We'll miss you Gunner

Our sweet puppy dog Gunner passed away and it always hurts a lot more than you expect.  When he would dig holes or rummage through our garbage I sure wasn't happy, but when I think back to how happy he was every single time we would see him or how he would love to play catch with a ball or run and run chasing birds for Jon I know we loved him very much.  He definitely filled us with many happy memories.  And when I talked on the phone with Jon on his way back from hunting birds the day he died and he was so choked up he couldn't speak I knew that Jon loved his loyal friend very much.  The comfort we have is knowing we will see him again and that he will always be our puppy dog Gun Gun.  We love you Gunner!

Who knew we'd be proud of eggs

It never seems to get old going out each night to see how many eggs we get.  They come in different sizes and colors and patterns.  Sometimes they have speckles and sometimes they are shiny, and sometimes they are really oval shaped.  It's a surprise everyday!

This shows the comparison from an egg from a mature hen to chickens that just started laying.  The two smaller ones are from our Aeraucana chickens, they lay green and pink eggs.  It looks close but the big egg is more brown.

The first egg is from our Bantam hen (it's so tiny and cute), then an Aeraucana egg, and an egg from a mature hen.

We love our fresh eggs!!  Althougth recently since our roosters matured, Jon won't eat the eggs.  I'm trying to find new homes for the roosters...sad but we don't want to have dad not enjoying our eggs.

Our Chickens now (I still call them chickies...)

We've had chickens for a couple years now and getting pictures of them is kinda tricky.  If they are out and about they are hard to catch cause they don't stop moving.  If they are in the chicken run they come really close up to me, too close for a picture.  So here's what I got.  At least it gives an idea of what they look like. Chickens really are a lot more fun than I realized they would be.  They are curious, talkative, a little skittish but friendly, and they love to be fed treats (mainly any bread item available).  Oh and they love to dig in dirt...had no idea about that so my flower beds get little chicken nests in them once in a while or just dirt flung out of them everywhere.

This is our Silver Laced Wyandotte.  

This is one of the Black Australorps and Rhode Island Red Chickens.  We also have White Orpingtons.

This is an Aeraucana Chicken.  We call her "Poof"  Don't you just love the litte fluffy face?!  We didn't know that's what they would look like.  I love it!

Another Aeraucana.

This is our Bantam hen her name is "Snow".  She is much smaller than the other chickens and has the cute fluffy feet.  Her eggs are much smaller too, they are so cute.

This is one of our Bantam roosters.  When we got the Bantams as chicks we didn't know if they were male or female.  Just the luck of the draw.  This little guy, and he really is little, is feisty but friendly. His crow is pretty funny.  It doesn't quite go all the way, he has half a crow. 

Here's our other Bantam rooster and he is beautiful.  He's really mellow and has a pretty crow actually.


Sometimes I wonder if it's worth the work to have chickens when it's probably cheaper to just buy eggs at the store, but really it is worth it.  They are our pets and we enjoy them.

Our little chickies

We got some new chickies in spring this year and looking back at these pictures it amazes me how small they were.  Sometimes I wish I could freeze time to enjoy things a little longer.  Andrew especially loves baby chicks and visited them everyday.  

These are Araucana chicks.  They lay the pretty greenish blue and pink eggs.

These are Bantam chicks and have the fuzzy feet and stay small.  These chicks were half the size of the other chicks.  So tiny...

Joshua's baseball

Joshua really had fun with baseball this year and has pretty well decided this is the sport he wants to stick with.  Love Josh's happy attitude all the time!

What a great smile he has!

Cheering his team mate on!

Hang loose man!

Andrew's baseball

Andrew loves baseball like his dad!  Nuf said!

Love that smile!

Love dad!

Oops...wonder if he can even see with that mask like that!

Now that's more like it!

Caleb Track

Caleb decided to try out track this year and seemed to really like it.  He tried the long jump, triple jump, discus, and shot put.  Unfortunately his track meets always seemed to conflict with something so I didn't get hardly any pics...boo....but as long as he had fun with it that's what counts!

On a side note...Caleb hated the track shorts because of their funny tight part inside and did his events in his sweats...silly kid!