The times have gone on

but what have we learned?

That all the stuff of those ages

 to dust has returned?

Or do we just forget

while we store up now

What is history for 

but to learn from somehow?

The chook yard is the place to go if you want to find strange bits and pieces.... the most common things that make their way out from hiding there are bits of tiles, rocks, smashed pottery, and odd bits of hard plastic. Nuts and bolts, bits of pipe and other metal also appear. Once I found a huge hunk of rusty something. I don't know why they all like to appear in the chook yard. Possibly they turn up there because the top layer of the ground is constantly being scratched at by my hens or because it is behind the shed.....

The other day I found a horseshoe. Well what remained of one. I can see each flake of metal and the holes are rusted away as is one tip of the shoe. I couldn't help wondering "how long ago did a horse wear that shoe? How long is it since that metal shone bright from the forge?" Is it rather old or not so old?" We have never had horses, but maybe there were ones on this property once a long time ago. Maybe someone dropped it there and it has lain hidden for years until the chooks unearthed it. "Were those years short or long?"

I had another idea too. The chook yard is just the right place for old stuff to appear so rusty things.... smashed tiles... nuts and bolts all worm their way there from miles around, pushing though kilometers of soil to appear in my chook yard.... I like that theory best. It appeals to my imagination. 

If that theory were true the shoe would not have to be all that old.... but it could be. All those random thoughts lead on to the thoughts expressed in the little poem at the beginning. Everything fades and turns back to dust.. or from metal to rust to dust in the case of this horseshoe. I have previously found horseshoes (though not in the chook yard) and scrubbed them and cleaned a lot of the rust off them but to do so with this one would obliterate it. 

In our life and especially coming up to Christmas just remember that it is the heavenly gain that lasts. It is our treasure in heaven that is untouchable by moth, rust and time. All our bits and pieces on earth will soon be nothing, remember Only The Things Of The LORD Will Last!

One little black hen sat for 21 days on a nest of supposedly eight eggs. She decided though  to lay one of her own in with the Araucana eggs I had her sitting on. But it didn't hatch, the factor that I had already taken the roster out (along with the rest of the chooks) obviously didn't occur to this little black hen... I'm not even sure when she laid it because I realized it was there when she had sat  on the eggs for more than a week already. 

After the eight Araucana eggs had done hatching she stopped siting on the nest and left her own egg to get cold, she had enough babies though! My araucana hen and rooster are both light coloured but it seems they could end up with all different colouring of their children, if fluff is anything to judge by. I have two rather yellow chicks, one rather dark one and the rest are somewhere in between. 

Pipi caught a moth and gave it to one of the chicks then took it off the chick and gave it to another and another. I realized each chick got left with a small piece of moth to eat, that was actually smaller than their head, I had wondered how the hen thought her chicks would be able to eat a moth that big.

The chick in the photo below has splotches of grey and yellow and is rather unique! of course they are all so sweet, tiny and fluffy.

I let the hen (Pipi) and her eight fuzz balls out each day and watch them while they scratch around  in the dirt. Meanwhile Australian Ravens sit in nearby trees watching. Pipi dug up a lot of mealworms, I got a surprise when the chicks started swallowing them whole! Some of the grubs were small but others were almost as round as the chicks mouth. 

One little yellow fuzz ball chased meat ants around till she finally caught one. It bit her and strangely enough she let it go, then promptly started chasing them again. 

Ages ago I got some week old chickens. Ever since then they have been getting bigger,  and bigger. Now they are nearly fully grown.

I have sold (well given away) the Speckled Sussex Rooster. Other than him though I bought 2 australorps and an araucana.... They were all pure bread too...maybe. My araucana does not look at all like an araucana anymore. The older he got the more I though he looked like some sort of Orpington.... I hoped he wasn't... he was. Still he is pretty even if he is a Blue Orpington Rooster and not an araucana. 

Aragorn (my rooster) looks the same as the photos I get of Blue Orpington Roosters when I search for them on Google images. Though some of those chooks are hens and a few of them look more like australorps.. but the majority of them look just like my "araucana" rooster. Who does in real life look slightly darker grey than he does in these photos of him..

