I'll say it again...

I am blessed!  What an amazing weekend.  Yesterday I posted the chickens came home, and I'll get to that and the pics later, but I wanted to take a moment to count my blessings:

1. A Church that forms a foundation of a community filled with family and friends. What an amazing thing!  The worship was joyous, the sermon was meaningful, the teaching was good, and the fellowship was encouraging.
2. A Church Small Group with which to share joys and sorrows, celebrations and tears, support and accountability.  Another blessing for which there are no words to describe.
3. A wife who loves and supports the whole homesteading thing.  No cajoling or "selling" here (except maybe the idea of goats in the future.).  What a blessing to have her at my side as we steward and enjoy all the things we've been blessed with.
4. A wonderful family - Two daughters and one son, all grown.  Psalms127:3 talks about children being a gift from the Lord.  De and I were given wonderful gifts.
5. Two young men, one a confirmed son-in-law in-training and an other who is working his way into that into position, that are God-loving Christians who have captured my daughters hearts.  Knowing that my "little girls" are involved with Christian men is immensely satisfying.  To top it off, both are willing and even eager to dig in a help around the homestead.  Between helping to get the coop ready, doing the hard part of getting the mower deck on the tractor, and mowing my large yard, and just being a part of the family they were both a huge blessing this weekend.
6. Family again - A niece who was willing to brood our chickens.  Just one example of the generosity a Christ-center family offers to one another.
7. Land to steward, a comfortable house, a good job, and an endless list of other material blessings.  There's no other way to put it:  I am blessed!

After Church and dinner today we built a make-shift playpen for the chickens to allow them to get outside.  The rest of the roll of hardware cloth and two hog panels.  Its good for supervised excursion only, but we were able to let them out for a couple of hours.  Here's the older granddaughter watching the birds.  De and I both missed getting a video of a hysterically funny moment where she was walking around imitating the chickens.

When we were ready to let the birds out. We just reached in, opened the pop hole and waited.  It didn't take long!  In just a minute the first birds made their first foray onto the Grand Boardwalk.  I did have to eventually shoo two out, but the other 13 found their way out pretty quickly.  They were obviously happy to be out and about.

 The Chicken Veranda was hit, too.  (Or at least I'm choosing to interpret their actions that way.)   It was a hoot to watch them hunting around, scratching, attacking the grass and any bugs unlucky enough to be hanging around in the pen.  They are a very animated bunch.

I was especially amused by the 7 bird communal dust bath.  What a hoot!  Seven birds all trying to get into a space just bigger than a square foot.  Fluffing, throwing dust, rolling around in a way I didn't remember chickens rolling in my childhood. They appear to be just about as happy as a chicken can get.

I think we've made some headway with our mystery bird.  De's research indicates it may be an 'Easter Egger'.  At least that is what the websites she's found seemed to indicate.


There is one other thing we are looking into.  There seems to be one bird, the female Golden Polish that was limping around a bit and might be showing some evidence of being pecked.  Early research shows that putting some Vick's vapor rub (or a generic equivalent) on the bird sometimes helps.  I am interested in other opinions.  How do you all handle birds that are being picked on?

The next stage of our journey is underway!  We are very excited and looking forward to wherever the Lord will lead us as we continue down the homesteading path.

Col. 1:9-12

Mark