Chickens and Puppies

Time for a pet update!  

First, chickens......we don't have any :( 

So here's the deal:

After we finished the coop, I went to town to our chicken selling establishments to buy chicks, but they were either sold out, "getting some in two weeks", or didn't have the breeds I wanted.  The days kept slipping by as I tried to decide if I should just buy what was available or wait until I could get what I wanted.  Soon enough time had passed where if I did buy the chicks available here in town, they weren't going to be old enough to move from the brooder box to the coop by the time I left for France.

Each spring, my sisters and I take our parents on a spring trip.  This year we are going to France so that my Dad, a World War II buff, can stand on the beaches of Normandy. We are all very excited, except for my husband, James.  

He is staying home; the idea of a sisters' trip is a little scary to him although if he heard that there would be antique cars lined up on the beaches of Normandy he might make an exception.  Anyway, he let me know in no uncertain terms that he would not be responsible for baby chicks still in their brooder box while I was off gallivanting.

Long story short, I chose husband over chickens.  I think it will prove to be a good decision in the end.  I have put in an order at My Pet Chicken for eight baby chicks to be delivered by mail later this summer.  We are getting two Buff Orpingtons, two Golden Laced Wyandottes, two Light Brahmas, and two Barred Plymoth Rocks.

Now puppies...

So as you all know, the Garden Friendly Dogs have a digging problem.  Much of it I have been able to head off at the pass with a trusty layer of chicken wire, but we still have issues with the random hole in the middle of the yard.  

Now Cesar Milan lays out this whole training program that deters digging. It involves a "Dig Zone" in the yard where you teach your dogs it is OK to dig, hopefully deterring them from digging up all of your day lilies. 

James and I bought a big wading pool and filled it with sand.  Then I buried some of their bones and toys in the sand, and brought on the dogs.....

As usual, Fred-the-Skeptical let Ethel-the-Intrepid go first and being the sweetheart that she is, she gave the bone she got out to him.

Only after all possibility of danger had been dispelled, did Fred take a turn.

James has serious reservations about the success of this digging deterrent, but only time will tell!

Love ya'll, 

Shelli

If all the beasts were gone, men would die from a great loneliness of spirit, 

for whatever happens to the beasts also happens to the man. 

All things are connected. Whatever befalls the Earth befalls the sons of the Earth. 

~Chief Seattle of the Suquamish Tribe, letter to President Franklin Pierce