Bunny fun

We love to play with Tatiana's little bunny, Sweetie. She lives up to her name! Whether we are letting her hop around the yard on her leash...

Cuddling her on our lap...

Or feeding her fresh treats from the garden...

This is a very "sweet" bunny!

Our Chicken Coop!

Nathan worked hard on designing the chicken coop and building it. Everyone is really impressed when they see it. He is so talented and is good at whatever he does. I love my handy honey!

The inside of the coop. Those are some happy chickens!

Nathan and two of his assistants. The following pictures are just different views from different angles of the coop/pen.



The little box on the side on the above picture is the nesting box, where the chickens lay their eggs (most of the time). The picture below is inside the box. can you see Tatiana peeking in from the coop? Nathan built it so that we just have to lift up the lid and pull out the eggs. So handy!

Handy AND cute!


Good work honey!

We placed the chicken coop/pen in the corner of the garden. We have a large 20'x40' plot and always seem to have way more produce than we can ever use so it was the best spot for it. It will make it so we will have a smaller and hopefully more manageable garden this year.

"City Farmers!"

Okay, so you have noticed that we now have four chickens and a bunny rabbit. You probably already know that we have a strawberry patch, a blueberry patch, and a good size garden. With the addition of our new animals, we have now become "city farmers". I do not know if that is an actual term or one I made up. But I think it is funny. Really we are only about a block away from the city limits even though we live in a well-established neighborhood. There are horses less than a block away and cattle, llamas, and other horses within a half mile of our home. I love it!

Bonuses of having the animals? Well, the rabbit is mostly for fun and to teach responsibility, but also to help fertilize the gardens. The chickens are to teach responsibility, get fresh eggs, fertilize the gardens, and have fun. I love it!

Tatiana's new bunny!!!!

Tatiana has been asking for a bunny rabbit for a few years. We always said "no" because we had our dog and it was just one more thing for a little girl to try to take care of and her mother to end up doing...you know what I mean. But our dog passed away last spring and Tatiana became more frequent in her request. Nothing too abundant, not annoying or spoiled-like, just asking.

She has decided that this is her last year in Girl Scouts and because of that we felt she could have the bunny and join 4H to learn how to take care of it and to gain that experience. She is older now and has shown a lot of responsibility and we think she is ready. She will be in 4H with her bunny for at least one year, after that is up to her if she wants to stay in 4H, but the bunny will be with us until the end.

On March 24th we took her to a "bunny farm" about 20 minutes from our home and let her pick out a rabbit. This lady breeds rabbit and has been in 4H for most of her life so she knows what to look for in a rabbit. The ones that are not quite right by 4H standards she sells to the pet stores to use, the "good ones" she keeps for either breeding or selling to 4H kids. Tatiana fell in love, almost instantly, with this adorable little Tortoise Dutch bunny. She wanted something small and after reasearching we narrowed it down to a few breeds we though would be a good match. After deciding to not go with one breeder, we found this breeder that was close by and we are so glad we found her! She knows her rabbits!

Here is Tatiana with her choice. It was love at first sight! We love her coloring! It is called "tortoise". It is a pretty light brown with gray shading around the edges. She also has the white Dutch markings.

She is learning some basic care tips, including how to trim the nails before she even gets to bring her home. We really like this breeder!

That is one happy little girl! She had her rabbit named before even coming home..."SWEETIE"! I think the name is perfect for a sweet little bunny!

Our sweet daughter with her sweet bunny, Sweetie!

She has done a great job in caring for and bonding with Sweetie. We also learned that Sweetie LOVES the leafy tops of celery! It is her favorite treat so far.

Our New Chickens!

We, Nathan and I, have been talking about getting chickens for about a year now. We like the idea of having fresh eggs, teaching the kids the responsibility, and the fun of having animals again. After doing some research of what it takes to raise chickens and Nathan finding out that with our lot size we can have up to four chickens in the city limits. So on March 20th, we went down to Coastal Farm and Ranch and let each child pick out a baby chick!

They have LOVED having them! Andrew wasn't to sure about getting up close at first, but he warmed up to them. Now both boys will "check on" the chickens and give me reports like, "the chicks are okay mom", or "I think the chicks need more water" (Ben will say that even if the water thing is still half full, he wants it to be FULL.) Too cute!

This is Andrew's chick, Bella. She is a Barred Rock Pullet. When she is older she will be black and white striped, so Andrew calls her his "Zebra chicken". He loves zebras, but that is not why we bought her, it just worked out that way!

Here is Ben's chick. He named her "Race" because she's "so fast!" She is an Ameraucana Pullet, or otherwise known as the "Easter Chicken" because she will lay blue and green speckled eggs! How fun is that! I think she is so pretty!

Here is Tatiana's chicken, Sally. She is really cute and her coloring is just like a chipmunk! She is a Speckled Sussex Pullet.

And Nick's is Rhody. She is a Rhode Island Red Pullet. We think she is the friendliest and we also think she really recognized Nick's voice because she will come to him!

I think Nick has gotten into the chickens the most, he loves holding and taking care of them. Yes, he knows we will be having then for dinner in a couple years when their egg production slows down. Nick and Tatiana know that, Ben and Andrew do not. We accidentally said something in front of Ben and he yelled a painful "noooooo!" So when it comes time, hopefully Ben is old enough to understand, or we will have to tell him about the "Happy Chicken Farm" they had to go to and that now we get new baby chicks! I know, I'm so bad.

Nathan drew up his own plans and is building a beautiful chicken coop with an attached pen. He is so talented!!! He is building it in the garage because it has been raining out and will move it to the back yard in sections when we have a few days of no rain.

I am sure I have the cutest handy man ever! I love him so much!