My two australorps are what they are meant to be. They have grown into beautiful black-green hens, and they will come up and hop all over me if I let them.

I have also finally found a way to tell them apart. Their combs are slightly different "Microsoft" has less spikes in her comb (red thing on her head) than "pipi". So I have found out that it is Microsoft who is still intent of flying out of the chook pen. They have both started to lay. One of them lays huge eggs and the other lays bantam sized eggs! As of yet I'm not sure which is laying the big eggs. I tried consulting the eggs but they didn't reply (only joking (yes the eggs actually talked to me(not))).

So that's all for the update on my little chickens that grew into chooks.

Mud+ boys =  Muddy Boys

We had 26 mm of rain yesterday. It took most of the day to blow up but when it came it came! We hadn't have any rain for over a month and not much then. My little chickens had worked out how to get through the gate and out of the chook pen so I hoped they were all in there where they could get to shelter. I voiced my concerns to Mummy. She said "at least it's not hailing." I said "Don't say that." and then less than a minute later it started hailing... 

My sisters and I dragged the glass topped table under the carport and moved the car forwards. The wind blew hail right through the carport. Thunder roared and lighting flashed, rain pelted down onto the tin roof. I had to shout to be heard above the noise. We had already turned the computers off. The road outside had a white layer of bouncing rain and hail over it. The wind blew the rain into the windows. 

After one downpour had ceased Jane and I raced outside to lock up the chooks/chickens and the G-pigs. The two boys went out  to get wet. Very wet and covered in mud.

I also got a bit mud splattered. I don't see quite how playing in ^that^ is nice... but they had fun. Well I suppose I used to do that too, once. Well I know I did. At least in the puddle down there, well not in that puddle but the puddle that sits in that place whenever we have a considerable amount of rain.

I shall finish with saying praise God for the lovely rain and answered prayer! The plants really needed that.

My little fluffy chickens I got a while back are getting rather big. They are no longer living in the laundry which is good, because now I don't need to carry them outside every morning. I got a few bits of umm junk (wire, wood poles, wood sheet, tin sheet and some concrete strengthening stuff) and divided of a section of the chook yard. Then I let my little chooks out into the big world. They didn't go far. They did fly up into the tree and onto the old G-pig cage they are sleeping in now.

The chickens can actually fit through the junk fence but the big chooks can't. Aragana decided to go through it and got attacked by a huge brown butterfly! (Butterfly is the name of one of my big chooks) Aragana came back through the fence rather quickly and noisily. 

terrible photo but
you can see they are fighting

The chickens seemed to survive last nights drop in temperature. It has been so hot but got down to 2 or 4 degrees! Two of the chickens fight with each other..... sadly.... they are probably roosters. 

Yesterday they all fell asleep while I sat out there eating flies and reading..... systematic theology and yes twas me eating flies not the chickens. NEVER TRY IT TIS HORRID. Seriously horrid...    

They explored a bit further today, and love scratching holes in the ground.... all chooks seem to, nice holes to trip over in.

This morning my week old chickens that I got a few days ago found that fly/jumping out of their box is easy.  I put them back in.  I went to check on them before church and one had just got out. I put her (I hope) back in and we went to church.

Upon returning home a few hours later I went nearly straight to the laundry. The four chickens were huddled together in the middle of the floor. The cloths that had been covering their box were in the box and chicken droppings covered the floor around the box. 

I placed the chickens back into the box and took them outside, they started trying to jump out again. Then I put them in a round wire cage with some food and water. They drank a bit of the water and tipped out the rest. So I filled up the lid I had joined (with glue) onto a larger piece of cardboard, and put that in there. Then I found a rock and bluetacked it to the other lid. they seem to be working. 

I think it is amazing how chickens can do everything without a mother to teach them. They know how to eat, drink, scratch, chase bugs, clean themselves and probably other stuff too. They also know how to be very cute. 

Sarah it appears your comment didn't work.
And another thing I know a really good joke, it is just down there ↓
 You strained your eyes to got to all the trouble of reading this! well its sorta a joke anyway. especially since I had so much trouble making the silly thing work (so it would be hard to see).