Let there be EGGS!

A surprise in the coop this afternoon!

Looks like Clementine is the first to grace us with a gift from her chute. Thank goodness for her, too... she sure is beautiful, but totally schizoid. We finally have a reason to keep her around. ;) Here she is next to her spotted sister, Betsy.

It's a bit early as our chick babies are only about 17 weeks old and usually don't begin to lay for another few weeks. My sweet chicken farmer couldn't be happier (or prouder... I *know* I saw a little tear in there somewhere).

The mysterious production of juice.

It's time for the grape harvest!!! We have been enjoying our many varieties of grapes in morning smoothies. As grape season is coming to a close and they are beginning to turn to raisins on the vine, Benjamin proposed a home made juice canning project. Here is just a small portion of the grapes we will/have juice(d). Ignore those silly zucchini... they are the last of the season and always eager to work themselves into any photo op.

We began with many boxes of grapes that looked something like this:

Then it was bath time!

Next, beautiful jars were cleansed & prepared...

just in time for the lovely juice to come:

Hooray! We are now the happy owners of many jars of home made grape juice. Not sure of all varieties used, but concord is the dominant flavor.

This naturally sweet (no sugar added) juice is ready for consumption, to be transformed into jelly... the possibilities are endless. Ben spent a good day and a half in the kitchen pumping out batch after batch. I helped in between caring for and occupying Sebastian. All in all, we ended up with 20 quarts (or 5 gallons). The crazy thing is: there are still loads of grapes on the vines! We are love love loving this harvest.

30 days of happiness: The coop has risen!

It's done! Yep, except for a handful of mini details, the coop is complete & inhabited. Benjamin has been working his tail off the last few weeks. I definitely think that the wait was worth it. I had no idea just how fantastically handy my guy is. I mean, I knew that he could fix things... but build them? This opens up worlds of possibility. Methinks that the honey-do list is going to get a lot more complex.

Benjamin chose the jungle green to blend in with our wild garden foliage. It's a bit hard to tell, but the trim matches the sky on a clear day.

Today was moving day for the chicas. Two of them got a little crazy and flew around the coop a bit. Besides that, they settled right in. Looks like we will be trimming wings in the next few days.

In case you were wondering: 5 chicks in all. We are rubbing our hands in anticipation of the 5 eggs a day to come.

Not that the chickens care, but we are having a little trouble naming them. I'm firm on the white one being Clementine. I'll probably nickname her Darlin'. Ben wants to call the black one Knight Rider. Leave it to the boyfolk to come up with the weird names. It is almost certain that Knight Rider will be shortened to Kit. We've got to have a Mabel or Matilda or something. I'll keep you posted. Any suggestions?

Not 5 minutes after getting those girls into their new space did Miss pretending-to-sleep show up. That's my little stalker girl. If anything goes wonky coopside, I will know who to go questioning first.

It is so good to witness Ben's satisfaction at having completed a looming goal. I can't wait to see & share what he dreams up next.