Okay, so this is how it starts… You need ties for the plants in your garden. They are getting unruly. The offenders shall be dealt with swiftly. This is no land for outlaws, peace will soon be returned to your kingdom! (sorry, flashback from last night’s Game of Thrones) Soooooo anyway, you find yourself a nice long piece of knit fabric to cut into strips. ”Yes, this one shall do nicely…bwahhhh haaahaaahaaa.” Seriously, I spend too much time talking to myself. You find a flat surface…uh, I mean you clear a flat surface. You find the “good” shears, you know the ones…they don’t snag the fabric every inch or so and they have never been used to cut cardboard or baggie ties… yeah, that pair. You make the first cut into the virgin fabric…ahhhh, yes, that IS satisfying. The first couple of strips, you proceed carefully, they are all straight […]

Click HERE to see what my husband brought me instead…

Check out chicken Blue in action in her little wheel chair.

Introducing new chicks to a broody hen that already as a brood isn’t quite as easy as it sounds…check out Baybay’s Babies to see how it’s done.

Buzzy has a really bad habit of picking on the Poopy Crew. I think she does it because she gets a kick out of hearing them yip. I personally don’t find it as amusing. My guess is that she suffers from a sense of entitlement being the great granddaughter of the Godfeather himself. This morning after a stint in the corral with the Poopy Crew, I let her out. She followed me to the kitchen where I went back to washing dishes. I looked down at her and asked her, Buzzy why do you have to be such a bitch. She looked up and cocked her head at me with apparent curiosity. Justin standing beside me added commentary in a Buzzy voice. “Momma, what does bitch mean? Is that slang for Awesome?” Without missing a beat I told her yes Buzzy, it stands for Beautiful Intelligent Talented Charming Hen She […]

Well, this morning started off with a very harrowing experience. I was washing waterers in the kitchen sink and I could hear the chicks twittering from the living room. All the sounds seemed normal and happy, and then all of the sudden they didn’t! One of the chicks was cheeping very loudly. I waited to see if she would calm down, but she didn’t! I dropped the waterer in the sink and wiped my wet soapy hand across the legs of my jeans as I ran. I leaned over and looked in. The new little black chick was twisting her neck and thrashing around. She would stand up and twist and thrash and fall on her back. She was flopping all over the inside of the corral like this. I dropped to my knees in front of the corral (yes, dropped, there is no such thing as a graceful movement […]

I’m excited to announce that the promotional material for the upcoming gallery show that I have the privilege to be a part of is now available! It is on my photography website Upton Studios. The show is called Footprints. An Endangered Journey. You can also find that and more under the Events section of the website. Please feel free to share the information. If you would like print copies of the poster or the postcards to help me spread the word, let me know and I will see that you get them!

For any of you that have read our mission statement, you know that hatching eggs or adding birds purely for enjoyment runs against the grain of what we are trying to accomplish here. But I’m sure you can imagine how excruciating it was for me to see all of the pictures of the cute fuzzy chickies that everyone was bringing home from the feed store or Tractor Supply. However, I have tried for almost 20 years now to ensure that the blood line of my original Silkie Roo (the Godfeather) has stayed alive. As of now we have 3 descendents of his. Louis is his grandson, but because of his stroke, he will never be able to breed again. (I will spare you the details of the mechanics necessary to even attempt that). Louis’ brother Clark is strong and healthy and so is Louis’ daughter BuzzyBee. Unfortunately we have no […]

Making homemade pasta into ravioli is not an inherently difficult activity, but it is certainly made more challenging by the little Serama hen at my feet trying to “help”. But I will not complain because Baybay finally seems to be back to her old self again.

Yesterday was amazing. The response to my latest article on Backyard Poultry Magazine was beyond overwhelming. In fact, it went viral so quickly that the traffic took out the servers at Swift Digital for a while. My readers are truly incredible! I went to bed last night with such a smile on my face. This morning I heard my husband’s alarm ring and wished him a good day. Then I promptly fell back into a very deep sleep. About 30 minutes went by and I was jarred awake by someone yelling my name. Consciousness returned like a harsh wave and I looked around to see who was there. I saw no one. I waited to see if they called again, but no sound came. My attention quickly turned to the little silkie rooster on the chair beside my bed. Leo had not been acting like his feisty self the last […]