It's good to be home

A week away from home is difficult. It's extremely difficult with 38 chickens, 3 geese, 4 ducks, 3 turkeys, 11 guinea hens, 2 goats, 2 dogs, a cat and a fish. Oh, and don't forget the garden and all the new shrubbery we've planted.

Luckily, we had the world's best pet sitter, who just happens to be one of Monkey's teachers. She is also 8 months pregnant. How she did it I'll never know, but almost everyone was healthy and happy when we returned. I say "almost everyone" because we had a mystery attack on the young cockerels and pullets. Out of 16, there is now only one Salmon Faverolle rooster. I think the youngsters must not have gone into the chicken coop at night and something (most likely a raccoon or possum) picked them off over several nights. We had planned on butchering the roosters when we got home. I don't have the heart to kill the survivor now. Carly had warned us that she had found one eaten chicken carcass; it turned out to be more than that. She felt terrible when she realized how many had disappeared, but there was really little she could have done. In fact, the first year we had chickens, I lost all but 8 when I went inside for a few minutes and left them unnattended in the yard. Birds can be hard...

Tonight I made sure everyone was in their respective coops and hopefully we won't lose anymore.

And in the garden...
Everything is growing! We've finally pulled out the last of the peas and put sweet potatoes in their place. It's the first year for sweet potatoes in the garden. Beans are coming up, as well as okra, cow peas and cucumbers. I was really jealous when I saw the size of my sister-in-law's tomatoes in Missouri. Of course, they've had rain and heat. Our last frost was mid-May and we finally had nights above 55 degrees in early June. And I would like a little rain please...

Oh, and I'm very excited to participate once again in Liz's One Local Summer!