A picture is worth a thousand words....

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I tried to put some of the best that we have taken in the past month. The first three photos are from a visit with my brother James' family back in July. My nephew, AJ, decided at the end of the day that he was going to take one of the chickens home with him and selected one of our white rocks that he liked to call "Whitey". We told him if he could catch it, he could keep it. As you can tell from these photos, he was unsuccessful.

The next set of photos are of the house. It was a great morning to take these photos, with the clear sky and bright sun. In the photo, you can see our house to the right, with the summer house in the center. The small building to the far left is the pump house/butcher house. Our well is housed in there and we use that building for a garden shed.
Ever since I was a little girl visiting the Betsy Ross house in Philadelphia, I have dreamed of living in a home with winding stairs. It takes a little practice to maneuver them, but once you get the hang of it you can fly up and down them with ease.

We are starting to harvest our bounty from the garden we like to call, "Weedville," and are grateful for anything that hasn't been eaten by the wildlife!

The best feature of our farmette is our 1800's Pennsylvania German Bank barn. It is the jewel in the crown and we love every part of it. The name William Kurt is carved into one of the support beams inside and we are curious to know if he was the builder. Every post and beam is doweled into place and roman numerals are carved into each piece to match for assembly. You can feel history as you stand inside the massive bays that may have housed carriages and farm equipment. Livestock was kept in the lower part to shield them from the wind and cold.

My other favorite place to be here on the farm is out in the barnyard and the chicken coop. I love to sit out with my chickens and watch them frolic in the grass, pecking around for small bugs to eat. They are really maturing, cackling and crowing all day long.

Click here to listen to the chickens cackling

Click here to listen to our rooster crow

These two Blue Andalusians were supposed to be hens....but surprise, one has grown into a fine rooster (above). I think the females (below) are beautiful with their big eyes and slim builds. They remind me of roadrunners rather than chickens. They are the only breed I purchased that will lay white eggs.

Our head rooster, "Chicken Nugget," keeps a watchful, close eye on his girls. In this case, it is Rosie, our Partridge Rock.

And last, but not least, our sorrel mare, Star. No foal, perhaps not really pregnant. Still lactating and ornery as ever. I was kicked twice last week and spent this week recuperating from some large bruises and a bad case of whiplash from being thrown to the ground and doing a backwards tumblesault. In the last photo, you can clearly make out the shape of a horseshoe on my leg.