't be positive about the genders until they are a little older. Selah is really hoping and praying they aren't roosters because she doesn't want to have to start this process over. She wants to keep them, and if they are roosters that won't be happening. ;)

I've been thoroughly enjoying my vegetable garden! I often fall asleep thinking about it and wake up thinking about it. Josh teases me for being such a nerd. :) 

I love spending my mornings tending to it. Three times there has been a very large bald eagle in the tree behind me as I've been working in the garden. I love to hear it "talk". It's so loud and has the prettiest call.

Jude planted Granddad Grant's corn seeds and what do you know, they are beginning to break the surface of the soil! I'm praying that many more come up this week! We're pretty excited about this experiment, especially since we've never grown corn before. 

If you plant it, it will grow. ;)

The kids are tending their own little gardens within our garden. This is Selah's lettuce row. She also has lots of carrots and peas, thyme, and hopefully soon zucchini.

My rows of beans, peas, and cucumbers are all together because they are climbers. Everything in the garden is just small starts still.

I love growing romaine. It's so cute in a row. ;) Our friends told us of a great gardening method that I've been following this year, and I'm thoroughly enjoying it. They said to keep all of my Amazon boxes during the winter and then break them down into long pieces of cardboard dividing all of my gardening rows, and put wood chips/bark over them. It will decompose over the year, but will keep your garden fairly weed-free. It's working wonders! My dad and Janet have been giving me all of their spare cardboard too, and I'm loving this new gardening method. Weeding has been so simple. I just do a little each morning, and the areas of the garden that I haven't planted in yet, Josh mows each week. I'll finally get around to planting those areas too. I think I have over 20 rows of vegetable so far!

Snap peas...

Tomato...

Cucumber just starting out...

Obviously broccoli...

And a row of Jude's cilantro is finally popping up. It's his favorite!

We also have butternut squash, acorn squash, lots of cabbage and kale, spinach, basil, beets, leeks, and soon we'll plant 3 variety of pumpkins, a short season watermelon, and cute little gourds that look like chicken eggs. Selah saw the seeds in the store and thought they'd be fun to try to grow. I love what joy the simplicity of gardening brings!

Ok, that's enough nerding out for today. ;)